Sightseek
SireDistant View
GrandsireMr. Prospector
DamViviana
DamsireNureyev
SexFilly
Foaled1999
CountryUnited States
ColorChestnut
BreederJuddmonte Farms
OwnerJuddmonte Farms
TrainerRobert J. Frankel
Record20: 12-5-0
EarningsUS$2,445,216
Major wins
Raven Run Stakes (2002)
Top Flight Handicap (2002)
Beldame Handicap (2003, 2004)
Go For Wand Handicap (2003)
Humana Distaff Handicap (2003)
Ogden Phipps Handicap (2003, 2004)
Rampart Handicap (2004)
Ruffian Handicap (2004)

Sightseek (foaled 1999 in Kentucky) is a retired American Thoroughbred racehorse and current broodmare. She was bred and raced by Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms and was trained by Hall of Fame inductee Robert Frankel.

Background

Sightseek is a full-sister to Quest to Peak, who produced Special Duty, the 2009 European Champion Two-year-old Filly whose wins included the 2010 1000 Guineas Stakes in England and that race's counterpart in France, the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches. 2010, 2010. Their sire was Distant View, a product of Juddmonte's international breeding program. Distant View was a son of the very influential stallion Mr. Prospector, the Leading sire in North America in 1987 and 1988 plus the Leading broodmare sire in North America nine times.[1][2] Distant View's dam was Seven Springs who won the Prix Robert Papin and the Prix Morny in 1984.[3][4]

Sightseek's dam was Viviana, a winner of two Listed races. She was the daughter of Nureyev, the 1987 Leading sire in France and the 1997 Leading broodmare sire in Great Britain and Ireland.[5][6] Nureyev was the son of the legendary supersire Northern Dancer who the New York Times called "the dominant progenitor of his breed" as a sire of sires.[7] Viviana's dam was Nijinsky Star, an unraced daughter of the great Nijinsky, also a son of Northern Dancer. Nijinsky was the 1970 English Triple Crown winner and British Horse of the Year.[8] In addition, at stud he would become the 1986 Leading sire in Great Britain and Ireland and Leading broodmare sire in North America in 1993 and 1994.[9][2] Nijinsky Star's dam was Chris Evert who also won a Triple Crown. In 1974 she captured the American Triple Tiara of Thoroughbred Racing for fillies and was voted that year's American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly. In 1988 Chris Evert was inducted into the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame.[10][11]

Racing career

As a yearling in 2000, Sightseek was sent to her owner's stud farm in Ireland to begin her race conditioning. She showed such promise that the following year the decision was made to send her back to the United States. There, she would be turned over to Juddmonte's trainer Robert Frankel.

2002: three-year-old season

Sightseek made her racing debut at age three a winning one in a July 28, 2002 race for maidens at New York's Saratoga Race Course.[12][13] In all, Sightseek made five starts as a three-year-old, winning four of them and finishing second in the other. Her final two wins of 2002 came in the Grade 3 Raven Run Stakes at Kentucky's Keeneland Race Course after which she was taken back to New York where on November 29 she won the Grade 2 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct.[13]

2002: four-year-old season

Four-year-old Sightseek's 2003 campaign began at California's Santa Anita Park where she would finish second in three straight top level events for older female horses. Beginning in January, 2003 Sightseek ran second behind Affluent in the G1 Santa Monica Handicap then second to Got Koko in February's G2 La Cañada Stakes and in March she was again the runner-up, this time to Starrer in the G1 Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap. Sent to Churchill Downs, Sightseek's win in the Humana Distaff Handicap marked not only her first Grade 1 win, but the first of four straight Grade 1's with victories in the ensuing Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont Park, the Go For Wand Handicap at Saratoga and the Beldame Stakes back at Belmont Park.[13]

For her next start, and last of the year, Sightseek was taken back to Santa Anita Park for the October 25 running of the Breeders' Cup Distaff. Sent off as the heavy favorite by the betting public with odds at 1-2, Sightseek never fired and finished fourth to Jerry and Joan Amerman's Adoration.[14]

2002: five-year-old season

Sightseek's final year of racing in 2004 saw her add three more Grade 1 wins to her resumé. First though, she finished fourth in the January 25 Santa Monica Handicap, on the Santa Anita track where she had never gotten a win. Sent east to Florida's Gulfstream Park she won the Grade 2 Rampart Handicap. Back in New York state, for the second straight year Sightseek won Belmont Park's Ogden Phipps Handicap in which Azeri took the lead and led her by a head thru the half-mile pole when Sightseek pulled away.[15] Azeri would finish the race 11 3/4 lengths behind Sightseek.[16] In her next outing at Saratoga, Sightseek ran second to Azeri by 1 3/4 lengths in the Go For Wand Handicap.[17] Returning to Belmont Park, Sightseek captured the Grade 1 Ruffian Handicap by 11 1/4 lengths.[18] For the second year in a row, in what would be the final race of her career she won the October 9, 2004 Beldame Handicap. After the race, Robert Frankel called Sightseek the best filly he had ever trained.[13][19]

The 2004 Eclipse Award for American Champion Older Female Horse went to Azeri while the 2004 World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings rated the two fillies equal World Champions.[20]

Sightseek was retired to broodmare duty at Juddmonte Farms near Lexington, Kentucky.[12] Of her progeny, Raison d'Etat was her best runner, winning two of twelve starts and earning $134,035.

Pedigree

Pedigree of Sightseek, chestnut colt, March 28, 2015
Sire
Distant View		 Mr. Prospector Raise a Native Native Dancer
Raise You
Gold Digger Nashua
Sequence
Seven Springs Irish River Riverman
Irish Star
La Trinite Lyphard
Promessa
Dam
Viviana		 Nureyev Northern Dancer Nearctic
Natalma
Special Forli
Thong
Nijinsky Star Nijinsky Northern Dancer
Flaming Page
Chris Evert Swoon's Son
Miss Carmie (family: 23-b)

References

  1. ↑ "Historic Sires - Leading Sires of the U.S.A." Thoroughbred Heritage. 2021-06-14. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  2. 1 2 "Historic Sires - Leading Broodmare Sires of the U.S.A." Thoroughbred Heritage. 2021-06-14. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  3. ↑ "Prix Robert Papin". galopp-sieger.de. 2021-06-13. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
  4. ↑ "Prix Morny". galopp-sieger.de. 2021-06-13. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
  5. ↑ "Historic Sires - Leading Sires of France". Thoroughbred Heritage. 2021-06-14. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  6. ↑ "Historic Sires - Leading Broodmare Sires of Great Britain and Ireland". Thoroughbred Heritage. 2021-06-14. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  7. ↑ "Northern Dancer, One of Racing's Great Sires, Is Dead". New York Times. 1990-11-17. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  8. ↑ "Triple feat to Nijinsky". The Sydney Morning Herald. 14 September 1970. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  9. ↑ "Leading Sires of Great Britain and Ireland". Thoroughbred Heritage. 2021-06-14. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  10. ↑ "The Eclipse Awards". Thoroughbred Racing Associations of America, Inc. 2021-06-14. Archived from the original on 25 May 2012. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  11. ↑ "National Museum of Racing - Hall of Fame". Archived from the original on 2006-12-30. Retrieved 2006-11-25. Chris Evert at the United States' National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
  12. 1 2 "Sightseek (USA)". Juddmonte Farms Inc. 2021-06-11. Retrieved 2021-06-11.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "Sightseek". Equibase Co LLC. 2021-06-10. Retrieved 2021-06-10.
  14. ↑ "Event By Year". Breederscup.com. Retrieved 2012-06-02.
  15. ↑ "Sightseek Best In Phipps 'Cap". New York Post. 2004-06-20. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
  16. ↑ "Belmont Park - June 19, 2004 - Race 9". Equibase Co LLC. 2004-06-20. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
  17. ↑ "All A-Train From The Word 'Go'". 2004-08-02. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  18. ↑ "Sightseek Triumphs En Route To Breeders'". 2004-09-20. Retrieved 2021-06-10.
  19. ↑ "Sightseek Ends Stellar Career With An Easy Victory". New York Times, Section 8, page 11. 2004-10-10. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
  20. ↑ "IFHA 2004 World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings". STC Singapore Turf Club. 2005-01-17. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
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