Abel Tasman is the Now Horse
The only filly to win three Grade 1 races this year is the horse no one wanted as a yearling.
Abel Tasman, a three-year-old filly by Lane's End Farm stallion Quality Road is the only sophomore this year to win three Grade 1 races in 2017. Adding a Starlet victory from her two-year-old season, makes her a four-time Grade 1 winner. She has accomplished this while facing only fillies her age, and not older yet, and also one of the fillies of her crop who has been on the sidelines: Unique Bella.
Let’s get something straight, horse racing is a “now” sport. If you are not winning now, it’s hard to stay in the spotlight. Unique Bella is working her way back to racing fitness with trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, but has to concede her top rank to her counterpart, Abel Tasman, a filly who lost to Unique Bella in the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita in April.
Abel Tasman, excluding her debut, has never been worse than second in her career, spanning nine races between 2016 and 2017. Her record includes wins in a maiden special weight going a mile, an allowance win going seven furlongs, and wins in four Grade 1 races; the Starlet Stakes, Kentucky Oaks, Acorn Stakes, Coaching Club American Oaks. She has also finished second in the Santa Ysabel and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks, behind Paradise Woods.
Abel Tasman is from the third crop of Quality Road, who stands for $35,000 at Lanes End Farm. The stallion not only has sired this top filly, but also a Breeders’ Cup winner Hootenanny (2014 BC Juvenile Turf), Blofeld, Klimt, and Illuminant. Quality Road seems to be a very versatile horse, getting horses to go one or two turns on any surface. The stallion was no slouch as a racehorse either, winning four Grade 1 races, and setting three track records.
A quick note on the pedigree of Abel Tasman, not only is she a half to Grade 3 winner Sky Girl (by Sky Mesa), her dam, Vargas Girl, is a half to Moonlight Sonata, the dam of Wilburn. Additionally, her sire is by the now pensioned Elusive Quality who showed an affinity for the Northern Dancer line through his mares, which Abel Tasman does come from.
With all this information, what does this mean? Abel Tasman is simply the leader of division. While the division seems to be lacking a superstar, Abel Tasman herself is a racehorse that just keeps doing what she is meant to be doing: running and winning.
Abel Tasman will head back to Southern California with trainer Bob Baffert to see how she comes out of the Coaching Club American Oaks. If she bounces out well, and works well, she will ship back to try to win the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes. If the filly wins that, she could potentially secure the Eclipse Award.
Her goal is likely the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar this year, where she will have to face older horses like Stellar Wind, Songbird, Vale Dori, and Forever Unbridled.