By Patrycja Szpyra
It's not often a Grade I-winning mare recreates her success in her offspring, but seven years after her dam was prima ballerina at the Spa, Hope Road (Quality Road) sailed home convincingly in the GI Ballerina Stakes to take home her first elite level victory.
Hope Road was last seen May 26 running third in the GIII Winning Colors Stakes at Churchill Downs and before that hit the board against Grade I company for the first time May 3 in GI Derby City Distaff when fellow California girl MGISW Kopion (Omaha Beach) played the spoiler by three lengths. She started her 2025 season back in February running second to that rival in the GII Santa Monica Stakes at Santa Anita Park.
For a while, it looked like she might not even get into the gate, but the crew managed to convince Hope Road to load. Breaking well and tracking the early pacesetter initially from third but inching closer to Scylla (Tapit) on the turn as that one posted :22.31 and a half in :44.56, Hope Road loomed the danger entering the lane. Turning for home on even terms, the 2-1 favorite overhauled that longtime leader in midstretch and gamely kept going late to win. Majestic Oops (Majestic Harbor) closed well from midpack to claim third. The final time was 1:21.93.
With her victory here, Hope Road has earned an automatic berth to the Breeders' Cup in November for the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint in her own backyard.
“I'm so proud of that mare,” said trainer Bob Baffert. “She deserved a Grade I. Jose [Ortiz] rode her perfectly. He had here in a nice spot turning for home–I was hoping she was fit enough to go because training at Del Mar and training [here] is a little bit different, it's more taxing at Saratoga–but she ran her race.”
HOPE ROAD gets her first Grade 1 win in the @RWCatskills Ballerina Stakes with @jose93_ortiz aboard for trainer @BobBaffert. pic.twitter.com/C3ubfHsXWT
— NYRA (🎪) (@TheNYRA) August 23, 2025
“I'm so happy for the owners–I won that race with her mother [Marley's Freedom in 2018] and they really appreciate those big wins like that. It's pretty rare to do that. They're passionate owners and horse crazy and I wish I could have been there with them to watch them cheer for their horse.”
Regarding her pre-race antics where she gave the crew a hard time, Baffert said, “She's funny. Sometimes she won't even load into the horse trailer. She can be very headstrong.”
“I would like to say she's a lot like Marley [dam Marley's Freedom] but she isn't,” said Barbara Perry of Cicero Farms. “I was worried we were going to be scratched by the gate. She shows a lot of Quality Road, and I was seriously happy she didn't sit down like Quality Road did in the Breeders' Cup the year he had to run against Zenyatta.”
Pedigree Notes:
The victress is out of the aforementioned 2018 Ballerina winner Marley's Freedom (Blame), who hit the board at the highest level on two more occasions afterwards and collected three more graded wins before she retired in 2019. Hope Road is the first to the races for the mare, who has since produced an unraced 3-year-old filly named Freedom Song (Medaglia d'Oro) as well as a pair of colts–a yearling Uncle Mo and a 2025 Violence. She went to Not This Time for 2026.
This is the immediate female family of SW & MGSP Apple Charlotte (Smart Strike) as well as GISW Noble Bird (Birdstone) and GSP Dido (Bernstein).
Saturday, Saratoga
RESORTS WORLD CASINO BALLERINA S.-GI, $500,000, Saratoga, 8-23, 3yo/up, f/m, 7f, 1:21.93, ft.
1–HOPE ROAD, 122, f, 4, by Quality Road
1st Dam: Marley's Freedom (GISW, $1,233,935), by Blame
2nd Dam: Relaxing Green, by Formal Gold
3rd Dam: Charlotte Augusta, by Chief's Crown
1ST GRADE I WIN. ($575,000 RNA Ylg '22 FTSAUG). O/B-Cicero Farms LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-Jose L. Ortiz. $275,000. Lifetime Record: 12-5-4-1, $866,620. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Scylla, 122, m, 5, by Tapit
1st Dam: Close Hatches (Ch. Older Mare, MGISW, $2,707,300), by First Defence
2nd Dam: Rising Tornado, by Storm Cat
3rd Dam: Silver Star (GB), by Zafonic
'TDN Rising Star'. O/B-Juddmonte Farms Inc (KY); T-William I. Mott. $100,000.
3–Majestic Oops, 122, m, 5, by Majestic Harbor
1st Dam: Miss Oops, by Olmodavor
2nd Dam: Blue Begonia, by Seeking the Gold
3rd Dam: Icy Time, by Icecapade
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O-Medallion Racing, Evan Trommer, Agave Racing Stable, Sublime Stables and Janet Kropp; B-William Dory, Sandy Dory, Gary Kropp & Janet Kropp (CA); T-Dan Ward. $60,000.
Margins: 2, 4, 7 1/4. Odds: 2.05, 3.90, 13.30.
Also Ran: Brightwork, Halina's Forte, Claret Beret, My Mane Squeeze. Scratched: Mystic Lake, Zeitlos. Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
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