Manistique (horse)

Manistique
Sire	Unbridled
Grandsire	Fappiano
Dam	Astaire Step
Damsire	Nureyev
Sex	Mare
Foaled	1995
Country	United States
Colour	Dark Bay/Brown
Breeder	505 Farms
Owner	505 Farms
Trainer	John Shirreffs
Record	15: 11-1-1
Earnings	US$1,311,800
Major wins
Hollywood Oaks (1998) Bayakoa Handicap (1998, 1999) El Encino Stakes (1999) Lady's Secret Breeders' Cup Handicap (1999) La Cañada Stakes (1999) Vanity Invitational Handicap (1999) Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap (1999) Santa Maria Handicap (2000)
Horse (Equus ferus caballus)

Manistique (foaled 1995 in Kentucky) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred and raced by Marshall Naify's 505 Farms, she was an exceptionally large filly who stood close to seventeen hands. Manistique had eleven career wins, all of which came at racetracks in California. Thoroughbred Times reported that she was a "high-strung mare, whose excitability has been her undoing in three disappointing efforts out of state." [1] This problem would be evident when, after a brilliant 1999 campaign in California, she finished last in the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Gulfstream Park in Florida then returned to Hollywood Park where soon after she won her second straight Bayakoa Handicap by three lengths.

Conditioned for racing by John Shirreffs, Manistique debuted in 1998, winning her first three races at Hollywood Park Racetrack by a combined thirty-one lengths. She then was shipped to Saratoga Race Course in the New York state where her volatility caused her problems and she ran third to Banshee Breeze in the Alabama Stakes. In 1999, she won six important stakes including the Grade I Vanity Invitational and Santa Margarita Invitational Handicaps. In February of 2000, the then five-year-old Manistique earned her third Grade I victory in the Santa Maria Handicap while carrying a career-high 125 pounds. [2] It was to be her last race as she later injured herself during a workout and was retired.

As a broodmare

Owner Marshall Naify died on April 19, 2000 and his estate sold Manistique to Aaron and Marie Jones who sent her to serve as a broodmare at Taylor Made Farm near Nicholasville, Kentucky. Manistique suffered an "Early Fetal Loss" of her first foal as a result of the Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS) that plagued horse breeding farms in central Kentucky in 2001. [3] She produced her first live foal in 2003 by Forestry. [4] She has since foaled two by Storm Cat in 2004 and 2005. The latter, named Old Ninety Eight, is currently (2009) racing for Team Valor.[5]

References

• Manistique's pedigree and partial racing stats
• June 27, 1999 Los Angeles Times article on Manistique