Silverbulletday

Silverbulletday (foaled 1996 in Kentucky) is an American Thoroughbred Champion Filly racehorse. Bred in Kentucky, she was sired by Silver Deputy and out of the GII winning mare Rokeby Rose. Her damsire was Tom Rolfe, the 1965 Preakness Stakes winner and that year's U.S. Champion 3-Yr-Old Colt. Her grandsire was Deputy Minister, the 1981 Canadian Horse of the Year and a very important North American sire.

1998 racing season

Purchased by Michael E. Pegram, who gave her to trainer Bob Baffert for conditioning, Silverbulletday began her racing career at age two with an impressive 11-length win. In her second start she was flown east to step up to graded stakes company and won the grade two Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs in June at six furlongs under jockey Gary Stevens. In late July, Stevens again guided Silverbulletday to a win in the grade three, six and one half furlong Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar. After three straight wins, Baffert and Pegram mapped out a strategy attempting to win the division by moving her tack for the rest of the year to Churhill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. There she reeled off another three straight wins to finish her season undefeated.

In early October she won the grade two Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland Race Course at a mile and one sixteenth. Then she clinched the division title with a win in the fall's grade one Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies held at Churchill that year. In that race she beat a very strong field of ten including stakes winners Excellent Meeting and Three Ring who finished second and third behind her. If that weren't enough Baffert wheeled her back in three weeks to capture the grade three Golden Rod Stakes at a mile and one sixteenth at Churchill.

Silverbulletday's performances in 1998 earned her United States Champion 2-Yr-Old Filly honors.

1999 racing season

In 1999, Silverbulletday picked up where she left off the previous fall, winning five straight races in dominant fashion, including such prestigious stakes as the Ashland Stakes, Kentucky Oaks, and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. The Black-Eyed Susan is called by many as the defacto second jewel of the filly triple crown and is run at a mile and one eighth at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. In that race held on May 14, 1999 she faced a field of stakes winners and beat them handily including Dreams Gallore and Vee Vee Star who finished in second and third respectively.

Later that year Silverbulletday was entered in the third of the American Classic Races, the Belmont Stakes, she held the lead through more than three-quarters of the race but the 1½ mile test proved to long for her and she finished seventh to winner Lemon Drop Kid.

Silverbulletday came back to win over fillies in the Monmouth Oaks at Monmouth Park. At Saratoga Race Course, she demolished the competition in the 1¼-mile Alabama Stakes, running away to win by nine lengths. She next won another Grade I event, the Gazelle Handicap, then ran second in the Beldame Stakes to Beautiful Pleasure. The heavy parimutuel betting favorite for the 1999 Breeders' Cup Distaff, Silverbulletday was in contention until the stretch drive but then faded and finished sixth to winner Beautiful Pleasure.

Silverbulletday's performances in 1999 earned her United States Champion 3-Yr-Old Filly honors.

In 2000, Silverbulletday returned to the track. Her best results were a win in the Doubledogdare Stakes at Keeneland Race Course and second place finishes in the Grade II Fleur de Lis and Molly Pitcher Handicaps.

Retired to broodmare duty, having won fifteen races and banked more than $3 million, Silverbulletday has produced foals by prominent sires such as A.P. Indy and Storm Cat, but none to date have found significant racing success.

Silverbulletday was a 2007 finalist on the balloting for induction in the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame. In 2009, she was inducted.

References

• Silverbulletday's pedigree and partial racing stats
• Video at YouTube of Silverbulletday's win in the 1999 Kentucky Oaks