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Goldikova following training, Freddie Head's yard, June 2009. Photo by Ian Tapp.

Today, Alain Wertheimer, one of Goldikova's owner-breeders, announced that the champion mare would remain in training for 2011 and attempt a fourth consecutive win in the Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. I). Click here to read more.

Alan Porter, advising the Wertheimers, recommended the Anabaa-Born Gold mating that produced Goldikova. Following Goldikova's first Breeders' Cup victory, Alan wrote:

"One the the most brilliant performances of the 2008 Breeders' Cup was that put up by Goldikova (Anabaa-Born Gold, by Blushing Groom), who sprinted away to take the Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. I) from last year's winner Kip Deville. This was the sixth win in nine starts for Goldikova, who had beaten Europe's best milers—including Breeders' Cup Classic runner-up Henrythenavigator—in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp (gr. I) on her previous start. Goldikova is by Danzig's very successful son Anabaa—a brilliant sprinter who has sired good winners over a wide range of distances—out of the Blushing Groom mare Born Gold. This makes her one of only three stakes winners bred on the Anabaa/Blushing Groom cross. Although the cross had not been a prolific one, it was noted when the mating was planned that the previous stakes winners on the cross—group I winner Rouvres and group winner Marshall—were out of mares by Groom Dancer, who is by Blushing Groom out of a Lyphard mare, as is Born Gold. The mating also gives a double of Riverman, something that appears in seven other Anabaa stakes winners, including French Derby (gr. I) winner Anabaa Blue. The well-bred Goldikova is half sister to two other stakes winners, including group winner Gold Round. Her dam, Born Gold, is a sister to the Coronation Stakes (gr. I) and Prix Marcel Boussac (gr. I) captress Gold Splash, and her granddam, Riviere d'Or, successful in the Prix Saint-Alary (gr. I), was by Lyphard out of Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (gr. I) heroine Gold River."

Filed under: Recent Winners, Racing and Training