Blue Devil Racing Enjoys Best Year as Breeder

Blue Devil Racing enjoyed a strong weekend, getting its second graded stakes winner in four days as a breeder when Unified prevailed by a neck in the $100,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint Stakes (G3) Feb. 25.

The 4-year-old son of Candy Ride  —Union City, by Dixie Union, became Blue Devil Racing's first graded stakes winner after taking the Bay Shore Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack. He went on to win the Peter Pan Stakes (G2) in his next start. Unified now has an impressive record of four wins (three of them in graded stakes) in five starts for Centennial Farms and earnings of nearly $390,000.

Prior to the Gulfstream Park Sprint, Blue Devil Racing's partners already had plenty to celebrate. Their first graded stakes winner of the year came Feb. 23 when Nomorerichblondes, a daughter of Hard Spun  —Miss Luann, by Unbridled's Song, picked up her first black-type stakes in the UAE Oaks Sponsored by Al Naboodah Ashok Leyland. She won the 1,900-meter test (about 9 1/2 furlongs) in 2:01.85.

Marc Holliday founded Blue Devil Racing in 2006 and is its manager. Holliday is also CEO of SL Green Realty, which is New York City's largest office landlord. The publicly held company has interests in 127 Manhattan buildings totaling 47.8 million square feet among its investments. 

Blue Devil Racing acquired Union City for $260,000 in foal to Bluegrass Cat   during a dispersal of prominent breeder Edward "Ned" Evans' bloodstock at the 2011 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. The resulting foal became stakes-placed winner Honkeytonk Man. The next foal out of the Union City was Unified, who Blue Devil racing sold to Centennial for $325,000 at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga select yearling sale through the Lane's End consignment. 

Miss Luann was among the Blue Devil Racing's early purchases, obtained for $375,000 as a yearling at the 2007 Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga select yearling sale. Trained by Dale Romans, she placed in a minor stakes at Turfway Park and retired with $63,493 in earnings. She has been far more valuable as a broodmare. Her first foal, Sharp Kitty (by Kitten's Joy  ) sold as a yearling to trainer Amy Tarrant for $340,000 and became a stakes winner for Hardacre Farm. 

Nomorerichblondes, the second foal out of Miss Luann, sold for $100,000 as a yearling and wound up racing for Buti Bintooq Almarri. Having raced exclusively in Dubai, the filly has a 2-1-0 record out of five starts. She finished second in the UAE One Thousand Guineas Sponsored by Al Tayer Motors before she won the UAE Oaks.

Blue Devil Racing got its first stakes winner as an owner on Aug. 28, 2010, when Rogue's Jewel won the New York Oaks at Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack. As a breeder, the group's first black-type winner is Butterfly Soul, who won the Phil D. Shepherd Stakes at Fairplex Park on Sept. 14, 2012.