We recently acquired the hard-knocking, versatile racemare Princess Phone for our new friends at CJT Stables, in-foal to Champion Sprinter Jackie’s Warrior. After dropping that foal (her first) in New York this coming spring, we’re excited to recommend Princess Phone be bred back to the top New York sire Central Banker for her next foal — a mating which will produce 4×4 inbreeding to the terrific New York stallion Cormorant.
Princess Phone won five races from 5 furlongs on turf to 1-1/16 miles on dirt while running from 3YO through 7YO, and earned a total of $148,419 during her career. She picked up open company black-type when 2nd in the $150k Chicken Fried Stakes, and compiled a career record of (28) 5-6-4 after having been purchased as a yearling for $70,000.
Her speed and versatility are exactly what we have targeted for this new breed-to-race operation in the lucrative New York state-bred program. We also love that she is by the Grade 1 winner, leading freshman sire of his crop, and now consistent value stallion Dialed In (whose offspring include the likes of Grade 1 winners Defunded, Super Stock and Get Her Number), while Princess Phone is one of eight winners from nine foals out of her winning dam, Cantilena. Cantilena has an additional claim to fame beyond this laudable produce record in that she’s a half-sister to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint and Met Mile victor Silver Train. Their dam, and Princess Phone’s 2nd dam, was the New York-bred black-type earner Ridden in Thestars, by Cormorant.
Cormorant was a Grade 1 winner during his own racing career, and went on to be a historically successful New York sire, also. His offspring included the likes of Kentucky Derby winner Go For Gin, Eclipse Champion Saratoga Dew, and the popular Grade 1 winner Gander.
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Go For Gin is the broodmare sire of leading New York stallion Central Banker, and by sending Princess Phone to Central Banker in 2025 for her second mating, we will achieve several positive outcomes.
First of all, Central Banker is a perennial leading sire in New York, and as such is thoroughly proven — which is something we always prefer for a young mare, especially when the owner is breeding to race.
And then, among Central Banker’s 17 career black-type winners (good for 5.2% of his runners) is Newly Minted, out of an A.P. Indy-line mare like Princess Phone (he also has another 17 black-type placed runners, and his career AEI of 1.28 is well above his CI of 1.12, meaning he consistently moves his mares up). The broader cross of Speightstown and AP Indy has accounted for Grade 1 winners like Flagstaff and Lexitonian, Grade 2 winners Bonny South, Finite and Scaramouche, and Grade 3 winners like Yorkton, Performer, National Flag and Scalable.
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Although Princess Phone’s female family has not been tried with the Speightstown/Gone West sire-line at all, we are quite excited about the aforementioned 4×4 inbreeding to Cormorant that the foal from this mating will have in its pedigree. There are only ten foals so far with this specific inbreeding, of which seven have raced and six are winners, including a pair of black-type winners — which is an astronomical 28.6% strike rate. These seven foals have earned a combined total of just over $1 million, and included among those two black-type winners is one by Central Banker himself.
So that gives us some confidence in this pairing, which also should work well physically: Princess Phone, is a strongly-made, leggy mare who should add a bit of scope to her foal by the more compact Central Banker and stretch him out just a bit. And then we can fully envision that foal running successfully for a long time in New York, churning out breeder bonuses!