While it’s always interesting to explore the future stallions as we attempted to do last week with trotting stallion Muscle Hill, it shouldn’t be lost how incredibly important the dam side is in the advancement of our breed. Mares have the burden of the process and unlike their stallion counterparts, go through the cycle just once a year. They need to carry to term, nurse, and if their owners are fortunate, get pregnant once again. With just one foal at best each year, the broodmare’s success or failure is make or break. The stallion can absorb multiple failures from his crop provided he hits the right combination from 140 or so bookings. Great male pacers and trotters can go on to stallion duty and have long careers. Great filly and mare pacers and trotters seem harder to come by and it’s more often that sisters of champions are the ones that hold that family together for the coming generations as few stars on the dam’s side have been able to duplicate themselves over the years. There is, however, a phenomenal filly family that has bucked the trend and done so by advancing some parts of the breed that have had extreme difficulty getting past the first generation. The Falcon Almahurst-sired Stienam started the lineage some 40 years ago and through her daughters and their daughters have managed to create champions along the way, with last year’s North America Cup winner It’s My Show the latest success story, but hopefully not the end of the line. You see, until another great filly shows up the succession of this specific female line is not assured. Looking back at Stienam, the premier filly during the years 1984-85, she was trained by Kelly O’Donnell and managed to earn $1.35 million during her racing career that included 40 starts. With 17 wins and 17 second-place finishes, she was a model of consistency. She captured the 1985 Breeders Crown final for sophomore pacing fillies in a track record 1:55 4/5 mile while guided by the great Buddy Gilmour at Northlands Park in Edmonton. Stienam avenged her 1984 defeat by Amneris in the Breeders Crown, outdueling that rival in the stretch. Upon retirement, Stienam was the richest son or daughter of her sire Falcon Almahurst by a wide margin. She was bred three straight years to Nihilator and had limited success with her first two offerings but did a little better when the third, named Stienam's Girl, arrived. Though not nearly the champion her mother was, Stienam's Girl had modest stats following three years on the racetrack. From 1991-1993, Stienam's Girl won 15 of her 34 starts and was able to earn over $100K before moving on to her second career. In 1994 Stienam's Girl had her first foal, a filly by Artsplace that would be named Stienam's Place. Unlike her dam, Steinam's Place would more resemble her granddam Stienam on the racetrack while elevating Artsplace in the stallion shed. She captured the 1996 Sweetheart Pace at The Meadowlands for trainer Bruce Riegle and co-owner Barry Guariglia, who would later go on to enjoy great success with the trotting filly Manchego. Stienam's Place duplicated her granddam’s accomplishment in 1997 when she captured the sophomore filly Breeders Crown at Mohawk, winning comfortably as a prohibitive favorite for Jack Moiseyev. Stienam's Place retired as the ninth-richest son or daughter of her sire Artsplace with a notch over $1.4 million in career earnings. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Stienam's Place, like the fillies that came directly before her, had a knack for winning with regularity. With 18 wins in 31 lifetime starts and seven second-place finishes, she was a consistently brilliant performer on track. Stienam's Place’s ability to carry on her genes as a broodmare did not have the same quick success as her sulky career. Her first five foals had minimal impact on the racetrack, with multiple stallions trying and failing to bring out the best in the mare. In 2006, her first foal by Cam’s Card Shark, a filly, would rapidly change the trajectory of her second career. Showherthemoney would win eight straight races at the end of her sophomore campaign including the Jugette, Shady Daisy and Matron, closing out the 2009 season with a 1:49 2/5 victory over the Dover Downs surface. Showherthemoney would race a few more years but never achieved the acclaim she earned as a 3-year-old, concluding her racing career with $871K banked. The Rocknroll Hanover-sired filly that would arrive in 2007 proved to be more in line with the family background, as Put On A Show would do exactly that when put on the racetrack. Perhaps it was pure luck or just the right timing that worked out here, as this would be Rocknroll Hanover’s first crop and it came precisely at the time that Stienam's Place was finding her footing as a broodmare. Put On A Show was spectacular as a 2- and 3-year-old winning 19 of her 25 races during that span. She captured the She’s A Great Lady as a freshman for trainer Chris Ryder but lost the 2009 Breeders Crown juvenile pacing filly final just like great-granddam Stienam had done in 1984. A year later, Put On A Show would become the third 3-year-old filly Breeders Crown champion, emulating the feat of Stienam and Stienam's Place with her Pocono Downs triumph in 2010. Put On A Show didn’t race as a 4-year-old but made 25 starts as a 5-year-old, taking her lifetime best 1:47 3/5 mark at The Meadowlands on Hambletonian Day 2012. With $2.4 million earned and 40 first-or second-place finishes in 50 career starts, Put On A Show may very well have been the best filly of her immediate family on the racetrack. She retired as the richest daughter of Rocknoll Hanover and the third-richest foal of his impactful career. Off the racetrack, Put On A Show has done something none of her ancestors were able to and that is send out high-quality male pacers. It’s been Put On A Show that surprisingly has yet to produce a quality filly from her first five foals. She had two opportunities with the late, great Somebeachsomewhere that did not hint at her level of ability. Fortunately, what followed has given strong indication that a filly to send this family to the next generation may be in the works. That’s because she made a solid hit when her first colt by Bettor’s Delight (Best In Show) captured the 2019 Meadowlands Pace. Last year, Best In Show’s half-brother It’s My Show would be the only sophomore to defeat likely Horse of the Year Confederate when he wired the field in the North America Cup at Woodbine Mohawk Park. The altered son of Sweet Lou would end his year with a 1:46 4/5 mark and $1.1 million in career earnings. Following three straight foals that wound up as colts, Put On A Show may have everything now aligned with her next foal, a 2-year-old in 2024 by first-crop sire Tall Dark Stranger. Having already shown that she can do well with the Bettor’s Delight line in her only match on the male side with Best In Show, Tall Dark Stranger may be that stallion that helps the filly continue this incredible family for years to come. I’ll Take U There is the optimistic name offered by owner-breeder Richard Young, hoping for as big a hit on the racetrack as The Staple Singers had with the song that came out in 1972, just 10 years before this filly family began making harness racing history.