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We had originally planned to send Tuxedo Annie to the new Maryland stallion Blofeld in 2018, because his pedigree contains two crosses of the Phipps/Wheatley foundation mare, Grey Flight, who is also Tuxedo Annie’s fourth dam. But due to some unforeseen circumstances, we had to call a last-minute audible, and Tuxedo Annie has instead been bred this year to a much more recent Phipps family product who stands at Anchor & Hope Farm in Maryland: the gorgeous Grade 1 winner Imagining.
As a son of three-time leading sire Giant’s Causeway, Imagining fits well with Tuxedo Annie for a variety of pedigree-related reasons. Firstly, Tuxedo Annie’s first winning offspring was sired by Lion Hearted, a son of Storm Cat just like Giant’s Causeway. Then, under Tuxedo Annie’s stakes-winning and Grade 1-placed second dam, Infinite, is the Grade 1 winner Hot Cha Cha by Storm Cat’s grandson Cactus Ridge, as are a pair of stakes-placed 2-year-old fillies by Storm Cat-line sires in Love Contract (by Consolidator) and Mimi’s Missy (by Forest Wildcat). And Tuxedo Annie herself is a half-sister to a pair of winners by Rahy and that one’s son Bop, and Rahy is the broodmare sire of Giant’s Causeway. Meanwhile, Giant’s Causeway has had excellent results with mares sired by Miswaki, who is Tuxedo Annie’s paternal grandsire, including the Grade 1 winner My Typhoon and the Champion and multiple Graded Stakes winner Irish Mission. Finally, the nick of Storm Cat-line sires with mares by Black Tie Affair himself has been good for seven stakes winners and a “B” TrueNicks rating (which is better than average).
Tuxedo Annie’s previous foals have all been foaled in West Virginia and have campaigned exclusively at Charles Town – which is a bull-ring dirt track. But Tuxedo Annie’s pedigree seems better suited to running long on the turf: though Black Tie Affair won the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic on dirt, he was by a turf horse in Miswaki (the sire of G1 Arc de Triomphe winner Urban Sea, she in turn the dam of G1 Epsom Derby winner and current leading European sire Galileo), and Black Tie Affair’s best offspring as a broodmare sire was the European champion Mastercraftsman; while Tuxedo Annie’s first two dams (Polish Treaty and Infinite) were both stakes winners going a mile or more on grass. Not to mention that all the top-class horses mentioned in the preceding paragraph as representative of this particular cross (namely My Typhoon, Irish Mission and Hot Cha Cha) earned their highest status going long on the lawn.
So with our plan being for Tuxedo Annie to deliver her 2019 foal in the Maryland-bred program – with its proliferation of grass racing – we think that breeding to these turf tendencies will provide us with our best chance for success.
Which is another reason that Imagining is a perfect pairing for her, as he raced exclusively on the grass, scoring nine wins and seven more placings from 26 career starts, good for earnings of over $1.1 million. His biggest career victory came in the G1 Man o’ War at Belmont, in which he went wire-to-wire over the top-class Real Solution. Imagining also scored impressively in the G3 Red Smith and the G3 Pan American, as well as a pair of other stakes races, and was second or third in four other Grade 1 races. He retired to Maryland at the end of 2015, and his first crop of foals are yearlings of 2018.
In addition to his own race track achievements, Imagining comes from a fantastic female family filled with successful sires. His dam, the Grade 2 winner Daydreaming, is a full-sister to Grade 1 winner Girolamo (sire of multiple 2017 Graded Stakes winner Highway Star), as well as to the dams of G1 Kentucky Derby winner and promising young Kentucky stallion Super Saver, and G1 Kentucky Derby runner-up and leading California sire Bluegrass Cat. Daydreaming is out of Grade 3 winner Get Lucky, a full-sister to the perennial leading Maryland sire Not For Love, and her Grade 1-winning dam, Dance Number, is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner and leading sire Private Account, and to another leading Maryland sire in Polish Numbers (who recently teamed up with Not For Love in the pedigree of California Chrome).
Imagining combines his race record and pedigree page with a drop-dead gorgeous physique: he is quite tall, extremely muscular and well-balanced, very correct in his conformation, and is as flashy as could be with a stripe, three stockings and a belly spot on his copper-colored coat. He should add plenty of leg and length to the foal of the more compact Tuxedo Annie.
Imagining stands in Maryland, just like Blofeld, and with the Maryland breeding program still on the upswing, we remain excited to have a Maryland-sired, Maryland-bred foal out of Tuxedo Annie in 2019.
Imagining wins the G1 Man o’ War
Imagining wins the G3 Red Smith
Imagining wins the G3 Pan American
Imagining wins the Idle Rich