Dahlia’s Best Friend

  As all of you no doubt know, mares like to “buddy up”.  Just why these ladies pick each other is known only to them.  Sometimes it appears they work by color.  Other times two very strong-willed (alpha) mares will choose each other.

  But in the case of Dahlia and Estrapade, circumstances thrust these two lovely daughters of Vaguely Noble together when neither could produce enough milk for their foals.  So what they had in common was the tragedy of losing their little ones to a nurse mare right after birth.  How sad they must both have been!

  From experience, we know how very feminine Dahlia was.  But we only saw Estrapade with her once.  And Estrapade did not like it when we took Dahlia out of the paddock so we could spend time with her.  Finally, we went over and gave Estrapade a pat and a carrot, too, and she calmed down.  But she kept a watchful eye on us, and did not truly relax until her friend returned to her.

  We were told at the time that the farm worried about what would happen to Estrapade when Dahlia died since the pair had become so close.  And we have no idea what did happen that sad day, but Estrapade outlived Dahlia by only four years and she never had a live foal after her buddy died.  Perhaps she saw no reason to produce a foal she could not mother and knew that she would no longer even be comforted by her dear friend.

  Estrapade was a wonderful racehorse, winning Group and Graded stakes in both France and the U. S.  She was champion grass mare in the U. S. in 1986 the year she beat colts in the Arlington Million and Oak Tree Invitational.  Other major wins she racked up included the G1 Yellow Ribbon and the Gamely, Santa Ana and Beverly Hills Handicaps.  Overall, she earned nearly $2 million in her 30 starts.

  Estrapade’s produce record looks spotty, too, but it’s not really all that bad.  She was a hard-luck mare.  In 10 of her years at stud, she had dead twins, was barren, aborted or had dead single foals. 

  Given what was left to work with, she actually did quite well.  Estrapade produced the minor stakes placed runner Rice, a gelding by Blushing John who ran second in the G2 Red Smith Handicap and set or equaled a couple of 1 3/8 mile track records – one at the Meadowlands and the other at Gulfstream.

  She has two producing daughters to date.  One, Vilka by Nureyev, died in 2000.  But she produced the stakes placed filly Ayres Hall by Jade Hunter before her death.  Then there is the winning Strawberry Road mare Troika who is the dam of Miss Mambo, a 2001 filly by Kingmambo who was third in the French One Thousand Guineas, second in the G2 Prix de Sandringham and winner of a minor stake in Ireland. 

  Not only is Troika just getting started, think of the opportunities classic-placed Miss Mambo is sure to have!  And, there are two more daughters of Estrapade out there.  Her first foal was named Estrabug and was an unraced daughter of Nijinsky II.

  Estrabug has not gotten anything of note to date, but neither has she been bred to the best.  She has two upcoming offspring, a two-year-old filly by Smart Strike who will race in France and a yearling colt by Favorite Trick.

  Then there is Rima, a 1995 filly by Jade Hunter.  Rima did not race but she has two foals to date, a 2000 filly by Theatrical named Shadow Play who has won almost $68,000 and a three-year-old gelding of 2005 by High Yield named High Yield Hunter.

  One of the things we will always remember about Estrapade is that Trevor Denman, Santa Anita’s master announcer, used to call her “a little grasshopper”.  And she was an elegant little thing – plus Vaguely Noble really did put a polished, Arab head on his kids, didn’t he?

  Sadly, Estrapade was on her way to be pensioned at the “Old Friends” facility when she died of a heart attack.  Or was it a broken heart?  She will be buried on that portion of the Hurstland property devoted to “Old Friends”.  And while she might have preferred to be buried next to her beloved friend, Dahlia, we have no doubt they are galloping in the same paddock in that portion of heaven reserved for the bravest and most beautiful of God’s creatures. 

  They are free from the demands of man and the expectations of a market gone too speed conscious for their bloodlines.  But they have left an enormous void in the breed.  They may be mourned nowhere else as they are mourned right here, for it was their very ability to run against males as far and as fast as they could that made them the kind of mares we count as the world’s best ever.  They will not pass this way again.