Trainer Doug O'Neill's most rewarding claim was Lava Man, who made over $5 million by winning multiple grade 1 races for owners STD Racing Stable and Jason Wood after the gelding was claimed for $50,000 in 2004.
Biddy Duke isn't on that same trajectory—few are—but she is also paying off for O'Neill. Racing Oct. 24 in the $100,500 Senator Ken Maddy Stakes (G3T) at Santa Anita Park, she won her first stakes, defeating Jo Jo Air by a head. The victory came just five months after O'Neill and owner Joe Besecker acquired her in a $40,000 allowance optional claimer at Santa Anita.
The 3-year-old Bayern filly advanced her earnings to $158,560 in six starts for her current connections, compiling a 3-1-2 record over that stretch.
Biddy Duke earned every dollar of the winner's $60,000 first prize in the Senator Ken Maddy. Vaulting to the lead under Juan Hernandez, she dictated terms with fractions of :21.80 and :44.60 in the 5 1/2-furlong turf race as the dual stakes-winning Jo Jo Air chased.
As the field entered the final sixteenth, it looked as if Jo Jo Air had the momentum and was poised to move past the Biddy Duke, but Biddy Duke found a little more in reserve. She gamely turned aside Jo Jo Air and hit the finish just in front, completing the distance in 1:02.03 over a firm turf course. She paid $20.20.
Small in size, "she's got a big heart," Hernandez said.
"Juan said she never quit, when he asked her, she just came back and that's all you see," said Leandro Mora, assistant trainer for O'Neill.
A length behind the runner-up, Biddy Duke's stablemate An Eddie Surprise rallied for third, just ahead of Aqua Seaform Shame.
Slow-starting favorite Magic At Midnight, who raced off the pace for the first time in her career, ran an even fifth and was followed by O'Neill's third entrant, Lakerball, in last in the field of six.
Bred in Kentucky by Machmer Hall and D + J Racing, Biddy Duke became the first stakes winner for her winning Ghostzapper dam Ghostslayer. She is one of the dam's two foals of racing age, the other of which, 2-year-old Ghostlyprince (by Cairo Prince ), is unplaced in two starts.
Biddy Duke went through three auctions previously, falling short of her reserve on one occasion. Most recently, she sold for $40,000 at the Fasig-Tipton July Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale to Sean Perl Bloodstock from the Zach Madden's Buckland Sales consignment.
O'Neill and Hernandez won two races on Saturday's 10-race card at Santa Anita, separately winning earlier events.
The trainer previously won the Senator Ken Maddy in 2006 with Cambiocorsa.
