Eclipse Award-winning colt, who won the Preakness Stakes in 2023 on the 50th anniversary of his legendary forefather’s own victory at Pimlico, is the latest representative of a quality family line
On May 20, 2023, National Treasure won the Preakness. Not just any old Preakness – it was the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s Preakness, the middle jewel of his record-setting Triple Crown series.
As such, surely it was only fitting that National Treasure – recently honored with the Eclipse Award for best older dirt male of 2024 – was one of the latest representatives of a quality female family that goes back for generations to the Secretariat mare Chosen Lady.
Bred by Peter Blum, Chosen Lady was a full-sister to Academy Award, who became one of Secretariat’s graded stakes winners with a victory for Blum in the 1991 G2 Manhattan at Belmont Park. They were out of the winning Mr. Prospector mare Mine Only, whose dam Mono hailed from the King Ranch bloodlines that produced Triple Crown winner Assault; Man o’ War also figured in her pedigree. Blum purchased 12-year-old Mono in early 1975, and she delivered Mine Only in 1981.
Both Mine Only and Chosen Lady became foundation mares for Blum. Chosen Lady was the most significant of Mine Only’s daughters, but a number of quality runners also trace to the mare’s 1989 filly by Devil’s Bag, G3 winner Good Mood. They include G1 Travers winner Golden Ticket and G2 winner and productive broodmare Magical Feeling.
Blum also bred Mine Only to Secretariat’s son Pancho Villa, and was rewarded with G3 stakes winner Statuette. She in turn produced top Irish two-year-old Tomahawk, who Blum sold for $2.5 million as a yearling.
Over many generations, the whole family has been a consistent source of quality. For a commercial breeder, buying and selling quality horses is the name of the game. “People don’t realize the amount of fruit on the tree from the descendants [of a single mare],” reflects Blum.
He still has about 25 mares tracing to Mine Only, most of them from Chosen Lady’s line. “I keep generations of families I believe will continue to bear fruit,” he adds.
Speed at the races
Chosen Lady was born in Florida on May 15, 1987. The dark bay or brown filly raced four times, and her record of one second, one third and two fourths belies her inherent ability, recalls Blum. Her debut with trainer Richard DeStasio came in a seven-furlong maiden special weight at Aqueduct on April 9, 1990. She pressed a fast pace (a quarter in :22⅖ and a half in :45) and was still close to the lead in upper stretch before fading to fourth.
She returned in a similar race at Belmont Park on May 20. Again she was sharp early, in front after a quarter-mile in :22⅖ and only a head behind after a half in :44⅘. Again, she faded to fourth at the end.
Her final two starts were at six furlongs. On June 1 at Belmont, she wasn’t as close to the pace as in her first two races, but ran on well to finish second to a runaway winner. She ended her short career with a third at Saratoga on August 3.
Chosen Lady was certainly capable of speed, but was compromised by a knee chip and retired. Racing’s potential loss was breeding’s gain. Like so many Secretariat mares, she went on to bigger and better things as a broodmare.
A rewarding family
She never had the high profile of some of Secretariat’s other top broodmares, but Chosen Lady was still one of 23 Secretariat mares to produce at least one G1 winner. Her daughter Well Chosen won the 1998 G1 Ashland Stakes, and she in turn produced multiple G1 winner Telling (by A.P. Indy), who won consecutive editions of the Sword Dancer Invitational at Saratoga.
And now, Chosen Lady’s great-great grandson National Treasure has brought an American Classic winner and champion to an extended family already glittering with Blum-bred stakes winners through at least seven generations dating back to Mono.
The first six foals from Secretariat’s daughter were bred by Blum. The first was a 1992 filly by Storm Bird named Lady Of Choice. Placed twice in four starts, she became a stellar producer for her owner, with 15 winners among her 18 foals.
Blum sold many of them as youngsters, including G3 winner Multiple Choice and stakes-placed Proposal. The latter was bought back by Blum after her racing career, and she rewarded him by producing stakes winners Inspired, Silver City, Elope and Initiation. Initiation, sold as a yearling, became the second dam of Elysian Field, who earned Canada’s Sovereign Award as champion three-year-old filly of 2023.
Importantly, Proposal’s 2012 foal was Treasure. Retained by Blum after not reaching her reserve as a yearling, the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro was second or third in six of her seven races. As a broodmare, Treasure has already produced stakes winner Ultimate and G1-placed Pirate, in addition to National Treasure.
Other stakes-producing daughters of Lady Of Choice include Lady Godiva, dam of G1 winner Leofric, and Lemon Lady. Both were sold as yearlings.
Lemon Lady produced stakes winner Lemon Juice and Barbados Bob, whose long racing career in Europe includes honors as champion miler in Belgium. Lemon Lady is also the second dam of G3 stakes winner Major General and the French-bred filly Fuenteesteis, champion two-year-old filly in Spain in 2016.
Chosen Lady’s second foal was In Contention, a son of Devil’s Bag who won the 1996 G3 Cherry Hill Mile and three other stakes races. Well Chosen, a daughter of Deputy Minister, was born in 1995.
Striking while the iron was hot after Well Chosen’s success as a three-year-old in 1998, Blum sold Chosen Lady at Keeneland in November that year. As a fairly young Secretariat mare who had already produced two graded stakes winners, she brought $1,850,000 from Robert and Janice McNair’s Stonerside Stable.
Chosen Lady produced six foals for Stonerside, the best being stakes-placed winners Fine and Dandy (a colt by Danzig) and Oude, a colt by Dubai Millennium. That meant Chosen Lady was one of just a few dozen select mares bred to the great Godolphin runner, who had only one season at stud in 2001 before tragically succumbing to grass sickness.
Her best breeding days likely behind her, Chosen Lady was offered for sale again in January 2006, in foal to Lion Heart. Blum jumped at the chance to buy back the star of the family, and brought her home for $170,000.
The filly she was carrying, Nobility, placed in four starts. Chosen Lady produced one more foal, the 2008 filly Faithful, by Vindication. Unraced, she is the dam of stakes winner Hello Don Julio, and is the last remaining daughter of Chosen Lady who is still a member of Blum’s broodmare band.
All told, Chosen Lady had 14 named foals, seven fillies and seven colts.
Family characteristics
The mare herself died at age 23 in 2010, but her family lives on with about 20 descendants currently on Blum’s farm. He admits that some of them probably need to be sold, but that’s a challenge given the stakes winners that keep popping up. “We have had so many exceptional horses from this family,” he says.
All of Blum’s horses are overseen by Bridie Harrison, who has been on the job for decades. She knows them better than anyone, and has definitely noticed common characteristics among Chosen Lady’s descendants. “They’re a very quiet family, generally easy to manage and easy to be around,” she says. “A child could lead them in and out of the paddocks.”
At the same time, they can be tough when they’re not happy about something – especially a visit from the vet or even someone coming with a dose of medicine. “They notice when you are out in the field giving shots. They are very, very smart.”
While members of the family may have different color and markings, they are very similar. “There’s lots of times when I’ll walk out there and see Mine Only’s or Chosen Lady’s expressions in their faces,” says Harrison. “They take after each other a lot.”
Still, Chosen Lady stood tall among them, figuratively and literally. “She was a very big mare, probably at least 16.1, whereas most of the family have been medium-sized,” says Harrison. “Fortunately, they all have good feet!”
Harrison also remembers Chosen Lady as an excellent mother, saying: “She loved her foals and took very good care of them.”
National Treasure’s prominence
National Treasure brought the spotlight back to the family with his exploits in the past two years. The horse also has Secretariat through his sire Quality Road, who admirably carries on the sire line of Secretariat’s grandson Gone West. Thus, National Treasure is inbred 5x5 to Secretariat.
Blum sold the colt as a yearling for $500,000. He showed promise at two, and in addition to his Preakness win in 2023, he led all the way in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile that year – all except the last jump, when he was edged by Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish. National Treasure rewarded his owners for keeping him in training at age four, with wins in the Pegasus World Cup and Met Mile before his recent retirement for stallion duties at Spendthrift. Those two victories were enough to secure a championship.
Since the Eclipse Awards were established in 1971, only seven of 54 Preakness winners went on to be champion older male after their Preakness-winning year: Triple Crown winners Seattle Slew and Affirmed, plus Spectacular Bid, Alysheba, Curlin, California Chrome and National Treasure.
Fifty years after he purchased Mono, Blum can’t help but be thrilled with National Treasure’s achievements, validating his belief that the family is still bearing fruit.
“It means a lot to me because I strongly felt Treasure’s chances of producing a Classic horse were very good, even though she never won a race,” he says. “I knew she’d make a great broodmare. Chosen Lady was very special, and Bridie and I knew this early on. She was truly a great mare!”
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