Whether or not it was the addition of blinkers for the primary time or the not-unusual case of a filly making a dramatic enchancment within the fall, the evenly raced She Feels Fairly made a outstanding step ahead within the Oct. 12 Queen Elizabeth II Problem Cup Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland.
Rocketing away within the stretch, she hit the road six lengths clear, protecting 1 1/8 miles on agency turf in 1:46.50, the quickest time for this occasion since Reminiscences of Silver set the course report again in 1996. In doing so, she achieved a Beyer Pace Determine of 100, a significant step up from her earlier better of 90, and likewise earned a towering 121 Equibase Pace Determine, by a way the best of 2024 by a 3-year-old filly.
Though she’d clearly by no means beforehand produced a efficiency near this degree, She Feels Fairly has by no means gave the impression to be something however extremely gifted. A neck winner over an clearly insufficient 5 1/2 furlongs in an Ellis Park maiden particular weight final 12 months, she took the Natalma Stakes (G1T) by 4 1/4 lengths on solely her second outing. She ended the marketing campaign with a 3rd, crushed only a half-length by Arduous to Justify and Porta Fortuna within the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T).
The chestnut kicked off the 2024 marketing campaign with a 5 3/4-length success within the Hilltop Stakes at Pimlico Race Course, then missed by simply three-quarters of a size when third within the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T). She additionally got here shut in her solely different begin earlier than the weekend, taking place by a neck to Grayosh within the Lake Placid Stakes (G2T) at Saratoga Race Course.
She Feels Fairly is from the fifth crop of her sire Karakontie . He’s a son of the Irish-raced Storm Cat horse, Bernstein, finest recognized in america for the lately deceased twin champion turf feminine, Tepin (whose 2-year-old son, Delacroix , took the Autumn Stakes (G3) Oct. 12, to comply with this 12 months’s Prix de Royallieu (G1) heroine Grateful as his dam’s second group winner), but additionally twice main sire in Argentina. Winner of the 2013 Prix La Rochette (G3) and Prix Jean Luc Lagardere Grand Criterium (G1) at 2, and the 2014 Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T) at 3, Karakontie would rank as his sire’s finest Northern Hemisphere-sired son.Join BloodHorse Day by day
Aside from the ninety foals in his first crop, Karakontie has by no means coated notably massive books of mares, and in that mild, the 17 stakes winners has been represented from 214 starters (7.9% stakes winners) is sort of creditable. Along with She Feels Fairly, Karakontie’s most notable offspring embody the 2022 Del Mar Oaks (G1T) heroine, Spendarella , and different group or graded scorers Princess Grace , None Above the Legislation , Sole Volante , Sugoi , Kenzai Warrior and Overseas Relations .
She Feels Fairly is out of Summer time Candy , a winner twice on turf, and as soon as in an off-turf occasion. Summer time Candy is a daughter of the remarkably prolific Extra Than Prepared, who, from crops sired in North America and Australia, is represented by 230 stakes winners and he is effectively on his solution to proving an equally productive broodmare sire with 183 stakes winners in that position, 24 of them group or grade one.
Summer time Candy is a half sister to a pair of turf stakes winners in Summer time Breezing and Adirondack Summer time , in addition to to the 2014 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1) third Summer time Solo , herself dam of Solo Album , winner of the 2023 Selene Stakes (G3) and this 12 months’s Trillium Stakes (G3), and 2019 Tempted Stakes winner and Demoiselle Stakes (G2) second, Maedean .
Summer time Solo is out of stakes winner Summer time Solstice, a listed winner and a half sister to Act One, winner of 4 group occasions, together with the 2001 Criterium Worldwide (G1) and 2002 Prix Lupin (G1) and second within the 2002 Prix du Jockey Membership (G1). Summer time Solstice can also be half sister to French classic-placed Gharir and to dam of group 1-placed Summer time Symphony, the granddam of Lord Gold, a graded stakes winner in Brazil.
Out of black type-placed Summer time Sonnet, Summer time Solstice is carefully associated to 1996 Queen Cup scorer Ibuki Understand—each are by Caerleon, and Ibuki Understand is out of Noesis, the granddam of Summer time Solstice. The dam of Noesis, the Mr. Prospector daughter, Proskona, was a bunch winner in France and Italy, and was Italy’s 1984 champion 3-year-old filly and champion sprinter. Proskona was out of the 1976 English One Thousand Guineas (G1) third, Konafa. That one’s dam, Royal Statute, was an E. P. Taylor-bred daughter of Northern Dancer, out of Queen’s Statute, a mare imported to Canada by Taylor in 1956. The dam of six stakes winners, together with twin Canadian champion Dance Act, a full brother to Royal Statute, Queen’s Statue additionally grew to become a remarkably impactful basis mare, and taking a look at her descendants through Konafa alone, we discover 74 particular person stakes winners, 14 group or grade 1, together with Mawj , profitable in final 12 months’s Queen Elizabeth II Problem Cup and English One Thousand Guineas; in addition to Fashionable Video games , victorious in 5 group or grade 1 occasions, together with the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T); Hong Kong celebrity Golden Sixty; and different standouts Hector Protector, Bosra Sham, and Ciro.
She Feels Fairly and King Kontie are the 2 stakes winners from 9 starters sired by Karakontie out of Extra Than Prepared mares. The cross provides an attention-grabbing sample with Karakontie’s dam, being by a son of Halo out of a Woodman mare, a sample that repeats itself within the pedigree of Extra Than Prepared. She Feels Fairly additionally reveals a outstanding presence of La Troienne through associated strains. Her grandsire, Bernstein, goes tail feminine to Busanda; Woodman’s dam is by Busanda’s son, Buckpasser, and he goes tail feminine to La Troienne through Putting, an in depth relative of Busanda; She Feels Fairly’s broodmare sire, Extra Than Prepared additionally goes tail-female to La Troienne, and his fourth dam is 3×2 to that nice matriarch; and for good measure, Caerleon, the sire of second dam of She Feels Fairly, additionally goes tail feminine to La Troienne.
It’s also price noting that Woodman, who’s 4×4 in She Feels Fairly’s pedigree, beforehand loved appreciable success with this household as classic-winning champions Hector Protector and Bosra Sham, and Ciro, a three-time group/grade 1 winner, are all by Woodman out of mares descending from Konafa.