Petrushka is a retired Thoroughbred racehorse who was bred in Ireland and trained in the United Kingdom during a racing career which lasted from October 1999 to June 2001. She was named European Champion Three-Year-Old Filly at the 2000 Cartier Racing Awards. In her championship season she won four times from seven starts including Group One races is three countries. She won the Irish Oaks against other three-year-old fillies, before beating older fillies and mares in the Yorkshire Oaks in England and the Prix de l'Opéra in France. Petrushka was retired to stud after a single, unsuccessful run as a four-year-old. Background Petrushka, a dark chestnut filly with a small white star was bred at the Airlie Stud, near Maynooth, County Kildare, sired by the Northern Dancer stallion Unfuwain out of the mare Ballet Shoes. Unfuwain was a high-class middle-distance runner who won four Group races before siring the winners of more than five hundred winners at stud. Ballet Shoes, who won two minor races, was a product of the Ballymacoll Stud and a half sister to the Champion Stakes winner Spectrum. As a descendant of the broodmare Sunny Valley, she was also closely related to Sun Princess. Petrushka's name derives from the ballet by Stravinsky, and was suggested by the name of her dam. An odd feature of the filly's name was the fact that the original Petrushka was male. Petrushka was sent as a yearling to the Goffs sales in October 1998 where she was bought for IR£110,000 by John Warren, the director of the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing group. Petrushka was sent into training with Sir Michael Stoute at Newmarket, Suffolk. Racing career 1999: two-year-old season Petrushka had only one race as a two-year-old, starting 5/1 second favourite in a maiden race at Leicester in October. She started slowly and took time to reach her full speed, but then made rapid progress to take the lead inside the final furlong and win "cleverly" by three quarters of a length. Despite the race's modest status, Petrushka's win attracted attention, and she went into the winter break regarded as "a serious filly" and a possible contender for the following year's Classics. 2000: three-year-old season Spring Petrushka was originally considered more of a prospect for the one and a half mile Oaks, than the 1000 Guineas over one mile, but her improved home form suggested that she had the speed for