Kiss Me Kate was an American Champion

Eclipse Award

The Eclipse Award is an American thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th century British racehorse and sire, Eclipse. The Eclipse Awards, honoring the champions of the sport, are sponsored by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association , Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers...

 Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 filly

Filly

A filly is a young female horse too young to be called a mare. There are several specific definitions in use.*In most cases filly is a female horse under the age of four years old....

 racehorse. She was bred and raced by Walter M. Jeffords, owner of Faraway Farm in Lexington Kentucky whose wife Sarah was the niece of Faraway Farms previous owner, Sam Riddle

Samuel D. Riddle

Samuel Doyle Riddle . He was born in Glen Riddle, Pennsylvania, a small town southwest of Philadelphia given the family name in honor of his grandfather....

. Kiss Me Kate's sire was the 1943 U.S. Triple Crown

United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing

In the United States, the "Triple Crown" is usually the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, a series of three Thoroughbred horse races for three-year-old horses run in May and early June of each year consisting of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes.While Daily Racing Form...

 Champion, Count Fleet

Count Fleet

Count Fleet was born and died at Stoner Creek Stud farm in Paris, Kentucky, United States. He was a Thoroughbred racehorse and Triple Crown champion in 1943....

. Her dam was Irish Nora, a daughter of the very good English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

-born sire, Pharamond II

Pharamond II

Pharamond was an English Thoroughbred racehorse who became a successful sire of Champions in the United States where he was registered as Pharamond II. He was a full brother to Sickle, who also stood at stud successfully in the United States. Pharamond was bred and raced by Edward Stanley, 17th...

.

In a year in which the three-year-old filly won the Acorn Stakes

Acorn Stakes

The Acorn Stakes is an American Grade I race at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York for three-year-old Thoroughbred fillies. It is raced on dirt over a distance of one mile with a current purse of $250,000. It is the first leg of the US Triple Tiara and is followed by the Coaching Club American Oaks...

, Delaware Oaks

Delaware Oaks

The Delaware Oaks Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually in mid July at Delaware Park Racetrack in Stanton near Wilmington, Delaware....

 and Gazelle Stakes, was second or third in three other major races for fillies. She also ran against older males in the Jockey Club Gold Cup

Jockey Club Gold Cup

The Jockey Club Gold Cup, established in 1919, is a prestigious thoroughbred flat race open to horses of either gender three-years-old and up. It is typically the main event of the fall meeting at Belmont Park, just as the Belmont Stakes is of the spring meeting and the Travers Stakes is of the...

, finishinmg third to Counterpoint

Counterpoint

In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...

, the 1951 American Horse of the Year, and Hill Prince

Hill Prince

Hill Prince was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who earned Champion honors in his first three years of racing. Trained by Casey Hayes for owner Christopher Chenery, at age two Hill Prince won six of the first seven races he entered and was the American Co-Champion Two-Year-Old Colt, sharing the...

, the 1950 American Horse of the Year. Kiss Me Kate was voted the 1951 American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly.

Kiss Me Kate continued to race and win at ages four and five after which she was retired to broodmare duty. Her issue did not meet with any success in racing.