Grade 1 producer Garden Secrets dies at age 22

Garden Secrets, a Grade 1 producer and half-sister to Hall of Famer Silverbulletday, was euthanized July 22 at Glenary Farm in Frankfort, Ky., Blood-Horse reports.

The 22-year-old Time for a Change mare was homebred in Virginia by the late Paul Mellon, out of the Grade 2-winning Tom Rolfe mare Rokeby Rose. She won one of 14 starts over three seasons of racing in the mid-1990s for earnings of $40,740.

Garden Secrets was sold to Glenary Farm for $51,000 at the 1995 Fasig-Tipton New York horses of racing age sale, where she remained as a broodmare upon her retirement.

Her first foal was a Forest Wildcat filly named Forest Secrets, who went on to win the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes in 2001, as well as the 2002 Grade 2 Rampart Handicap and the 2001 Grade 3 Falls City Handicap. Garden Secrets also produced Grade 3 winner Rumor Has It and English stakes-placed Bajan Tryst.

The final foal by Garden Secrets is a 2014 Forestry colt.

Two of Garden Secrets’ fillies have gone on to become graded or group stakes producers. Forest Secrets’ produce record included Grade 2-placed Forest Command, while her winning full sister Secret Wildcat is the dam of Brazilian Group 3 winner Big Wildcat.

Rokeby Rose has proven to be the pivot point for several successful family lines. Silverbulletday, a two-time champion on the racetrack, is the grandam of Grade 1 winner Shakin It Up and Grade 3 winner Govenor Charlie.