With her front-running victory in yesterday's Darley Alcibiades-G1 for two-year-old fillies at Keeneland, Wickedly Perfect became not only a leader of her division, but also the initial Grade I winner for her sire, Congrats, whose first foals hit the track this year.
Unfortunately, it was discovered this morning that the powerful gray filly suffered a chip in her left knee during the race, and will be out for the rest of the year, after anticipated surgery by Dr. Larry Bramlage of Rood & Riddle on Monday, October 11th. The good news is that her prognosis for a return to competition is excellent, and her pedigree suggests that she could be even better at three.
Wickedly Perfect looked like she would have been dangerous in the Breeders' Cup Two-Year-Old Fillies' mile and a dixteenth distance over Churchill's dirt oval, and Congrats now looks like a real bargain at his current $4500 stud fee. The beautifully balanced son of A.P. Indy earned $998,960 during five seasons of racing, but didn't do his best running until the age of five, when he won his first graded stakes.
Congrats has already shown that he can get precocious high-class runners, with seven stakes horses from only 44 foals to race. Notably, five of those seven stakes performers are fillies, including Alcibiades third-place finisher Jordy Y, who had previously placed in the Grade III Arlington Lassie at a mile.
A full brother to Claiborne's successful young sire, Flatter, sire of Super Derby-G2 winner, Apart, out of the winning Mr. Prospector mare, Praise, Congrats excelled at middle distances up to a mile and an eighth, on both coasts, winning the Alysheba Stakes at Churchill, over Perfect Drift, and the San Pasqual Handicap-G2 at Santa Anita, both at eight and a half furlongs.
Assuming she recovers her form after a post-surgical layoff, Wickedly Perfect looks well-poised for success next year. Plucked out of the OBS April Two-Year-Old Sale earlier this year for $70,000, before her three-year-old half-sister, Ash Zee (by Exchange Rate) had earned black type by placing in the Indiana Oaks-G2, Wickedly Perfect "surged to the front" at first asking, capturing a five-furlong maiden special weight test at Hollywood Park in late June. Trainer Doug O'Neill thought the filly was good enough to go right into graded stakes company, and she proved him right by winning her next start, the Grade III Sorrento at Del Mar, at six and a half furlongs.
Wickedly Perfect subsequently placed in Del Mar's Darley Debutante-G1 at seven furlongs on Labor Day weekend, besting eventual Oak Leak-G1 winner Rigoletta. With her triumph in the Alcibiades, the Florida-bred filly ends her juvenile campaign with a record of three wins and one second in four starts, and earnings of $404,600.
Wickedly Perfect is inbred to Secretariat (4f x 4m x 5f) and to Northern Dancer (4f x 5m), and also has double crosses of both Neartic and Native Dancer in her fifth generation. She is bred along a similar nick (A.P. Indy with a son of Storm Cat) that produced multiple graded stakes winner, Eldaafer.
Interestingly, Wickedly Perfect's gray color has been carried through four generations in her female family, beginning with her fourth dam, Look Ma, by the gray Native Dancer. Her dam, Wickedly Wise, who never raced at two, is a daughter of Storm Cat's gray son, Tactical Cat.
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