Valiance, withdrawn from sale, will race next year
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Valiance, the Grade 1 Spinster winner and runner-up to Monomoy Girl in last Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff, will remain in training for a 5-year-old campaign, her connections said Wednesday.
Valiance was withdrawn from Sunday’s Fasig-Tipton November auction and is getting a freshening at WinStar Farm before joining trainer Todd Pletcher’s South Florida string early in 2021.
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Valiance, who had recorded four wins in her first six starts – all on turf – made a successful transition to dirt when she won the Eatontown Stakes on Aug. 29 at Monmouth. That race was originally scheduled for the turf, but was rained off to the dirt. Valiance, a daughter of Tapit, stepped up into Grade 1 company when she captured the Spinster at Keeneland.
In the Distaff, Valiance finished 2 1/4 lengths behind Monomoy Girl, and a half-length in front of Dunbar Road.
Valiance is owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Martin Schwartz, and Ah Khing Teo’s CHC Inc.
“We felt as though she was just really coming into her own,” Aron Wellman, president of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, said about keeping Valiance in training. “She ran a dynamite race in the Breeders’ Cup – it took a champion to beat her. She’s lightly raced, only ran nine times, and we always have the residual value built in with the pedigree she’s got and being a Grade 1 winner and Breeders’ Cup placed. We think there’s a lot more for her to accomplish. Hopefully, she’ll be able to realize that next season.”
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Wellman said that Point of Honor, who finished sixth in the Distaff, also will stay in training next year. Point of Honor, the 2019 Black-Eyed Susan winner, has finished second or third five times in a Grade 1 stakes, but has yet to win a Grade 1.
She is getting a break on a farm in Ocala, Fla., before joining trainer George Weaver’s South Florida string in 2021.