By Bloodhorse.com
ARCADIA, Calif. (Feb. 25, 2022) — Warren’s Showtime , a seven-time stakes winner and California-bred champion, took a bad step Feb. 26 during a work at Santa Anita Park and had to be euthanized. Trainer Craig Lewis and co-owner Sally Warren both confirmed that they lost the mare, who was extremely special to the trainer, as well as to Warren and her husband, Ben.
“She was working beautifully, switched leads at the three-sixteenths pole, and broke down,” said an emotional Lewis by phone. “I was watching the work with Craig O’Bryan, Vladimir Cerin, and Ian Kruljac, and everybody was marveling at what a beautiful-moving filly she was. Fate intervened.”
Lewis trained both Clubhouse Ride and Warren’s Veneda , the sire and dam of Warren’s Showtime. When Warren’s Showtime won the 2020 Autumn Miss Stakes (G3T), she gave Lewis his 1,000th career win.
“The best thing was that Craig got his 1,000th win and it happened to be for us,” said Sally Warren after the race.
The 5-year-old mare also endeared herself around Lewis’ barn.
“She was a barn favorite; everybody loved her,” the trainer said. “She gave everything she could every time.”
Ben Warren bred Warren’s Showtime as well as Warren’s Veneda, the latter named for Warren’s late first wife. Warren’s Showtime raced for Ben and his second wife, Sally, developing into a second-generation California-bred champion for them. Warren’s Veneda was the 2015 champion Cal-bred older female. Warren’s Showtime was the 2020 champion Cal-bred 3-year-old female and is one of the leading candidates to get the Cal-bred champion older female title of 2021.
Warren’s Showtime personified consistency. In 26 starts, she won eight times, seven of those in stakes, with five seconds, 10 thirds, and two fourths for earnings of $843,431. Only once did she finish worse than fourth, and that was in her third start when she was bumped in the hindquarters around the first turn and was in tight during the stretch run. She would go on to perform well over both dirt and turf.
Warren’s Showtime won her first stakes, the 2019 listed Surfer Girl Stakes, in her fourth start. In 2020 she captured the California Cup Oaks, China Doll Stakes, and Melair Stakes before getting her first graded win, in the Autumn Miss. In 2021 she added the Wilshire Stakes (G3T) and California Distaff Handicap.
She placed in 14 other stakes, including the 2020 Del Mar Oaks (G1T). In her most recent start, Warren’s Showtime ran second in the Megahertz Stakes (G3T), coming on toward the end after lacking room to miss catching Canoodling by a half-length.