Summer Colony

Summer Colony

by Avalyn Hunter ©

Summer Colony: A Lady for the Wintertime

For most of its existence, the Ladies' Handicap has been a first class race, a determiner of championships, a test of the highest merit. From Bonnie Braes, who in 1868 toted 107 lbs around old Jerome Park for 1 5/8 miles to win the first Ladies', on into the late 20th Century, the roster of Ladies' winners has included many of the best of the best, the leaders of their divisions.

Four New York tracks have played host to the race - Jerome Park, Morris Park, Belmont Park, and Aqueduct - and it has been run at distances ranging from 1 mile to 1 5/8 miles, yet the Ladies' always retained the cachet of a top race. When grading of races was introduced in 1973, the Ladies' was an undoubted grade I.

The beginning of the end for the Ladies' status came in 1984, when the new Breeders' Cup Distaff usurped its by then traditional date - the first weekend in November - and the Ladies' was moved to the Thanksgiving period later in the month. It had become redundant as a championship race and although an increased purse kept good mares coming for a while, the quality of the fields gradually declined, as did its grade. The final indignity came when this storied old race was moved to the inner track at Aqueduct to become just another wintertime weekend feature. One might prefer to see the names of top traditional races retired rather than to see them reduced to irrelevancy.

All of which is not to say that the winner of last month's Ladies' H. may not be worthy to be on the same list of winners as Top Flight, Vagrancy, Beldame and Maskette. Indeed, Summer Colony seems to be on the brink of a stellar career since she 'found' herself last summer, reeling off five straight wins, several of them by large margins. She certainly was bred to be a star.

Summer Colony is not the most imaginatively named horse, since she is by Summer Squall out of Probable Colony, but her name certainly lets you know where her quality comes from. Her sire, Summer Squall, needs little introduction - top 2yo, Preakness winner at 3, grade II winner at 4, winner of 13 of 20 lifetime; sire of Kentucky Derby winner Charismatic and of a 2yo champion; son of Storm Cat's sire Storm Bird; half-brother to Horse-of-the-Year A.P. Indy, out of a Saratoga stakes winner by Secretariat from the classy and prolific Missy Baba family. Summer Squall seems to be first-class in nearly every category.

Probable Colony was a foal of 1994, bred in Virginia by Edward P. Evans. Whether it was because she lacked racing talent or was injured we have no way of knowing, but she never raced and was bred at 3 to produce her first foal, Summer Colony, at 4. After all, a racing career would have been unnecessary to assess her suitability as a broodmare, as all 14 of the stallions and mares in the first three generations of her pedigree were stakes winners. Mr. Evans kept Summer Colony for racing but her year-younger half-sister by Tabasco Cat made only $9,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

Pleasant Colony, sire of Probable Colony, was a surprising success at stud. Yes, he won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Wood Memorial, Woodward and Remsen and was champion 3yo of his generation. But he wasn't the sort of stallion the market has been favoring of late - early maturing, speedy milers. Moreover his sire His Majesty was best known for his later developing sorts and his dam was by the somewhat obscure Sunrise Flight from a Uruguayan mare. Despite all this Pleasant Colony has been the leading sire of the Ribot sire line in the US, with sons like Pleasant Tap to carry on for him.

Probable Colony was the first foal of grade 2 SW Withallprobability; her second was the placed colt Slaytheodds, who has gone to Venezuela; the third was the winning brother to Probable Colony named Inallprobability; her fourth, the A.P. Indy filly With Ability, won the Fashion S at Belmont in 2000. All in all, an encouraging start for this young broodmare.

Withallprobability was actually one of the better 3yo fillies of her year. Winner of her only start at 2, she dominated the Gulfstream Park filly scene with wins in the Bonnie Miss S (G2, 1 1/16 miles) and the Forward Gal S(G2, 7f). Sent to Oaklawn to contest the Fantasy S (G2), she found Lite Light too good for her, finishing second; the pair finished in the same places in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks the next month. Withallprobability raced again at 4, winning 4 other stakes races, including one grade 3, from 6 to 8 furlongs. Altogether she won 9 of 27 stars and earned $643,438, which just shaded her yearling purchase price of $635,000.

Withallprobability had commanded such a high price as a fall Keeneland yearling because of her pedigree - she was by the hottest sire on the planet at the time, Mr. Prospector, out of a stakes-winning daughter of his predecessor in that role, Northern Dancer. We doubt that we need to say much about either one of these legendary sires in terms of performance on the track or in the stud so we will pass on to the mare who brought them together - Sulemeif.

Sulemeif was bred in Maryland but was sent to France to begin her racing career. She ran there three times at 3 and garnered three second-place finishes; brought to the US to race in the winter of her 4yo season, she promptly showed her talent with a string of good performances over South Florida turf courses. Hialeah had the early dates that year and it was there that Sulemeif broke her maiden and first earned black-type with a third in the Key Largo S. She followed up with a victory in Gulfstream's Suwannee River H(G3) but could do no better than third behind Sabin in the Orchid H (G2). Lesser company found her a winner again, in the Flower Girl H, her last success on the track. The mile was her distance and the turf course her home, although she was never tried on the main track.

Retired to the broodmare ranks, Sulemeif has done well, producing 2 SWs, Withallprobability and Kadrmas, and 3 stakes-placed runners. Her first foal, the unraced Roberto filly Bradamante, was sent to Japan, where she is the dam of grade 3 winner Big Baillamont. Her younger daughters are just seeing their first progeny race and seem likely to join the older two as stakes producers.

If ancestry means anything, Sulemeif should have been capable on dirt, for, aside from her sire's undoubted prowess on that surface, her mom was a truly fine performer, close to championship level. Her name was Barely Even and she was one of the horses that this author followed avidly during her early years as a fan of Thoroughbred racing.

Barely Even was bred in Illinois by B. C. Farms, Inc. and raced for Mrs. S. Leonard Gilmartin under the tutelage of trainer Lou Goldfine. Chicago was always her home base, but this didn't keep her from stakes opportunities all over the eastern half of the country. As a 2yo, she won the Durazna S at Hawthorne, the Golden Rod S at Churchill Downs and the Astarita S at Belmont; her only defeat in 8 starts was a third in the Frizette behind champions Numbered Account and Susan's Girl. On the Experimental Free Handicap, she was ranked behind only those two and one other filly.

As a 3yo, Barely Even started early with a win in Hialeah's Jasmine S and finished late with a victory over older mares in the Falls City H carrying top actual weight of 128lbs. In between, she added the Ashland S (then 6f), the Pucker Up S, the Damsels S (at Detroit) and the New York H (then 7f) for 8 wins in 14 starts. Essentially a sprinter/miler, she wasn't going to win a filly classic but she was honest and consistent, never running out of the money at 2 or 3. The Blood-Horse's Free Handicap ranked her fifth among 3yo fillies of the year, behind Susan's Girl, Summer Guest, Numbered Account, and Pallisima - mighty fine company for an overachieving Illinois-bred.

A less successful campaign at 4 resulted in a few more stakes placings and a lowered win percentage, from 15 out of 22 at 2 and3 to 17 out of 30 lifetime. Barely Even continued her success into the broodmare ranks as well. She produced 14 foals, from a 1976 colt by Secretariat to her 1993 colt by that one's grandson Storm Cat. Twelve of those foals ran, and 10 were winners, including 4 stakes-winners, headed by Oak Leaf S-G1 winner One of a Klein. Four of her daughters besides Sulemeif have produced black-type earners.

As far as pedigree goes, Barely Even's was respectable rather than blue-blooded. Her sire Crème dela Crème raced in the shadows of titans; he was the direct beneficiary of Dr. Fager's disqualification in the Jersey Derby, giving him his only official stakes win at 3, and he was second behind Buckpasser when that one set the world record for the mile of 1:32 3/5 in the Arlington Classic. As might be expected of a son of Olympia, he was a fast 2yo (unbeaten in 2 starts) and competitive against the top levels at up to 9 furlongs. He was a fairly decent sire of horses rather like himself, including Silent Beauty (Kentucky Oaks), Sixty Sails (Arlington Matron, twice), Rich Cream (Triple Bend H) and Tropical Cream (Prix Cleopatre) but has fallen off of most people's radar.

The dam of Barely Even was a mare named Dodge Me, an Arlington Park SW at 2 and the winner of 8 of 78 races lifetime. At stud she produced 9 winners from 11 foals, including 4 stakes winners: Barely Even; Barely Once, a stalwart on the Chicago stakes circuit in the late '60s and early '70s; Belle of Dodge Me, a sister to Barely Even and dam of grade 3 SW Gallant Archer; and Pool Court, victorious in the New Orleans H-G3.

Dodge Me's pedigree is not likely to be familiar to most casual students of TB pedigrees. Her sire The Doge, a durable SW by Bull Dog and full brother to the better known John's Joy, is known primarily for his son Swoon's Son, a darn good racehorse and sire of a number of darn good runners including champion Chris Evert. Her dam By Me earned no black-type but won 12 of 79 starts and produced 9 winners from 11 foals; her T.V. Lark colt Jeanenes Lark, produced when she was 22 years old, won the Sunny Slope S. at one of the earliest Oak Tree meetings and was second in the first running of the Norfolk S.

By Me's sire Grand Slam was another that ran best at 2, winning the Arlington Futurity and Kentucky Jockey Club S among other stakes races. But he also raced a further three years and accumulated 11 wins in 48 starts. By Fair Play's champion son Chance Play from the foundation mare Jeanne Bowdre, by Luke McLuke, Grand Slam sired some good horses like Piet and Seven Hearts however had little lasting impact.

We could keep going on back with this family like this for many more generations, for it has been in this country since Bernice, by Stockwell, was imported in the 1860s except for one short spell in the 'teens, when many Americans had sent their bloodstock to Britain or France because of anti-betting sentiment in New York.

Kamara, a stakes-winning daughter of *Candlemas and Balaklava, by Kingfisher, went to France with her daughters, the full sisters Queen Tii (a winner in England) and Wall Flower, where they visited some of the best sires, like Flying Fox and Rabelais. Queen Tii's daughter Dendera, by Rabelais, came back to the States, where she produced Pimlico Oaks winner Pandera to the cover of Peter Pan, she being the second dam of By Me.

Meanwhile, her 'sister-in-blood' Memories, by Rabelais from Wall Flower, produced Peace, the dam of Belmont winner Peace Chance. Since Peace Chance was by Chance Shot, a full brother to Grand Slam's sire Chance Play, we can see that Peace Chance and By Me have a fair amount of common ancestry.

Imported Bernice, by 'the Emperor of Stallions' Stockwell, was out of Braxey, one of the celebrated daughters of the even more celebrated Queen Mary, one of the pivotal mares in the development of the breed. Bernice's branch has been one of the less productive branches of Queen Mary's family, but there have always been quality horses in it, the most recent of which is Summer Colony.

Summer Colony is inbred to Northern Dancer 3 x 4, which is interesting because the Dancer's third dam was sired by the aforementioned Peace Chance; there are those who would attach some significance to the confluence of his blood with that of his close relation By Me. Whatever the cause, Summer Colony appears to be a worthy member of her family and one whose career has only just begun to blossom. The best may be yet to come.