She Feels Pretty Gives Sire Karakontie Another Grade 1

Whether it was the addition of blinkers for the first time or the not unusual case of a filly making a dramatic improvement in the fall, the lightly raced She Feels Pretty made a remarkable step forward in the Oct. 12 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland. Rocketing away in the stretch, she hit the line six lengths clear, covering 1 1/8 miles on firm turf in 1:46.50, the fastest time for this event since Memories of Silver set the course record back in 1996. She Feels Pretty achieved a Beyer Speed Figure of 100, a major step up from her previous best of 90, and also earned a towering 121 Equibase Speed Figure, by some way the highest of 2024 by a 3-year-old filly. Although she'd clearly never produced a performance close to this level, She Feels Pretty has never appeared to be anything but highly talented. A neck winner over an obviously inadequate 5 1/2 furlongs in an Ellis Park maiden special weight last year, she took the Natalma Stakes (G1T) by 4 1/4 lengths on only her second outing. She ended the campaign with a third, beaten just a half-length by Hard to Justify and Porta Fortuna (IRE) in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T). The chestnut kicked off the 2024 campaign with a 5 3/4-length success in the Hilltop Stakes at Pimlico Race Course, then missed by just three-quarters of a length when third in the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T). She also came close in her only other start before the weekend, going down by a neck to Grayosh in the Lake Placid Stakes (G2T) at Saratoga Race Course. She Feels Pretty is from the fifth crop of her sire Karakontie (JPN). He is a son of the Irish-raced Storm Cat horse Bernstein, best known in the United States for the recently deceased dual champion turf female Tepin. (Her 2-year-old son Delacroix (IRE) took the Autumn Stakes (G3) Oct. 12 at Newmarket to follow this year's Prix de Royallieu (G1) heroine Grateful (IRE) as his dam's second group winner.) Bernstein was also the leading sire in Argentina twice. Winner of the 2013 Prix La Rochette (G3) and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere Grand Criterium (G1) at 2, and the 2014 Poule d'Essai des Poulains (G1) and Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) at 3, Karakontie would rank as his sire's best Northern Hemisphere-sired son. Other than the 90 foals in his first crop, Karakontie has never covered particularly big books of mares, and in that light, his 17 stakes winners represented from 214 starters (7.9% stakes winners) is quite creditable. In addition to She Feels Pretty, Karakontie's most notable offspring include the 2022 Del Mar Oaks (G1T) heroine, Spendarella, and other group or graded scorers Princess Grace, None Above the Law, Sole Volante, Sugoi, Kenzai Warrior, and Foreign Relations. She Feels Pretty is out of Summer Sweet, a winner twice on turf, and once in an off-turf event. Summer Sweet is a daughter of the remarkably prolific More Than Ready, who, from crops sired in North America and Australia, is represented by 230 stakes winners. He also is well on his way to proving an equally productive broodmare sire, with 183 stakes winners in that role, 24 of them group or grade 1. Summer Sweet is a half sister to a pair of turf stakes winners in Summer Breezing and Adirondack Summer, as well as to the 2014 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1) third Summer Solo, herself dam of Solo Album, winner of the 2023 Selene Stakes (G3) and this year's Trillium Stakes (G3), and the 2019 Tempted Stakes winner and Demoiselle Stakes (G2) second, Maedean. Summer Solo is out of stakes winner Summer Solstice, a listed winner and a half sister to Act One, winner of four group events, including the 2001 Criterium International (G1) and 2002 Prix Lupin (G1) and second in the 2002 Prix du Jockey Club (G1). Summer Solstice is also half sister to French classic-placed Gharir and to dam of group 1-placed Summer Symphony, the granddam of Lord Gold (BRZ), a graded stakes winner in Brazil. Out of black type-placed Summer Sonnet, Summer Solstice is closely related to 1996 Queen Cup scorer Ibuki Perceive—both are by Caerleon, and Ibuki Perceive is out of Noesis, the granddam of Summer Solstice. The dam of Noesis, the Mr. Prospector daughter Proskona, was a group winner in France and Italy, and was Italy's 1984 champion 3-year-old filly and champion sprinter. Proskona was out of the 1976 English One Thousand Guineas (G1) third Konafa. That one's dam, Royal Statute, was an E. P. Taylor-bred daughter of Northern Dancer, out of Queen's Statute, a mare imported to Canada by Taylor in 1956. The dam of six stakes winners, including dual Canadian champion Dance Act, a full brother to Royal Statute, Queen's Statute also became a remarkably impactful foundation mare, and looking at her descendants via Konafa alone, we find 74 individual stakes winners, 14 group or grade 1, including Mawj (IRE), successful in last year's Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup and English One Thousand Guineas; as well as Modern Games (IRE), victorious in five group or grade 1 events, including the 2022 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T); Hong Kong superstar Golden Sixty (AUS); and other standouts Hector Protector, Bosra Sham, and Ciro. She Feels Pretty and King Kontie are the two stakes winners from nine starters sired by Karakontie out of More Than Ready mares. The cross gives an interesting pattern with Karakontie's dam, being by a son of Halo out of a Woodman mare, a pattern that repeats itself in the pedigree of More Than Ready. She Feels Pretty also shows a remarkable presence of La Troienne via related strains. Her grandsire, Bernstein, goes tail female to Busanda; Woodman's dam is by Busanda's son Buckpasser, and he goes tail female to La Troienne via Striking, a close relative of Busanda; She Feels Pretty's broodmare sire, More Than Ready, also goes tail-female to La Troienne, and his fourth dam is 3x2 to that great matriarch; and for good measure, Caerleon, the sire of the second dam of She Feels Pretty, also goes tail female to La Troienne. It is also worth noting that Woodman, who is 4x4 in She Feels Pretty's pedigree, previously enjoyed considerable success with this family as classic-winning champions Hector Protector and Bosra Sham, and Ciro, a three-time group/grade 1 winner, are all by Woodman out of mares descending from Konafa.