La Cara, Quietside Retired Following Azeri Stakes

Dual grade 1 winner La Cara and multiple graded stakes winner Quietside have been retired from racing and will begin their next chapters as broodmares. Both 4-year-old fillies last raced March 7 in the Azeri Stakes (G2) at Oaklawn Park, finishing fifth and seventh, respectively. News of La Cara's retirement was first shared March 10 by Oaklawn publicist Robert Yates in a post on X, adding that plans call for the daughter of Street Sense to be bred to Not This Time. La Cara is a homebred for Tracy Farmer and was trained by dual Hall of Famer Mark Casse. "The shame of it is she never got to run on a dry track her last couple starts, but she's a multiple grade 1 winner," Casse told BloodHorse March 11. "I think when we started looking at the advantages of going another year or getting her bred, Tracy and Lincoln (Collins) just thought it made more sense to breed her." La Cara broke her maiden at Saratoga Race Course in August of her 2-year-old year before surging from off the pace to win the 2024 Pocahontas Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs by three-quarters of a length. She would close her juvenile season finishing fifth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Del Mar. Kicking off her 3-year-old campaign with a win in the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, her season would be highlighted by a pair of front-running wins in the Ashland Stakes (G1) at Keeneland in April and the Acorn Stakes (G1) at Saratoga in June. "There's not too many of those that come around, so she definitely is very special," Casse said of the filly winning grade 1s at two of racing's most historic and iconic venues. "For her to be a homebred for the Farmers meant a lot." In two starts at 4, La Cara caught sloppy conditions in both the Houston Ladies Classic Stakes (G3) at Sam Houston Race Park and the Azeri. Given the time of year, the decision was made to go ahead and retire her. "You run her another time and she doesn't run well, now she's missed the breeding season," Casse said. "Hopefully she can reproduce herself. If she can, they'll be superstars." La Cara finishes her career with a record of 5-2-0 from 15 starts for earnings of $1,254,903. A homebred for Shortleaf Stable trained by John Ortiz, Quietside also earned her maiden victory at Saratoga in 2024, doing so at first asking before being runner-up to eventual 2-year-old champion filly Immersive in the Spinaway Stakes (G1) there and third behind Immersive at Keeneland in the Alcibiades Stakes (G1). She would close out her juvenile campaign with a runner-up finish at Churchill Downs to eventual Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Good Cheer in the Golden Rod Stakes (G2). At Oaklawn in the spring of 2025, she posted a pair of victories in the Honeybee (G3) and Fantasy (G2) stakes. She would finish her season finishing second in the Comely Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack and finished third in the Feb. 7 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) to reigning champion 3-year-old filly Nitrogen before her last race in the Azeri. "After a tough win in last year's Fantasy, Quietside never regained her true form. Time to move on to the next task," a post on X by Shortleaf Stable said. The Malibu Moon filly will be bred to Nyquist and finishes her career 3-4-2 from 12 starts for earnings of $1,051,575.