Go For Wand

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Go For Wand

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Sire: Deputy Minister
Grandsire: Vice Regent
Dam: Obeah
Damsire: Cyane
Sex: Filly
Foaled: 1987
Country: USA
Colour: Bay
Breeder: Christiana Stable
Owner: Christiana Stable
Trainer: Billy Badgett
Record: 13: 10-2-0
Earnings: $1,373,338
Major Racing Wins & Honours & Awards
Major Racing Wins
Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (1989)
Alabama Stakes (1990)
Beldame Stakes (1990)
Mother Goose Stakes (1990)
Test Stakes (1990)
Racing Awards
U.S. Champion Older 2-Yr-Old Filly (1989)
U.S. Champion Older 3-Yr-Old Filly (1990)
Honours
United States Racing Hall of Fame (1996)
#72 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century
Go For Wand Handicap at Saratoga Race Course

Infobox last updated on: September 22, 2006.

Go For Wand (April 6, 1987-October 27, 1990) was a champion American thoroughbred racehorse.

Sired by Canadian Hall of Famer Deputy Minister, Go For Wand was foaled and raised at Claiborne Farm. She was a rising star of racehorses, particularly fillies. As a two-year-old, she had a record of three-for-four before winning the 1989 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Her performaces earned her the 1989 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Two-Year-Old Filly.

As a three-year-old she was seven-for-nine and voted the 1990 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Three-Year-Old Filly. In a highly anticipated match against the Argentinian mare Bayakoa, she broke down in the 1990 Breeders' Cup Distaff at the sixteenth pole, shattering her right ankle. She fell to the track and threw her jockey before rising to finish the race. Track personnel were able to get her back down and she was euthanized on the track. The next day, she was buried in the infield at Saratoga.

The tragedy unfolded on NBC on live television, and painfully reminded viewers of Ruffian, another promising filly whose life ended in tragedy on the track.

In 1992, the Maskette Stakes, a Grade 1 handicap race for fillies and mares, was renamed the "Go For Wand Handicap" in her memory.

She is listed as #72 by Blood Horse on their list of top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century and in 1996 was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

As part of the "Thoroughbred Legends" series, in 2000, author Bill Heller published a book about the filly titled "Go For Wand." - Eclipse Press (ISBN 1-58150-046-7)

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