Hall of Fame - Rain Dancer

Original article written by Regina Moore posted 14 years 3 weeks ago

Rain Dancer was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the end of Year 23. This article is too limited by space to do justice to all of her accomplishments.

Rain Dancer’s life began in a unique way – she was SIM’s very first Steward-bred! She was by Storm Cat, out of the brilliant mare Dance Smartly, by Danzig. All of these were real life horses.

Rain Dancer was originally owned by a long ago player named Tony Wollman and debuted in SIM’s very first racing year. Though she was by a sire that is now categorized as a turf sprinter, she began her debut on dirt in a long sprint. She broke her maiden in her first start at seven furlongs, and then captured the one mile Alcibiades Stakes. She finished off her brief 2yo season with a third in the 8.5 furlong Steward’s Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Rain Dancer's 3yo season consisted of five races, all stakes. She started off with a win at 8.5f, and then placed in her subsequent races, all at 1 1/8 miles. Once again, she ended the racing year with a third place in a Steward’s Cup race, this being the Distaff.

It was right before her 4yo season that Rain Dancer changed ownership. Ara Davies, who had just joined SIM at the time, recalls, “I went to the sales page and found a stakes winning daughter of Storm Cat who I thought would be a nice broodmare and I bought her with the intention of retiring her to breed.” According to Ara, it was The Steward herself who strongly recommended keeping Rain Dancer in training.

Rain Dancer’s 4yo season consisted of only two races, both being stakes victories at nine furlongs. She had four starts at five, but couldn’t quite find the winner’s circle. Her lifetime racing record stood at 14-5-3-4. Her complete earnings records have been lost.

Her first foal was Cascade, a daughter of Priceless Forever. Cascade earned over two million dollars while racing in dirt routes, and produced a handful of notable offspring, including millionaires Cadillac and Kayak. Cascade’s success prompted Ara to begin naming Rain Dancer’s offspring with names starting with a “C” and associated with water.

The old SIM had an accelerated breeding schedule. In addition to foals being born as yearlings, mares could have up to three foals in a SIM year. Rain Dancer’s first “set” of foals, after Cascade, weren’t particularly impressive. The next set, however, included Waltz, by Gentlemen, which retired as a maiden, but produced a female family that is responsible for the likes of Guitar, Chord, Ease, and Submissive.

The next set of foals included a filly named Canyon, whose most notable contribution to SIM is being the maternal granddam of the recent superstar racehorse, Magician.

After that, SIM’s policy was back to one foal per year, and Ara decided to breed Rain Dancer to Symbol. The result was the great Conduit, who was undefeated in 17 lifetime starts (including one Grade 1 event on the turf), earned over $8 million, and was even more impressive at stud, with 25 offspring that have earned $1 million or more. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame and Ara summarizes, “I really feel he's just about the best sire, sire of sires, and damsire the SIM has ever seen.”

Next came Canoe, who only raced once and won, then was injured. He was bred to his relative, Kayak (daughter of Cascade), and the result was the great Jet Ski, who won the Triple Crown.

A subsequent full sister to Cascade was a filly named Champagne, which, after earning over a million on the track, was bred to Jet Ski to produce the brilliant Colorado.

Canute, a son of Battle Cry, who in turn is a son of Storm Bird (sire of Rain Dancer’s sire, Storm Cat) arrived next, and was yet another earner over a $1 million and a successful sire.

A couple of foals later, Rain Dancer produced Comet, by Satelite, which was an accomplished racehorse and sire in sprints.

Rain Dancer was bred one more time before the “old SIM” shut down. Though it seemed pointless, because it was believed the youngsters of that crop would never race, Ara bred Rain Dancer to Kingmambo, getting a filly she named Calais. When SIM eventually reopened years later, Calais proved to be an outstanding turf runner at many different distances. She earned a Simmy as European Champion Older Mare.

All told, Rain Dancer produced 16 foals, and half of them earned $1 million or more. She was named a Broodmare of the Year, and Ara concludes, “She has produced dirt routers, turf routers, dirt sprinters, and turf sprinters; her offspring have continued to produce all four of those preferences and most multisurface routers (dirt/turf) in the SIM trace back to her eventually.”

After all of that, there’s one more milestone that this remarkable mare is responsible for. Ara says, “The entire reason we have farm cemeteries was because of Rain Dancer. I was very upset at not having her show up on my pages anywhere so I spent months whining that I wanted a farm cemetery so I could go stare at her. It was only partially a joke. Em's dad finally made us cemeteries to make me happy, so those are entirely due to Rain Dancer.”

Rain Dancer’s legacy will continue to live on through her many, many, many descendants in SIM, and via the continuing love of her passionate owner.

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