Grade I Winner Turbulent Descent Retired

Turbulent Descent, a grade I winner at 2 through 4, has been retired from racing to become a broodmare at John Magnier and partners' Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky. Plans are to breed the 4-year-old daughter of Congrats out of the Forestry mare Roger's Sue to Ashford stallion Giant's Causeway .

Ashford General Manager Dermot Ryan described Turbulent Descent as "healthy and in fine shape."

Turbulent Descent scored her richest win in this year's Ballerina Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga Race Course for Magnier's wife, Susan, and Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith in her first start for them after being privately acquired in midyear.

Turbulent Descent had won six stakes for her former owners, a partnership that included Blinkers On Racing Stable. At 2 she captured the Hollywood Starlet Stakes (gr. I) and the Moccasin Stakes. As a 3-year-old she took the Test Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga, the Santa Anita Oaks (gr. I), and the Beaumont Stakes (gr. II). At 4 she triumphed in the Desert Stormer Handicap.

Turbulent Descent concluded her racing career with a seventh-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (gr. I) Nov. 2 at Santa Anita Park. Trained first by Mike Puype and then by Todd Pletcher, she exited racing with a record of 8-2-0 from 14 starts and earnings of $1,211,640. Her runner-up efforts came in 2011 in the Las Virgenes Stakes (gr. I) and the TVG Acorn Stakes (gr. I).

Bred in Florida by Ocala Stud, Turbulent Descent was consigned by her breeder as agent to the 2010 Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s April sale of 2-year-olds in training, where she was bought by Blinkers On for $160,000.

Roger's Sue is a half sister to two stakes-placed runners including graded stakes-placed Bonay. Turbulent Descent's second dam, Fabulous, is a half sister to French stakes winner Stunning and the dam of Giant's Causeway's grade I-winning daughter, Swift Temper.