Go For Wand

Sired by Canadian Hall of Famer Deputy Minister, out of Obeah (winner of, among other races, the Blue Hen Stakes, and the Delaware Handicap twice). Go For Wand was foaled and raised at Christiana Stables. She was a rising star of racehorses, particularly fillies. As a two-year-old, she had a record of three-for-four before winning the 1989 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Her performances earned her the 1989 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Two-Year-Old Filly.

As a three-year-old she was seven-for-nine and voted the 1990 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Three-Year-Old Filly. In a highly anticipated match against the Argentinian mare Bayakoa, in the 1990 Breeders' Cup Distaff at the sixteenth pole, in the lead by a head, she suffered an open fracture to her right cannon bone. She fell to the track and threw jockey Randy Romero to the ground before rising to limp on three legs across the finish line and into the winner's circle. Track personnel were able to get her to lay back down and she was euthanized immediately on the track. The next day, she was buried in the infield at Saratoga.

The tragedy unfolded on NBC on live television, and painfully reminded viewers of Ruffian, another promising filly who was fatally injured on the track. In a strange coincidence, several veterinarians estimate that she actually broke her leg about twelve strides before she fell. This would have meant that "Wanda" suffered her catastrophic injury while passing the flagpole that Ruffian was buried next to.

In 1992, the Maskette Stakes, a Grade 1 handicap race for fillies and mares, was renamed the "Go For Wand Handicap" in her memory.

She is listed as #72 by Blood Horse on their list of top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century and in 1996 was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.