Pictured: Pigalle wins the Groupie Doll Stakes at Ellis Park on 8/11/24. Credit: Coady Media via The Bloodhorse
The victory highlights the family of blue-hen mare Fun Flight, whose Claiborne-bred descendants include several stakes winners.
Story by B. Jason Brooks
Claiborne Farm’s homebred 4-year-old filly Pigalle made her stakes debut on Sunday, August 11th at Ellis Park in the listed Groupie Doll Stakes. Formerly known as the Gardenia Stakes, the race for fillies and mares of ages three and older covered a mile on the dirt with a purse of $175,000.
Pigalle’s journey to her stakes debut was not a quick one. Rather than throwing Pigalle into deep waters too early and potentially setting her back for the long-term, trainer Tom Drury and owner-breeders Claiborne Farm have carefully practiced the old-school philosophy of letting her lead them in her training and racing.
This philosophy was nicely summed up by former racing columnist Andrew Beyer in a Washington Post story he wrote in 2013: “The old school believes a trainer should not manage a horse to fulfill the personal ambitions of the owner or trainer. The old school believes a trainer should be guided by the development and capabilities of the animal. The old school believes judicious handling will eventually bring rewards.” Trainer Tom Drury and owner-breeders Claiborne Farm continue to practice this old-school philosophy and their patience continues to pay off for their horses like Pigalle.
After not making a start as a juvenile, Pigalle broke her maiden at second asking last February at Turfway Park over a mile on the all-weather track, putting in an “all-out blitz in the stretch run to edge clear late,” according to the race chart. This nice step forward came after her getting some experience a month earlier in her career debut in which she finished ninth of 11 in the field.
Recognizing that she could use some experience to build up her confidence, trainer Tom Drury entered her in three starter allowances races following her maiden win, with her taking sixth over a mile on the all-weather track in March at Turfway, then coming up head short to take runner-up honors over seven furlongs on the dirt in early June at Churchill Downs. Her breakthrough against winners came next time out in her fifth career start, winning by three-and-a-half-length over a mile on the dirt in late June at Ellis Park.
Following the starter allowance win, she stepped up for an allowance race over a mile on the dirt in July at Ellis in which she took runner-up honors. After running six races over the first seven months of her 3-year-old campaign, she took a 105-day layoff before returning in early November for another starter allowance. The break paid off, with her leading gate to wire over a mile on the dirt at Churchill, drawing off in the stretch to an easy seven-and-three-quarter-length victory in her seventh career start.
With Pigalle training well and taking an easy win, she came back on just 11 days rest for an allowance race and stretched out in distance to a mile and a sixteenth on the dirt at Churchill. She put in a great race by setting the pace into the first turn and remaining the leader up the backstretch and far turn before being challenged in the stretch. She determinedly dug in and dueled gamely, crossing the wire a length behind the winner for second place. Pigalle finished her sophomore campaign with three wins and three runner-up finishes from eight starts before a well-deserved six-month layoff.
She launched her 4-year-old campaign by returning to Churchill for an allowance in late May that covered a mile on the dirt. It was clear from the start that she was ready to pick up where she left off in November and that the time away had been good for her. She dueled for the lead after the break from the two path before clearing the field in the upper stretch by two lengths and holding on against a rallying foe to win by a three-quarter-length margin.
With the patient approach her team had taken, it was clear that she was ready for more of a challenge, which came in her stakes debut in the Groupie Doll. Pigalle entered the race as a 23-1 longshot for the second start of her 2024 campaign. Facing a sold field with stakes horses – including graded stakes winners Taxed and Hidden Connection, grade 1-placed Musical Mischief, and stakes winner Magical Lute – it initially looked as if Pigalle was going to struggle in the deeper waters. After breaking slowly with jockey Luan Machado aboard, she saved ground, settling in near the tail of the eight-horse field while advancing up the backstretch. She arrived at the turn on the rail in sixth before responding to urging in the far turn. Pigalle swung five into the stretch, joining a battle with four foes down the lane before surging in the final jump to secure the victory by a neck.
After the race, trainer Tom Drury stated “We all know Blame fillies get better with time. We got her some starter eligibility [last year] to gain her confidence. Now we are able to reap the rewards to being patient with her. [It’s] such an honor to win a race like this for Claiborne. She was all try and I’m just so proud of my filly.”
Now a stakes winner, Pigalle has five wins and three runner-up finishes from ten starts, with earnings of $332,084.
On top of her racing success, she represents some of the best bloodlines at Claiborne on both the top and bottom of her pedigree. Her sire Blame, by Arch, was bred and campaigned by the farm in partnership with Adele Dilschneider. A fifth-generation Claiborne homebred, Blame’s successful career included three grade 1 wins, including the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and winning the Eclipse Champion Older Male Award. He is the sire of 783 foals of racing age, 428 or 55 percent of which are winners, and 49 of which are black-type winners. He has produced 21 graded or group stakes winners, including grade 1 winners Wet Paint and Claiborne-bred Fault, among others.
Pigalle’s broodmare sire is Claiborne and Ms. Dilschneider’s second-generation homebred A.P. Indy colt Flatter, a stalwart Claiborne sire for nearly two decades before his death in 2022. Flatter is the sire of 67 black-type winners and multiple grade 1 winners, including champion West Coast and Acorn Stakes winner Search Results. He is the broodmare sire of 760 named foals of racing age with 341 or 44 percent being winners, including grade 1 winners Taiba, by Gun Runner and Juju’s Map, by Liam’s Map.
Pigalle’s Blame-Flatter cross is the same as Lothenbach Stables’ homebred No Fault of Mine, a multiple graded stakes-placed filly who won the black-type Wayward Lass Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in 2017.
A second-generation Claiborne homebred, Pigalle is the first foal out of Heels. The dam is the first female foal out of Claiborne foundation mare Amazing Shoes, by Empire Maker, from the accomplished female family of blue-hen mare Fun Flight.
Going further back, Pigalle’s third dam is Isabell’s Shoes, by Irish sire King of Kings, fourth dam is Pink Shoes, by Phone Trick, and fifth dam is Fun Flight, by Full Pocket, all of which were bred by Patricia Blast and won Oaklawn Park’s well-regarded Martha Washington Stakes, making them the only successive three-generation winners of the mile-and-a-sixteenth dirt prep for the Kentucky Oaks.
Pigalle’s female family – the Pink Shoes branch of Fun Flight – also includes stakes winners Prom Shoes, by Include, and Wildcat Shoes, by Forest Wildcat. Additionally, Pink Shoes is the second dam of Clearly Foxy, by Volponi, winner of the grade 3 Natalma Stakes, and stakes winner Area, by Street Sense.
Another branch of Fun Flight’s family has had significant influence in the breeding shed at Claiborne. Fun Flight’s stakes-winning daughter Tour, by Forty Niner, was co-bred by Ms. Blass and Claiborne. As a broodmare for Claiborne, Tour produced multiple graded stakes winner Trip, by Argentine-bred sire Lord at War, and multiple stakes winners Joke, by Phone Trick, and Laity, by Pulpit.
In addition to Trip, Tour’s descendants have produced four other Claiborne-bred graded stakes winners, including three-time grade 1-winner Zensational, by Unbridled’s Song, grade 1-placed and multiple graded stakes winner Departing, by War Front, and grade 3 winners Cutting Humor, by First Samurai, and Recruiting Ready, by Algorithms. Other Claiborne-bred non-graded stakes winners descending from Tour include Irish You Well, by Broken Vow, Passport, by Pulpit, and The Great War, by War Front.
Tour is most notably the third dam of two-time grade 1 winner Bolt d’Oro, by Medaglia d’Oro, Spendthrift Farm’s leading freshman sire in 2022, and his grade 1-winning half-brother Global Campaign, by Curlin, who entered stud in 2021 at WinStar Farm. Out of Claiborne-bred A.P. Indy mare Globe Trot, their first three dams are Claiborne-bred mares.
Between the patient, old-school philosophy of her connections and her excellent breeding, the best of Pigalle’s career is likely still to come.