Does winning the Kentucky Derby have an equivalent affect on a filly’s future as it does for a colt? It doesn’t seem to me that fillies/mares like Winning Colors and Genuine Risk hold the prestige that the colts do.
What do you mean by they don’t hold the prestige? In pedigrees or in general opinion or …?
Well offhand I’d say that stud fees for 15 years after retirement make a stallion more valuable long term than a mare because huge income potentual.
It seems to me like they just disappear and are never heard of again. I realize that a stallion is going to produce hundreds of foals but a mare only a handful. But I’ve never heard anybody mention a horse at the track having a Winning Colors in their pedigree. Genuine Risk was not fortunate enough to leave a legacy. Did they not repeat the breeding of those two mares? Are there not full or half siblings? I frequently hear commentators mention a horse going beck to Derby winning stallions.
What you are seeing is simply numbers. There are less opportunities for these horses to appear in pedigrees.
The two mares only produced a combine 12 foals. All of them were fairly unimpressive racehorses, many didn’t even make it to the track. Some were sold overseas.
Despite that, Winning Colors is the 2nd dam of G1 winning filly Eskimo Kisses.
Winning Colors has 1 full sibling. Their sire died the year after she won the derby, so no other matings to him were possible. That sibling was sold to Italy, where he was a terrible racehorse yet still stood stud in Italy. She had several half siblings most of which weren’t great racehorses.
Genuine Risk’s dam died the year after she won the derby. She only produced 5 foals total. The only other filly was a decent runner but also died early in her breeding career.
Horses who don’t produced successful racehorses don’t garner a lot of respect for breeding, regardless of what they did on the track. The two fillies of the past 100 years have such a small population representing them there just aren’t that many opportunities for them to come up in bloodlines discussions.
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“Blue Hen” is the name used for a mare that produces exceptional offspring, regardless of the stallion. These mares are highly treasured. Such a dam will increase the value of a foal and they can influence the TB breed as a whole. Urban Sea won the Arc in 1997, then she produced Sea The Stars and Galileo and so she is granddam of Frankle. Of 11 foals, 4 won Group 1 races, two Derby’s. That is a mare one still hears about.
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Just an aside - Winning Colors was defeated in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff by a mare named Personal Ensign, who produced a number of excellent runners including Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner My Flag, who in turn produced Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Storm Flag Flying.
Mares descending from Personal Ensign are highly valued today. Here is a link to the pedigree for her great-grandson Revved Up, if you want an example of an outstanding female family:
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