Woodslane Farm's homebred Hail To will pursue her first graded stakes victory in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Sands Point for sophomore fillies going nine furlongs at Belmont at the Big A.
Trained by Tom Albertrani, the twice-winning Hail To enters off her first triumph against winners when traveling 1 3/16 miles over Saratoga's Mellon turf on Sept. 2. But if she is anything like her family, Hail To will do her best running going well past the Sands Point distance.
Hail To, by Kitten's Joy, comes from a family rich in stamina with her full-brother being Grade 1-winning multimillionaire Sadler's Joy. Both horses are out of the unraced Dynaformer mare Dynaire, who was bought by Woodslane Farm's Rene and Lauren Woolcott at the 2009 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $360,000. Dynaire's dam Binya was a graded stakes winner at 11 furlongs when capturing the Grade 3 The Very One in 2004, and her half-sister was Grade 1-winning turf staying mare Sabin.
“She was bought with the idea of being a runner,” said Lauren Woolcott. “I wouldn't say we were knowledgeable enough at that time to know distance. But clearly, Dynaformer was a key influence in her pedigree. She went to a pre-trainer in Florida and came up with a soft tissue issue that at that time, the procedures for dealing with it were not 100 percent, so we simply decided to leave her unraced and have her as a broodmare.”
Dynaire has made up for her absence on the racetrack with a highly prosperous broodmare career. In addition to Hail To and Sadler's Joy, she has produced the graded stakes-placed Lemon Drop Kid mare Dyna Passer and stakes-winner Wolfie's Dynaghost.
“We're so fortunate to have Dynaire,” Woolcott said. “She's had Sadler's Joy, Hail To, Wolfie's Dynaghost, and now she has a weanling on the farm by Ghostzapper, which is exciting because he's a broodmare sire so we're all excited to have her jkioin the farm. She also had a 2-year-old colt by Ghostzapper who we put through the Keeneland sale. He sold and the buyer asked if we would retain a share, just to test how much we liked the horse. So, we said, 'Sure we'd be happy to stay in.'”
The aforementioned Dyna Passer, who ran third in the Jockey Club Oaks in 2019, finished fifth in the 2019 Sands Point and became the Woolcott's newest addition to their small broodmare band when retiring the following year. In addition to Dynaire and Dyna Passer, the Woolcotts also own mares Cat Myth – a half-sister to Grade 1-winner and producer Johannesberg – as well as Prospector's Moon.
“Dyna Passer is a beautiful, beautiful mare,” Woolcott said. “She is currently in foal to Munnings, as is Dynaire, which is sort of cool. Dyna Passer also has a lovely Speightstown weanling filly, her first progeny.”
Woolcott said the one major difference between Hail To and Sadler's Joy is the fact that the former was campaigned for a juvenile season. Sadler's Joy did not make his first lifetime start until spring of his 3-year-old season.
“It was fun to have her run as a 2-year-old. We've had a lot of time to watch her, and her preference clearly is for more distance,” Woolcott said. “She ran a beautiful race in that allowance at Saratoga this summer going 1 3/16 miles. Now, we're cutting back a little bit for the Sands Point, but we wanted to run here to give her that chance to run against straight 3-year-olds. The allowance at Saratoga was against 3-year-olds and up, which was exciting. We have longer distances in mind, but you take what you can get.”
Hail To will have her work cut out for her, facing talented fillies like Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Pizza Bianca and stakes-winners Eminent Victor and Vergara.
“She will need to step up and run a nice race like she did last time. She'll have to do even better being up against the likes of her competition, but it's exciting,” Woolcott said. “It's one step at a time and we'll see how she does Saturday. We're hopeful and a little nervous because she's up against some nice ones. It's a nice set up for next year and some longer distance races.”
Although Woolcott's broodmare band is modest in size, she expressed hope for the future and even said she is getting a small glimpse of what generational breeding programs have been able to experience.
“It just makes you excited and proud of the family. It'll be so cool to see,” Woolcott said. “Some of these farms like Claiborne have been around forever and have been able to see brilliant minds on these horses and foal out these babies generation after generation. There's a majesty about knowing a family so well because you've been involved with their product for so many years and generations. That, to me, is so exciting and our little piece of it is to be excited about having our great mare Dynaire produce such a lovely foal that she did in Dyna Passer and then have her in our broodmare band.”
Albertrani, who has trained Hail To's other prominent siblings, said he is excited for his owners.
“The mare has produced a few nice horses and I think they look forward to seeing another good horse, especially being that she's a full sister to Sadler. I think they're really excited to get another win,” Albertrani said. “She's a lot like her brother, where the further the better. We're cutting back a little bit this time but we're with 3-year-old fillies so that might help us a little bit. She'll definitely get better later on with more distance under her belt.”
Looking ahead to next year, Hail To could be a candidate for long distance turf races like the Grade 1 New York at Belmont Park and the Grade 2 Glens Falls at Saratoga.
“Hopefully that will be the plan for next year. We'll see how we get on this weekend and go from there,” Albertrani said.
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