Bloodlines Presented By Diamond B Farm’s Rowayton: The Unlikely Path Of Charmaine’s Mia

Charmaine’s Mia and Drayden Van Dyke are all alone at the wire in the Las Cienegas

Not many daughters of the little-recognized stallion Chati (by the Nearco stallion Amerigo) ever found themselves in the book of the great Irish-based stallion Sadler’s Wells (by Northern Dancer), who was the leading sire in England and Ireland for more than a generation.

I suspect the only daughter of Chati bred to the keystone of Coolmore was Gossiping, a foal of 1981 who is the fourth dam of Charmaine’s Mia, the winner of the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 9, when she ran the six furlongs in 1:07.81.

That swift time is listed as a new course record. While a sprint record might seem peculiar for a descendant of the great European classic sire, Gossiping was the third foal from the fine producer Minstinguette (Boldnesian) and was a year younger than her half-sister, European highweight sprinter Committed (Hagley).

A winner of 13 races from 22 starts, including a trio of Group 1 sprints in Europe, Committed was a racehorse of a very high order. Her half-sister was notably different, winning only a single race from 19 starts. Nonetheless, Gossiping was a half-sister to the great mare, and as Minstinguette produced two more stakes winners and a stakes-placed performer during her distinguished career as a broodmare, Gossiping was clearly a desirable broodmare.

She was, moreover, as big a success at stud as she had been disappointing on the racetrack. Gossiping’s second foal was Idle Talk (Assert), who ran third in the Oaks Trial in England; her fourth foal was Musicale (The Minstrel), who won six of eight starts, including a quartet of G3 stakes at two and three; and the mare’s sixth named foal was Grapevine (Sadler’s Wells), who finished second in the Cheshire Oaks.

Grapevine’s year-older full-sister was Wild Rumour, who was a winner from four starts. She produced Sadler’s Trick, a stakes-placed racer by champion Favorite Trick among her seven winners, and the second dam of Charmaine’s Mia was an unplaced daughter of Metropolitan Handicap winner Honour and Glory named Sadler’s Charm. This mare produced two winners from 10 foals, but one of those winners was the Bernstein mare Charming Vixen, who was successful in the 2011 Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Charmaine’s Mia is the first foal of Charming Vixen, and the 5-year-old has won five races from 26 starts, earning $232,976. Victory in the Las Cienegas made Charmaine’s Mia the 30th stakes winner and ninth graded winner for her sire, the War Front stallion The Factor.

Josh Stevens signed for Charming Vixen as a broodmare prospect at the 2014 Keeneland January sale on behalf of Gunpowder Farm (Tom Keithley and Erica deVinney).

Stevens said, “Charming Vixen was a solid prospect, and we gave $80,000 for her. I was working for Margaux at the time and signed it that way, as agent. The mare was a pretty mare, and when we bought Charming Vixen, the owners were hoping to reinvigorate [the Round Table-line stallion] K One King and also breed something that was commercially viable.”

Bred in Kentucky by Gunpowder Farm, Charmaine’s Mia had a rocky reception at sales. She was a $40,000 RNA as a weanling, then sold for $4,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September sale; that price placed the filly in the bottom decile among yearlings by her sire, whose 63 yearlings averaged $47,922 that year.

Clark Shepherd was a partner in the consigning agency, Allied Bloodstock, and he recalled the filly, saying, “When we presented her at the sales, she was kind of small, and The Factor wasn’t strong in the marketplace at that time. That combination, with a physical that wasn’t appealing to the market, put a formidable cap on the filly’s commercial place in the sale.”

Fortunately, racehorses aren’t the same as sales horses, and sometimes those who are not tall keep growing; some who are immature progress to strength; and some who are last at the sales are first at the finish. Stakes-placed in the Catch a Glimpse Stakes at two, Charmaine’s Mia has clearly left her sales appraisal far behind.

After purchasing Charming Vixen, Stevens left Margaux to become the racing manager for Gunpowder Farm and now is an independent bloodstock agent. He said, “Gunpowder Farms had a couple of really good years at the racetrack with horses like Divisidero and others, and this is the kind of racehorse that Gunpowder was trying to breed.”

Charming Vixen’s second foal is Boatloadofnerve (Magician), who is a winner from eight starts, and that now-4-year-old filly sold as a yearling for $1,100 at 2018 Keeneland September sale.

At the 2017 Keeneland November sale, Charming Vixen herself sold for $20,000 in foal to Hit it a Bomb. The buyer was KOID, and Charming Vixen produced a bay filly of 2018 in Korea that has since been named Charming Boom. The mare has been barren the last two years.

Charming Boom was unplaced in her first two starts, both late last year at two. Considering this family, however, progress at three would be a reasonable expectation.