Wilgerbosdrift’s very much inform sire Flower Alley, responsible for a pair of winners at both Vaal and Fairview on Thursday and Friday respectively, made headlines on Saturday when his maternal grandson My Prankster won the G3 Claiborne Farm Swale Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
Sent off second favourite for the Swale Stakes (1400m), the Todd Pletcher trained My Prankster fought on resolutely as favoured In Dreams gave way, with My Prankster going on to score by half a length.
Sired by multiple champion sire Into Mischief, My Prankster has now won three of just five starts.
A jaw-dropping, 10-length, 92 Beyer-earning debut graduate at Saratoga in August, My Prankster was a distant fourth behind impressive winner and fellow ‘Rising Star’ Jack Christopher in Belmont’s GI Champagne S. over a one-turn mile Oct. 2. He was a close second as the chalk in Keeneland’s sloppy six-furlong Bowman Mill S. 28 days later, and was 1-9 when annexing an optional claimer going a furlong shorter here Dec. 10.
My Prankster is out of Flower Alley’s high-class daughter My Wandy’s Girl-whose 15 wins from 25 starts included the G2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap of 2014.
Saturday’s Swale Stakes winner joins the likes of Japanese champion Lucky Lilac and G1 Shoemaker Mile hero Smooth Like Strait as top-class performers produced by daughters of Flower Alley.
The latter is having another fine season in 2021-2022, with Flower Alley’s flagbearers headed by such graded stakes winners as Bold Fortune and Firealley.