2018 Starlet Stakes Winner

February 13th - Chasing Yesterday

I guess because I've painted a few horses, maybe I have been asked the question a little more often, you know, that question we all get asked about “who is our favorite horse or racehorse?” I often get a puzzled look when I say, Chasing Yesterday. Sure, she's a Grade 1 winner and she is a half-sister to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, but my feelings for her are a combination of personal contact and her families - four legged and two legged.

I was very fortunate to have seen this little filly right after she was born and made regular trips several times a week to see her. She was precious, adorable, and special from day one. Jane Lyon would allow me to come over and just visit with her glorious broodmare band and their growing number of star-studded babies . . . but this little girl had a charisma that very few possess. Add to that her little swirling mark on her forehead and you could spot her across the paddock. She was adventurous and she would bolt away from mom, sprint a lap around the field, before finding her way back to check on mom. Mom is Littleprincessemma and you can credit Chasing Yesterday's beautiful chestnut coat and white face to her. Her dad is the super sire, Tapit.

It was clear that one day she would grow into the role as a member of Jane's incredible broodmare roster but she had a little business to take care of at the track. It's only appropriate that she would go on and claim the first Grade 1 victory as a homebred for Summer Wind Farm.

It's been several years since that night she was foaled at Summer Wind, but Chasing Yesterday is back home and having her own foals. Wasn't that the plan all along?

My favorite racehorse? Don't be too surprised when I answer Chasing Yesterday. It really isn't a fair contest because this little girl stole my heart long before she went to the track.

Chasing Yesterday lived in the long shadow of one of the most famous horses of the 21st century, but she did her best to make sure people learned her own name as well. She was a chestnut filly born in 2016. Her sire was Tapit, the gray Gainesway Farm stallion who has been the leading sire in America multiple times. Her dam was Littleprincessemma, the Yankee Gentleman mare who would also produce American Pharoah, the 2015 Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year. Chasing Yesterday is American Pharoah's full half sister, and that family connection followed her everywhere she went. Her owner was Jane Lyon of Summer Wind Farm, who had bought Littleprincessemma for 2.1 million dollars at the 2014 Fasig Tipton Kentucky November Sale. Her trainer, fittingly, was Bob Baffert, the same Hall of Famer who trained her famous brother.

She made it easy for fans to fall in love with her right away. She won her debut at Del Mar by four and a half lengths in the summer of 2018 and then put together a string of wins that suggested she might be every bit the runner her brother had been. She took the Anoakia Stakes at Santa Anita and the Desi Arnaz Stakes at Del Mar before stepping up to the Starlet Stakes, the most important Grade 1 race for two year old fillies in California. She won the Starlet Stakes going away to finish her juvenile season with a Grade 1 trophy and to put herself among the early Kentucky Oaks favorites for the spring of 2019. Her three year old season opened well, with another stakes win, but her Triple Crown level dreams ended in disappointment. She finished third in the Santa Anita Oaks that April with a fight in her, but afterwards her connections discovered she had suffered an entrapped epiglottis, and the colt's career ended where her brother's might have begun.

She retired with five wins from seven starts and earnings of just over 488,000 dollars. She returned to Summer Wind Farm in Georgetown, Kentucky, to begin her career as a broodmare, where her foals carry one of the most coveted female pedigrees in modern racing. Chasing Yesterday never quite caught the long shadow her name suggested she was reaching for. American Pharoah is one of the great horses of his era, and no filly was ever going to fully equal that. But she won a Grade 1, she won five of her seven starts, and she gave fans of her famous family one more highlight reel to watch. Most importantly, she now produces foals who carry forward one of the most exciting broodmare lines in the world, with her own racing record and her brother's classic record sitting side by side.

Sources:

• Chasing Yesterday, Half-Sister To American Pharoah, Retired, Paulick Report

• Pharoah's Sister Chasing Yesterday Proves She's a Star, Thoroughbred Daily News

• Report: Pharoah sibling, Grade 1 winner Chasing Yesterday retired, Horse Racing Nation

• American Pharoah's Sister Chasing Yesterday to Debut, BloodHorse

• Littleprincessemma, Wikipedia