Mandy Pope

3rd-GP, $60k, Msw, 3yo, f, 6f, post time: 2:14 p.m. ET In the name of her Whisper Hill Farm, Mandy Pope went to $1.3 million for a son of Tapit out of MSW & GSP Danzatrice (Dunkirk) at the 2021 Keeneland September, and that looked like money well spent when Tapit Trice went on to a victory in the 2023 GI Toyota Blue Grass S. while placing in the GI Belmont S. and GI Travers S. Pope was so enamored of her purchase that she went back to the well...

Billed as a showdown between the top three finishers of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, Keeneland's opening day GI Central Bank Ashland S.--worth not just $600,000 in purse money but also GI Kentucky Oaks points on a 100-50-25-15-10 scale--instead featured the blossoming of Whisper Hill Farm's 'TDN Rising Star' Leslie's Rose (f, 3, Into Mischief--Wildwood Rose {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}), who left no doubt about the top filly on the day with a three-length tour de force. George Krikorian's Breeders' Cup winner and Eclipse champion Just F Y I...

2011's GI Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty (Medaglia d'Oro) died Monday at Gainesway Farm according to a release from the farm. The 16-year-old was a multiple Grade I winner throughout her career for Peachtree Stable and trainer Bob Baffert and ultimately captured the lilies before retiring in 2012 with earnings of over $1.7m and a final record of 12-5-2-3. A $130,000 OBS yearling, Plum Pretty would last secure a final bid of $4.2m from Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm at KEENOV in 2012.  She produced a total of 8 foals...

We have a new No. 1. Tarifa (Bernardini) beat a stellar field in the GII Rachel Alexandra S. at the Fair Grounds to soar up the list to the top spot. We've dropped Candied (Candy Ride {Arg}), who has only had two three furlongs works so far this year, raising the possibility that she won't be ready for the GI Kentucky Oaks. We've also dropped Alpine Princess (Classic Empire) after a disappointing fourth-place finish in the Rachel Alexandra and Life Talk (Gun Runner), who was a disappointing sixth in the...

The TDN's popular annual series 'Mating Plans, presented by Spendthrift,' continues today in a conversation with Whisper Hill Farm's Mandy Pope.   Shedaresthedevil, 7, Daredevil—Starship Warpspeed, by Congrats. To be bred to Into Mischief. When we planned Shedaresthedevil's first mating, we chose Gun Runner because we loved the physical match and we also liked the Storm Cat and A.P. Indy in her pedigree for him.   She foaled January 29th, and the filly is everything that we had hoped and dreamed she could be! She is a big, strong chestnut filly...

2nd-GP, $89K, Msw, 3yo, f, 7f, 12:38 p.m. ET. Whisper Hill homebred TAP MY BELLE (Tapit) makes her first start for trainer Ralph Nicks. The gray is out GI Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic heroine Unrivaled Belle (Unbridled's Song), who was bred and raced by Gary Seidler and Peter Vegso. Initially, she was purchased by Brushwood Stable for $2.8 million as the fourth highest price at the 2011 Keeneland November Sale. Five years later at the same auction, Whisper Hill made the mare the sales topper when Mandy Pope took her...

6th-Gulfstream, $72,000, Alw (NW1X)/Opt. Clm ($75,000), 1-11, 3yo, f, 7f, 1:23.36, gd, 1 length. LESLIE'S ROSE (f, 3, Into Mischief--Wildwood Rose {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}) earned 'TDN Rising Star' honors when she won by 9 1/4 lengths in her first start at Aqueduct Nov. 19. Through the ring as one of the top ten prices, the Keeneland September graduate made her 3-year-old debut with Lasix and was well-backed as the heavy 1-5 favorite here. The filly allowed Gun Song (Gun Runner) to take the lead from her up the backstretch....

6th-GP, $91k, AOC, 3yo, f, 7f, post time 2:39 p.m. ET LESLIE'S ROSE (Into Mischief) cost Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm $1.15 million at the 2022 Keeneland September yearling sale, and despite going off at a somewhat lukewarm 9-2 facing five others at Aqueduct Nov. 19, graduated by better than nine lengths over 6 1/2 furlongs en route to 'TDN Rising Star' honors. The St. Patrick's Day foal is out of a daughter of SW & MGSP Wildwood Flower (Langfuhr), the dam of GI Florida Derby-winning 'Rising Star' Materiality (Afleet...

by Jessica Martini & Stefanie Grimm LEXINGTON, KY - During a session dominated for much of the day by the short yearlings, the supplemented broodmare Sebago Lake (Tapit) jumped to the lead in the final hips when selling for $700,000 to Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm. Overall, through two days of the four-day auction, 430 head have grossed $31,596,700 for an average of $73,481 and a median of $30,500. With continued strength at the top of the market, the Book 1 average dipped just 3.39% from a year ago, but...

Fan favorite and beloved Bradley family member Groupie Doll won two Eclipse Awards, two Breeders' Cup races, four Grade Is, and nine graded stakes; she set two track records, including at Churchill Downs in the GI Humana Distaff; and she sold to Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm for $3.1 million. But it's not the accolades that mean the most to co-breeder, co-owner, and trainer Buff Bradley, he said. It was the special ride she gave the Bradley family during a difficult time. "Winning the Breeders' Cup was great and awesome...

Even a horse on the end of a chain can be a conveyance to horizons without end. At Keeneland last week, Mandy Pope's equine journey reached a fresh milestone: five seven-figure yearlings sold from Whisper Hill Farm in Book I. But the road remains the same as the one she stumbled across in a neighboring yard at four years of age. "We lived in a small farming town in North Carolina, outside of Raleigh," Pope recalls. "People there were still using horses to plow their fields. And there was this...

Seven new members were elected to the Jockey Club of America, which include Gary Fenton, Eric Gustavson, Bret Jones, Jane Lyon, Michael Mulvihill, David O'Rourke and Mandy Pope, the organization said in a release early Thursday morning. Fenton has been the managing partner of Little Red Feather Racing, a racing syndicate based in California, since 2005, and he is on the board of the Thoroughbred Owners of California and has been chairman since 2021. Over the last 17 years, Gustavson has overseen Spendthrift's growth as it acquired, raced and launched...