FOUNDATION MARES

NO CLASS

No broodmare more belies her inappropriate name than No Class. Her name is the opposite of her claim to fame as there isn’t another mare in Canadian Thoroughbred racing history whose runners have earned more than $6 million.

No Class is the dam of Sovereign Award winners Sky Classic ($3,240,398), Regal Classic ($1,456,584), Grey Classic ($602,029), Classic Reign ($327,808) and Classy ‘N Smart ($303,222), whose daughter is Dance Smartly, the leading money-winning Thoroughbred in Canadian history and winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, an Eclipse Award winner, and Hall of Fame member.

Dance Smartly became as prolific a broodmare as her grandma; producing the 2000 and 2001 winners of the Queen’s Plate, Scatter The Gold and Dancethruthedawn. Her final foal, Always A Classic, with earnings of $373,000, was a Grade 1 Stakes winner in Kentucky.

As a runner she placed in the Princess Elizabeth and Yearling Sales Stakes. But her destiny was as a broodmare as she became the foundation mare of Ernie Samuel’s world renown breeding nursery. She was named Broodmare of the Year in 1985. No Class is by Nodouble – Classy Quillo, by Outing Class.

No Class, who died in 1993, produced four champions out of eight foals, including 1984 3-year-old filly Classy – n Smart, 1985 champion 2-year-old colt Grey Classic, 1987 2-year-old champion colt Regal Classic, and multiple champion and multimillionaire Sky Classic. Classy ‘N Smart later became 1991 broodmare of the year when her daughter Dance Smartly swept the Canadian Triple Crown.

LOUDRANGLE

The daughter of Quadrangle was one of a remarkable pair of yearlings bought as racing prospects for $20,000 each in 1975 by the late Ernie Samuel. The other yearling was No Class, who together with Loudrangle became the foundation of Sam-Son Farm’s extraordinary Thoroughbred operation.

Of the pair, Loudrangle was the racehorse. She won the 1976 Princess Elizabeth Stakes, the 1978 Mountain Laurel Stakes, and placed in four other stakes. She won nine times out of 22 starts and retired from racing with $105,804 in earnings.

Loudrangle’s first foal was Tiffany Tam, a stakes winner who earned $134,270. She later produced Ruling Angel who was Canada’s champion 2-year-old and horse of the year in 1986. Ruling Angel, by Vice Regent, won 10 stakes races and finished second in six more. As a juvenile, she won the Natalma Stakes (Can-III), Ontario Debutante Stakes, the Princess Elizabeth, the Nandi Stakes, and the Mazarine Stakes. She retired with $785,707 in earnings.

Loudrangle also produced 1988 champion 3-year-old filly Tilt My Halo, by Halo, and stakes winners Slew of Angels, Dancing with Wings, and No Louder.

Oleana

Rounding out the foundation mare trio is Oleana, a bay mare by Assagai born in 1970 who was purchased privately by Ernie Samuel prior to beginning her breeding career. She gave birth to her first foal, Forleana in 1975 who would eventually go on to produce multiple stakes winner Queen of Egypt.

Queen of Egypt was not only talented on the track winning multiple stakes, but was also a key piece in Sam-Son’s broodmare band, producing multiple graded stakes winner Quiet Cleo, and Sovereign Award winning graded stakes winner, Eye of the Sphynx.

Quiet Cleo earned her black type on the track, winning the La Prevoyante, and the Wonder Where Stakes in 1991, and retired with $517,467 in winnings before beginning her breeding career, where she foaled Sovereign Award winning, and multiple-graded stakes winner, Quiet Resolve. Earning an impressive $2,346,768 from an incredible career, Quiet Resolve’s graded stakes wins include The Atto Mile (G1), The King Edward (G2), The Hong Kong Jockey Club Stakes (G2), The Dixie Stakes (G2), The Connaught Cup (G3), and an impressive 2nd place finish in the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Turf. In 2000, Quiet Resolve received the Sovereign Award’s for Horse of the Year, and Champion Male Turf Horse, and in 2017 was inducted to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

Queen of Egypt’s other notable daughter, Eye of the Sphynx is the outcome of two classic Sam-Son Farm bloodlines meeting, with her sire being the great Smart Strike and connecting her lineage back to No Class, as well as the maternal Oleana line. She was one of the broodmare band’s all-stars, producing the 2009 Champion 3-yr old male, and Queen’s Plate winner Eye of the Leopard ($920,517), Hotep ($727,675), multiple graded stakes winner Deceptive Vision ($501,441), Fun In The Desert, and black-type stakes winner Desert Isle. On the track, Eye of the Sphynx earned a total of $688,340, and in 2004 took home the win in the Labatt Woodbine Oaks, as well as the Selene (G2). She was named Champion 3-yr old filly in 2004, and was recognized as Canada’s Outstanding Broodmare in 2014.

Sadly, Eye of the Sphynx passed away in 2018, but we are lucky to still have two of her daughters in the broodmare band to carry on this great family, Fun In The Desert (Distorted Humor x Eye of the Sphynx) dam of the 2019 Woodbine Oaks winner Desert Ride, as well as multiple graded stakes winner Deceptive Vision (A.P. Indy x Eye of the Sphynx).