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Your first Grade 1 winner will always be special, and Sacred Wish (USA) (Not This Time {USA}) was just that for Jake Ballis’s Black Type Thoroughbreds, Swinbank Stables LLC, and partners when taking out the G1 Matriarch Stakes in 2024. They will part with the exceptional mare, who has proven herself high class on dirt and turf, at Fasig-Tipton’s Night of the Stars on November 3.
A pedigree that speaks for itself
“Her pedigree speaks for itself,” said Ballis, when asked what makes 5-year-old Sacred Wish stand out from the crowd. “She’s by Not This Time, who is arguably one of, if not the hottest sires in the world right now, which is very appealing. The crazy thing about him is that he’s getting stakes winners on the dirt and the turf, over short and long courses.”
“She’s (Sacred Wish) by Not This Time, who is arguably one of, if not the hottest sires in the world right now, which is very appealing.” - Jake Ballis
Sacred Wish did just that; breaking her maiden over six furlongs on debut as a 3-year-old, she proved herself a force to be reckoned with over a mile course, as well as being Graded-placed out to nine furlongs.
Her family is just as good as her performance on the track, Ballis was keen to point out.
Sacred Wish | Image courtesy of Black Type Thoroughbreds
“Every female in the family is a producer,” he said. “You can go down her page and every female in that family produces black-type horses, so I expect nothing to change with her in that aspect. There’s three sires under her second dam.”
Sacred Wish is the first stakes winner for her dam Indian Wish (USA) (Indian Charlie {USA}), who is herself a half-sister to Grade II-winning stallion Mint Lane (USA), who is most well-known in Australia for his G1 Oakleigh Plate-winning son Queman.
“You can go down her (Sacred Wish's) page and every female in that family produces black-type horses, so I expect nothing to change with her in that aspect.” - Jake Ballis
Indian Wish's other half-sisters include the Grade I-placed Sister Girl Blues (USA) (Hold For Gold {USA}), one of three half-sisters to produce Graded winners, included the Grade I winners Bowies Hero (USA) (Artie Schiller {USA}) and Sharp Azteca (USA). Unraced third dam Scipio (USA) (Danzig {USA}) followed the theme, producing the nine-time winning Listed victress Secret Sip (USA) (Secret Hello {USA}). It is no stretch of the imagination to believe Sacred Wish will extend the page during her own career at stud.
“She’s a big, pretty mare, so physically, she is going to stand out, and by her pedigree, she is definitely going to stand out,” Ballis said.
Jake Ballis | Image courtesy of Black Type Thoroughbreds
A dual surface delight
That combination of performance on dirt and on turf is what Ballis considers to be the secret weapon to Sacred Wish when she enters the ring.
“There’s not many mares that can win a Grade I on the turf and come within a neck of winning a very prestigious Grade I on the dirt as well,” he said. “I really feel that’s going to make her stand out compared to a lot of other mares.
“Winning on dirt and turf should appeal to a very wide audience, not just to the Americans or the Europeans. She won going six furlongs on the dirt, and was a neck away from winning a Graded race when going a mile and an eighth on the dirt, so she could carry her speed.”
“She (Sacred Wish) won going six furlongs on the dirt, and was a neck away from winning a Graded race when going a mile and an eighth on the dirt.” - Jake Ballis
He added, “another thing about her is that she ran 22 times, she was very, very sound. Nowadays, people are worried about some stallions being fragile, and the good news is, she never missed a day of training.”
Sacred Wish raced 10 times as a 3-year-old, where she added four placings at Grade level to her two wins, and backed those performances up with seven starts the following year, where she never finished further back than fourth.
The Matriarch was the highlight of a fantastic year of racing where she amassed over $600,000 ($910,000) in prizemoney. By the end of her career, Sacred Wish’s prize pool had crossed into seven figures.
“When she won the Matriarch, that was our partnership’s first Grade I victory,” Ballis said. “That made it all the more special for us. She beat Ag Bullet and Gina Romantica, who was already a Grade I winner before that.”
A close, but special, second
A win at the highest level is the pinnacle, but for Ballis, Sacred Wish’s second in the G1 Coaching Club American Oaks as a 3-year-old was a “close second” for his favourite of her runs.
“She was entered in a Listed stakes race the week before and my wife said, ‘we need to scratch there and enter the Coaching Club, I think she could win’,” Ballis said. “Everyone thought we were crazy. But we scratched her there and we came a neck away from winning the G1 Coaching Club, and we got beat by a very good horse in Wet Paint.
“Everyone thought we were crazy. But we scratched her (Sacred Wish from a Listed race) and we came a neck away from winning the G1 Coaching Club.” - Jake Ballis
“I was on a family vacation, sitting on an airplane watching that race on the tarmac, then my internet cut out and my trainer, George Weaver, called me and I had no idea if we won or not. It was at the eighth pole, she was in the lead, and I'm thinking, ‘we're about to win a Grade I’, and I couldn't watch the finish because of the service on the airplane. But that was pretty special how that happened. And even though we got beat, we knew then that we had a very, very nice horse.
“And before that race, George had worked her around the grass and he said to me, ‘wait ‘til I put her on the grass, she’s even better on the turf’. Even though we always really liked her on the dirt, he put her on the turf and he was right.”
“Before that race (the Coaching Club), George (Weaver) had worked her (Sacred Wish) around the grass and he said to me, ‘wait ‘til I put her on the grass, she’s even better on the turf’.” - Jake Ballis
“She kept running at the highest level in the country and took us everywhere, from Kentucky Downs, to Monmouth and California. She never missed a dance.”
Her last dance with her current ownership will be on the Night of the Stars, and Ballis believes the culmination of her qualities will be what makes her truly stand out from the crowd.
“They always had a very good group of mares, but I think she separates herself by being dual surface and performed at Grade I level in each, and there’s not many mares with those credentials,” he said.
“Fasig-Tipton do a great job on recruiting these high-end mares. They're great people to do business with, and we're friends with them. They hustled pretty hard to get her into the sale.
“And I just feel when you have one that stands out like this, you can just go look at the results every year and it seems that the very top of the horses are sold at Night of the Stars."
"So we're looking to go there and have fun and hopefully see some fireworks.”
