Honest Mischief’s Celtic Dawn Goes 3-for-3 With Stakes Record Turf Romp in NYSS

Unbeaten on sloppy and fast NYRA dirt and on turf, Blue Devil Racing Stable’s

homebred CELTIC DAWN dominated her turf and stakes debut in the six-furlong New

York Stallion Cupecoy’s Joy Stakes on Saturday, June 13, as the 3-year-old HONEST

MISCHIEF filly romped by 2 1/2 lengths. Her odds-on tally in 1:08.30 shattered the

stakes record for the Cupecoy’s Joy – for New York-sired sophomore fillies – by almost

three-quarters (.73) of a second. Winning jockey Javier Castellano, who has been

aboard for all three of Celtic Dawn’s outings, remarked, “she did amazing…the same

way she did on the dirt.

“I don’t see a difference between the two surfaces,” Castellano continued. “The way she

did it today was something special…a lot of potential…I think you can stretch her out.”

Celtic Dawn’s win was the seventh in 32 days by offspring of Honest Mischief – four on

dirt, two on turf, and one on all-weather Tapeta. She is a homebred for the Blue Devil

Racing Stable of Marc Holliday, head of NYRA’s (New York Racing Association) Board

of Directors, who also raced Honest Mischief’s stakes record-setting son, FRIEND

OFTHE DEVIL. Acknowledging that Celtic Dawn “ran so well today,” Holliday indicated

an interest in stretching out the filly – eligible for New York-bred stakes in addition to the

New York Stallion Stakes Series – to two turns in Saratoga’s Suzie O’Cain Stakes on

turf July 23.

Winning trainer Carlos Martin, who also had saddled Celtic Dawn for her debut juvenile

win at Saratoga in 2025 and for her allowance victory on the slop at Belmont/Big A 30

days prior to the Cupecoy’s Joy, remarked that Celtic Dawn, “always looked like a

special filly.”

Celtic Dawn is the eighth black-type stakes winner from Honest Mischief’s first two

crops and the first stakes winner (and first Honest Mischief) produced from her dam.

Other winners sired by Honest Mischief to score during the aforementioned 32-day span

are HONEST REASON, PEYTON, NESSUNA PAGINA, MISSPENNYMISCHIEF (first-

out), and OKLAHOMA SMOKE.