Standout broodmare Waltz still producing for Manfuso, Voss

In 1997, Robert Manfuso bought a Pleasant Tap filly for $40,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale and turned her over to trainer Katie Voss. That purchase is still paying dividends today.

The filly, Waltz, won a maiden race and two allowance races in Maryland and closed out her 3-year-old season with close third-place finishes in the Dowery Stakes and Grade 2 Cotillion at Philadelphia Park.

“She was going to be a good filly at 4 but came down with this weird problem – a leaky tendon sheath – that we could never straighten out,” Voss said.

Waltz’s first foal to race was a Polish Numbers filly named Tanca. Although she won only once in 10 starts, Tanca became a successful broodmare and has produced seven foals to race, each of whom has won. Her three most recent offspring to race are Las Setas, Cordmaker, and Corvus, all stakes winners.

Corvus won the 2015 Maryland Million Nursery for Manfuso, Voss, and Wayne Harrison in her career debut. Last Saturday at Laurel Park, Las Setas and Cordmaker scored their second stakes victories.

Las Setas, who won the Wide Country in February, scored a front-running five-length victory for Manfuso and Voss while stretching out to a mile in the Beyond the Wire Stakes. After racing greenly in her debut, she has won three straight.

Cordmaker, a son of Curlin, races for Ellen Charles, who bought him at auction as a yearling from Manfuso and Voss for $150,000. He concluded his 3-year-old campaign in December by winning the Maryland-restricted Jennings, and on Saturday was impressive in taking the open Harrison Johnson Memorial by 1 1/2 lengths. He is now 4 for 11.

“We bred to Curlin before he really took off,” Voss said. “We got a reasonably priced season for $15,000.”

Las Setas is a daughter of the German-bred stallion Seville, a son of Galileo who stands for $6,000 at Heritage Stallions in Maryland. She is unbeaten since Voss added blinkers for her second start.

“She is easily flustered, so we put blinkers on,” Voss said. “She has a fabulous stride. She just glides.”

Las Setas is likely to make her next start in the $125,000 Weber City Miss at Laurel on April 20. The Weber City Miss is a Win and You’re In for the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico.

Manfuso and Voss, longtime companions, operate the 190-acre Chanceland Farm about 30 miles northwest of Laurel Park. The farm is home to about 20 mares, according to Voss.

Manfuso co-owned Laurel Park and Pimlico in the 1980s after he, his brother Tom, and Frank De Francis bought the tracks. A former president of the Maryland Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, he is a board member of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association.

Voss helped found the MTHA in 1987 and is on its board. She is a longtime board member of the Maryland Million and a past president of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association.