Multiple Graded Stakes Winner Lady Apple Retired

Phoenix Thoroughbred III's multiple graded stakes winner Lady Apple has been retired to her owner's broodmare band, Phoenix announced Feb. 1. A visit to be covered by Lane's End's super sire Quality Road  lies in the immediate future for the 5-year-old daughter of Curlin , who signed off her racing career with a third-place finish in the Houston Ladies Classic Stakes (G3) Jan. 31 at Sam Houston Race Park.

A winner of six of her 19 starts, Lady Apple banked over $1 million in prize money thanks largely to her four successes at the grade 3 level with trainer Steve Asmussen. She was raced in partnership with her breeder, KatieRich Farms, for the early part of her career and got off the mark at fifth asking with victory in a maiden special weight at Oaklawn Park. From there she didn't look back, winning her next two starts culminating in the Fantasy Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn. That success qualified her for the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs, where she ran a stormer to finish in third.

She returned to winning ways on her very next outing by taking the Iowa Oaks (G3) at Prairie Meadows before again bouncing back from defeat to claim the Remington Park Oaks (G3) at Remington Park. Arguably her best win was her last as she beat grade 1 winners Serengeti Empress and Street Band to win the 2020 running of Houston Ladies Classic. Although that proved to be her final trip to the winner's circle, she placed twice more in stakes races last year before her owners called time on her career Monday.

"She has been a fantastic race mare for us and she'll be an excellent addition to our breeding operation," said Phoenix Thoroughbreds CEO Amer Abdulaziz. "She has a top-class pedigree with a race record to match while the cross with Quality Road looks very exciting. We are seeing some excellent results from our breeding operation around the globe and adding horses such as Lady Apple can only add to that."

Bred in Kentucky, Lady Apple is the highest-profile of 11 winners produced by the grade 2-placed Clever Trick mare Miss Mary Apples, also dam of black-type winners Miss Red Delicious (Empire Maker) and Dr. Diamonds Prize (Pure Prize). The bay mare is from the same family as Triple Crown winner Affirmed and grade 1 winner Senor Pete.

Phoenix, through agent Gerard Butler, bought out Lady Apple when the mare hammered for $1.2 million last fall at The November Sale, Fasig-Tipton's premier breeding stock sale in Lexington, as part of the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment.