Hall of Fame - One For The Ages

Original article written by John Hannibal Smith posted 15 years 0 weeks ago

What’s In A Name?

Ten years and ten foals after her death, One For The Ages remains among the most accomplished, unique, and influential forces to impact the racing world as we have come to know it.

It is at times difficult to conceive how the same mare that nearly twenty seasons ago was preparing for a juvenile campaign that would earn her a divisional championship could still be seen in the shadows of major contemporary races.

Perhaps you own part of the first two crops by $5,847,000 earner Don’t Mess. Perhaps you recently have had the misfortune of facing Don't Mess' three-year-old full-brother in the Louisville Derby, A. R. Roberts’ Same Old Plot. Perhaps you noticed that you entered the best juvenile in the barn in the same race that Stephen Skaggs’ Promise Not To Cry recently became a debut winner.

Fact is, you aren’t too young to know one of the truest foundation mares in racing.

Contemporary impact aside, the daughter of Event Of The Year out of Storm Song’s racing history is as unique as it is impressive. Bred and trained by Donna Houtens, the Hall of Fame inductee won her first six starts, including the Grade I Alcibiades, Grade II Golden Rod, and the Grade I Steward’s Cup Juvenile Filly en route to being crowned divisional champ.

Her sophomore season began with a surprise as she endured her first career defeat at the hands of a little known filly by the name of Cascade, a stakes winner in Canada whom had twice been defeated by One For The Ages in as many previous encounters.

Considered a legitimate upset at the time, the win by Cascade proved to be no fluke as the two met up a total of eight times during their respective careers, trading punches, as well as rounds, with most historians awarding a split decision when all was said and done. Cascade finished her career with over two million in earnings and produced the great Kayak, perhaps her finest accomplishment.

A lightly raced winner of several major Grade I races, earner of over a million dollars, and dam of multi-millionaire Journey, Kayak also produced eventual Horse of the Year and near seven million dollar earner, Ara Davies’ super-stud Jet Ski. Kayak’s half-sister, Traumatize, is responsible for contemporary stallion Kamikaze, a two-time champion and earner of over four million whose first crop is now finding the gate.

Those that have been critical of the competition surrounding One For The Ages, and the earlier generations in general, can put that argument back on the shelf.

Sandwiched between defeats to Cascade in the Grade I Louisville Oaks and the Grade I Alabama, One For The Ages registered a win in the Grade I Coaching Club American Oaks over multi-surface specialist Surely Special, earner of over two million and dam of champion older mare Sentimental Moment.

After falling to her rival Cascade once more in the Grade I Spinster Stakes, she returned in just one week to close out her sophomore season with a dominant win in the Serena’s Song Stakes at Inglewood Park.

Cascade again got the best of One For The Ages in the Grade II Santa Maria, her seasonal debut at age four, but after a subsequent third in the Grade I Santa Margarita, One For The Ages reeled off four wins in a row, including the Grade III Princess Rooney, the Grade II Chula Vista, and the Grade I Ruffian. Her final start, a swan song in the Steward’s Cup Distaff yielded only a fifth place finish, but it gave her one final decision over Cascade, who finished seventh.

One For The Ages retired with thirteen wins from twenty-one starts, as well as two second place finishes and five thirds, with earnings of $2,841,000. With science being slightly more advanced, yet less morally regulated in the earlier seasons of racing history, foals were instant yearlings and there was little to stop a mare from cranking out two babies by entirely different stallions.

She produced foals by Dubai Millenium and Charismatic immediately following her retirement, with only the foal sired by the latter stallion achieving more than minimal success. One For The Ages was sold by her original owner, trainer, and breeder, Donna Houtens, to prominent industry magnate Jess Paquette for the massive sum of ten million dollars shortly after foaling that initial duo.

Oddly, Paquette herself relinquished the mare shortly after foaling a colt by Battle Cry named One To Remember and a filly by Remarkable, an unforeseen legend, The Stare.

Robin Tan was the lucky recipient of what was quickly to become one of those most coveted broodmares not named Toussad.

Tan retained the mare until her death with neither incident, nor multiple foals in any one year, producing six foals over the next six years. The first foal bred by Tan, Onetomakembelieve, won six of eleven while earning $885,000, and ran with historical powerhouses such as Tot Ziens and Goliath in the Turf Paradise Derby, was second to Throne in the UAE Derby, and finished between Darkness Awaits and Chinese Bandit while finishing second in Stephen Foster.

Her sixth foal, Melancholy, was undefeated in four starts at age two and retired with nearly a million and a half in winnings. Once In A Lifetime, her seventh foal, won three of nine, with nine top-three finishes, and is the grand-dam of Chuck Wittingham’s six-year-old Change Your Life, winner of the Sun Devil Distaff both this year and last, as well as being named Islands Champion Older Mare.

Onetodefyallothers, foal number eight, made over $1,300,000 while winning the Grade I Swaps, Grade I Wood Memorial, Grade II Holy Bull, and Grade III Long Branch Breeder’s Cup Stakes, all as a three-year-old.

Onetoprovemwrong made just six starts, winning all three at age two before failing to win any of his three starts as a sophomore. He made an abrupt departure from racing, was gelded, and became a riding horse for several years before being returned to the track as a stable pony.

The final foal out of One For The Ages, Onetofightthemfor, never became more than an allowance winner with a few thirds and fourth place finishes in stakes company. She still resides at Rancho de las Estrellas with owner Leigh Ann Anderson and has seven foals on the ground, none of whom have distinguished themselves.

It is the second set of “twins” out of One For The Ages that ultimately have carried the champion mare’s legacy to present day recognition.

Jess Paquette’s ten million dollar investment seventeen years ago is still paying dividends for racing today. The colt, One To Remember, only won three races, but earned over a million dollars. A maiden win and a pair of allowance wins account for his lone conquests, but he made a career out of repeatedly grabbing minor checks in major races behind legends such as Gaze Unwavering, Conduit, and Charm’s Tribute.

The Stare, on the other hand, is the maternal legacy of One For The Ages.

By a largely unremarkable sire named Remarkable, The Stare paid homage to her mother by uncorking a perfect juvenile season, winning three, including the Lost Ecstacy and the Grade II Frizette. She ran just three times at age three, failing to win, but ran second in both the Grade I Inglewood Oaks and the Grade II Serena Sleet, and third in the Grade II Park Avenue.

She returned for a four-year-old season, winning twice from four starts, including the Serena Sleet Stakes, while placing in the Grade II California Cup Matron and the Grade III Flamingo Steward’s Cup Handicap.

The following year began her second career and the one for which she is most famous. The Stare is responsible for six foals in her brief stint as a broodmare, four starters, all of which were winners, including My Main Man, a Grade I winner with over a million in earnings.

Of the two foals that did not start, only one has herself had a starter, and what a story that is.

Our Love was never even shown the racetrack, sent to the shed as a two-year-old. Now ten-years-old, Our Love has had eight foals, six starters, all six winners, all six graded stakes winners, including three Grade I winners.

Our Love is the dam of Don’t Mess, her second foal, a colt by Giacomo that sold for $304,100 to Bob Oliva as a two-year-old in training. Don’t Mess was debut winner that had a hard time sealing the deal in three subsequent juvenile starts, but was toying with the likes of Hammer and Braveheart in the process.

The following year he was campaigned in earnest, loving the longer distances, finishing second in the Grade I Long Island Classic before winning the Canadian Derby by a dominant seven lengths.

Don’t Mess closed out the year by winning the Steward’s Cup Classic, defeating Dr. Richardson and Hammer, and then returned at age four to win both the Grade I Desert World Cup and the Grade I Gallant Socks. In all, he won seven of seventeen with fourteen exacta finishes, while earning nearly six million dollars.

The first crop by Don’t Mess is just now two-years-old, coinciding perfectly with the recent ascent to prominence by his full-brother, Same Old Plot. Like his older brother, Same Old Plot has found a new gear with added ground at age three, winning three of his last four races, a streak that was just recently interrupted by Buckingham in the Louisville Derby.

She hasn’t run in seventeen seasons. She hasn’t had a foal in ten seasons. Yet, every season it seems we are reminded of a mare that, without doing any one thing better than any other mare, has a perpetual presence on the largest stages in racing. She has withstood the test of time, endured growth that has relegated others to the obscurity of trivia.

She is, indeed, one for the ages.

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