BC FM Turf (Photo: Skip Dickstein)
In an all-but-unanimous decision, Eclipse voters made New York-bred Dayatthespa, who became the Empire State’s first Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup winner, the Champion Female Turf horse of 2014. Dayatthespa collected 260 of the 264 votes cast for first place in the division (plus one abstention). Dayatthespa was also a finalist in the Champion Older Female category.
Dayatthespa started just four times in 2014, but raised the bar with each outing. Second to Filimbi in her seasonal debut on August 2 in the De La Rose Stakes, she defeated fellow New York-bred Grade 1 winner Discreet Marq in the Yaddo Stakes on Saratoga Showcase Day on August 24. She next delivered a powerhouse winning performance in the Grade 1 First Lady Stakes at Keeneland, before sealing her case for championship honors with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
A chestnut City Zip mare bred by Castellare DiCracchiolo Stable, Cracchiolo & Goldsher, Dayatthespa brought $50,000 at the Fasig-Tipton New York preferred yearling sale in 2010 before being purchased privately as a 2-year-old in training by Pete Bradley, who formed a partnership group consisting of Bradley Thoroughbreds, successful Broadway producers Jerry Frankel and Ron Frankel and optometrist Steve Layman. Dayatthespa retired with 11 wins in 18 starts (10 stakes victories), and career earnings of $2,288,892.
The champion will join the elite broodmare band of Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Stable, who purchased Dayatthespa for $2.1 million at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Not long after the Eclipse announcement, Stonestreet Farm (@StonestreetFarm) sent out an excited tweet: “One of our newest members of the Stonestreet broodmare band wins Female Turf #EclipseAward congrats to @BradleyTBs!”
Here is what the connections had to say:
Co-majority owner Ron Frankel: “This is the best night of my life. How could it not? I want to thank Chad Brown, Javier Castellano, Peter Bradley and, most of all, my brother [and co-majority owner] Jerry Frankel. It’s great.”
Co-owner Steve Laymon: “It’s hard not to thank Chad Brown, but when you buy a New York-bred maiden at 5 1/2 furlongs, you’re sure not thinking Eclipse Award, you’re sure not thinking Breeders’ Cup, but we are so excited and we can’t thank everyone enough for this award.”
Co-owner Pete Bradley of Bradley Thoroughbreds: “Wow. Dayatthespa. What a ride she has taken us on these last three years. We were very fortunate to have a filly like this. They don’t come around very often. Thank you, Chad and his staff and team, his assistants are awesome. Javier, you gave her a great ride. Johnny gave her a great ride. And we’re just very happy to take this award”
HRTV Video of 2014 Champion Turf Female Eclipse presentation.
Previous New York-bred Eclipse winners are: Saratoga Dew (Three-Year-Old Filly, 1992), Funny Cide (Three-Year-Old Male, 1973) and Fleet Indian (Older Female, 2006).
