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Listen Well: This Secretariat Mare Is Speaking Loudly!
Secretariat sired some top-notch racehorses – Horse of the Year Lady’s Secret and champion Risen Star are the best of his 62 stakes winners – but the Triple Crown winner will always be known for his prowess as a broodmare sire.
In fact, some of his daughters are legendary because of their sons. Key among them are the likes of Terlingua (dam of Storm Cat), Weekend Surprise (dam of A.P. Indy and Summer Squall), Secrettame (dam of Gone West), and Celtic Assembly (dam of star New Zealand sire Volksraad). There are others, of course, and also prolific producers with generations of stakes success, such as Cinegita and Lady Winborne – the list goes on and on.
One mare not typically mentioned among Secretariat’s most influential producing daughters – yet – is Listen Well. She is currently strengthening her reputation, nearly 40 years after her own birth on May 28, 1987. Two G1 stakes winners in 2026 are among those coming from her female line: Burnham Square and Listenupshance. More on them later.
A gray filly out of the stakes-winning Native Charger mare Margaret’s Number, Listen Well raced for her breeder, Bright View Farm. Her first three starts didn’t come until age four, when she ran third, second, and first in consecutive starts in May 1991. The victory came at Belmont Park on May 31, 1991 – she dominated the field of maidens by eight lengths. Listen Well was off for a few months after that, and she was done as a racehorse after two lackluster starts the following January. She was destined for something better.
First Foal a G1 Winner
Bred to the stallion Night Shift, the mare was sold at the 1992 Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale for $150,000. The foal she was carrying was multiple G1 winner Listening; Listen Well very quickly became one of 23 Secretariat mares to produce at least one G1 winner.
All 10 of her named foals were bred by the Whitham family. Listening was bred in the name of Frank Whitham, and after his death the rest were bred by his widow Janis Whitham. Nine made it to the races, and all nine raced in the Whitham colors for all or part of their racing careers. The earlier ones were trained by Ron McAnally; Ian Wilkes conditioned the later runners for the owner.
A gray like her mother, Listening won the G1 Hollywood Oaks and Milady Breeders’ Cup, the G2 Bayakoa and Princess, and the G3 Linda Vista. (The Bayakoa was named for the Argentine import who was a two-time American champion and future Hall of Famer for the Whithams.) Listening was certainly Listen Well’s most accomplished runner, but there’s precious little black type among her own offspring. The best of her female-line descendants to date looks to be her stakes-winning great-granddaughter Magical Lute.
Listen Well’s second foal was a sharp contrast to her first. The 1994 gray filly Listen Now, by Storm Bird, was unraced, and her female line has been very productive over the years. She herself produced multiple graded stakes winner Listen Here (a 1999 chestnut colt by Gulch who won the G2 Amsterdam and G3 Nashua), stakes winner Indy Bird, stakes-placed Parade the Flag, and graded stakes placed Listen.
Listen, a 2002 bay filly by Chester House, was third in the 1999 G3 Whimsical Stakes at Woodbine, beaten just over a length. As a broodmare, she produced G1 winner La Coronel, who won the G1 Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Keeneland in 2017 and three other graded stakes. By Colonel John, La Coronel is currently a stakes-producing broodmare in Japan.
Listen shines in 2026 as the second dam of Listenupshance, recent winner of the G1 Bing Crosby, a dirt sprint at Del Mar. The gelding’s dam is Listen’s winning daughter Listenupnow.
A Second Top Runner in 2026
Listen Well’s third foal, born in 1996, was the Sunny’s Halo filly Beautiful Noise, another gray. She excelled on the turf course, taking the G2 Santa Ana in 2001 and placing in a number of other graded stakes, including the G1 Gamely Breeders Cup.
Most of Beautiful Noise’s foals were male, but her daughter Linda was by far the best of them all. By Scat Daddy, Linda followed in the footsteps of her mother with sharp performances on the turf. The gray won the G2 Mrs. Revere and placed in several other graded stakes. It was Linda who produced Burnham Square in 2022. While it’s pretty common these days to have a top runner trace back to Secretariat, to have one with a Secretariat mare as close as the third dam is remarkable.
Burnham Square is a gelding by Liam’s Map (a half-brother to outstanding sire Not This Time; these two stallions’ own female line goes back to the Secretariat stakes winner Tweak). He has now joined an exclusive club of horses that have won G1 races on both dirt and turf. Burnham Square won the G1 Blue Grass last year and was a respectable sixth in the Kentucky Derby. This year, he’s won four straight stakes on the turf, including the recent G1 Arlington Million at Colonial Downs. Trainer Wilkes has him primed for the G2 Kentucky Turf Cup Invitational at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 5. Burnham Square is already familiar with the Kentucky Downs grass; he was second by head in the G3 Nashville Derby a year ago in his turf course debut. The gelding has raced exclusively on the grass since then.
Those first three daughters of Listen Well have been the most impactful, but the mare did produce seven more named foals, six of them winners. The best of those as runners was the 2000 filly Solar Echo, by Spinning World, a winner who was second in the G1 Del Mar Oaks and G1 Gamely Breeders’ Cup H. There’s nothing notable so far among her female-line descendants.
One other daughter produced a stakes winner, the 2002 filly Theme Song, by Dixieland Band. Although she failed to win a race in two starts, her son Dontblamerocket won the 2020 Colonel E.R. Bradley stakes at Fair Grounds, and was G2-placed. He also set a course record for a mile and seventy yards on the Kentucky Downs turf.
There was also the winning filly Looking, and the winning males Silent Bluff, Jedi Code, Sandecker and Tobias. The latter gave Listen Well a unique distinction – the 2009 gray gelding by Arch was the very last runner out of any Secretariat mare.
A Unique Place in History
Tobias provided Listen Well that historical significance when he continued to race sparingly past the age of eight. Bred by Janis Whitham, Tobias made his first starts for his breeder, with Ian Wilkes training. After three unplaced efforts on the Kentucky circuit as a three-year-old, he went to the sidelines for 18 months and resurfaced for new connections, including trainer Rae Fernandez, who shared ownership for a while before becoming the gelding’s sole owner in later years.
Tobias officially won one race in 47 starts through 2020, with 10 placings and earnings of $147,442. He was a long-distance turf specialist, and while he never earned black type, he was very close to the top three in a few stakes efforts. His lone victory was at Pine Mountain, a predominantly steeplechase meet in Georgia that also offers flat races during its one-day racing celebration each year. Going 12 furlongs on the turf, a six-year-old Tobias set a course record under 142 pounds. Over his long career, he also had some success in unofficial flat races at other steeplechase meets.
I have to add a couple of Secretariat-related trivia items about Tobias. He twice raced in the Secretariat Stakes at Great Meadow, run on Kentucky Day during a primarily steeplechase meet in The Plains, Virginia. He also raced once on the unique Secretariat Turf Course at Colonial Downs.
For all these reasons, Tobias and Listen Well get a callout in the “Fun Facts” chapter of Secretariat’s Legacy.
It’s likely that Listen Well’s story is not yet done. Star broodmare Linda is only 13 years old, and who knows what will come from other family members? You can bet I’ll be paying attention!
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