THIRTEEN proved to be a lucky number for Proxy, a four-year-old Godolphin homebred, as he made his Grade 1 debut a winning one at Churchill Downs recently.

The son of Tapit (Pulpit) is already earmarked for a place on the Darley stallion roster, though that will be surely be in 2024. On what was his thirteenth career start he not only made his debut a winning one at the highest level, overhauling West Will Power in the shadow of the post to win the nine-furlong Clark Stakes, but he was also recording his first stakes win.

Twelve months earlier another four-year-old, Maxfield, gave Godolphin success in the same race, and he has just completed his first season at stud. Proxy has only finished out of the money twice in 13 career starts and has earned $971,220. He has six stakes-placed efforts, and was runner-up in both the Grade 2 New Orleans Classic Stakes and the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes.

Trainer Michael Stidham saddled Proxy for this race after a long break, his last start saw him finish a smart third behind Grade 1 winner Olympiad (who beat him in the New Orleans Classic) in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster, also at Churchill Downs, in July. A winner twice and runner-up once on all of his juvenile starts, as a three-year-old Proxy finished second in a pair of Kentucky Derby prep races, the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes behind Midnight Bourbon, and the Grade 2 Risen Star behind the Kentucky Derby winner, Mandaloun.

Proxy is out of the dual Grade 1 winner, Panty Raid, a daughter of Include (Broad Brush). She won half of her 10 starts, and as a three-year-old she captured the Grade 1 American Oaks on turf, the Grade 1 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes over the Keeneland all-weather, and the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes on dirt. With such diversity and class it is little wonder that she was purchased by John Ferguson on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed for $2.5 million at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton November Sale.

Proxy is the best of her four winners to date, though his half-sister Micheline (Bernardini), won the Grade 2 Hillsborough Stakes, set a new course record when winning the Dueling Grounds Oaks, and was runner-up in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.

Cheap purchase

I always enjoy highlighting mares who were purchased cheaply and went on to great achievements. Adventurous Di (Private Account) was already the dam of a stakes winner in Franc (Woodman), a listed winner in France, when she was sold, carrying Panty Raid, for only $17,000 at Keeneland. Panty Raid realised $110,000 as a yearling to Mike Ryan, and resold as a two-year-old for $275,000, and she was not the only additional stakes winner produced by Adventurous Di,

Four years after foaling Panty Raid, the mare produced her full-sister St John’s River (Include), and she won the Grade 2 Delaware Oaks and was denied a Grade 1 success by a neck in the Kentucky Oaks.

Tapit is never out of the headlines, and this year Flightline, La Troienne Stakes winner Pauline’s Pearl and Proxy, all members of the 2018 crop, have been his Grade 1 winners.

Proxy is also a notable winner for Tapit as he is the stallion’s 30th winner at Grade 1 level.