On Jan. 29, Briland Farm's Robert and Stacy Mitchell came to the stark realization that their public profile in the Thoroughbred racing world was about to be raised in a big way.
Crossing the finish line first by 7 1/4 lengths that day in Oaklawn's Martha Washington Stakes was their homebred filly, Secret Oath. As part of the Road to the Kentucky Oaks points series of races, the victory awarded the filly 10 qualifying points toward the classic race, and stamped the sophomore as one to watch ahead of the Run for the Lillies.
“It's a little bit overwhelming and I don't want to get ahead of myself,” said Stacy Mitchell. “We're just going to have fun each day.”
The journey of Briland Farm actually began more than two decades before. As a young couple with a growing family and with the Millennium approaching, the Mitchells were struck by the impulse that so many before them have felt: it was time to escape the city.
“We didn't just want to buy a house in a subdivision,” said Rob Mitchell, who, like his wife Stacy, is a Kentucky native. “I wanted land. My grandparents had land and so we found a farm with an old wooden farm house in Fayette County. We wanted to get outside of downtown so we went for it and we ended up getting a 90-acre farm.”
With their new farm in Lexington, Ky., in hand, the Mitchells were gifted an older Quarter Horse by a friend. It was their realtor who pointed out that as social herd creatures, the horse would likely do better with a companion in the field.
“When our friend told us to get a companion horse, he basically said to get a broodmare and if we get a broodmare, find one in foal,” said Stacy. “Our kids were young at the time and he said, 'Your kids would love growing up seeing horses being born.'”
“So we found someone who wanted to sell a young mare with a pretty good pedigree that had never raced,” said Rob. “They wanted to just give her to us but I said, 'Let's buy her for $1.00 and make it official.'”
Named Chao Praya, the mare was a daughter of Gold Legend out of the Pancho Villa mare Casting a Spell. While she was not in foal at the time of sale, the Mitchells decided to breed to the mare to Level Sands, a son of Storm Cat, for $1,500.
“That foal, Level Playingfield, became a graded stakes winner, multiple stakes winner, and a track record-setter. Then we bred the mare back to Empire Maker just as he was starting his stallion career and we got another grade 3 winner (Imposing Grace).”
Suffice it to say, the Mitchells had been bitten by the breeding bug. In order to add to their numbers, the couple went shopping at the now defunct Fasig-Tipton Adena Springs Broodmare Sales. There they purchased a Great Above mare named Rockford Peach, who was in foal to Running Stag, for $36,000.
Rockford Peach would go on to produce the Quiet American mare Absinthe Minded, a multiple stakes winner who earned over $600,000 on the track. Now a broodmare in the Briland Band, Absinthe Minded has continued to reward the Mitchells as the dam of Secret Oath.
With success coming early on the track and in the breeding shed for the Mitchells, it would have been natural for them to return to public auction. But as it would happen, Rockford Peach would be the last Thoroughbred ever purchased in the name of Briland Farm.
“The bottom line is we've never bought a race horse,” said Rob. “Every horse we've ever raced was born on our farm. We haven't bought any Thoroughbred for over 20 years. We have a few families, we have three or four foals a year, and we race our foals. We sell about 75 percent and keep about 25 percent and we've just been very blessed and lucky.
“I think it's a good thing that there are partnerships and syndicates that buy horses off the track after they win a few races and they keep those horses in training and go on racing to more success. That's great for the business, but we have never bought a race horse. They're all born here on the farm.”
From this small, insular operation, the Mitchells have been able to generate a strong strike rate on the track. Between 2002 and 2018, Briland Farm campaigned 44 homebred horses. Of those, 6.8 percent were graded stakes winners, 13.6 percent were graded stakes-placed, 25 percent were stakes placed, and 11.3 percent were stakes winners.
Self-taught when it comes to matings, the Mitchells—while they do sell a handful of foals—consciously stray from what's commercially popular.
“When we first got into it, we went to a few TOBA meetings but mostly it was reading and studying how to make it work,” said Rob. “But even then you don't know if your matings will be right.
“I try to never go for what is popular. That is the last thing in the back of my mind. I want to win the best horse that will win races because I own the broodmare. I want those horses to win to increase the value of the subsequent foals. It doesn't make sense for me to do what is popular because when you look back, you'll see stallions that start off super-hot and two years later you can't give those horses away. I want to breed the best horse I can with the stock I have.
“We've made bad decisions along the way, but we're getting better at it. In about 20 years maybe we will have it down. We don't really need to buy anymore because we have a few families that are genotypically different, but in some ways similar, so I think we're good at figuring them out and what they need.”
But while the Mitchell's strategy has proved more than reliable in getting horses to the winner's circle, it hasn't always translated to the sales ring where the pressure to tick all the boxes of buyers. Among those that didn't initially pass muster with buyers was Secret Oath, who failed to make an impression during her brief stint in the Bluewater Sales consignment at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
“I really liked Secret Oath when she was born,” said Rob. “We sent her to Keeneland, and I think they're pretty knowledgeable, but they put her in session 5. Her dam had won three stakes races and placed in five graded stakes, the filly was from Arrogate's first crop, but she was put in session 5. Not a lot of people looked at her so I took her out of the sale the day before she was supposed to go. I thought, 'If no one wants her, she looks just like her mom and sister so I will race her myself.'”
“She had that tall, narrow, Quiet American look like he had when he was young but that wasn't the look they wanted at that sale,” said Stacy. “They wanted to see big engines on the back and different body types. She wasn't what the commercial market wanted.”
With Secret Oath having taken her first steps toward the Kentucky Oaks, it's clear that the Mitchells have cracked the code to personal success. While she may have been overlooked at the sales, the filly's explosion onto the racing scene has garnered plenty of attention; the fear of missing out running strong with owners hoping to get in on the ground floor as the Classic season ramps up.
But just like they weren't selling in 2020, the Mitchells plan to hang on to their filly.
“We will try to hold (trainer) Wayne (Lukas) back,” joked Rob. “He's excited about her and people want to buy her. But we're going to take it one day at a time. Wayne calls about every few days saying, 'I have someone else who wants to buy her.' And I've said 'Wayne, if I was a wealthy man I would take the money, but I'm used to being poor so I don't need it'”.
“We got lucky with Secret Oath but you don't always get that lucky. We know we may never win another race. We've done this long enough to know that a horse can kick it's stall and chip an ankle or get a fever the night before the race. Nothing is ever sure.”
“We're just taking it one race at a time,” said Stacy. “I told someone that after all the work we've put in for 20 years I'm happy to take the ride with her as short as it may be. Anyone who has done this knows that the happier times are fewer than the hard times. You have to hold on to the good.”
