Who didn’t love Lady Eli? So many reasons to adore her: her ten wins and three seconds from 14 starts, her many Grade One wins, at least one for every year she raced, her devastating turn of foot down the stretch, her $2,959,800 in earnings. But even more than that was her battle with laminitis in both front feet in 2015, caused after she stepped on a nail on her way to the test barn after winning the Belmont Oaks Invitational S.-G1 on July 4 of that year.

Chad Brown, her trainer, reported her condition as “guarded,” and we all feared that the sport might lose one of its all-time greats. But she returned, undiminished, just over a year later, a true heroine of racing lore. At Keeneland November 2018 she sold for  $4.2million to John Sikura, master of Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Lexington, and on March 21, 2019, she foaled a War Front colt. Finally, a racing story with a happy ending.

But the story just gets better. On Saturday, September 28, her two-year-old half sister by American Pharoah, Princesa Caroline, broke her maiden at Belmont in her first out by 3 ½ lengths, on the turf like her Champion sister, at a mile and 1/16. Trained by Chad Brown, just like her big sis, her and Lady Eli’s breeder, age-old and prestigious Runnymede Farm, kept this one to race themselves, after selling Lady Eli as a yearling for $160,000. Keeping Princesa Carolina appears to have been a very wise move. She became American Pharoah’s fourteenth winner from his freshman crop.

Lady Eli was a Runnymede-bred through and through, as the farm bred her sire, Divine Park, as well as the dam of both fillies, Sacre Coeur, by Saint Ballado, out of their foundation mare Kazadancoa, by the great Green Dancer. Lady Eli has four doses of Northern Dancer in her pedigree, through Broodmare of the Year Toussaud (by El Gran Senor), Danzig, and two doses of Nijinsky II, 5 x 4. This makes for four doses, of course, of Natalma, out of Almahmoud, with the addition of Natalma’s half-sister, Cosmah, through Halo, the sire of Saint Ballado, Sacre Coeur’s father. Similarly, Princesa Caroline is inbred to Northern Dancer 6 x 6 x 4, complementing the Halo in Sacre Couer again.

Breeding Sacre Coeur to American Pharoah was a stroke of genius. His grandsire is Empire Maker, a son of Toussaud, just as Lady Eli’s grandsire, Chester House, was. And Chester House’s sire was Mr. Prospector, just as American Pharoah’s sireline is Mr. Prospector, though through Fappiano. Runnymede has cannily done its best to re-create Lady Eli in Princesa Caroline.

As has been noted, Lady Eli’s pedigree featured Nijinsky II, top and bottom, and, once again, an attempt has been made to re-create that, as American Pharoah’s dam is from the Storm Cat line. Storm Cat and Nijinsky II are very closely related, and the combination has long paid dividends to breeders. But there’s also another canny addition: more La Troienne. Sacre Coeur has a dose through Cohoes, and both Lady Eli and Princesa Caroline have the balancing dose in their sires’ side through Toussaud, through Buckpasser. Runnymede has added, however, another powerful dose of Buckpasser through Unbridled’s dam, Gana Facil, as well as adding to the In Reality Toussaud offers through Unbridled. Princesa Caroline should be able to get a distance of ground, and shouldn’t be lacking in toughness and grit, certainly characteristics that Lady Eli demonstrated throughout her career and life.

Might we see Princesa Caroline in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf S.-G1, her sister’s first Grade One win? It might be too soon to thrust her into such company, though Lady Eli came out of a maiden race at Saratoga to take that important race. We should have faith that Chad Brown, so familiar with the family, will do the right thing.

-- Roberta Smoodin