Champion Caressing Bred to Fusaichi Pegasus; Back in Training

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Carl F. Pollard's Caressing, winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) her championship season, has been bred to 2000 Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winner Fusaichi Pegasus and pronounced in foal. The mating took place April 21 at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky., about two weeks after Caressing ran third in the Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn Park in her last start. She has been returned to trainer David Vance at Churchill Downs. According to Bill Landes, who manages Pollard's Hermitage Farm, no decision has been reached as to a possible next start for Caressing.

The return of a pregnant mare to training is rare, but not unheard of. Ten years ago, Warner L. Jones Jr., the late owner of Hermitage, returned his racemare Fit for a Queen to training after she had been bred. Fit for a Queen had run third in a Churchill Downs stakes May 1,1992, and was bred a short time later to Gulch.

Fit for a Queen started in four stakes while in foal, finishing first or second in all four. She closed out her career with a victory in the Budweiser Breeders' Cup Stakes (gr. II) at Turfway Park that September and produced a colt the following year. The colt, later gelded, raced seven years, winning 11 races and earning $93,633.

Fit for a Queen has produced eight registered foals, including the filly Kingsland, who was grade II stakes-placed in New York. She foaled a Red Ransom colt this year.

Four-year-old Caressing (Honour and Glory--Lovin Touch, by Majestic Prince), has won five of 15 starts and earned $900,910. Bred by Brereton C. Jones, she has captured a total of five stakes.

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