Swiss Skydiver (foaled March 10, 2017) is a retired American champion Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2020 Preakness Stakes, only the sixth filly to win the second leg of the Triple Crown. She also won the 2020 Santa Anita Oaks, 2020 Alabama Stakes, and 2021 Beholder Mile.
Background
Swiss Skydiver is a chestnut filly with a white star bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm. In 2018 she was consigned to the Keeneland Association September Yearling Sale and was bought for $35,000 by trainer Kenneth McPeek. She raced in the red and blue colors of her owner Peter Callahan, who named the horse after his granddaughter Callie Rasnake who sent him a video message of her parachuting over the Swiss Alps in November 2018.
She is from the first crop foals sired by Daredevil, who recorded his biggest win in the 2014 Champagne Stakes. Daredevil began his stud career in Kentucky but was sold and exported to Turkey in 2019. Swiss Skydiver's dam Expo Gold showed modest ability on the track, winning two minor races from five starts. She is a female-line descendant of the broodmare Cloud High, making her a distant relative of the Belmont Stakes winner Da' Tara.
Racing career
2019: Two-Year-Old Season
Swiss Skydiver's first race was on November 16 at Churchill Downs, which she won. She returned less than two weeks later on November 20 to finish second in an Allowance Optional Claiming race.
2020: Three-Year-Old Season
Swiss Skydiver started off the 2020 season on January 18 with a 5th-place finish in the Gasparilla Stakes. She then came in 3rd in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on February 15.
She got her first graded stakes win on March 28, when she won the Gulfstream Oaks. She came in at 9:1 odds and led the race before beating Lucrezia by lengths.
She then earned her second graded stakes win on May 1, when she won the Fantasy Stakes. She came in as the underdog at 16:1 odds and defeated Venetian Harbor by lengths.
Swiss Skydiver captured her third graded stakes win when she won the Santa Anita Oaks on June 6. She defeated Meneith by four lengths as the 3:5 favorite.
On July 11, she competed in her first race against male horses at the Blue Grass Stakes. She came in as the 2:1 favorite but was defeated by Art Collector by lengths.
She came back to win the Alabama Stakes, the third leg of the New York Triple Tiara, by 3 1/2 lengths, establishing her as the top three-year-old filly of 2020 so far.
In the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, Swiss Skydiver ran in third place for most of the race, before passing the tiring favorite Gamine and just falling short of the eventual winner Shedaresthedevil.
Swiss Skydiver's biggest win of her career was the 2020 Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, where she was the first filly win the race since Rachel Alexandra in 2009. Swiss Skydiver took the lead on the final turn and battled 2020 Kentucky Derby winner Authentic down the stretch, both well ahead of the rest of the field, in one of the most thrilling stretch duels in the history of the Triple Crown. Swiss Skydiver refused to let Authentic past her and she won by a neck. The third-place finisher, Jesus' Team, was behind Authentic. Swiss Skydiver's time of 1:53.28 was the second-fastest in Preakness history, behind only Secretariat's 1:53.00 in 1973. She is only the ninth horse to ever break 1:54 in the 99 years that the Preakness has been run at miles.
Swiss Skydiver moved up to second in the NTRA Top Three-Year-Old Poll, and ninth in the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll.
Her next start could have been either the 2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff against her own gender and the champion mare Monomoy Girl, or the 6 million Breeders' Cup Classic against older males, where she would have a shot at Horse of the Year if she won. She had qualified for both races, the Alabama Stakes for the Distaff and the Preakness Stakes for the Classic. Her owner Peter Callahan was strongly leaning towards the Distaff, but trainer Kenny McPeek was keen to take a shot at the Classic.
Swiss Skydiver's connections chose the Breeders' Cup Distaff. But she stumbled badly coming out of the gate and her race was over before it even began. She moved into contention at the top of the homestretch before tiring to seventh place. Her stumble out of the gate left her no chance to win, but her connections hoped for a possible rematch with the winner Monomoy Girl in 2021.