Quidura, a Dubawi half-sister to Cape sires Quasillo and Querari, picked up the fifth win of her career when making all to win the G2 Woodford Reserve Ballston Spa Stakes at Saratoga on Saturday.
The five-year-old, a $3.6 million buy from the 2017 Fasig Tipton November Sale, was asked to go early by jockey Jose Ortiz and stepped on the gas. In the lead by a length, Quidura set a moderate pace for the six-horse field of older fillies and mares with fractions of :24.19, :48.11, and 1:11.37 through the first six furlongs.
Quidura was in command by 1 3/4 lengths as she reached the wire, and completed the turf test in a final time in 1:39.67. She finished 1.75 lengths clear of former German 1000 Guineas winner Hawksmoor (who had accounted for Quidura in last year’s G2 New York Stakes), with Indian Blessing another 1.25 lengths away in third. Quidura’s G1 winning stablemates A Raving Beauty and Off Limits finished fourth and fifth respectively.
The Dubawi daughter, one of three group/graded winners produced by her dam Quetena, has now won five of 11 races, with her earlier wins including the G2 Canadian Stakes and G3 Valley View Stakes.
Also second in the 2017 G1 Diana Stakes and third in the same year’s G1 Jenny Wiley Stakes, Quidura came into the Ballston Spa having finished second in a optional claiming allowance race, having enjoyed a nine month layoff previously.
Now owed by Peter Brant, Quidura took her earnings to $740 788 with her front running win on Saturday.
She is out of Listed pferdewetten.de-Criterium winner Quetena, herself a daughter of multiple champion sire Acatenango and German 1000 Guineas winner Quebrada.
Quetena’s hugely successful sire son, and former German champion, Querari is a son of red hot sire Oasis Dream, whose son Captain Gerrard is responsible for Friday’s G1 Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes hero Alpha Delphini. Triple G1 winner Oasis Dream, also responsible for red hot sire Showcasing, has enjoyed a great season in 2018 with his big race winners including Polydream and Pretty Pollyanna –winners of the G1 Larc Prix Maurice de Gheest and G1 Darley Prix Morny respectively.
Querari himself enjoyed notable success at Friday’s KZN Racing awards ceremony, where his G2 Investec Dingaans/G2 Gauteng Guineas winning son Monks Hood was named Champion 3YO Colt.
His half-brother, and G3 Bavarian Classic hero, Quasillo, is also by a red hot sire in the form of champion Sea The Stars. The latter enjoyed a big race double at York last week, with his daughter Sea Of Class landing the G1 Darley Yorkshire Oaks and son Stradivarius (who picked up a £1 000 000 bonus in the proceedings) landing the G2 Weatherbys Hamilton Lonsdale Cup.