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We recently added the young mare One That Got Away, from a branch of the accomplished and active Ran’s Chick female family cultivated by R. Larry Johnson, with the specific intent of breeding her to Maryland sire Blofeld. But as part of the bargain we picked her up in foal to the exciting first-year horse True Valour, who finished his career for Larry and trainer Graham Motion.
True Valour started his career in Ireland at 2YO, picked up his first stakes victory there in the Celebration Stakes at 3 and added the G3 Ballycorus at 4YO before he eventually made his way stateside and added tallies in the G2 City of Hope Mile and G3 Thunder Road Stakes, to go along with a 3rd place finish in the G1 Jaipur (at 8YO), and he closed his career beaten just a head by Golden Pal when 2nd in Saratoga’s G3 Troy Stakes. He earned almost $700k with seven wins from 34 lifetime starts, and was in the top three on 20 occasions.
True Valour retired to Northview Stallion Station in Maryland for 2023 and covered 22 mares there in a state where turf racing (and now turf sprinting) are only increasing in popularity.
As a winner on the all-weather at Presque Isle going 6 furlongs, One That Got Away should complement True Valour’s talents nicely. And although he is a son of the leading European 2YO/sprint sire Kodiac (he in-turn a son of the all-time worldwide leading sire Danehill), out of a mare by the prolific European 2YO/sprint sire Acclamation, while she is by a grandson of the all-American classic dirt influence A.P. Indy, TrueNicks actually likes this mating well-enough to give it a “C”, meaning the cross has performed as well as you’d expect it to based on the sires’ and broodmare sires’ statistical stakes production. The 19 graded winners bred this way include three G1Ws, as well as stateside G3W Verbal.
Certainly there have been plenty of turf sprinters and milers in One That Got Away’s female family, including both her black-type siblings and her dam’s stakes-winning siblings as well. It has also clicked repeatedly with the Danzig sire-line (he’s the sire of True Valour’s grandsire Danehill), including the likes of SW/G3P Partners Due, by the Danzig son Partners Hero (One That Got Away’s own broodmare sire).
All of which gives us belief that this in utero, “bonus” foal ought to have a nice future sprinting on the Laurel lawn when the time comes!