Grade 1 winners/producers make up elite quintet

There are more than 100 mares with yearlings cataloged in Keeneland September’s elite Book 1 portion who are Grade/Group 1 winners or producers – but only five who are both. Making up that exclusive club, in alphabetical order, are Appealing Zophie, Colina Verde, Dream of Summer, Dream Rush, and Rigoletta.

Appealing Zophie won the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes as a juvenile and was a Grade 3 winner the following season. She is the dam of 2017 Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit, as well as Grade 2 winner Ride a Comet. Her Frosted filly cataloged at Keeneland September is bred on the same cross as Tapwrit – Frosted, like that classic winner, is by perennial leading sire Tapit.

Colina Verde, dam of a Street Sense colt in Book 1, won the Brazilian Oaks and Brazilian 1000 Guineas to be named her home country’s champion 3-year-old. She is the dam of fellow Brazilian Group 1 winner Greenzapper and of Limonite, who was Grade 2-placed as a juvenile last year.

Millionaire Dream of Summer won the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Invitational and three other graded stakes, and was Grade 1-placed multiple times in California. The productive broodmare is the dam of Grade 1-winning juvenile Creative Cause, whose multiple Grade 1 placings as a 3-year-old included a third in the Preakness Stakes; Grade 2 winner Destin, who finished second in the Belmont Stakes; and Grade 3 winner Vexatious. All three are by Giant’s Causeway.

Dream of Summer’s Keeneland September yearling is a filly by Not This Time, a son of Giant’s Causeway.

Dream Rush, winner of a pair of Grade 1 sprints in the Test and Prioress Stakes, has a Medaglia d’Oro colt cataloged at Keeneland. The mare is the dam of Grade 1 winner Dreaming of Julia, Grade 3 winner Dream Pauline, stakes winner Atreides, and stakes-placed Perchance. Atreides is by Medaglia d’Oro.

Rigoletta, whose Tapit colt is set to sell at Keeneland, was an outstanding juvenile, winning the Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes and finishing third in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante. She is the dam of the ill-fated Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Battle of Midway, whose 10 graded/group stakes placings included a third in the Kentucky Derby.

Of this elite quintet, only Appealing Zophie and Dream Rush have previously produced seven-figure yearlings. Tapwrit sold for $1.2 million at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale. Adios Reality, a Tapit colt out of Dream Rush, sold for $1.2 million at the 2014 Keeneland September sale.