$1.05M OBS 2YO Buy Dandona Prevails in Florida Oaks
Last year, no one could have foreseen Nitrogen (Medaglia d’Oro) would use the GIII Florida Oaks–a turf race for sophomore fillies that offers no GI Kentucky Oaks points–as an unlikely springboard to the 3-year-old filly championship. This year, it was Tagermeen Racing’s Dandona (f, 3, Tiz the Law–Tulsa Queen, by Cactus Ridge) who captured the 1 1/16-mile event at Tampa Bay Downs and, if her $1.05-million purchase price when bloodstock agent Mahmud Mouni picked her up from Raul Reyes’s Kings Equine consignment at the 2025 OBS Spring sale of 2-year-olds in training is any indication, expectations will be high for her, as well.
Squeezed just a bit at the start, Dandona raced unbothered and in the clear one from the back behind the :23.40 and :48.05 fractions set by a head-tossing 102-1 longshot in Bramble Blast (Summer Front). The frontrunner threw in the towel as favored Kokomotion (Quality Road)–an open-daylight debut winner over this course last month–took charge alongside recent allowance winner Laigina (Leinster) up front, but it was Dandona who caught the eye as she split horses with confidence on the turn with a sharp turn of foot. She tipped out several paths wide in the lane and powered down the stretch en route to a resounding decision, belied by the 1 1/4-length margin back to second choice Time to Dream (Not This Time), a ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’ who was making her first start since an off-the-board finish in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filles Turf. Kokomotion held third.
Under the tutelage of Saffie Joseph, Jr., Dandona broke her maiden at first asking Aug. 31 going a mile and 70 yards on the all-weather at Gulfstream, then went to the bench for five months before reemerging with a third in a 7 1/2-furlong optional allowance on Gulfstream’s lawn Feb. 7. The Florida Oaks marked just her third career start.
Pedigree Notes:
Coolmore America’s Ashford Stud is the home of Tiz the Law, who now has nine graded winners and 14 black-type winners in his two crops to race. The current leader of the third-crop sire list, Classic winner Tiz the Law is a four-time Grade I victor.
Spotted Pony Stables bred Dandona in Kentucky from the dual stakes-winning and graded-placed mare Tulsa Queen (Cactus Ridge), then sent her to the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sale, where she brought $70,000 from Laureles Racing six months before her seven-figure OBS pricetag. Dandona is the 11th stakes winner out of a daughter of the Hennessy stallion Cactus Ridge. Tulsa Queen has a 2-year-old Cyberknife filly named Lady Francis, who sold for $125,000 to First Finds as a Fasig-Tipton November weanling, and a Feb. 6-foaled colt by Pappacap.
DANDONA ($13.00) stalks and fires at the top of the stretch to win the $200,000 Florida Oaks (G3) @TampaBayDownsFL with Flavien Prat up for trainer @SaffieJosephJr and owner Tagermeen Racing. Another stakes winner by @CoolmoreAmerica stallion Tiz The Law. pic.twitter.com/Bv66BOYw4d
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) March 7, 2026
Saturday, Tampa Bay Downs
FLORIDA OAKS-GIII, $150,000, Tampa Bay Downs, 3-7, 3yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 1:44.71, gd.
1–DANDONA, 119, f, 3, by Tiz the Law
1st Dam: Tulsa Queen (SW & GSP-Can, SW-USA, $211,381), by Cactus Ridge
2nd Dam: Hot Touch, by Touch Gold
3rd Dam: Pure Red, by Thirty Six Red
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($70,000 Ylg ’24 FTKOCT; $1,050,000 2yo ’25 OBSAPR). O-Tagermeen Racing; B-Spotted Pony Stables LLC (KY); T-Saffie A. Joseph, Jr.; J-Flavien Prat. $90,000. Lifetime Record: 3-2-0-1, $121,000. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Time to Dream, 121, f, 3, Not This Time–Wild Silk, by Street Sense. ($750,000 Ylg ’24 FTSAUG). O-Repole Stable; B-Maggie Gieseke (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $30,000.
3–Kokomotion, 119, f, 3, Quality Road–Zee Drop, by Lemon Drop Kid. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($22,000 Ylg ’24 FTKOCT; $340,000 2yo ’25 OBSAPR). O-Icon Racing Stable; B-Gage Hill Stable II, LLC, W. S. Farish & Ken Langone (KY); T-D. Whitworth Beckman. $15,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, 2 1/4, 1HF. Odds: 5.50, 2.20, 1.80.
Also Ran: Laigina, Abigail, Bossy Candy, Special Wood (Fr), Alone Time, Backgammon, Bramble Blast, Courageous Diane.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.