Fiji Nights - by Katy Turner

When it came time to breed her fantastic broodmare Fiji for the Year 11 season, owner LaDonna King chose the young sire Crystal Night for her champion mare. Crystal Night had recently retired with a perfect fifteen for fifteen record on the track, garnering five championships that included Year 11 European Horse of the Year, and was already off to a quick start at stud. Fiji herself had been a terrific racehorse, winning the SIMMY award for Year 2 Champion Female Turf Horse and had already produced several millionaires in the shed. With such royal bloodlines behind her, great things were expected of the resultant chestnut filly, Fiji Nights.

She certainly did not disappoint. Beginning her own career on the track in week four of Year 12, Fiji Nights demolished a six furlong maiden at Futurity Park with a one big run. She won by an eye-popping 12 ½ lengths in an otherworldly time of 1:09.20. Trainer King waited four weeks to run her talented charge again, this time placing her in the seven furlong Moyglare Stakes for two year olds at Ireland Racecourse. Fiji Nights dueled throughout with Prix Charmant and still had enough left in the tank to hold off the hard closing Dreamit To Be Real by a half length, handing that champion filly her only loss that season. King wheeled Fiji Nights back two weeks later at Inglewood Park, where she handily won a mile allowance 6 ½ lengths in the absence of any stakes races that week at that distance for two year olds.

After giving her filly a slight break, King brought Fiji Nights back in the 1 1/16 mile Excellence Stakes for three year old fillies. Fiji Nights did not disappoint; she quickly spurted away from the rest of the field and led the whole way for an easy four and a half length victory. Fiji Nights was brought back two weeks later for her first graded stakes attempt in the week 5 Grade 2 Flawlessly Handicap over 1 1/16 miles on the turf. Again, she won easily, handing the nice mare Giving It All a five length defeat. Fiji Nights' next outing came three weeks later in the Grade 1 Ballston Spa Handicap at the storied The Spa racecourse in New York. Only three other mares were sent out to face the dominant filly and she dispatched them easily, winning the 1 1/16 mile contest by five lengths. Week 10 brought Fiji Nights' final prep for the Steward's Cup in the 1 1/16 mile ungraded Laurel Turf Distaff at Lakeway Park. Perhaps hoping her long campaign had taken something out of the star filly, five others were entered against her, though none finished closer than four and a half lengths behind Fiji Nights.

Two weeks later brought the Steward's Cup Filly and Mare Turf over 1 3/8 miles on the Inglewood Racecourse turf track. Fiji Nights would be racing longer than she ever had before and would be facing a fantastic selection of older mares for the first time. The eight horse field including such fantastic mares as Chastize, Ara Davies' then undefeated daughter of Tulloch; the European Champion Three Year Old Filly Beam, who was coming off a fantastic season as a four year old; million dollar earners Rive Gauche and Fate; and stakes winner Test of Passion. In an electrifying tour de force performance, however, Fiji Nights went straight to the lead and drew away unchallenged for a sixth length victory over that fabulous field. Her perfect season saw the dominant filly awarded the SIMMY for Year 13 Champion Female Turf Horse and contributed to her dam Fiji being named the Year 13 Broodmare of the Year.

Fiji Nights was given a well-deserved break after her long season and outstanding performance in the Steward's Cup. She was brought back in the 1 ¼ mile Arlington Million at Metropolitan Park, where she would face the boys for the first and last time. Fiji Nights' long break did little to slow her down; she defeated multiple stakes winners Cheetah and Capture My Heart by an easy four lengths. Three weeks later, Fiji Nights was flown out to Arcadia Park in California for her final Steward's Cup prep in the 1 1/8 mile Yellow Ribbon Stakes. Here she faced the Year 13 European Champion Three Year Old Filly Moved to Tears, who was coming into the race off a strong win the Dubai Duty Free and was well on her way to another European championship. Moved to Tears made a race of it, but Fiji Nights still managed to prevail by three-quarters of a length over her talented foe.

Fiji Nights' last race would come in the Steward's Cup Filly and Mare Distaff. It was another solid field, headed by the then undefeated Pas De Deux, a daughter of champion mare Cabaret, and Openupthecurtains, a solid stakes-winning mare in her own right. Fiji Nights held off Pas De Deux by three-quarters of a length to complete a rare back-to-back Steward's Cup double, keep her perfect record intact, and give owner and breeder LaDonna King one of her best memories in the SIM. With her second straight perfect season, Fiji Nights was again awarded the SIMMY for Year 14 Champion Female Turf Horse.

In her storied career on the track, Fiji Nights won multiple championships and back-to-back Steward's Cup races and faced some of the best turf mares in the world, including the likes of Dreamit To Be Real, Moved To Tears, Openupthecurtains, Pas De Deux, Rive Gauche, Fate, Beam, and Chastize. However, her fantastic career on the track has proved to be just the beginning; Fiji Nights has also turned out to be a fantastic broodmare, passing on her enormous talent to her foals. Her first foal, a filly named Twilight, was awarded multiple championships, won nearly four million dollars on the track and continued her dam's winning tradition in the Steward's Cup with a win in the Year 16 Filly and Mare Turf. Her second foal, Whenthesungoesdown, was also a millionaire and champion. Fiji Nights' third foal and first colt, Night Shade, won the inaugural Steward's Cup Juvenile Turf and over a million and half dollars on the track. All of Fiji Nights' foals, with the exception of her three year old, have at least won on the track; all but two are multiple stakes winners.

Fiji Nights has proven to be the very best, both in her stellar racing career and in the breeding shed with her impeccable record as a broodmare. She never lost on the track, finishing with a perfectly dominant eleven for eleven record and earnings of $3,386,400. Her fantastic foals have carried on her incredible legacy, earning $7,257,030 and accounting for many championships and two Steward's Cup winners. Fiji Nights is responsible for giving her owner LaDonna King many outstanding memories and can truly be called one of the greatest horses to step foot on the track.