Four Wishes, the dam of grade 1 winner Simply Ravishing, has died at age 13, owner Meg Levy reported.
After sharing a tribute Dec. 3 on Facebook, Levy confirmed the news to BloodHorse the following afternoon, saying the mare suffered complications from a previous C-section. Levy purchased Four Wishes for $500 in February of 2017 after the daughter of More Than Readyhad been abandoned by a previous owner. With a modest pedigree and an unaccomplished track record (her best finish from five starts was a sixth), no one expected the mare would go on to become a grade 1 producer.
"Four Wishes—you took us on a ride we will never forget—thank you for always reminding us of the magic of belief and the courage to go on no matter what," Levy posted Friday on Facebook.
Levy sent Four Wishes to Laoban after the mare delivered a Revolutionary colt she had been carrying in 2017. The resulting filly, Simply Ravishing, sold for $50,000 to Harold Lerner at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton October Yearlings Sale and entered training with Kenny McPeek. Racing for Lerner, Sherri McPeek's Magdalena Racing, and Nehoc Stables, she broke her maiden at first asking on the turf in 2020 and won an off-track edition of the P. G. Johnson Stakes, both at Saratoga Race Course, then went on to take the Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) by 6 1/4 lengths at Keeneland. She was later fourth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) and Golden Rod Stakes (G2).
Simply Ravishing wins the 2020 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland
Twice unplaced at age 3, she retired with three wins from seven starts with earnings of $426,200 and was purchased for $1.7 million by Katsumi Yoshida from Gainesway's consignment to The November Sale, Fasig-Tipton's marquee breeding stock sale.
"The whole experience almost fit into a calendar year," Levy reflected. "That experience of watching her win the Alcibiades and go on to run in the Breeders' Cup is indescribable. I try to put my finger on the reason breeders get so much joy of those moments, and I think it's because we all search for the qualities we see in those animals for ourselves. They show courage, they show heart, all these things we want ourselves.
"Four Wishes herself was just a really humble and really brave mare with everything she went through."
Four Wishes leaves behind another daughter full of promise—a Speightster filly foaled March 20 that Levy plans to retain to race.
"It's a great memory and it's one that we'll all cherish," she said of her part in Four Wishes' story. "It just motivates us to look for the unexpected, like she was. Some of the best things in life are unexpected."
