SPENDING $100,000 on a yearling nowadays is commonplace, and for many there will be no great return. Doing so on a filly with a good pedigree is less risky, and it can be a bonanza if she turns out to be a good racehorse.

Such is the case with the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes winner Crimson Advocate, bred by Whitehall Lane Farm and sold for that amount at the OBS Yearling Sale. On her way to success at Royal Ascot, she beat the highly-regarded Ocean Mermaid over the minimum trip at Gulfstream Park on her second outing, and significantly the win was in a stakes race. Victory earned her an automatic entry at Ascot, and $25,000 to help defray the costs.

What is the daughter of Nyquist (Uncle Mo) out of a half-sister to the dam of a champion US juvenile filly worth now? Significantly more for sure, and her pedigree keeps on improving. In fact, Crimson Advocate’s unraced half-sister, I Do Declare (Declaration Of War), is the dam, with her first foal, of this year’s stakes winner Danielita R (Cairo Prince), though the win did come in Puerto Rico.

From the fourth crop of champion juvenile colt, Nyquist, later winner of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, Crimson Advocate is from the Darley stallion’s fourth crop, and she is one of his 19 stakes winners, a group that includes the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Vequist, Grade 1 winner Gretzky The Great, and four other graded stakes winners.

Best runner

Crimson Advocate is the best runner to date from the multiple stakes winner and Grade 3-placed Citizen Advocate (Proud Citizen), and that mare was the best runner from her dam, the unraced Twilight Service (Horse Chestnut). One of the latter mare’s winners was Come A Callin (Dixie Union), and she is the dam of three stakes winners, one of which stands out.

Caledonia Road (Quality Road) went from being a $140,000 yearling at Keeneland to a $2,300,000 three-year-old at Fasig-Tipton, thanks to winning the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Stakes, ensuring she was crowned champion juvenile filly in 2017. Caledonia Road’s half-sister is dam of the 2023 Grade 2 Wood Memorial Stakes hero Lord Miles (Curlin).