The $300,000 G1 Frizette Stakes to be run this Saturday, will showcase six two-year old fillies over one mile on the dirt at Belmont Park, NY. It is an august race, named after an august mare, Frizette. The likes of Society Selection, Lassie Dear, Numbered Account, Personal Ensign and Indian Blessing have won the Frizette.
This year, the fillies seeking to join the pantheon of Frizette victors are: My Miss Aurelia, Stopshoppingmaria, Miss Netta, Holiday Soiree, Spare Change and Harbor Mist. Since the Frizette is a Breeders' Cup Challenge race, the winner will have an automatic berth in the BC Juvenile Filles.
The mare Frizette, through generations of daughters and their progeny, has a far reaching influence across the thoroughbred breed. The mating that produced Frizette was planned by William C. Whitney, however he passed away before the Hamburg-sired foal of Ondulee was born.
At a dispersal sale, the in-foal Ondulee was purchased by James R Keene for $14,000, a substantial sum in 1904. The foal, a filly named Frizette, raced well and was claimed twice ending up being owned by Herman B. Duryea; who sent her to his breeding farm in Normandy, France in 1908. There, she raced for Duryea until she was bred in 1909. Her final owner was eminent breeder Marcel Boussac, who successfully blended different lines of Frizette, producing the likes of Tourbillon.
Through Frizette's prepotent daughters and granddaughters, the important female lines of Banshee, Frizeur and Myrtlewood, Princess Palaltine, Durzetta, Ondulation and Frizelle still influence the modern thoroughbred. A cursory investigation of pedigrees finds significant sires Elusive Quality, Mr. Prospector, Darshaan, Tourbillon and the great Seattle Slew directly related to Frizette. Any mention of her descendants would be incomplete without including the exceptional race mares Dahlia and Vagrancy and the brilliant Ferdinand.
Winner's of the Frizette often carry its namesake's bloodline; none more so that Myrtle's Jet and Tudor Queen, direct descendants of the grand matriarch herself!
(Thanks to TB Heritage, Reines-de-Course, Pedigreequery and Equibase and Wikipedia for the excellent reference materials)