Claiborne Broodmares Shining from Stakes Success

Story by B. Jason Brooks

The success of the Hancock family’s breeding program at legendary Claiborne Farm has continued in 2025, with an impressive seven stakes winners in the U.S. and Canada so far this year being out of Claiborne-bred mares.  These include a trio who won graded stakes and four victors of listed or blacktype stakes, including one with a hefty purse of $2 million.  Three of these stakes winners are Claiborne-bred and four are out of sold Claiborne-bred mares.

One of the top performers among this septet is Claiborne Farm’s 3-year-old homebred filly Admit, by Claiborne’s homebred Eclipse champion Blame.  Admit earned her first career stakes win this year on October 24th in the Valley View Stakes (G2) at Keeneland.  With Hall of Famer John Velazquez aboard, she rallied in the stretch and drew clear to win by a length and a half, setting a new stakes record by finishing the mile and a sixteenth turf race in 1:35.17.

Trained by Thomas Drury Jr., Admit has four wins and three placings from 11 career starts, with earnings of $608,323.  In addition to her Valley View Stakes (G2) win, she has placed in three other stakes races this year, including the Pucker Up Stakes (G3) in August.

Admit is out of the Claiborne’s fifth-generation homebred mare Profess, by Claiborne’s influential global stallion War Front.  Her damline traces back to Knight’s Daughter (GB), by Sir Cosmo, who was purchased in 1951 by Arthur B. “Bull” Hancock Jr. and imported to the U.S.  Admit’s second dam Preach, by Claiborne stallion Mr. Prospector, won the 1991 Frizette Stakes (G1) and is the dam of Claiborne homebred stallion Pulpit, by A.P. Indy, a multiple graded stakes winner and grade 1-placed who sired more than 40 graded stakes winners (11 of them grade 1 races), including champion sire Tapit.  (For more on Admit and her family, see the recent Claiborne blog story “Claiborne’s Admit Conquers Keeneland’s Grade 2 Valley View Stakes”.)

The second stakes winner this year out of a Claiborne mare was Glen Hill Farms’ 5-year-old homebred Ocean Club, by Curlin.  She picked up her second career graded stakes win on June 28th in the Nassau Stakes (G2) at Woodbine, covering a mile on the turf.  With Sofia Vives in the irons for trainer Thomas Proctor, she led gate to wire, holding on to a win by three-quarters of a length in the one-mile turf contest and earned an 89 Beyer speed figure for the effort.

Ocean Club has won stakes races at the ages of 3, 4, and 5, with her first coming on the 2023 Martha Washington Stakes followed in 2024 by victories in the Noble Damsel Stakes (G3) and Monroe Stakes.  From 22 career starts, she has 6 wins and 7 placings, with earnings of $629,846.

She is out of second-generation Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider homebred Theatre Star, by War Front, who won the 2015 Justakiss Stakes and placed in two graded starts in her career.  Theatre Sar is a half-sister to Coomore’s Claiborne and Dilschneider-bred Taris, by Claiborne homebred stallion Flatter.  Selling at the age of 3 in the Fasig-Tipton November mixed sale for $2.35 million, Taris went on to win three graded stakes, capped off by an impressive five and three-quarter-length victory in the 2016 Distaff Stakes (G1) at Churchill Downs to retire a millionaire.  Theatre Star and Taris are from the family of broodmare Don’t Be Silly, by Lord At War (ARG).  A 1995 foal, Don’t Be Silly was bred by Charles Nuckols Jr. & Sons, earned her most important career win in the 2000 Churchill Downs Distaff Turf Mile Stakes (G3), and was acquired for the Claiborne & Dilschneider broodmare band where she produced six foals.

The third stakes winner this year out of a Claiborne mare was 4-year-old filly Sultana, by Always Dreaming, who won her stakes debut in the Maple Leaf Stakes (G3) going a mile and a quarter on the all-weather track on November 8th at Woodbine.  Jockey Rafael Hernandez guided her wide into the stretch and she proceeded to run down three foes, getting up in the final few strides to win by a head.

Trained by Kevin Attard, Sultana has three wins and two placings, all this year, with earnings of $146,801.  She was bred by Michael Snyder and Always Dreaming Syndicate and is owned by Lou Donato, Theodore Manziaris, Paul Borrelli, and Lanni Bloodstock.

Sultana is out of second-generation Claiborne homebred Private Offering, by Claiborne-bred stallion Pulpit.  This is the family of Claiborne foundation mare Watch the Time, by Timeless Moment, a 1986 foal bred by Hartland Farms.  Watch the Time’s descendants include 1998 California Derby (G3) winner Prime Meridian, by The Prime Minister, and Claiborne homebred 2001 Cardinal Handicap (G3) winner Watch, by Lord At War (ARG).

The fourth stakes winner this year out of a Claiborne mare was 3-year-old colt Plensa, by Caravaggio.  In the $2 million Gun Runner Stakes over a mile on the turf at Kentucky Downs on September 6th, jockey Florent Geroux guided her three wide into the stretch and then she surged to win by a length with an 89 Beyer in what was her stakes debut.

Trained by George Arnold II, Plensa has a record of two wins and one placing from six career starts, with earnings of $1,276,519.  She was bred by Frank Garrison and NATO et. al. and is owned by Mill Ridge Farm and Frank Garrison.

Plensa is out of second-generation Claiborne-bred Proximity Bias, by Claiborne homebred stallion Flatter.  This is the family of Claiborne foundation mare Maid for Walking (GB), by Prince Sabo (GB), a 1992 foal bred by Mary Taylor.  Acquired for the Claiborne broodmare band, Maid for Walking (GB) produced nine foals on the farm, including Claiborne homebred Stroll, by Claiborne stallion Pulpit, who won Churchill Downs’s 2004 Turf Classic Stakes (G1) as well as three other graded races the prior year.

The fifth stakes winner this year out of a Claiborne mare is Juddmonte’s 4-year-old homebred filly Impel, by Quality Road.  The Brad Cox-trainee’s first career stakes win came on August 10th in the Groupie Doll Stakes, a one-mile dirt race at Ellis Park.  Under jockey Florent Geroux, she took the lead in the upper stretch and held off a late challenger to win by a head with a 90 Beyer speed figure.

In addition to her stakes win this year, her resume includes grade 1-placed honors from last year’s Ashland Stakes (G1), her stakes debut.  Impel’s has four wins and four placings from a dozen career starts, with earnings of $585,991.

Impel’s dam is first-generation Claiborne-bred Flatter mare Your Love, winner of Saratoga’s 2018 Shine Again Stakes who was also runner-up in the 2018 Gallant Bloom Handicap (G2).  Impel’s second dam is John Franks-bred Quiet American mare Queen of America who Claiborne purchased in foal to Indian Charlie at the 2009 Keeneland January sale.

In addition to Impel’s stakes-winning dam Your Love, Queen of America has produced a trio of graded stakes winners, including Happy American, by Claiborne stallion Runhappy, who won the 2023 Louisiana Stakes (G3); Economic Model, by Claiborne stallion Flatter, who won the 2018 Hal’s Hope Stakes (G3) and placed in a grade 1 race; and, Well Monied, by Maria’s Mon, who won the 2009 Honeymoon Handicap (G2) and placed in two grade 1 races.

The sixth stakes winner this year out of a Claiborne mare is 5-year-old mare St. Benedicts Prep, by Claiborne stallion Flatter.  Going six and a half furlongs on the dirt in the Alma North Stakes at Laurel Park on June 28th, jockey John Velazquez advanced her four wide around the far turn before gaining the lead in the upper stretch and drawing clear to win by two lengths.

Trained by Linda Rice, St. Benedicts Prep has seven victories and 11 placings from 30 career starts, with earnings of $629,715.  In addition to her stakes win, she has placed in six stakes races this year, including Aqueduct’s Distaff Stakes (G3) in April.

The Claiborne-bred is named after her previous owner Mike Caruso’s alma mater in Newark, New Jersey and she was claimed by her current owner Ronald Stewart in April 2024 at Keeneland.

St. Benedicts Prep is out of War Front mare Line, a fifth-generation Claiborne homebred from the family of the farm’s foundation mare Lea Moon, by Claiborne stallion Nasrullah (GB), a 1955 foal bred by Charlton Clay.  St. Benedicts Prep’s second dam Wend, by Claiborne stallion Pulpit, won three graded stakes races, including the New York Handicap (G2) in 2005 and the Jenny Wiley Stakes (G2) and Honey Fox Handicap (G2) in 2006.

The seventh stakes winner this year out of a Claiborne mare was 7-year-old gelding Bender, by Curlin, whose breakthrough victory came on August 31st in the seven-furlong Budweiser Special Stakes on the dirt at Albuquerque.  He responded to urging from jockey Ramos Christian approaching the quarter pole and drove clear to win by a length and a quarter to pick up his long-awaited first stakes win.

Another Claiborne-bred, Bender has seven wins and 13 placings from 40 career starts, with earnings of $356,753.  The stakes winner is owned by Alfredo Alvarado and trained by Martin Manuel Valdez-Cabral.

Bender is out of fifth-generation Claiborne homebred Bend, by Claiborne stallion Arch, and hails from the above-mentioned family of Lea Moon.  He and St. Benedicts Prep share the same fourth dam in 1984 Debutante Stakes winner Knot, by Majestic Light.

In addition to the above-mentioned stakes wins (included three graded) won by horses out of Claiborne mares, an analysis of the female families for all the graded stakes winners this year in the U.S. and Canada finds that 36 of these races were won by horses with Claiborne-bred mares in their tail-female line.

This total recently grew at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Del Mar on October 31st and November 1st where 3 of the 14 elite winners or 21 percent hailed from Claiborne female families.  They included Shisospicy, by Mitole, winner of the Turf Sprint (G1), Cy Fair, by Not This Time, winner of the Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1), and Gstaad (GB), by Starspangledbanner (AUS), winner of the Juvenile Turf (G1).  All three represent deep Claiborne female families tracing back to foundation mares that the Hancock family imported from Great Britain: Shisospicy is from the family of Venturesome (GB), Cy Fair from the family of Peroration (GB), and Gstadd (GB) from the family of Bobolink (GB).

The trio of grade 1 Breeders’ Cup wins came after a successful 2025 summer at Saratoga where another trio of horses from Claiborne families had grade 1 success.  The elite Saratoga wins included Scottish Lassie, by McKinzie, in the fillies classic Coaching Club American Oaks (G1), Nitrogen, by Medaglia d’Oro, in the Alabama Stakes (G1), and Ag Bullet, by Twirling Candy, in the Jaipur Stakes (G1).  Scottish Lassie is from the family of Claiborne foundation mare Sicklefeather, Nitrogen is from the family of Lighted Lamp, and Ag Bullet is from the family of Sunstep (GB).  For more on these winners and their Claiborne families, see the Claiborne blog story “Nitrogen’s Alabama Win Highlights Success of Claiborne Female Families at Saratoga”.)

With a month of racing left in 2025, Claiborne broodmares are shining from the success their foals are having among stakes company this year and the female families bred by the Hancock family over the last century are winning at the highest levels.