Meadow Star (May 19, 1988 – April 11, 2002) was an American

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...

Champion A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, an ...

racehorse Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

. She was described by Breeders' Cup Inc. as "one of the greatest 2-year-old fillies ever".

Foal A foal is an equine up to one year old; this term is used mainly for horses, but can be used for donkeys. More specific terms are colt for a male foal and filly for a female foal, and are used until the horse is three or four. When the foal i ...

ed in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, Meadow Star was bred by Jaime Carrion at his The Oaks farm in

Ocala Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida. Home to ...

. Sired by the American

Grade I In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

winner Meadowlake, and out of the

mare A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four ...

Inreality Star, she was sold at the 1989 Keeneland yearling sale for $90,000. Her buyer, prominent

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

investor

Carl Icahn Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American financier. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach. Icahn takes l ...

, handed her over to trainer

LeRoy Jolley LeRoy S. Jolley (January 14, 1938 – December 18, 2017) was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse trainer. The son of horse trainer Moody Jolley, LeRoy Jolley had been around horses all his life and at age nineteen received a New York State ...

for race conditioning.

Racing career

1990: Two-year-old season

Meadow Star made a successful racing debut on June 13, 1990, winning an allowance race at New York's

Belmont Park Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse racing facility in the northeastern United States, located in Elmont, New York, just east of the New York City limits. It was opened on May 4, 1905. It is operated by the non-profit New York Racin ...

. She went on to win four straight graded stakes races. In her last outing before the

Breeders' Cup The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Grade I Thoroughbred horse races, operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982. From its inception in 1984 through 2006, it was a single-day event; starting in 2007, ...

, she won the

Frizette Stakes The Frizette Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race for two-year-old fillies raced annually at Belmont Park in October. It is currently a Grade I stakes race at a distance of one mile. The Frizette is the female counterpart of the Champag ...

by fourteen lengths. Shortly thereafter, Icahn announced that he would donate all of Meadow Star's future earnings to the

Children's Rescue Fund Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American financier. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach. Icahn takes l ...

, a charity he had founded to help homeless children. Ridden by José A. Santos, Meadow Star was the overwhelming

betting Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three eleme ...

favorite for the 1990

Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies The Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies is a -mile thoroughbred horse race on dirt (although the distance has varied, depending on the configuration of the host track) for two-year-old fillies run annually since 1984 at a different racetrack in the Uni ...

. Bet down to 1:5 odds, she was the heaviest favorite in the history of the

Breeders Cup The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Grade I Thoroughbred horse races, operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982. From its inception in 1984 through 2006, it was a single-day event; starting in 2007, i ...

races.

Lite Light Lite Light (February 2, 1988 – May 5, 2007) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. Background A daughter of Majestic Light, Lite Light counts Nearco and Princequillo among her ancestors. She was owned by Jack L. Finley at age two and into th ...

, owned by

Rap music Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

star

MC Hammer Stanley Kirk Burrell (born March 30, 1962), better known by his stage name MC Hammer (or simply Hammer), is an American rapper, dancer, record producer and entrepreneur. He is known for hit songs such as "U Can't Touch This", "2 Legit 2 Quit" ...

, was a distant second choice at 9:1. Meadow Star did not disappoint her supporters, winning by five lengths over runner-up Private Treasure. She defeated the future Hall of Fame filly

Dance Smartly Dance Smartly (1988–2007) was a Champion Thoroughbred racemare who went undefeated in 1991 while winning the Canadian Triple Crown and becoming the first horse bred in Canada to ever win a Breeders' Cup race. She was inducted into both the Can ...

, who finished third, as well as future two-time

American Champion Female Turf Horse The American Champion Female Turf Horse award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor. It is part of the Eclipse Awards program and is awarded annually to a female horse (filly or mare) for her performance on grass race courses. Until 1978 t ...

and Hall of Fame inductee

Flawlessly Flawlessly (1988–2002) was an American Thoroughbred race horse bred by Harbor View Farm. She was a daughter of 1978 Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing champion Affirmed and La Confidence by Nijinsky II. At two, she trained under Dick Dutro ...

. Meadow Star's undefeated 1990 season made her the unanimous winner of the

Eclipse Award The Eclipse Award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th-century British racehorse and sire, Eclipse. An Eclipse Award Trophy is presented to the winner in each division that is made by a few small selected American ...

for

American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly The American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor awarded annually to a female horse in Thoroughbred flat racing. It became part of the Eclipse Awards program in 1971. The award originated in 1936 when both t ...

1991: Three-year-old season

As a three-year-old, Meadow Star won her first two races of 1991. Then, up against males for the first time, she finished a well-beaten fourth in the

Wood Memorial Stakes The Wood Memorial Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held annually in April at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, Queens, New York. It is run over a distance of 1 1/8 miles (9 furlongs) on dirt. The Wood Memori ...

. Following this loss, her handlers decided not to enter her in the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...

. After a two-month layoff, she came back to compete in the then-current version of New York's Triple Tiara series for fillies. She began with a six-length win in the

Acorn Stakes The Acorn Stakes is an American Grade I race at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York for three-year-old Thoroughbred fillies. It is raced on dirt over a distance of one mile with a current purse of $500,000. It is the first leg of the US Triple Tiara ...

, then ran in the 1⅛ mile

Mother Goose Stakes The Mother Goose Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old fillies held at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Raced on dirt in late June or early July, the race currently offers a purse of $300,000. Inaugurated in 1957 at a mi ...

. In this race, she faced

, whom she had easily beaten in the previous fall's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies but who at age three was a vastly improved filly. After the two ran head-to-head from the turn at the top of the homestretch, Meadow Star won by a "lip" in a photo finish that took the officials six minutes to adjudicate. The two fillies finished 15 ½ lengths in front of the rest of the field. A month later, they met again in the final leg of the Triple Tiara, the 1¼ mile

Coaching Club American Oaks The Coaching Club American Oaks is a race for thoroughbred three-year-old fillies and the second leg of the Triple Tiara of Thoroughbred Racing. Originally run at Belmont Park, the Grade I $500,000 stakes race was moved to Saratoga Race Course in 2 ...

. Once again they pulled away from the field, going head-to-head at the top of the stretch. But this time the extra ⅛ mile was too much for Meadow Star, while Lite Light put on a powerful drive and won by seven lengths in stakes record time. After her loss in the Coaching Club American Oaks, Meadow Star was rested until early September, but in her return finished fourth in the one mile

Maskette Stakes The Go For Wand Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race established in 1954 for fillies and mares age three and up. Raced in the fall, it is a Grade III race (Grade I before 2010) on dirt at a distance of one mile. Inaugurated in 1954 at ...

. She did not race again until April 24, 1992, and after a season that saw her go winless in five starts with two third-place finishes her best showings, she was retired to

broodmare A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four ...

service at Trackside Farm near

Versailles, Kentucky Versailles () is a home rule-class city in Woodford County, Kentucky, United States. It lies by road west of Lexington and is part of the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. Versailles has a population of 9,316 according to 2017 cen ...

Retirement

As a broodmare, Meadow Star produced three foals from Deputy Minister and one each from

Gulch In xeric lands, a gulch is a deep V-shaped valley formed by erosion. It may contain a small stream or dry creek bed and is usually larger in size than a gully. Sudden intense rainfall upstream may produce flash floods in the bed of the gulch. I ...

, Danzig and

A.P. Indy A.P. Indy (March 31, 1989 – February 21, 2020) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the Belmont Stakes and Breeders' Cup Classic on his way to American Horse of the Year honors in 1992. His time in the Belmont Stakes tied Easy Goer for ...

. Through her stakes-placed daughter Grechelle, Meadow Star is the third dam of champion

Arrogate Arrogate (April 11, 2013June 2, 2020) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2016 Travers Stakes in a track record time in his first graded stakes race, stakes appearance. He then won the Breeders' Cup Classic and was named the Ameri ...

. On April 11, 2002, she suffered complications giving birth to a foal by

Fusaichi Pegasus Fusaichi Pegasus (; foaled April 12, 1997) is a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2000 Kentucky Derby, and subsequently set a record at auction - selling for US$70M to Coolmore Stud. Background The colt was purchased as a y ...

and died at the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute equine hospital. She is buried at Trackside Farm.

Pedigree

Meadow Star is inbred 4x3 to Native Dancer, meaning Native Dancer appears once in the fourth generation and once in the third generation of her pedigree.

References

{{reflist
Meadow Star's pedigree and partial racing stats
1988 racehorse births 2002 racehorse deaths Racehorses bred in Florida Racehorses trained in the United States Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winners Eclipse Award winners Thoroughbred family 16-g