Viadera (GB)
b f Bated Breath – Sacred Shield (Beat Hollow)
Chad Brown
Viadera began her career in Ireland with Ger Lyons. She ran three times in her two-year-old year, winning on debut in a Curragh Maiden race in June, the only filly in the race. She followed that performance three weeks later with a second place in the Gr.3 Anglesey Stakes at the Curragh, where she was headed by the eventual winner 125 yards out from the line.
She ran six times as a three-year-old, adding a stakes place and win to her tally of blacktype. Her first blacktype win came in the Listed Cairn Rouge Stakes at Killarney in July 2019.
Before the race trainer Ger Lyons commented: "The Listed Cairn Rouge Stakes has s always been a target for Viadera. I love this filly as she is a real honest, old-fashioned type that tries hard. She has already been Group and Listed placed and to win her Listed would be very important.”
True to her trainer’s word she showed real determination to run down Lady Wannabe, beating her by a short head. After the race assistant trainer Shane Lyons said: “She's had a tough campaign in the last month or so and that was a negative coming into this but she fought like a lion. This was the main aim to win this and I'm delighted.”
She remained unplaced in her final two races of 2019 and transferred to the US for her four-year-old season. It proved a successful move, as after a fourth in the Gr.3 Intercontinental Stakes on her introduction, Viadera won both the Listed De La Rose Stakes at Saratoga and the Gr.3 Noble Damsel Stakes at Belmont Park. She capped this with a win in the Gr.1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar in November 2020 - which marked a seventh victory in the race for Prince Khalid and his 100th Grade 1 win in North America.
Viadera returned to the track at the beginning of August 2021 with a fourth place finish in the Listed De La Rose Stakes at Saratoga. She returned three weeks later for the Gr.2 Ballston Spa Stakes where she was rewarded with a win following a thrilling finish in which she prevailed by a nose.