Whitham Thoroughbreds

Denali Stud-consigned Walkathon (Twirling Candy) sold Tuesday at the first session of the Keeneland November sale to Emmanuel de Seroux for $1.5 million. Sold as a racing or broodmare prospect, the 5-year-old bay is a multiple graded winner who is out of GSW Walkabout (Stroll), a half-sister to GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner Fort Larned (E Dubai). Walkathon was bred by Whitham Thoroughbreds, who campaigned her third dam, two-time champion Bayakoa (Arg). De Seroux purchased Hip 101 for Japan's Grand Stud.

Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm was active, per usual, at the top of the market at Fasig-Tipton November Sunday evening, and Pope picked up right where she left off Monday across town at Keeneland. She went to $2.3 million to pick up 5-year-old racing or broodmare prospect Four Graces (Majesticperfection), a MGSW/GISP half-sister to MGSW young sire McCraken from a deep Whitham family. The near $500,000 earner was consigned by Denali Stud has hip 192.

Hall of Fame inductee Bayakoa (Arg) (Consultant's Bid) put Frank and Janis Whitham's racing program on the map when she won the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff in 1989 and again in 1990. Over two decades later, Bayakoa's great-granddaughter Walkathon (Twirling Candy) is carrying out her female family's accomplished legacy. Last weekend, the 3-year-old Whitham homebred trained by Ian Wilkes got her first graded stakes win in the GIII Regret S. Still a maiden after her first four starts, Walkathon switched to the turf this spring and reeled off consecutive scores...

Walkathon got the jump on odds-on McKulick and kept finding in the lane to make the grade and stay unbeaten on gras while becoming jockey Julien Leparoux's 1000th winner at Churchill Downs. Having finished second and fourth in her second and third starts, respectively, sprinting on the main track, Walkathon was runner-up in a rained-onto-Tapeta Gulfstream route Feb. 13. She resurfaced to graduate over the Keeneland turf Apr. 22, and was flattered when the next two finishers came back to earn their own diplomas. The Whitham homebred was coming off...

6th-Ellis, $50,220, Msw, 8-29, 3yo/up, 7f, 1:21.96, ft, 8 lengths. MILLIKEN (c, 3, Into Mischief--Ivory Empress {GSP, $189,402}, by Seeking the Gold), a half to 'TDN Rising Stars' McCraken (Ghostzapper), MGSW & GISP, $869,728; and Four Graces (Majesticperfection), MGSW, $261,246, got off to a belated but auspicious start to his own career here at 5-2 odds. Showing good tactical speed to draft behind the top flight while savig ground, the bay was guided through a wide-open rail around the bend and all of a sudden had the lead after a...

Hammered into heavy favoritism with a recency edge over the come-backing 'TDN Rising Star' Wicked Whisper (Liam's Map), Whitham Thoroughbreds's Four Graces proved the easy winner of Friday's GIII Beaumont S., stopping the clock in a stakes and track-record clocking of 1:24.90 for the extended seven-furlong distance. Ridden for speed by Julien Leparoux over a track that had been playing kindly to front-end types, the homebred half-sister to McCraken (Ghostzapper) set a pressured pace from last year's GI Frizette S. winner Wicked Whisper, as they whistled through an opening half-mile...

6th-Gulfstream, $43,000, Msw, 3-1, 3yo, f, 7f, 1:23.61, ft. FOUR GRACES (f, 3, Majesticperfection--Ivory Empress {GSP, $189,402}, by Seeking the Gold), a half to 'TDN Rising Star' and young sire McCraken (Ghostzapper), MGSW & GISP, $869,728, was let go at 7-1 for this first go for a trainer who is typically patient but can win with a talented firster on occasion--including McCraken and his and Four Graces's now 4-year-old half-sister With Dignity (Declaration of War), who was also named a 'Rising Star'. Away well and ridden for speed from her...

Airdrie Stud's MGSW McCraken (Ghostzapper) is represented by his first foals, including a filly out of maiden mare, Scatback (Scat Daddy), from the family of graded stakes winners Z Humor and Chip. Bred in partnership by Everything's Cricket Racing and Stonegate Stables, she was born at William and Carolyn Johnson's Stonegate Farm in Fort Edward, New York.  McCraken stands at Airdrie Stud for a fee of $10,000 stands and nurses. "This is a very pretty filly," said Stonegate's Bill Johnson. "She is well balanced, looks fast, and is a great...