Queen's Plate pedigree profile: Ironstone
Ironstone
Mr Speaker – Casey’s Dreamin’, by Unbridled’s Song
Bred in Ontario by Kingview Farms ($5,365 purchase by Carlos Grant at 2020 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Ontario division yearling sale)
The consistent Ironstone won a pair of stakes races sprinting as a juvenile and has since been second or third in five consecutive stakes races, most recently running third in the Grade 3 Marine Stakes at 1 1/16 miles. To succeed in the Canadian classics, he will need to outrun the sprint ability in his female family and show the distance prowess displayed by his sire.
The blue-blooded Mr Speaker – by sire of sires Pulpit and from the direct female line of unbeaten champion and blue hen Personal Ensign – scored his biggest of four graded stakes wins in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby in 2014. In that 1 1/4-mile event, he edged a stellar foe in Adelaide, who would go on to win the Grade 1 Secretariat at Arlington and the Group 1 Cox Plate in Australia.
Mr Speaker is the sire of 10 stakes winners to date, led by Speech, a record-setting winner of the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes and later elevated to third in the Kentucky Oaks.
Casey’s Dreamin’ was a multiple dirt sprint winner at Philadelphia Park and has produced four winners from six starters as a broodmare, with Ironstone the most accomplished of those. She is the dam of Ca Dreamer, a five-time winner in dirt and synthetic sprints in California; Afleet Alice, a four-time winner at lower levels at Hastings and Turf Paradise; and Awesome Alex, a winning sprinter at Parx Racing.
Casey’s Dreamin’ is a full sister to Grade 2 Adirondack runner-up Unbridled Beauty, dam of Arlington Classic winner Meal Penalty and Grade 3-placed turf juvenile Danny Boy. They also are half-siblings to stakes winners Tax Refund and Sophia’s Song. Their dam, Dreamscape, is a full sister to two-time Eclipse Award champion sprinter Housebuster, and this is the family of graded stakes winners Deep Sleep, Elysea’s World, Nicole H, Quero Quero, and Something Extra.