Coming into last year's Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1), Adare Manor boasted a record of five straight victories. The first of those came in an allowance optional claiming event at Santa Anita Park in late March 2023. The next four, however, were in far more illustrious company—the Santa Maria Stakes (G2), Santa Margarita Stakes (G2), Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1), and Zenyatta Stakes (G2).
Adare Manor failed to show her best form in the Breeders' Cup, weakening to seventh, albeit beaten only three lengths, after finding herself in close quarters late in the running. She rebounded for a good second in the Beholder Mile Stakes (G1) on her seasonal reappearance, then April 13 Adare Manor gave a clear warning that she will remain a threat to the best of the division, going wire to wire to take the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) by 5 1/2 lengths at Oaklawn Park while earning a new top Equibase Speed Figure of 113.
Adare Manor is one of the 100 stakes winners in the first nine crops sired by Uncle Mo , the champion 2-year-old male of 2010. No less than 49 of those horses tallied in graded stakes company and 14 have scored in grade 1 company, among them 2015 champion 2-year-old male and 2016 Kentucky Derby (G1) victor Nyquist as well as Mo Donegal , Bast, Yaupon , Mo Forza , Golden Pal , Dream Tree, Outwork , and Arabian Knight.
While Adare Manor is by one of North America's most prolific sires, the distaff side of her pedigree presents a very different picture. Her first four dams are by Giant Gizmo, Radio Star, Editor's Note, and Horse Flash, horses who have existed in a different realm than Uncle Mo.
That said, some of the mares in the female line were far from meritless. Adare Manor's dam, Brooklynsway, won six of 23 starts from 2 to 5, including the 2016 Doubledogdare Stakes (G3), 2015 Bison City Stakes, 2016 Mari Hulman George Stakes, 2014 Princess Elizabeth Stakes, 2014 Muskoka Stakes, and 2015 Algoma Stakes. Interestingly enough, she is the only one of the 12 stakes winners and three graded scorers for Giant Gizmo—a grade 3-winning son of Giant's Causeway—to capture a black-type contest outside of Canada, where Giant's Gizmo stood throughout his North American stud career.
Brooklynsway is inbred 3x3 to Storm Cat, as not only is she by a grandson of that horse, but her dam, the unraced Explosive Story, is by Radio Star, a son of Storm Cat. A maiden winner in England and allowance scorer in the United States, Radio Star was a half brother to the highly successful sire Dynaformer. Radio Star stood for two seasons in New York before dying in 2003. He sired 73 foals, none of which scored in black-type company, and it's a fair bet that Brooklynsway and Adare Manor are the only stakes winners in whose pedigree Radio Star appears.
It's likely that Explosive Story was sent to a son of Giant's Causeway because of the success of her half sister Effie Trinket. A daughter of Freud —a full brother to Giant's Causeway—Effie Trinket won four stakes events in New York and took second in the 2013 Mrs. Revere Stakes (G2T) and third in the 2014 Honey Fox Stakes (G2T) and Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes (G2T).
Maya's Note, the dam of Explosive Story and Effie Trinket, was a minor winner and is a daughter of Editor's Note. He was a rather more accomplished runner than Giant Gizmo and Radio Star, winning the 1996 Belmont Stakes (G1) and Super Derby (G1). He was, however, a far less effective sire, and although he stood for 19 years, including spells in Argentina and Uruguay, he sired only 18 stakes winners, and was represented by just one graded scorer from eight North American crops.
The fourth dam, Miss Bid Flash, was a smart runner with wins in the 1994 Mata Hari Breeders' Cup Stakes and Illinois Stallion Trial Stakes and several other stakes placings. She is by another very obscure stallion in Horse Flash. Group-placed sprinting in France, Horse Flash was by the unraced Stay for Lunch, a son of Forli and a full brother to the good European runner Home Guard. Horse Flash stood for just four seasons, siring 11 foals, and Miss Bid Flash was one of his two winners. Miss Bid Flash is the third successive mare in the female line to produce a Storm Cat-line stakes winner, with her Forest Wildcat gelding Spectacular Cat taking the 2000 Spectacular Bid Stakes at 2.
Another sire in the pedigree who didn't win a stakes is Nantallah, sire of Adare Manor's seventh dam, Nosey Nan. In this case, however, the pedigree is far more illustrious. Nosey Nan is out of Aphonia, a daughter of Gambetta, a stakes-winning half sister to the celebrated Nantallah quartet of Moccasin (1965 Horse of the Year in some polls); Ridan (1961 champion 2-year-old colt; Lt. Stevens (multiple stakes winner and broodmare sire of Alysheba), and Thong (ancestress of leading sires Sadler's Wells, Nureyev, and Fairy King, among numerous others). Gambetta herself was no mean producer, appearing as dam of 1967 champion 3-year-old filly and 1968-69 champion older mare Gamely, and appearing as ancestress of 18 grade 1 winners, also including Drumtop and more recently Sweet Reason, who took the 2014 Acorn Stakes (G1), 2014 Test Stakes (G1), and 2013 Spinaway Stakes (G1), and Separationofpowers, successful in the 2018 Test and 2017 Frizette Stakes (G1).
Adare Manor serves as another reminder that the race record of a dam is a far better indicator of her producing potential than the commerciality of her immediate pedigree. She is also an example of a proven cross, as Uncle Mo has 16 stakes winners out of Storm Cat-line mares, nine graded. Seven of those are out of Giant's Causeway-line mares, and there are also stakes winners out of mares by Giant's Causeway's brother Freud and After Market, a horse bred on the same Storm Cat/Rahy cross as Giant's Causeway and Freud.
