Clicquot Bubbles Up for Sire Quality Road
In 2025, it has seemed remarkably difficult for any 3-year-old filly to establish themselves as a clear leader of the division as far as competition on the main track is concerned. Indeed, so tangled are the form lines that the top spot may well belong to Nitrogen , a filly who has only made two of her 10 starts on the main track, and of those, one in an off-turf event, but who captured the Alabama Stakes (G1) on her latest outing.
Nitrogen wasn’t on hand for the most recent grade 1 event for sophomore fillies, the Cotillion Stakes (G1), but her three most obvious rivals for top spot were, the trio being the Alabama runner-up Good Cheer , heroine of the Kentucky Oaks (G1); Scottish Lassie , runaway 15 1/2-length victress in the Coaching Club American Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1) on her previous outing; and La Cara , winner this year of the Ashland Stakes (G1) and Acorn Stakes (G1).
Remarkably, however, given their credentials, none of those three were involved in the finish as Clicquot ran down Dry Powder to score by a neck, with longshot Ourdaydreaminggirl a head back in third, while Scottish Lassie, La Cara, and Good Cheer occupied fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively, ahead only of Indy Bay , who was eased.
The Cotillion was the first grade 1 test for Clicquot, who only made her black-type debut on her previous outing, the July 5 Indiana Oaks (G3), a race which she took by four lengths. Prior to that the gray/roan filly had only started three times, fading to finish off the board after pressing quick early fractions in a seven-furlong Gulfstream Park maiden special weight in March, a race for which she’d started favorite; winning a Keeneland maiden special weight over the same trip by six lengths; then adding an 1 1/16-mile Churchill Downs allowance optional claiming event.
Clicquot is from the eleventh crop of the veteran sire Quality Road . A son of Elusive Quality, Quality Road was an oft brilliant performer who set track records from 6 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/8 miles, his victories including the 2010 Woodward Stakes (G1), 2009 Florida Derby (G1), 2010 Metropolitan Handicap (G1), 2010 Donn Handicap (G1), 2009 Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2), and 2009 Amsterdam Stakes (G2).
Quality Road at Lane’s End Farm
To date, Quality Road has sired 93 stakes winners, 47 graded, including 2017 champion 3-year-old filly Abel Tasman ; 2017 champion 2-year-old filly Caledonia Road ; 2021 champion 2-year-old male Corniche ; 2024 champion older dirt male National Treasure , and 14 other grade 1 winners, among them City of Light , Bellafina , Dunbar Road , and Hope Road .
A half sister to stakes-placed Silver Ticket , Clicquot is out of Royal Obsession , a Tapit daughter who earned black type with a second in the 2016 Gazelle Stakes (G2). Royal Obsession sold three times for a seven-figure price tag. First, as a yearling for $1 million at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, and again for a year later as a 2-year-old she dropped the hammer for $1.15 million at the 2015 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Upon her retirement from racing in 2017, she commanded her highest price yet at the Keeneland November Sale when going to Don Alberto Corp. for $1.8 million.
Clicquot’s second dam, Rote, a daughter of Tiznow, was a winner over six furlongs. Rote is half sister to Magnificent Song, an Unbridled’s Song mare who gained a grade 1 success in the 2006 Garden City Stakes (G1T). She is also half sister to four other stakes-placed horses, to the dams of South African stakes winner Sing Out Loud and The Mindfulangel, 2009 champion 2-year-old filly in Venezuela, and to the granddam of United States stakes winner Here’s The Spider .
Royal Obsession in the ring at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale
The third dam, Song to Remember, is a Storm Cat half sister to Lech, successful in the 1991 Gallant Man Stakes (G3T) and Lexington Stakes (G3T), to the 1989 Miss Grillo Stakes (G3T) scorer Savina, and to stakes winner Crimson Guard. Song to Remember is out of the black-type-placed Wedding Reception, whose own dam, Prodana Neviesta, took the 1964 Diana Handicap and is half-sister to the good sire Mr. Leader, now most frequently seen in pedigrees, though his good daughter, Sweetest Chant, is the granddam of Distorted Humor.
The family arrived in the U.S. in the 1940s, with the importation by film mogul Louis B. Mayer of the English-bred mare Donatrice. She was unraced, but was extremely well-bred, as she was by Federico Tesio’s great runner, Donatello II, out of Tivoli II, successful in the 1929 Prix Maurice de Gheest and Prix d’Astarte while racing in France. Donatrice proved to be an excellent producer, her offspring including 1946 Arlington Classic victor The Dude; Biscayne, successful in the 1959 Dominion Day Handicap; and Bellesoeur, winner of the 1947 Spinaway and Astarita stakes.
It’s Bellesoeur that is the ancestress of Clicquot, who is one of 17 group or grade 1 winners to descend from that mare, others including the disqualified 2021 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Medina Spirit; Maria Waleska, who took the 1979 Italian Oaks (G1) and Gran Premio d’Italia (G1); 1978 Gold Cup (G1) scorer Hawaiian Sound; 2014 Two Thousand Guineas (G1) captor and now very successful sire Night of Thunder ; 1986 European champion 2-year-old filly and 1987 Irish One Thousand Guineas (G1) scorer Forest Flower; and other U.S. grade 1 winners Moment to Buy, Stuka, Warrior’s Reward , and Catch a Glimpse .
Clicquot is the only stakes winner from 15 starters by Quality Road out of mares by Tapit, although there are also two stakes winners from just nine starters by Quality Road out of mares by Tapit’s sire, Pulpit. Quality Road is also an extended version of the Mr. Prospector/Nijinsky II cross, where Pulpit’s dam, Preach, is by Mr. Prospector with a second dam by Nijinsky II, and the dam of Tapit is by a grandson of Mr. Prospector out of a mare by Nijinsky II.
It also may be important that Clicquot is from the Bruce Lowe No. 2 family, the only Thoroughbred line that represents the L4a mitochondrial haplotype, and there are five other individuals from that line in the first five generations of Clicquot’s pedigree, and there are also three crosses of Secretariat, a horse in whose pedigree this haplotype is particularly strongly represented. Prior to Clicquot, Quality Road has also been represented by grade 1 winner City of Light, graded winner Hill Road , and stakes winner Bye Bye Bobby out of mares from this haplotype.
