Although March 29 was headlined by a pair of Kentucky Derby (G1) trials—the Florida Derby (G1) and Arkansas Derby (G1)—they were paralleled by two Kentucky Oaks (G1) trials at the same venues, the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) and Fantasy Stakes (G2). In a neat piece of symmetry, those two fillies' events went to the offspring of the first crop and last crop of a pair of stallions that stood alongside each other at the time these fillies were conceived.
Retiring to Spendthrift Farm for the 2021 breeding season, the 5-year-old Vekoma began his stud career with a book of 222 mares, which resulted in 163 foals. In the same season, the 24-year-old veteran Malibu Moon was closing out a long and honorable stud career breeding 84 mares for a total of 49 foals.
The Gulfstream Park Oaks winner, Five G (Vekoma), initially found success on the turf. Beaten 22 lengths in a six-furlong dirt maiden race at Saratoga Race Course on her debut at 2, she switched to the grass to get off the mark in a 1 1/16-mile maiden during the Belmont at the Big A meet then ended her first campaign missing by just a half a length in the Tepin Stakes.
Given another shot on the dirt, Five G dominated the Cash Run Stakes at Gulfstream Park on New Year's Day, drawing off to score by nine lengths. She almost made it two in a row in the Honeybee Stakes (G3), going down by a length to Quietside (Malibu Moon) after making most of the running. In the Gulfstream Park Oaks, Five G was once again at the head of affairs from the start, but this time drew off to prevail by 2 1/4 lengths.
Five G is the ninth stakes winner to emerge so far from the first crop of Vekoma, and the fourth graded winner following last year's Iroquois Stakes (G3) victor Jonathan's Way, and the 2025 scorers Golden Vekoma (Saudi Derby, G3) and Vixen (Herecomesthebride Stakes, G3T).
Leading freshman sire of 2024 and current leading second-crop sire, Vekoma did retire with all the credentials for success. A son of Candy Ride —who is also responsible for the very successful sires Gun Runner and Twirling Candy —out the grade 1-winning Speightstown mare Mona de Momma, he won six of eight starts taking graded stakes at 2, 3, and 4. Successful in the 2018 Nashua Stakes (G3) at 2, he shaped as a classic candidate after taking the 2019 Blue Grass Stakes (G2) by 3 1/2 lengths, but his season ended after finishing 12th in the Kentucky Derby. When Vekoma returned at 4 it was as a sprinter/miler and he went 3-for-3 that term, including wins in the Carter Handicap (G1) and Metropolitan Handicap (G1).
Five G's dam, Triumphant, a daughter of Quality Road , failed to live up to her name, doing no better than a pair of seconds in seven starts prior to being sold to Five G's owner/breeder Gatsas Stables for $57,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. At the time she was carrying a Runhappy filly that has failed to win in three starts.
A half sister to the three-time black-type winner Lipstick City, Triumphant is out of the winning A.P. Indy mare Star Torina, a full sister to the 2008 Lane's End Stakes (G2) and Kent Stakes (G3T) captor, Adriano, and half sister to Gold d'Oro, who is the dam of 2018 Swale Stakes (G3) scorer Strike Power (a son of Vekoma's broodmare sire, Speightstown). Five G's third dam, Gold Canyon, was only a minor winner but was extremely well bred. By Mr. Prospector, she was out of the 1992 Santa Anita Oaks (G1) victress Golden Treat, herself a half sister to the 1987 Belmont Stakes (G1) hero Bet Twice.
Five G has an interesting pedigree pattern. As already mentioned, Vekoma's dam is by Speightstown, a Gone West/Storm Bird cross, and Five G's broodmare sire, Quality Road, is a Gone West/Nijinsky II cross, Nijinsky II being bred similarly to Storm Bird.
Quietside, who had defeated Five G in the Honeybee Stakes, followed up with a three-quarter-length tally in the Fantasy Stakes. The Honeybee was Quietside's first win since she took a maiden special weight at Saratoga on her debut last August. Between those two victories, Quietside had proved herself both classy and consistent with seconds in the Spinaway Stakes (G1), Golden Rod Stakes (G2), and Martha Washington Stakes, and a third in the Alcibiades Stakes (G1).
While Vekoma is a rising star at Spendthrift, Malibu Moon was a stalwart of the farm in the B. Wayne Hughes era, which now continues under the stewardship of Hughes' daughter and son-in-law, Tammy and Eric Gustavson. A son of A.P. Indy who won a maiden special weight at Hollywood Park on the second of two lifetime starts, both at 2, Malibu Moon retired to stud at Maryland's Country Life Farm in 2000, moved to Castleton Lyons in Kentucky in 2004, and then to Spendthrift Farm in 2008, standing there until his death from an apparent heart attack in May 2021.
From 22 Northern Hemisphere crops, Malibu Moon sired 139 stakes winners, 56 graded. Although considered something of a "filly sire" he was represented by a 2004 champion 2-year-old male in Declan's Moon and a 2013 Kentucky Derby winner in Orb, and his 17 grade 1 winners also include such well-known names as Devil May Care, Life At Ten, Ransom the Moon, Gormley, Moonshine Memories, Ask the Moon, and Come Dancing.
Quietside will now head to Kentucky for the Oaks, and she is somewhat following a route forged by her dam, Benner Island, who took second in the 2017 Honeybee Stakes, and fifth in the Fantasy Stakes, before capturing the seven-furlong Eight Belles Stakes (G2) on the Oaks undercard. Benner Island is a full sister to Victim of Love, whose quartet of black-type wins include two runnings of the Vagrancy Handicap (G3) 2020-21; and half sister to the 2018 Iowa Derby captor High North. The second dam, Spacy Tracy, won the 2010 Top Flight Handicap (G2). She is out of the winning Theatrical mare Tracy, a half sister to 1991 Santa Anita Derby (G1) scorer Dinard, and to Eliza, the champion 2-year-old filly of 1992 and subsequently the granddam of 2011 Florida Derby (G1) captor Dialed In (by Mineshaft , an A.P. Indy son bred on the same cross as Malibu Moon) and fourth dam of Elite Power , the champion sprinter of 2022 and 2023.
Although their sires were foaled nearly two decades apart, Five G and Quietside's pedigrees have some marked similarities. Both have Speightstown and A.P. Indy close up in their pedigrees within the same generation as each other—Quietside has these two sires in her second generation, while Five G has them in her third generation.
Also the granddam of Five G being similarly bred to Malibu Moon, and both go back to mares by Theatrical. In addition where we've noted the Mr. Prospector/Storm Bird and Mr. Prospector/Nijinsky II (bred rather like Storm Bird) in the center of the pedigree of Five G, in the center of the pedigree of Quietside we find a Mr. Prospector/Nijinsky II cross through Macoumba, the dam of Malibu Moon, and again through Speightstown, her maternal grandsire, Mr. Prospector/Storm Bird.
