From the very start of his career, Mindframe flashed the credentials of a superstar in the making. On his debut, which came in a seven-furlong maiden special weight at Gulfstream Park in March 2024, he stormed home 13 3/4 lengths clear while posting a 107 Equibase Speed Figure. A 7 1/2-length allowance win over 1 1/16 miles on the Kentucky Derby (G1) undercard next out confirmed that impression and saw Mindframe set to test that potential against the best of the division.
In the 2024 Belmont Stakes (G1), he looked likely to do just that as he swept past Dornoch at the head of the stretch, but he then began to wander off a true course, allowing his determined rival to regain the advantage and prevail by a half-length. Similarly, the Haskell Stakes (G1) appeared to be at Mindframe's mercy when he cruised into contention on the home turn, but again he was unable to finish the job, going down by 1 1/2 lengths to Dornoch.
Ten days after the Haskell, it was announced that Mindframe would be sidelined for the rest of the year due to bone bruising. Away from the races for seven months, Mindframe returned for the Gulfstream Park Mile Stakes (G2) in March this year and produced a far more focused performance to gain his first graded victory by 1 1/4 lengths. Dropping to seven furlongs for his next outing, Mindframe charged late to defeat Banishing and Nysos in a three-way photo for the Churchill Downs Stakes (G1), with grade 1 winners Book'em Danno and Mullikin also behind.
On June 28, Mindframe added the 1 1/8-mile Stephen Foster Stakes (G1)—an achievement that made him a rare older horse, in this era at least, to win grade 1s at seven furlongs and 1 1/8 miles in the same year—accounting for last year's 3-year-old champion male Sierra Leone, four-time graded scorer First Mission, last year's Kentucky Derby hero Mystik Dan, and Dubai World Cup (G1) captor Hit Show.
Mindframe follows Tiz the Law and Americanrevolution as the third grade 1 winner to emerge from the first five Northern Hemisphere crops by the 2014 Florida Derby (G1) and 2015 Donn Handicap (G1) captor Constitution , currently by some way the most successful sire son of Tapit . All told, he now has 49 stakes winners, 23 graded from his Northern Hemisphere crops. Retired at a fee of $25,000 in 2016, he stands at $110,000 for the most recent season at WinStar Farm. He's also sired 28 stakes winners, 10 grade 1, from three Southern Hemisphere crops in Chile.
On the distaff side, Mindframe comes from a female line that was a top-class one in England at the time of its importation to the United States. It then, after a brief flare-up, went into decline only to undergo an unlikely revival, mostly through horses from Mindframe's home state of Maryland.
The family goes back to Cross of Gold, who was imported with her dam as a weanling in 1926. She was by Gay Crusader, who took a war-time version of the English Triple Crown in 1917, out of Golden Corn, who won five consecutive races at 2, including victories over colts in the two top juvenile events of the time, the Middle Park Stakes and Champagne Stakes, and added a premier sprint, the July Cup, at 4. Cross of Gold was not only by an English Triple Crown winner, but she also had one in her family, as her third dam was quite closely related to Common, who lifted the Crown in 1891.
Cross of Gold maintained the prestige of the family through her daughter, Camelot (by Sir Gallahad III). She was the dam of Blue Grass, who captured the Kentucky Oaks in 1947, and subsequently appeared as the dam of 1954 Del Mar Futurity victor Blue Ruler, and granddam of Bluescope, a six-time stakes winner, including the 1962 Swaps Handicap, and of Ole Bob Bowers, the sire of the legendary John Henry.
The branch that leads to Mindframe comes down through Cross of Gold's daughter, Vermouth. A winner once in two starts, Vermouth produced five winners from eight foals. The second of these, Five to One (by Sir Gallahad III, so closely related to Camelot), won three times in 28 starts, and also took second in the 1940 Fashion Stakes. Five to One was dam of six winners, none of any note. One of her nonwinning offspring was the thrice-raced Moon Belle, by Young Peter, winner of the 1947 Travers Stakes, but a sire of little distinction.
Bred to another less-than-notable sire, Troy Weight, a son of the imported 1943 French champion 2-year-old Priam II, Moon Belle came up with Moon Money, who judging from her record was more tough than talented. Her six wins and 16 places garnered from 44 starts earned her just $9,773. Moon Money's daughter, Ran's Chick (by The Big Boss, a Bold Ruler horse who won an allowance event at Delaware Park from seven starts, and who stood at a fee of $750), sold for $2,400 at Timonium as a 2-year-old. Ran's Chick never ran, but despite that and her humble immediate ancestry, it was Ran's Chick that began to turn the fortunes of the family back on an upward trajectory.
Two of Ran's Chick's offspring, Turn to T. J. and Special Kell, won black-type events, and Turn to T. J. and three other daughters of Ran's Chick produced stakes winners, and between them that quartet are ancestresses of 18 stakes winners, although of those only Tell Your Daddy, winner of the 2021 Bernard Baruch Handicap (G2T) and runner-up in 2021 Keeneland Turf Mile Stakes (G1T), and Future Is Now, successful in the 2024 Franklin Stakes (G2T), 2024 Intercontinental Stakes (G2T), and April 13 Giant's Causeway Stakes (G3T), have scored at graded level.
Special Kell, who captured the 1991 Very Subtle Breeders' Cup Handicap at Laurel Park, was the dam of six winners, of whom only the stakes-placed Partner's Hero filly, Wonderous Woman, earned black type. However, in addition to Star Kell, the granddam of Mindframe, she is also responsible for Magical Meadow, dam of the 2007 Hirsch Jacobs Stakes (G3) scorer Street Magician, and granddam of three other stakes winners, and of the stakes producer, Keeper Kell.
Star Kell, a four-time winner, continued the productive record of Ran's Chick's descendants. Her Malibu Moon daughter, Strike the Moon, won the 2011 Charles Town Oaks, and earned places in five graded stakes, and her Street Sense daughter, Walk of Stars, captured the 2015 Pink Ribbon Stakes at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races, and is dam of four winners from four starters, including Mindframe and the stakes-placed Animal Kingdom mare Hollywood Walk.
Mindframe is the second stakes winner from just seven starters by Constitution out of mares by Street Cry and his sons. The broader Tapit/Street Cry cross has produced five other stakes winners, two including 2024 Oak Leaf Stakes (G2) winner Non Compliant, by Constitution's son, Tiz the Law.
