Pedigree Profile: Tamara

This two-year-old filly dazzled in the Del Mar Debutante

Sometimes, “breed the best to the best and hope for the best” is a shot in the dark, but sometimes the old axiom plays out in favor of breeders with access to those top-class horses, and that certainly seems to be the case with Tamara. The daughter of Bolt d’Oro and Hall of Famer Beholder was absolutely brilliant in her first foray into stakes competition, reminding viewers of her dam’s dazzling Pacific Classic win over the same track eight years ago.

Naturally, expectations were high for Tamara, as a daughter of one of the greatest race mares of the 21st century and one of owner/breeder Spendthrift Farm’s premier young stallions. Just two weeks prior to her debut, Beholder’s yearling colt by Curlin had sold for $4 million at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select sale.

In addition to her own immense talent, which was showcased in a career that saw Beholder win G1s every year from ages 2-6, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, two runnings of the Distaff, and the aforementioned Pacific Classic victory against males, Beholder brought a powerful female family to table in her appeal as a broodmare.

The daughter of Henny Hughes was out of the stakes winning mare Leslie’s Lady, a daughter of Tricky Creek. In addition to Beholder, Leslie’s Lady was also the dam of G1 winning two-year-olds Into Mischief and Mendelssohn. She’s also the dam of black type producers Victory Party, Leslie’s Harmony, Judy B, and Daisy Mason. Clearly, Leslie’s Lady is a prepotent producer whose daughters have also been very nice broodmares. Indeed, she comes from a deep branch of the prolific family 23b, tracing back to the mare Patelin, whose other G1-winning descendants include the likes of I'll Have Another, Pleasant Stage, Class Play, Nadal, Seattle Meteor, and at least six others.

The first two foals from Beholder were slightly disappointing. In 2018, she gave birth to an Uncle Mo colt, who would be named Q B One. There was plenty of hype around this colt, but he failed to deliver, defeating just four horses in his four-race career. He was gelded and retired after his second consecutive last-place effort in May of 2022.

Next was Karin With An I, by Curlin, who didn’t fare much better in her two career starts, finishing 7th both times.

Beholder’s fortune improved, however, with her third foal, a daughter of War Front named Teena Ella. Like her siblings, Teena Ella showed little in her debut, defeating just one horse in a six furlong maiden special weight at Del Mar. She showed improvement when finishing third in her second start, however, and broke through with a victory upon switching to turf in her third try. Encouraged by the improvement shown with the surface switch, trainer Richard Mandella stepped her up into the Angels Flight Stakes, where she was beaten half a length in second. She became her dam’s first stakes winner with a victory in the Senorita Stakes in May of this year, but has not raced since.

Considering the lack of precocity shown in her dam’s first three foals to race, it was even more impressive that Tamara was able to get the job done in her debut, winning as the second choice in a ten-horse field. With the scratch of the horse who looked to be her primary competition in the Del Mar Debutante, it was Tamara’s race to lose on Saturday, and it seemed as if the connections of Dreamfyre might have dodged a bullet, as it’s hard to imagine anyone beating Tamara the way she ran, cruising to a 6 3/4 length victory.

Beyond the influence of Beholder, there’s plenty to like about this pedigree. Her sire, Bolt d’Oro, is one of the more exciting young stallions right now in my opinion. He was last year’s leading freshman sire and is currently second on the second-crop sire list. His nine black type winners to date represent 6.1% of his starters, and his 45% winners on the year is higher than fellow leading second-crop stallions Good Magic, Justify, Mendelssohn, and City of Light.

Pedigree-wise, Bolt d’Oro also comes from a strong female family, and a top sire family in Lowe family 13c. His dam, Globe Trot, produced just two other foals, both stakes winners, including fellow G1 winner Global Campaign, whose first foals are yearlings of 2023. Her first foal, two-time stakes winner Sonic Mule, is a stallion in Uruguay. Other members of family 13c include Mr. Prospector, Seattle Slew, and Quality Road, among many others. Medaglia d’Oro’s damsire Bailjumper also comes from this female family, giving Bolt d’Oro two additional sources of his tail-female line in the third generation of his pedigree.

One of the most notable traits of Bolt d’Oro as a racehorse was his tenacity, as evidenced in his Del Mar Futurity win and his epic stretch battle with McKinzie in the San Felipe. This is a trait that he seems to be passing on to many of his foals.

In addition to Tamara, the combination of Bolt d’Oro with Henny Hughes’ sire Hennessy has produced stakes winner Boppy O in nine starters. Tamara is her sire’s only starter carrying Tricky Creek, though Medaglia d’Oro’s son Violence has produced a stakes winner out of a Tricky Creek second dam (12.5% of starters on the Medaglia d’Oro/Tricky Creek cross).

Certainly, Tamara has stamped herself as the leader of the two-year-old filly division with this dominating score, and it will be interesting to see if she can replicate her dam’s success in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and beyond that, if she will eventually carry on the legacy of her granddam in the breeding shed.