Pinnacle of Polk’s Career, Daddys Lil Darling, A ‘No-Brainer’

[Wandering Eyes]

She was a racing fan, making annual trips to the Bluegrass from her home in Michigan to watch the racing at Keeneland, until one day in 1997, at the suggestion of a friend, Nancy Polk turned her hobby into something much more. With the purchase of the historic 250-acre Normandy Farm, the final resting place of both Man o’ War’s sire and dam, Polk carved out a path for herself that would change the last 20 years of her life. She once said her aim was to be the caretaker of the farm, and to leave it better than she found it for the next person.

From the property, she set about becoming a commercial breeder, selling almost all of the yearlings she raised, but after her mare Miss Hot Salsa (Houston), who had produced the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Mongolian Saturday (Any Given Saturday), she decided to keep her last produce, a filly by Scat Daddy, who she would name Daddys Lil Darling, and race her.

Daddys Lil Darling went on to be the best horse she ever bred, and watching her race, said her longtime farm manager J.R. Sebastian, “was the most excitement she said she’d ever had.”

Sadly, Nancy Polk passed away just hours before the filly’s last race, but her pending sale Sunday, Nov. 4 at Fasig-Tipton’s Night of the Stars figures to provide a fitting exclamation point to Polk’s life and career.

There will be no shortage of superstar broodmare prospects going through the ring that night, but perhaps none more versatile or with a more compelling pedigree than Daddys Lil Darling.

For all of the superstar produce thrown by her sire, the late Scat Daddy, Daddys Lil Darling holds a particular distinction.

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“The most interesting aspect of Daddys Lil Darling’s race record is that she has won or placed in 11 graded stakes races, which is the highest number of any prodigy of Scat Daddy,” points out Fasig Tipton President Boyd Browning. “And we all know what a brilliant sire Scat Daddy is. But this is unique. Daddys Lil Darling is the one who’s done it on the racetrack at the greatest stakes level 11 times over a period of three years. It’s one of her greatest attributes and one of the greatest selling points that you can ever have.”

“Daddys Lil Darling is a no-brainer,” said her trainer, Ken McPeek. “She was good on the dirt and good on the turf and good at the highest levels. She was a Grade I horse on either surface and she’s by Scat Daddy. Who wouldn’t want a mare like that?”

From the moment the mating that produced Daddys Lil Darling was settled upon by Polk and her team, they had every right to have high expectations for the offspring. Miss Hot Salsa had already produced a Breeders’ Cup champion in Mongolian Saturday. The decision to send her to Scat Daddy was the final piece of the puzzle. The then 9-year-old sire was on his way to becoming a superstar and is, of course, the sire of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy).

Daddys Lil Darling broke her maiden by eight lengths in her second career start, going a mile at Ellis Park. McPeek had confidence in her, and he decided to run her right back in the GII Pocahontas on the dirt at Churchill, and she won by a half-length.

“After that Pocahontas win, her racing career just took off,” said Sebastian.

It did indeed. Her 3-year-old season included second-place finishes in both the GI Ashland S. and the GI Kentucky Oaks, where she was beaten by eventual 3-year-old filly champion Abel Tasman (Quality Road), the current favorite for the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs. Despite how well she was running on the dirt, McPeek decided to experiment and plotted out a turf campaign for her. It worked out to perfection as she picked up a Grade I win on the grass at Santa Anita in the American Oaks.

There was more to come. Pulling off the rare feat of winning a graded stakes race three straight years, she won the GIII Modesty H., a prep for the GI Beverly D. S. this year at Arlington.

“She’s got top-level racing ability,” said Michael Hernon of Gainesway, who will be selling the filly on behalf of the Polk family. “She combines excellent physical characteristics. She stands 16 hands. She’s correct. She’s an excellent mover. She’s balanced. She has the trait of having a top temperament, which has allowed her to have continued success at the highest level of racing as a two, three and four-year-old. She really is a very top-drawer product and she’s a treasure. Whoever gets her will be getting a mare of the highest caliber and potential.”

Daddys Lil Darling not only gave Nancy Polk, in her final years, the thrill of a lifetime, said Sebastian, but she represented the culmination of her work.

“She really loved the racing game,” Sebastian said. “And she bought a farm here in 1997 and it just took off. We changed a few things up on the breeding plan and started thinking about selling more horses, using better quality stallions and it just kind of took off for us. It was a good team.”

“She would come down from Michigan and go to Keeneland in the spring and fall. And a friend of hers was talking one day and she said, ‘Nancy, you ought to get in the horse business.’ And so she decided well, I might try that. So they started looking at farms and she ran into this one and just fell in love with it because it was old and historic and it kind of fit what she was looking for.”

After the Night of the Stars, the Normandy team expects that will be the verdict on Daddys Lil Darling’s prospects as a broodmare: she fits just what a lot of people are looking for.

 

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