Champion sire Fastnet Rock has had Group I winners all over the world, but achieved a new milestone for himself when his exciting two year-old filly Pizza Bianca captured the Group I Breeders’ Cup Turf Fillies (1m) at Del Mar on Friday.
A homebred for celebrity chef and horse breeder Bobby Flay, the Christophe Clement trained Pizza Bianca was an impressive debut winner at Saratoga and then finished second in the Group I Natalma Stakes at Woodbine.
Ridden patiently by Jose Ortiz, Pizza Bianca settled back in the field and found herself shuffled back to last when they turned for home, but she weaved a path through the field to challenge strongly at the finish and win by half a length in an eye-catching performance at just her third start.
“She looks like a three-year-old and trains like a three-year-old and she's top class,” said Clement, who was celebrating his very first Breeders’ Cup success.
Pizza Bianca is the first winner for White Hot, an unraced Galileo mare that was bought by Bobby Flay for 1,250,000gns as a yearling at the 2014 Tattersalls October sale.
White Hot might not have delivered on the racetrack, but her pedigree as a three-quarter sister to Group I Epsom Derby winner Pour Moi would suggest her offspring may well atone for that shortcoming.
“My favourite thing to do is go over the matings and breed,” said Bobby Flay in his post – race press conference
“You never know what you’re going to get. I bought the dam as a yearling, but she never ran.
“She has one of the best pedigrees in the studbook, so I knew I was going to keep her forever, because I always say that the blood shows up eventually.
“I just didn’t think it would show up in the first foal, but obviously she’s a really great filly.”
Bobby Flay has a filly bred to be as effective in Europe as she is in North America and that may be on the agenda on 2022.
“I’m a dreamer and these horses when they are really good can take you on great adventures all over the world, so maybe Ascot,” said Flay of future plans for his star filly.
Pizza Bianca is the 182nd stakes-winner for Fastnet Rock and is his 42nd Group I winner.
Pizza Bianca is bred on a wildly successful nick being the 24th stakes-winner and ninth Group I winner by Fastnet Rock from a daughter of Galileo, the nick running at 20.6% stakes-winners to runners!.
Fastnet Rock is finishing off his season at Coolmore Australia this spring at a fee of $165,000.
