Turfway stakes turned into a sister act

David Jacobs began dabbling in racing with a one-horse stable a quarter-century ago, and his investments into that modest line delivered with a “marquee” accomplishment last week.

In an improbable result, Marquee Miss edged her older full sister Marquee Cal Gal by a neck to win the $50,000 Holiday Inaugural Stakes on Dec. 3 at Turfway Park. The winner races for owner Joe Ragsdale, while the runner-up races for Jacobs, the breeder of both. Both runners are by Cowboy Cal and out of Jacobs’s graded stakes-placed homebred Marquee Delivery.

Jacobs, from Stamping Ground, Ky., has about a dozen horses boarded in nearby Paris. The first member of his stable, purchased privately in the summer of 1991, was Copelan’s Girl, who primarily had success in the claiming ranks while racing on the Midwest circuit.

Deepening the pursuit of his Thoroughbred hobby, Jacobs elected to breed the mare and race her offspring. To the cover of Little Missouri, Copelan’s Girl produced Fast Delivery in 1997. The mare displayed the family’s affinity for Turfway, taking the 2000 and 2001 editions of the My Charmer Stakes as well as the 2001 Likely Exchange. She placed in two other stakes at the Florence, Ky., oval, and was also stakes-placed at Keeneland and Ellis Park, retiring with more than a quarter-million dollars in earnings.

Fast Delivery gave Jacobs another stakes performer when she produced Marquee Delivery, by Marquetry, in 2004. The mare finished third in the Grade 3 Arlington Oaks and second in the My Charmer as a 3-year-old, and the following season finished second in the Grade 3 Gardenia Handicap at Ellis. She retired with a record of 23-5-8-5 and earnings of $264,901.

To date, Marquee Delivery has delivered three winners for Jacobs from as many starters. Her first foal, born in 2011, is Marquee Cal Gal; she produced Marquee Miss two years later. Although Jacobs generally sells his colts and retains his fillies for his racing and breeding string, he elected to sell Marquee Miss as a yearling so that he did not have duplicate sets of bloodlines.

Marquee Miss fetched $19,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale. At the time, Marquee Cal Gal had just one third-place finish from her first four starts. Marquee Miss was later sent through the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s sale of 2-year-olds in training, where Ragsdale found her for $20,000 in the Southern Chase Farm consignment.

Marquee Miss proved to be a quick study on the racetrack, winning the Arlington-Washington Lassie in her career debut. In the winter and spring of her 3-year-old season, she won the Dixie Belle and Martha Washington stakes at Oaklawn and finished third in the Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks at Turfway.

However, she then began a skid of six consecutive unplaced outings for Ragsdale and trainer Ingrid Mason. The Inaugural, her return to Turfway, was her first start following a two-month freshening, and she rewarded her connections with her fourth stakes victory.

Meanwhile, the late-blooming Marquee Cal Gal has put together a record of 22-8-4-3 for Phil Sims, who also trained her dam for Jacobs. The mare finished fifth in her stakes debut, the HBPA Stakes in October at Presque Isle, before an improved performance in the Inaugural.

Jacobs could have a few more half-siblings to his program standouts coming down the pike. Marquee Delivery produced Super Delivery, by Super Saver, in 2014. The colt failed to meet his reserve when hammered down for $65,000 at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton October sale. Marquee Delivery then produced a colt by Shackleford, purchased by trainer Dale Romans for $37,000 at this year’s Keeneland September yearling sale.

Marquee Delivery gave Jacobs a filly by Gemologist, among this year’s leading freshman sires, in May. She is back in foal to prominent stallion Tiznow, the sire of Gemologist, for 2017.