Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Wonder Gadot brings breeder back to the Canadian classics
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Breeder David Anderson had quite the year in 2017. A total of 23 horses bred by Anderson Farms started, and 18 made trips to the winner’s circle. Seven of those were stakes winners or stakes-placed, including two Grade 2 winners.
One of those Grade 2 winners was Wonder Gadot, who captured the Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes at Aqueduct last November. Most recently, Wonder Gadot ran a close second in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on May 4 at Churchill Downs, a race Anderson said was his biggest thrill as a breeder.
“To even have a filly in the race, let alone nearly winning it, was the most exciting day I’ve ever had in racing,” he said.
With the Kentucky Oaks out of the way, the Ontario-bred daughter of Medaglia d’Oro is now on the Queen’s Plate trail. She’ll make her next start in the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks on June 9 and will likely be the heavy favorite on the strength of her effort in the Kentucky Oaks.
“It’s awful exciting to have a filly in the Woodbine Oaks, let alone a contender,” Anderson said.
It’s taken a lot of patience for Anderson to get to back to this point. Anderson’s father, Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee Robert Anderson, was a prominent commercial breeder based in St. Thomas, Ontario, and bred 1992 Queen’s Plate winner Alydeed.
While watching his father breed Thoroughbreds, David Anderson got involved with breeding and racing Standardbreds and quickly found success. Anderson bred and raced champions such as Pampered Princess, Southwind Allaire, Cabrini Hanover, and The Pres.
“I grew up on the farm and was always around the Thoroughbreds,” Anderson said. “I went off to run my own business and then eventually got into Standardbreds. I was more or less running the whole Standardbred side of the farm, and my Dad continued to run the Thoroughbred side. We bred and raced many champions and had a really good run.”
When his father passed away from a heart attack in 2010, David Anderson decided he wanted to get back into the Thoroughbred business. He bought his sister, Jessica Buckley, president of Woodbine Mohawk Park, out of her share of the farm and sold off all of his father’s mares, with the exception of one.
“I sold all the Standardbreds and put everything I had back into Thoroughbreds,” he said. “We’ve built it from one up to 25, and that’s where I want to be. I came full circle back to my Thoroughbred roots, and this is where my real love lies.”
Among the mares that Anderson purchased as he built the farm back up was Wonder Gadot’s dam, Loving Vindication. Anderson bought Loving Vindication for $180,000 from the 2011 Keeneland January sale following a racing career that saw her win twice from 13 starts.
“I bought her off the track from Live Oak [Plantation], actually,” Anderson said. “She had a lot of ability. Her mother could run. I took a shot and bred her to Medaglia d’Oro and along came Wonder Gadot.”
Anderson said Wonder Gadot stood out among his group of foals in 2015.
“She was always a very big, strong filly,” he said. “She was an incredible bodied filly with great balance and great bone. She was always a farm favorite for sure.”
Wonder Gadot went to the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale and sold for $80,000 to Dr. Barry Eisaman of Eisaman Equine. She turned out to be a successful pinhook, as Eisaman sold Wonder Gadot for $325,000 to TM Investments at the 2017 OBS April 2-year-olds in training sale. She eventually made her way to trainer Mark Casse and owner Gary Barber to start her racing career.
“She had a couple of little issues here and there as a yearling which held back her price as a lot of those issues can do,” Anderson said. “It certainly didn’t slow her down on the racetrack, that’s for sure. Barry Eisaman bought her and made a very astute buy. He did very well with her, and I was very pleased for them.”
Anderson said it was apparent early on that Wonder Gadot had some ability, and she showed it in her career debut last August, winning the allowance prep for the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes as a maiden. She would go on to run third in the Natalma, but did record two graded stakes wins in the Grade 3 Mazarine and Grade 2 Demoiselle stakes. She also was a troubled sixth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
“Mark had said to me all along that this filly was pretty special,” Anderson said. “To be able to run as much as she’s run, and obviously she’s getting better and better. We maybe haven’t seen the best of her yet.”
Anderson will have a busy June, kicked off by Wonder Gadot’s start in the Woodbine Oaks. Sergei Prokofiev, an Ontario-bred Scat Daddy colt sold by Anderson for $1.1 million at last September’s Keeneland yearling sale, is unbeaten in two starts in Europe and is pointing to the Group 2 Coventry Stakes on June 19 at Royal Ascot.
Anderson will then return to Canada for Wonder Gadot’s Queen’s Plate run, and he is hopeful she can become the 36th filly to win the race.