Fleet Lady Victorious in 1998 La Canada Stakes

John and Betty Mabee's Golden Eagle Farm in Ramona, Calif., was a staple of American horse racing since the couple established the acreage in 1972 until the facility shut its doors some 42 years later. From the Mabees' home base streamed a virtual who's who of horses that have not only won important races in California but across the nation as well. More than 170 stakes winners were bred in the Mabee name, including such notables of the sport as Best Pal. Year after year, horses of note, many of them California-breds, poured from their breeding program, enough so that the Mabees earned the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder in 1991, 1997, and 1998. Among the couple's 14 stakes winners as owner/breeder in 1998 was multiple grade 1 winner Excellent Meeting and their state-bred champion Fleet Lady. California's champion 3-year-old filly of 1997, when she won three stakes, Fleet Lady was Mabee-bred in every sense of the word. Her sire Avenue of Flags (Seattle Slew) was bred and raced by the Mabees. Following an injury that halted a promising career, he retired to stud at Golden Eagle. Fleet Lady's dam, Dear Mimi (Roberto), was also bred and raced by the Mabees. John Mabee had purchased her dam, Carnival Princess, out of the 1985 Keeneland November mixed sale. The daughter of Prince John is a half sister to Italian classic winner and two-time champion Carnauba and to three other stakes winners. Carnival Princess soon became the dam of group 1 winner Salse (Topsider). Fleet Lady was a consistent presence on the West Coast circuit over her three-year career. In 23 starts, the dark bay finished worse than fourth just three times. Fleet Lady won first out in a Del Mar maiden race at 2. At 3 she scored in her first stakes event, the Fairfield Stakes at Solano, followed by a victory in the Fleet Treat Stakes at Del Mar. Her five wins and three placings from 11 starts in 1997 plus her $188,560 in earnings propelled her to a state-bred championship and bolstered the Mabees' claim for a leading breeder Eclipse Award. Back at 4, Fleet Lady started the New Year with a bang, taking the El Encino Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Park. Two weeks later she returned to the Santa Anita starting gate for the 24th running of the La Canada Stakes (G2) for 4-year-old fillies over nine furlongs on the main track. Fourth-choice in the field of seven, Fleet Lady and jockey Garrett Gomez were the beneficiaries and survivors of a contentious duel between favored I Ain't Bluffing and longshot Love That Jazz. Blocked in the stretch, Fleet Lady preserved in the final yards to secure the victory by 1 1/2 lengths over fellow closer Minister's Melody. Santa Anita Park hosts the 48th La Canada (G3) as one of the feature stakes on its Jan. 1 card. Always in the hunt but rarely in the winner's circle in her remaining six races for the year, Fleet Lady managed one more victory: the B. Thoughtful Stakes at Hollywood Park. At year's end another state-bred championship title came her way as she was named champion older state-bred mare in 1998. Following Fleet Lady's racing career, Robert and Janice McNair purchased her privately for their Stonerside Farm, who reaped the benefits of the Mabees' golden touch. Her first foal, Fast Cookie (Deputy Minister), became a stakes winner for the McNairs and eight years later her Stonerside-bred Midshipman (Unbridled's Song) won the Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile Stakes (G1), for Sheikh Mohammed's Darley, who had recently purchased the McNair's entire Stonerside operation lock, stock, and barrel, which evidently also came with the Mabees' Midas touch. For Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin, Fast Cookie is the dam of multiple grade1-winning millionaire Frosted (Tapit), who stands alongside his successful sire uncle Midshipman at Darley near Lexington.