By Elaine Belval
Last month, Retama Park had two juvenile stakes races at one mile on the turf: the El Joven S. for colts and the La Senorita S. for fillies. Both races were won by offspring of Kitten’s Joy — Admiral Kitten and Kitten’s Dumplings — owned and bred by Ken and Sarah Ramsey, trained by Michael Maker, and riden by Victor Lebron.
Well, if this sounds familiar, it should. In 2007, two offspring (Kera’s Kitten and Lisa’s Kitten) from Kitten’s Joy’s first crop won these same races, once again for owner/breeder Ken and Sarah Ramsey. And in 2009, Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Sisterhood won the La Senorita S.
Quite frankly, at this point, Retama Park should consider renaming the races the Kitten’s Joy Stakes and/or the Ken and Sarah Ramsey Stakes.
There are a couple of other interesting points about these two SWs. Both SWs are out of daughters of Grand Slam; Admiral Kitten is out of the winner Reachinforthestars and Kitten’s Dumplings is out of the winner Granny Franny. Daughters of Grand Slam have produced 10 SWs, including G1 winner Malibu Prayer.
Also, both SWs are closely inbred. Admiral Kitten is inbred 4 x 4 to Roberto — seven of Kitten’s Joy’s 25 SWs are inbred to Roberto, including G1 winner Stephanie’s Kitten and GSWs Holiday for Kitten and Big Blue Kitten. Kitten’s Dumplings is inbred 3 x 3 to Sadler’s Wells — the first of Kitten’s Joy’s SWs with such inbreeding. Overall, fifteen SWs are inbred to Sadler’s Wells, including G1 winners Kamsin and Parish Hall.
Almost 50% of Kitten’s Joy’s SWs are two-year-old SWs (Kitten’s Joy won two of four starts at two himself), and 70% of his SWs are turf performers. The races at Retama are ready-made for the offspring of Kitten’s Joy and the Ramseys have used that to their advantage very successfully.
Kitten’s Joy stands at Ramsey Farm in Kentucky.