Filly With 'Million-Dollar Scar' Seeks Queen's Plate

Three years ago, when Keith Lancaster returned to check on the horses at his Central Kentucky farm after eating lunch, he noticed a gash in the neck of a week-old Curlin  filly.

After scouring the paddock and finding no discernible cause of the injury, he speculated the filly had been kicked by her dam, Dixie Chicken, with whom she shared the paddock.

"It looked like a footprint," said Lancaster, whose farm is near Stamping Ground, Ky. "I looked all around, at the fencing and other areas, and we never found anything. It was always kind of a mystery. It healed and left a scar on her neck."

That scar, coupled with a light pedigree page and the fact Curlin's stock was still on the upswing, are likely reasons the filly went unsold on a final bid of $150,000 when she was offered by Lancaster at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

She has gone on to win half of her eight starts, including three stakes, while earning $517,216 for trainer Catherine Day Phillips, and she is the 4-1 morning-line third choice in the June 30 Queen's Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.

"We're calling it our million-dollar scar," said Sean Fitzhenry, who with his wife, Dorothy, bred and races the filly now named Dixie Moon. "There was nothing wrong with her. Her vet work was perfect. But sometimes the September sale can be a beauty contest, and she does have that scar."

"She has been a very nice filly, from being a foal until now, but at the sale they have to jump through all the hoops, as they say," Lancaster noted. "Now there are a lot of people who are going back and looking at their catalogs to see what they overlooked. She was class all the way."

Under Phillips' tutelage, Dixie Moon defeated males when she won the Cup and Saucer Stakes for Canadian-breds at 1 1/16 miles on the turf and then defeated fellow Ontario-foaled fillies in the Ontario Lassie Stakes at the same distance on Tapeta as a 2-year-old. Between the two, she was sixth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) at Del Mar.

Dixie Moon comes into the Queen's Plate off a victory in the Woodbine Oaks Presented by Budweiser in which the time for 1 1/8 miles was .02 seconds faster than the Plate Trial two races earlier on the same card. With fillies assigned 121 pounds, five less than males in the Queen's Plate, three of the last seven Oaks winners have taken the Queen's Plate, including Holy Helena last year.

Dixie Chicken, a daughter of Rahy bred and raced by the Fitzhenrys, earned $201,004 and finished third in the Ontario Colleen Stakes. In addition to Dixie Moon, Dixie Chicken produced last year's Plate Trial winner, Guy Caballero, providing the female family with an additional boost.

Minnie's Meadow—Dixie Moon's second dam—is a winning daughter of Affirmed who was purchased by Sean Fitzhenry for $40,000 as a weanling from the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

"They're all tough," Lancaster said of Dixie Moon, Dixie Chicken, and Minnie's Meadow. "They all have a mind of their own. (Dixie Moon) has the disposition of her mother. She won't back down."

"She is a very willing filly," Fitzhenry said. "The one thing you can't gauge or measure is their heart. We've had a lot of horses with talent, but they couldn't run."

Fitzhenry said he has turned down several considerable offers for the filly, but if buyers are looking for a piece of the family, they can find Dixie Moon's yearling half brother by Hard Spun  in Lancaster's consignment to this year's Keeneland September sale.

Fitzhenry said he and his wife breed about 10 mares per year, usually to established sires, in consultation with agent Marette Farrell.

Sean Fitzhenry was breeder of multiple grade 1 winner Marketing Mix, a daughter of Medaglia d'Oro  sold to Glen Hill Farm for $150,000 as a Keeneland September yearling and who went on to win 10 of 21 starts and earn more than $2 million.

"I watched (Medaglia d'Oro) win the Travers (Stakes, G1), and we bought a breeding right in him that we kept until he moved to Darley," Fitzhenry said.