Bill Harrigan is the TOBA February Member of the Month.

Bill Harrigan’s Miacomet Farm has a rising star in its sky. Racing in the Miacomet name, the talented sophomore filly Heavenly Sunday is owned by Harrigan and his partners, including longtime collaborator Mike Pietrangelo. Heavenly Sunday most recently captured the May 5 Edgewood Stakes presented by Forcht Bank (G2T) at Churchill Downs.

The Schenectady, New York native Harrigan recalled, “Nobody in my family had anything to do with horses and I don’t know why, but I was just always drawn to horses. And my dad took me up to Saratoga when I was nine years old, and I remember seeing Arts and Letters run.”

He added, “And then I used to show horses and so I knew how to ride, and I made my way to Belmont Park in my gap year after high school and before I did go away to college and graduate, but I had that year-and-a-half in between, and I spent it at Belmont Park. Actually, I went to Belmont, got a job, and I went to Hialeah with David Whiteley and Shug [McGaughey] was the assistant there.”

After managing institutions like King Ranch, Harrigan bought Miacomet Farm, located in Georgetown, Kentucky. He estimates he’s played key roles in the development of 30 grade 1 winners, from A.P. Indy to I’m a Chatterbox, and currently owns all or part of 12 to 15 mares.

A number of the best runners Harrigan has owned and bred have come in partnership with Pietrangelo. The day before the Edgewood, Churchtown—a stakes-winning Pietrangelo-Harrigan homebred—finished second in the Opening Verse Stakes. At the 2016 Keeneland November sale, Harrigan bought Churchtown’s dam, Complicated, for $110,000. Complicated’s three-year-old Honor Code filly Honor D Lady won the May 6 Honey Ryder Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Complicated was bred to Golden Pal for 2023.

Harrigan and Pietrangelo also partnered on stakes winner Aireofdistinction (co-owned with Mark McEntee) and $391,383-earner Flat Lucky (whom they bred together). Harrigan bought Flat Lucky’s dam, Emerald Coast, for $85,000 at the 2005 Keeneland January sale, and she’s produced multiple winners and stakes-placed runners for the two.

Harrigan and Pietrangelo’s $192,150-earner Barista had some similarities to Heavenly Sunday. Harrigan said, “I bought some yearling fillies with pedigree that we’ve kept to see what could happen, as I did a couple years ago with a filly named Barista, and she was actually second in the [2021] Edgewood, a grade two race. And she now has been retired and she was in foal to Omaha Beach.”

But Heavenly Sunday has outdone Barista in winning the Edgewood. Bred in Kentucky by Randal Family Trust, the Candy Ride filly RNA’ed for $170,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. “Well, I bought her to resell, and we didn’t get her sold,” Harrigan recalled. And so, I said, ‘Hey, listen, this is one heck of a filly, so let’s keep her.’ And so, some of the partners stayed in, some of them got out, but I mean, we always knew she could really run.”

Heavenly Sunday went undefeated in two starts as a juvenile. “And so, she’d already showed some brilliance,” Harrigan said. “And so, then I was just talking with [trainer] Brad [Cox] long term, I said our big goals are the Appalachian at Keeneland and the Edgewood at Churchill and look what happened.” At three, Heavenly Sunday hit the board in two prior races, finishing third in the February 4 Sweetest Chant Stakes (G3T), then ran third in the April 8 Appalachian Stakes Presented by Japan Racing Association (G2T).

Leading most of the way throughout the Edgewood, Heavenly Sunday took the $500,000 contest by ¾ of a length. She completed the 1 1/16-mile distance in 1:42.40. “I just think like a lot of horses racing helps her,” Harrigan said. “She’s smart and she’s run five times now and they know what’s going on. Obviously, Brad is a great trainer and they’re really good at developing the horse mentally, which is one of the most important parts. And they start to figure out what they’re supposed to do.

“And so, she relaxed a whole lot better in the race at Churchill than she did at Keeneland. She was too on edge and fighting the jock going down the backside and then she kind of ran out of gas, but she was way better at Churchill and she’s just learning how to run.” Harrigan hopes to aim her for the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland.