Quiet Dance: A Broodmare to Remember
Quiet Dance has had a remarkable influence on the lives of those who knew her and on the breed as a whole
Quiet Dance was born in 1993 and passed away in October of 2019 as the mother or grandmother of four G1 winners, but her influence on the breed is sure to continue for generations, thanks to descendants such as her grandson Gun Runner and great-grandson Sharp Azteca. She was the dam of five stakes winners, most famously Horse of the Year Saint Liam, and her daughters have produced horses such as G1 winners Gun Runner and Buster’s Ready, as well as graded stakes winner Lull, stakes winner Dance d’Oro, and multiple graded stakes placed Gun It.
Quiet Dance herself was a well-bred mare who sold for $75,000 at the 1994 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling sale to Edward P. Evans, the owner of Spring Hill Farm, and was trained throughout her career by Mark Hennig. She broke her maiden in her fourth career start in an Aqueduct maiden special weight, then finished second as a 40-1 longshot in the G2 Demoiselle in her following start. She competed in allowance races throughout her three-year-old season, winning once and hitting the board four other times, then came into her own at age four, when she won three consecutive races, including Pimlico’s Gala Lil Stakes. The final race of her career was in the 1997 Ladies Handicap, where she finished eighth.
She was sent to 1983 Champion Three-Year-Old Broad Brush for her first foal, producing a grey filly who would be named Quiet Broad in 1999. She was bred back to Saint Ballado, who had just the year before been moved from Florida to Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky after getting G1 winner Captain Bodgit in his first crop. In April of 2000, she foaled a bay colt who would become known as Saint Liam.
This colt was Diana Baker’s first introduction to Quiet Dance, as she met him as a mischievous colt, not long after he’d been weaned at Spring Hill Farm. “He was a handful. He was kind, but he just really loved to play. He was smart, and liked to see what he could get away with.”
His dam, by contrast, was a quiet mare, one who insisted on doing things her way but was a sweet, people-oriented horse. Over the years of working with Quiet Dance, Diana fell in love with the grey mare. “She was a doting mother… I’ll always remember her running around the fields with her foals. She loved to run, and her foals would try to keep up with her. She’d play with them, almost like how two puppies play. It was so fun to watch.”
“Most of her foals really have her temperament. Her daughter, Quiet Giant, the dam of Gun Runner, was just like her - so smart, quiet, and kind.” Even Saint Liam, with his mischievous streak (not uncommon in descendants of his grandsire, Halo), was a kind horse - just one who liked to play and try to push his boundaries.
After Mr. Evans passed away, his stock was dispersed at the Keeneland November Sale in 2011, and Diana and her family - her husband Chris and daughter Emma - prepared themselves to say goodbye to the mare they’d known for over a decade.
“When Mr. Evans died and we found out we had to sell the horses, it was devastating, because we had known most of them all of their lives. When [Quiet Dance] was about to go into the ring, Emma and I were there saying goodbye and we both left there sobbing and got in the car and left Keeneland. We could not be there when she sold. And when my husband called and said that Mr. Leon [of Besilu Stables] had bought her, I was thrilled. We had met him before, he’d come to the barn to see all of the horses. We’d spent time with him, we’d been to his farm in Florida, so we knew he loved horses and was such a lovely person.
“It was such a sense of relief that she was going to him, and then he called Chris and said, ‘I want these horses to be with you at WinStar.’ I just remember being so overjoyed - I was crying, I was so happy. It just felt like Ned Evans was watching over his horses, making sure that Chris could continue to care for some of them.”
Diana and her family knew and cared for Quiet Dance from the time she was seven years old until her death at the age of twenty-six in 2019. They’ve gotten to know many of her descendants, too, such as 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner. Diana’s husband, Chris Baker, foaled both Gun Runner’s dam, Quiet Giant, at Spring Hill Farm, and Gun Runner himself at WinStar Farm. “Gun Runner is so smart. He’s the kind of horse that you show him something once, and he’s like, ‘hey, I’ve got it.’”
At the Breeders’ Cup in 2017, they were nervously waiting for Quiet Dance’s grandson Gun Runner to run in the Classic. “I get nervous when any horse I’m connected to runs,” said Diana, “But I was a nervous wreck for that race. And [assistant trainer] Scott Blasi comes up to me and asks, ‘How are you doing?’ And I tell him I’m nervous, and he says, ‘Me too, but look at that horse, what is he telling us?’ And I look at [Gun Runner] and say he’s looking at us like ‘I’ve got this,’ and [Scott] said, ‘Yep, and he does.’”
Gun Runner went out and proved that, taking the race gate to wire and winning by over two lengths. “He was just so confident. He’s kind, he’s smart, he’s athletic, he’s just the whole package. And he’s the kind of horse who took care of himself.”
By all accounts, Gun Runner is continuing to pass on Quiet Dance’s calm intelligence and kindness on to his offspring. Through him and Sharp Azteca, a grandson of Saint Liam, it seems likely that Quiet Dance’s influence on the breed will continue to be felt for years to come. Diana gets to see both stallions every day at Three Chimneys Farm, where Chris is the Chief Operating Officer and General Manager.