The remarkable dynasty that was Overbrook Farm rested heavily on two Secretariat mares purchased by William T Young in 1982, Terlingua and Cinegita.
Young acquired the mares from Dr. William Lockridge, a founding partner of Ashford Stud, and both were in foal to Ashford’s new sire Storm Bird, a brilliant English and Irish juvenile champion in 1980.
Terlingua’s 1983 foal was Storm Cat, whose rise to the top echelon of sires took Young and Overbrook along for the incredible ride. But breeders need the mares to complement the stallions, and Cinegita held up her end of the bargain – and then some!
The bay mare had raced for Terlingua’s owners Barry Beal and L.R. ‘Bob’ French Jr.; trainer D Wayne Lukas plucked her out of the 1978 Keeneland July sale for $340,000. Born April 4, 1977, Cinegita was bred by Nelson Bunker Hunt from his mare Wanika, a daughter of Sadair, a top two-year-old colt in 1964.
Could lightning strike twice?
Lukas liked what he saw in the young Secretariat filly, and by the time the yearling went through the sales ring in the summer of 1978, the trainer’s previous-year purchase, Terlingua, was just starting to make headlines at the races. Could lightning strike twice?
Cinegita made her racing debut in a maiden race going five furlongs at Hollywood Park on June 6, 1979. She finished fourth after a late run from far back. Twenty days later, Lukas put her in the Cinderella Stakes against more seasoned fillies, including the talented Table Hands, who was in the midst of a six-racing winning streak. Cinegita wasn’t ready for the big step up in class, and finished fifth without making an impact.
The trainer had her ready for a more traditional spot in a maiden special weight at Del Mar on Aug. 6. This time, the filly battled for the lead throughout the one-mile event, and jockey Darrel McHargue got her nose in front at the wire when it counted. It was a supreme display of gameness in just her third start; the time of 1:36⅘ was very good for a two-year-old filly on the Del Mar surface. It was just ⅗ of a second slower than Terlingua ran the distance when winning the G2 Del Mar Debutante the previous year, which had set a new stakes record.
Sent to the sidelines for a few months, Cinegita’s return in a Santa Anita allowance race on Feb. 16, 1980, was aborted when jockey Pat Valenzuela eased her on the sloppy surface after going a half-mile. With nothing seriously amiss, she came back from that outing to win an allowance race at the same track on March 27. Racing second early in the one-mile race under jockey Terry Lipham, Cinegita grabbed the lead in the stretch and drew off to win by 3 ½ lengths in 1:36.
Lukas next tried her on the turf for the first and only time in the Senorita Stakes at Hollywood Park on April 12. Favored was her old rival Table Hands, but it was a pair of Nijinsky fillies that stole the spotlight that day. Ballare won the race by 2¾ lengths over Street Ballet. Cinegita, who had pressed the pace early, was just a nose behind Street Ballet in third, a head in front of Table Hands.
The G3 Railbird Stakes on the Hollywood Park main track was up next on April 26. The seven-furlong race was always one of the spring highlights for California’s best three-year-old fillies.
Flashing father’s brilliance
As the race unfolded, Lipham kept Cinegita just inside of the favored pacesetter Thundertee. As they hit the top of the stretch, Secretariat’s daughter said so long and started to draw away. She hit the wire 4½ lengths in front, stopping the timer in 1:20⅘. “Cinegita flashed a little of her father’s brilliance Saturday,” proclaimed Daily Racing Form in the race recap, which noted that the time was just a second shy of equaling Triple Bend’s American record of 1:19⅘ for the distance.
“We’ve waited a long time for a win like that with her,” Lukas told the media after the race. “She has always had the talent. She seems better on the main track than on the grass, so her main objectives here will be the Princess and the Hollywood Oaks.”
Cinegita was indeed entered in the Princess Stakes on June 7, a G3 event in which she would face another up-and-coming Secretariat filly, Secretarial Queen. The pre-race talk was all about Cinegita and Lady Roberta, who was riding a three-race win streak including the Honeymoon Stakes.
Alas, Cinegita was scratched from the race and retired with a record of three wins in seven starts and earnings of $54,050. Racing’s loss was the breeding industry’s gain, as she wasted no time in her second career.
A superlative broodmare
The Storm Bird foal Cinegita was carrying when Young purchased her outright from Lockridge was the filly Storm Star. That one was the mare’s second foal; the first was the unraced Lyphard colt Georgia’s Lyphard.
Storm Star became Storm Bird’s first stakes winner as a sire, taking the Pritchard Services Cherry Hinton Stakes (G3) at Newmarket on July 9, 1985, a few months before Storm Cat won the Young America Stakes (G1). She was also the first stakes winner bred by Young (in the name of W.T. Young Storage).
As a broodmare for Overbrook, Storm Star produced stakes winners Captain Starbuck and Dodge, and her daughters continued the female line. Several stakes winners descend from Storm Star, including Puerto Rico champion My Wandy’s Girl (also a G2 winner in the US) and 2017 Chilean Triple Crown winner Wow Cat. The latter filly was unbeaten in her native country and later became a G1 winner in the US.
Despite this success, Storm Star’s full-sister Starlet Storm was really the one who proved to be the star of Overbrook’s breeding program. Cinegita’s 1987 daughter wasn’t a stakes winner like her sister, but Starlet Storm’s first foal in 1992 was Flanders, who won the Eclipse Award as champion two-year-old filly in 1994 with four wins in five starts, including a brave victory in the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs. She edged Serena’s Song to win by a head, only to pull up lame.
Thanks in no small part to Flanders, Young received the Eclipse Award as outstanding breeder in 1994. Tabasco Cat, a son of Storm Cat bred and raced by Overbrook in partnership with David Reynolds, won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes that year, while Overbrook was also a member of the partnership that raced the 1994 champion two-year-old Timber Country.
After her recovery, Flanders joined the Overbrook broodmare band. Her first foal in 1997 was Surfside, a top two-year-old filly in 1999 who went on to be the champion three-year-old filly for Overbrook the next year.
Numerous other stakes winners have come from Starlet Storm through her daughters. There are too many to mention here, but through 2021 they include graded stakes winners Irish Surf, Battle Plan, Open Water, Fiery Pursuit, Trophy Chaser and 2015 champion European two-year-old Air Force Blue.
That would be an outstanding produce record for any broodmare, but Cinegita wasn’t just any broodmare. She produced a second graded-stakes winner in Syourinomegami, her 1991 daughter by Mr. Prospector who raced in Japan. That one’s full-brother Choctaw Ridge, a foal of 1989, was a stakes-placed winner in the US. He took an allowance race at Churchill Downs on Nov. 1, 1991, edging the next year’s Kentucky Derby winner Lil E. Tee. Choctaw Ridge was exported to Brazil for stallion duty, where he became a two-time leading sire.
Still more stakes winners have come from Cinegita’s other daughters, including Crucifijo and Overbrook, G1 winners in Mexico and Peru, respectively. And bringing the family full circle, the Peruvian-bred Overbrook was sired by Flanders Fields, a stakes-placed 2003 son of Flanders sired by A.P. Indy.
At least 30 stakes winners and four champions
All told, through the end of 2021, Cinegita and her daughters have been responsible for at least 30 stakes winners and four champions through four generations, more than even Terlingua. Many of them were bred and raced by Overbrook. With recent success in the fifth generation from Cinegita, including Wow Cat and South African G1 winner Zillzaal, there is likely to be more to come from this incredibly productive female family.
And if they have any hint of Cinegita’s personality, their connections will be grateful. “Cinegita was lovely, a real sweetheart,” recalled former Overbrook employee Beth Meredith a few years ago. She starting working as a groom at Overbrook in 1987 and then became a broodmare barn foreman before heading to the farm office to handle booking.
Her favorite memory of Cinegita came from the time Flanders was recovering from her injury in the Breeders’ Cup. “Flanders was another sweetheart, you could just walk her out and let people pet her,” said Meredith. But even after she recovered, she still needed to be a little quiet and not too active. So when Cinegita lost her baby in 1995 after producing 13 straight foals, she became a babysitter for her granddaughter Flanders.
Cinegita herself had become quite arthritic in her knees, and was a slow, deliberate mover. “We put Flanders out in a little paddock with Cinegita, because Cinegita couldn’t move around too much. She kept Flanders kind of quiet. So she was the babysitter, which was really cool.”
Cinegita died at age 20 in 1997, and she is buried in the Overbrook Farm cemetery.
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