Grade I Winner Be Your Best Is Just Getting Better

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Mike Ryan celebrated a special victory when his star homebred Be Your Best got her first Grade I victory in the Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita. It looks like Be Your Best's dam Kamakura has a lot more in the pipeline.

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00:00Bloodstock agent Mike Ryan has picked out plenty of Grade 1 winners over the years,

00:06but he recently celebrated a particularly special victory when Be Your Best, a filly

00:11that he bred and now races, brought home the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes. Be Your Best dam,

00:16Kim Akura, has a promising group of progeny in the pipeline, including a potential ascot

00:21horse, and Ryan said that the goal for Be Your Best is to get back to the Breeders' Cup.

00:25I'm a huge believer in strong, powerful, deep female pedigrees. Hence, when Kamakura came

00:34up from Sheikh Mohammed's consignment, Medaglia Dora, of course, was doing very, very well

00:39here with Songbird and Rachel, so, you know, this was one of the greatest pedigrees of Mr.

00:44Farish's, up the flagpole, flagbird. It was not a real genius decision, but we were fortunate

00:54enough, my good friend Eamon Riley in the BB Ireland bought her for us and shipped her

00:58over here, and the rest is history. Two Kingmans, then we sent a Muhorar, and it was clear to

01:06me at the time, she was a lovely filly, thankfully she was a filly, he was underperforming. So

01:11I said, you know what, why don't we race this filly and see if we can help the family, bring

01:15her back to the American, see what we can do. Be Your Best, from an early stage, she showed

01:20great enthusiasm, athleticism. She won her first start very easily, first time out at

01:25Saratoga by four or five, and then she won the PG Johnson very nicely again at Saratoga.

01:31She's been a very sound filly, competitive at every year, two, three, four, and five. We

01:36finally understand now that she doesn't want anything but fast ground, fast, firm ground,

01:42and since Safi's had her, she's won four of six all stakes. Two grade threes, a grade two,

01:46and a grade one. But Be Your Best dominates the gamely, wins by three and a half.

01:52It doesn't get any better, you know, it's the pinnacle. Being a homebred and still having

01:57the mare and the family and the siblings, it was very sweet, extra special for sure.

02:03The plan is, she came out of the race very well, she's back at Saratoga, all being well

02:08if she stays healthy and Safi's happy with her. The plan is to run into Diana on July the

02:1312th. She'll have two races, hopefully, before the Breeders' Cup. It is very exciting to have

02:18a mare of this quality and to breed a filly like Be Your Best. Postmodern is her two-year-old colt

02:24that is in England. He's about too darn hot. We sold him at Tattersalls last year for 270,000

02:29guineas to Watson Unstable. He ran first time out in a strong maiden at Yarmouth, and he was very

02:37impressive. He won by five lengths. His intended next start is the Coventry Stakes at the Royal Ascot.

02:44We have a lovely yearling filly by Eid, who went back to Ireland to prep for the yearling sales

02:49over there. She's a big, strong, powerful filly. A lot of medagliadora in her. The mare has a Cody's

02:55Wish Foward brought her back, and she's carrying days to Nyquist, who we're huge fans of. She's on

03:02her way to making herself to be a blue hen, like her great-grandmother up the flagpole. It's a

03:06lot of fun. Believe me, we're enjoying the ride.

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