Dam Golden Ballet Foaled 2007 Species Equus caballus Trainer William I. Mott Sex Stallion | Damsire Moscow Ballet Owner WinStar Farm Parents Distorted Humor Earnings 5.843 million USD | |
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Drosselmeyer (foaled April 1, 2007, in Kentucky) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the third leg of the 2010 U.S. Triple Crown series and the 2011 Breeders' Cup Classic.
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Background
Drosselmeyer was sired by multiple stakes winner Distorted Humor. His dam was Golden Ballet, a multiple Grade 1 winner and a California Champion 3-Year-Old Filly. Damsire Moscow Ballet was a son of 1971 English Triple Crown champion Nijinsky. Drosselmeyer was named for a character from The Nutcracker ballet. The colt was purchased at the 2008 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $600,000 by WinStar Farm LLC of Versailles, Kentucky, who entrusted his race conditioning to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.
Racing career
Drosselmeyer raced four times at age two, earning his first win on November 18 in his final start of 2009. In the important stakes races for three-year-olds leading up to the 2010 Kentucky Derby, the colt ran third in the Louisiana Derby. But his earnings from that, combined with those from his other three starts, were not sufficient to qualify for the Derby.
On May 8, Drosselmeyer finished second in the Dwyer Stakes, six lengths behind the winner, Fly Down. He then went off at odds of 13-1 in the third leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series, the Belmont Stakes. Ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, Drosselmeyer won the race, giving Smith his first win in the Belmont and trainer Bill Mott his first ever Triple Crown race win.
Drosselmeyer was unplaced in the Challenge and Skip Away Stakes after the Belmont, but he won the 2011 One Count Stakes on May 15, 2011.
On November 5, 2011, Drosselmeyer (again ridden by Mike Smith) won the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic, passing Game On Dude in the final strides of the race.