2009 Alabama Stakes Winner
Sire: Tapit
Grandsire: Pulpit
Dam: Sweet and Careless
Damsire: Hennessy
Sex: Mare
Foaled: 2006
Country: United States
Colour: Grey
Breeder: Gainesway Thoroughbreds Ltd. and Bill Andrade
Owner: Donver Stable
Trainer: Josie Carroll
Jockey: Robert C. Landry
Record: 7 Starts: 5 - 0 - 1
Earnings: $1,013,346
Major races: Alabama Stakes (2009), Delaware Oaks (2009), Cotillion Oaks (2009)
Post Career: Her first foal was by Street Cry (IRE) and in 2013, she became the first mare to check in foal to Bodemeister. She later had a colt by Tiznow (in 2015) and in 2017 foaled a filly by Pioneerof the Nile. Careless Jewel lives at Summer Wind Farm in Georgetown, Kentucky. Pensioned in March 2019 due to a colic condition.
Careless Jewel is a name that long time fans of the 2009 racing season will remember well. She was a dark bay filly born in 2006, bred in Kentucky by Bill Andrade. Her sire was Tapit, the gray Gainesway Farm stallion who has since become one of the great American sires of the modern era. Her dam was Sweet and Careless, a stakes placed mare by Hennessy. She raced for Southern Equine Stable and was trained by Canadian Hall of Famer Josie Carroll, who already had an Alabama winner on her résumé and would be on the lookout for another. Careless Jewel broke her maiden as a two year old in Canada and then matured into a brilliant three year old when her connections sent her to compete with the best fillies in America.
Her three year old summer of 2009 was a five race winning streak that ended only when she stepped on the wrong surface at the wrong time. She came south to Delaware Park in July and won the Delaware Oaks by more than eight lengths over a deep field. A few weeks later she shipped to Saratoga for the Alabama Stakes, the most important Grade 1 race for three year old fillies on the East Coast and a race that has been won by some of the great fillies in racing history. Careless Jewel ran past her field with no help from the pace and won by eleven lengths under jockey Robby Albarado. The performance was so impressive that many fans began wondering whether she belonged in the same conversation as Rachel Alexandra, the runaway favorite for Horse of the Year. She added the Cotillion Handicap at Philadelphia Park in September to keep her streak alive, but she finished out of the money in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic at Santa Anita. She never raced again.
She was retired with five wins from eight starts, including a Grade 1 in one of the most historic fillies' races in the country, and she gave her sire Tapit his first classic distance Grade 1 winner in America. As a broodmare, her foals never reached the level she did on the track, but the racing record itself stands. Careless Jewel is sometimes called the forgotten filly of 2009 because she shared a season with Rachel Alexandra, but anyone who watched her run away with the Alabama Stakes that August at Saratoga remembers exactly how good she was. In any other year, she would have been the headline.
Sources: