Eleven months after concluding her racing career at Saratoga, Mel’s Baby Sister made a triumphant return to the historic racetrack and marched straight to the winner’s circle to receive the Down Broadway Award as New York’s Retired Racehorse of the Year.

Voting was conducted online for the award, which is named for the first horse to retire through the TAKE THE LEAD Program back in 2013.

Mel’s Baby Sister raced in the colors of Bill Parcells’ August Dawn Farm and was trained by Melanie Giddings. A $110,000 purchase as a 2-year-old from the Fasig-Tipton Sale at Timonium, the daughter of Cross Traffic broke her maiden at Aqueduct the following January. She placed in a New York-bred allowance during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, but two unplaced efforts during the Saratoga Summer Meet convinced her connections to contact TAKE THE LEAD.

“She was such a spunky personality to train on the track, but she was a total sweetheart in the barn,” Giddings said. “I mean, everybody really, really loved to be around her. It’s so good to see how happy she is.”

A native of Canada, Giddings grew up retraining horses that had raced at Woodbine.

“We would either jump them, turn them into trail horses or they could even be just lesson horses that were quiet enough for kids. Whether or not they don’t make it as a racehorse, they all have a future outside of that. This’ll make Coach so happy. He always felt it was important that they could have other careers after racing.”

Giddings returned to the winner’s circle shortly thereafter when her charge Leon Blue won the Rick Violette Stakes, named after the late NYTHA President who was instrumental in creating TAKE THE LEAD. Among her team are Melissa Cohen and Fausto Flores, who were longtime Violette crew members.

“It meant a lot,” Giddings reflected. “I have some of the best of Rick’s crew and they miss him a lot every day. They talk about him all the time still, so it’s meaningful that we could win that for him today. I feel like he was looking down on us.”

Mel’s Baby Sister is now owned by the Richardson family of New Jersey.

“She is just a kind soul,” Kendra Richardson said about the 4-year-old grey filly. “She is going to be part of the Retired Racehorse Project. It’s so important to raise awareness that these horses have so much potential beyond the racetrack.”

Together with her husband Ben and daughter Raina, Kendra regularly adopts ex-racehorses through ReRun, one of TAKE THE LEAD’s trusted aftercare partners in New York. They won the inaugural Down Broadway last year with the popular New York-bred My Boy Tate, and brought barnmates Deregulation and Financier in a “herding” display as part of the fifth annual New York Thoroughbred Aftercare Day celebration.

“I love the process of teaching them and finding out what they really are good at because when we do find them homes and sell them, I want to make sure that that horse is going to a home it’s appropriate,” Richardson added.

Raina, who wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up, has a remarkable connection to the family’s stable.

“She really is part of our training program,” Richardson said. “If a horse gets a little kooky or wound up, Raina comes over and they just drop their head and relax. She’s like their security blanket.”