Fifty Facts About Fifty

There is an activity going around Facebook for which horse owners post a certain number of facts about one of their horses. I thought it would be fun to share fifty facts about Fifty (Miss Fifty). Of course, you can read about her in greater detail here. It was a bit difficult to come up with so many facts, but I managed to pull it off!

Miss Fifty
Photo by Terri Cage

1. Ironically, Fifty was bred by Zenyatta’s owners, Jerry and Ann Moss, prior to being owned by Rachel Alexandra’s breeder and former owner, Dolphus Morrison, for over half of her racing career.

2. In Miss Fifty’s five wins, she never won by less than 3 ½ lengths.

3. Fifty earned over $20,000 more than her full brother, Gold Cup Kid.

4. Miss Fifty’s dam, Copa de Oro, is a half-sister to the graded stakes-winning and multiple grade one-placed Voodoo.

5. Fifty is a direct descendant of the Reine De Course mare Astrology, a stakes-placed English-bred mare who produced the stakes-winning leading sire Star Shoot, who sired the first American Triple Crown winner, Sir Barton.

6. Miss Fifty shares the same broodmare sire (Coronado’s Quest) as the grade one winners Boys at Tosconova and Mani Bhavan.

7. Hip 50 wasn’t the first hip number Fifty wore through a sales ring. At the 2009 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, she was consigned by Crestwood Farm as hip 1416.

8. Miss Fifty would go on to earn over 8 times as much as she was purchased for as a yearling ($10,000) and over twice as much as she was bought for as a two-year-old ($40,000), earning $81,917.

9. There is a filly an Irish-bred filly the same age as Fifty registered under the same name (Miss Fifty) that has never won but is multiple group stakes-placed.

10. The aforementioned Irish-bred Miss Fifty was born nine days after Fifty and made her first start the day after I met Fifty at the under-tack show for the 2010 Fasig-Tipton Texas Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

11. Fifty raced in four different states, at five different tracks.

12. Miss Fifty raced at both Churchill Downs and Charles Town five times.

13. The highest Equibase speed figure Fifty attained during her seventeen-race career was a 96.

14. Miss Fifty has no white markings other than a minuscule star on her forehead.

15. Fifty was ridden by nine different jockeys, including three-time Kentucky Derby (GI)-winning jockey Calvin Borel, who rode her five times.

16. Miss Fifty’s soon-to-be four-year-old half-sister, Industrial Policy, has won twice, has never finished worse than third, and has competed only in New York, although she is currently training at Palm Meadows.

17. Fifty raced against 4 graded stakes winners – 2 of which were grade one classic winners (Shackleford and Fort Larned) – and an additional 2 black-type winners.

18. Miss Fifty has 6 of the 11 American Triple Crown winners in her pedigree: Gallant Fox, Omaha, War Admiral, Count Fleet, Secretariat, and Seattle Slew.

19. Fifty was the leader at some point in 11 of her 17 races.

20. Miss Fifty broke first from the gate in 6 of her starts.

21. Fifty never finished out of the money in a claiming race.

22. The fastest first-quarter fraction Miss Fifty set was 21.44, which was in her last race.

23. Fifty contested on dirt, turf, and synthetic.

24. Miss Fifty competed at six distances, never racing beyond seven furlongs.

25. Fifty was trained at Diamond D Ranch after being purchased at the Fasig-Tipton sale prior to going to Lon Wiggins. This was the same ranch at which Rachel Alexandra had been broken.

26. Of the archives listed on Fasig-Tipton’s website, Miss Fifty is the most expensive hip 50 to ever pass through the Fasig-Tipton Texas Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

27. As a descendant of female family nine, Fifty is a member of the same family as Alydar, Bull Lea, Mahmoud, Shergar, Urban Sea, and Upset.

28. Miss Fifty had an undefeated record for 2012, winning both starts, though one was the unfortunate incident at Charles Town.

29. Both Man O’ War and Secretariat, the top two horses in the Blood-Horse’s Thoroughbred Champions: Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century, appear in Fifty’s pedigree.

30. Of the 16 mares in Miss Fifty’s fifth generation, 10 of them are Reine De Course mares.

31. Three days after Fifty achieved her first win, her full brother, Gold Cup Kid, won the final race of his career.

32. Miss Fifty has a bad habit of weaving.

33. Fifty suffered an eye injury as a three-year-old, which is evident if you look closely at her left eye.

34. About 35% of the horses in the first five generations of Miss Fifty’s pedigree share the same chestnut color as her.

35. Six of Fifty’s official works were bullet works.

36. Miss Fifty was retired in September 2012 when she fractured the two proximal sesamoids in her right foreleg.

37. She became mine shortly after her retirement and arrived at my home on Halloween 2012, while I was in California for the Breeders’ Cup.

38. She was transported by Woodson Show Horses from Ohio to Texas alongside many Quarter Horses returning from the All-American Quarter Horse Congress, which is the world’s largest single-breed horse show.

39. When she first in arrived in Texas after her racing career, her first night here was spent at the barn where I keep my show horse.

40. Due to her injury, Fifty had to remain on stall rest for nearly seven months.

41. When Miss Fifty first arrived here, she refused to eat any hay that was on the ground. Now she will.

42. While visiting Fifty at Churchill Downs when she was a two-year-old, she would take a peppermint from you as if to please you but then would spit it out. Now she loves them.

43. Fifty knows that treats are stored in the tack room and will stare you down every time you walk out of it, expecting for you to give her a treat.

44. Miss Fifty has a bad habit of kicking the stall during feeding time and once kicked a wooden board out of the wall.

45. She stayed at Remember Me Rescue/Keen Farms for a few weeks this past summer while I was in Kentucky.

46. Fifty is friendly to all of my horses, but her favorites are my other OTTB, Dexter, and my Appaloosa, Colby.

47. Miss Fifty does not like wearing a blanket; she ripped it within her first week wearing it and kicks at the straps.

48. Fifty is very curious as to what is above her head and tilts her head at a weird angle to look.

49. Her favorite spot to be scratched is on the crest of her neck. When you reach that perfect spot, she wiggles her lip.

50. Miss Fifty has her on Facebook page, which you can like here.