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In 2004, on a farm adjacent to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California’s Central Valley, a bay filly was born that would change everything for breeder Carol Anderson.
Not many women decide at age 60 to fulfill their dream of purchasing a ranch to launch a Thoroughbred operation, but when the perfect 16-acre parcel of land became available near Gilroy, Calif., Anderson, now 64, couldn’t resist.
The same year she acquired the ranch, Anderson’s mare Mistical Bel foaled a Game Plan filly that would later be named Mistical Plan.
After J. Paul Reddam offered her a price she couldn’t refuse, Anderson sold Mistical Plan privately as a yearling. She never guessed that three years later she would witness the filly capture the Princess Rooney Handicap (gr. I) at Calder Race Course in South Florida.
Watching from television on the opposite coast, Anderson was ecstatic as Mistical Plan drew away from the field to register a 53⁄4-length score. The win was especially sweet for Anderson because it was her first graded stakes victory as a breeder.
“We had never had a graded stakes winner ever,” said Anderson, as she relived her red-letter day. “It was very exciting because it put my mare (Mistical Bel) on the map.”
Even though Anderson is elated at how far Mistical Bel has come, it has also made her breeding decisions a lot less simple than they used to be.
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