Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement facility in Georgetown, Ky., is happy to announce that the gutsy filly, Bold and Bossy, arrived at the farm on July 20, 2023, to enjoy her retirement.
Bred by Richard Snyder and Connie Snyder, Bold and Bossy, who is by Strong Mandate–Happybirthdaybaby, by Successful Appeal, was foaled on May 6, 2019 in Kentucky, and retires with a career record of one win, two thirds, and $21,784 in earnings in six career starts.
However, the story of Bold and Bossy, who is owned by Bantry Farms and was trained by Michael Ann Ewing, goes beyond her short racing career. In fact, her story begins before her first official race when she went on an unexpected adventure.
It happened on Aug. 21, 2021. As she was heading to the starting gate at Ellis Park for her first race as a 2-year old, something spooked her, she started bucking, and threw her jockey, Miguel Mena, to the dirt.
She then began running down the track, jumped a fence, and found herself running out on the highway for a reported 30 minutes, startling many drivers along the way, before horsemen from the track caught up to her, calmed her down, and brought her back to her barn.
However, that wasn't the end of this filly's adventure. Later that night, the barn she was in caught fire. Thankfully, all of the horses in it were saved, however, she was the only horse to suffer some burns.
For many horses, that would have been the end of her racing career. But, this gutsy filly seemed determined to make a comeback, and after some down time, she happily resumed her training.
Finally, almost a year later, on July 5, 2022, she returned to the track for a maiden special weight race at Belterra Park. The fact that she even made it back to race is a great story, but Bold and Bossy went one better, and finished third – in the money – out of eight horses that day.
Then, to add even more to her storybook career, on Aug. 8, 2022, at Thistledown, Bold and Bossy ran in another maiden special weight race and came away with a one-length victory to complete her amazing comeback.
Bold and Bossy ran in four more races after that: one more in 2022, when she finished third in an allowance race on Sept. 13 at Thistledown, and three out of money finishes in 2023. She was then retired.
Her trainer, Michael Ann Ewing, then contacted Old Friends to ask if they could retire her to the farm.
“She deserves a forever home,” wrote Michael Ann Ewing when she contacted Old Friends. “I don't think she can stand up to the rigors of racing mentally and would run at a lower level. I'm not sure that her scarred back would hold up for someone who might want to ride her for a couple hours, so I have not sought out a retirement placing as a future show or just riding horse. She is pretty well known and in the year that followed what she went through; people would just call to stop by and see her. She gained a lot of interest on Facebook at the time with quite a few followers.”
Michael Blowen, President and founder of Old Friends, happily agreed to retire her to the farm, and the filly is now settling into her new life of retirement at Old Friends.
“She is bold, bossy, and beautiful,” said Blowen. “We're very grateful to Michael for allowing us to care for her lovely filly. She's got quite a story and we'll never tire of telling it.”
First Friday's Ceasars Sportsbook Oceanside Stakes had a gateful of runners for its mile on the turf. Now Saturday's $200,000 San Clemente – run under similar conditions though limited to 3-year-old fillies – has done the same. Sixteen runners signed on for the 56th edition of the Grade 2 headliner, though only 14 will go postward due to safety concerns.
As is often the case with these full-field offerings, the race looms as a wide-open betting affair. A possible favorite may be Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Anisette, a relative newcomer to the California racing scene who was impressive in her local debut on May 29 when she came running late to capture an allowance race at Santa Anita.
The British-bred and raced daughter of the Irish stallion Awtaad works out of the barn of trainer Leonard Powell and will be handled Saturday by Umberto Rispoli.
Powell, a French transplant who is a conditioner on the rise, also has another Euro he'll run in the test in Momamed Saeed Al Shahi's Wed, a French-bred miss who'll be making her U.S. debut and will have top rider Juan Hernandez along for the trip. The daughter of the Irish sire Profitable was a Group II stakes winner as a 2-year-old in her native land, but will be making her U.S. bow Saturday.
Here's the complete lineup for the San Clemente from the rail out with riders:
Flying Connection (Rene Diaz);
Ancient Peace (Tiago Pereira);
Anisette;
Delight (Joe Bravo);
And Tell Me Nolies (Antonio Fresu);
Spicybug (Kent Desormeaux);
Infinite Diamond (Diego Herrera);
Paris Secret (Edwin Maldonado);
Ocean Club (Drayden Van Dyke);
Olivia Twist (Kyle Frey);
Wed;
Comanche Country (Ramon Vazquez);
Fast and Shiny (Abel Cedillo);
The Wild Grazer (Hector Berrios);
Broadway Girls (Giovanni Franco), and
Justique (Antonio Fresu on a double call).
Broadway Girls and Justique are both listed as also-eligibles. Infinite Diamond was declared a late scratch.
Besides the San Clemente, Del Mar also will feature another full field of turf milers in a $100,000 overnight stakes called the Osunitas. The possible favorite in the field of 16 there is Bakster Farm or Isbister's Honey Pants, a 5-year-old gray mare out of the Phil D'Amato barn who'll be handled by Umberto Rispoli.
The Osunitas goes as the 7th Race on the 11-race card, while the San Clement will be Race 9. First post for the afternoon will be 2 p.m.
The 2-Year-Old Sale Sire Power Rankings have typically spotlighted the top five horses on the chart after a given sale, but with 121 stallions in the final rankings, there are plenty of others to recognize and celebrate.
Before we put the North American juvenile sale season to bed once and for all, let's take a look at some of the divisional leaders within the rankings that won their own races within the race.
As a reminder, here are the requirements to qualify for the Power Rankings. If you notice a sire is missing from the list, it's almost certainly because they didn't hit one of these marks:
1) At least five horses sold during a major 2023 juvenile sale, regardless of distance breezed.
2) At least five horses that breezed an eighth of a mile, whether they sold or not (as much as I love a good quarter-mile breeze, there just aren't enough horses doing them to make a fair average).
Also important to note: For the sake of calculating averages, I stretched out each breeze time from fifths to tenths. If you see a :9.8 time somewhere, do not adjust your stopwatches.
The race for the freshman sire title unofficially begins in the spring during the 2-year-old sale season, and Omaha Beach came out of it with all the momentum, finishing with the highest final rank of all rookie sires.
The multiple Grade 1-winning son of War Front spent some time in the top five over the course of the season, and he finished just on the outskirts in seventh, finishing well ahead of next-best Catalina Cruiser in 27th.
Freshman-sired offerings often enjoy a premium in the sale ring, and Omaha Beach was the biggest beneficiary of that bump in 2023, with his median 2-year-old sale price of $120,000 tying him for 17th overall and highest of all the rookie sires.
The top offering among the 36 Omaha Beach juveniles sold this year came during the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, where Clay Scherer, agent, went to $700,000 for a filly out of the winning Smart Strike mare Intelyhente. The filly, offered as Hip 532 and later named Coastal Invasion, is a half-sister to stakes-placed Count Alexander from the family of Canadian champion sprinter Stacked Deck. Wavertree Stables consigned the filly, as agent.
Coastal Invasion breezed an eighth in :9.8 seconds, which brings us to our next point…
Most Sub-:10 Second Breezes
Omaha Beach (Again)
Omaha Beach
It's one thing for a freshman sire to climb the charts because of the first-crop price bump they receive, but the Omaha Beaches came to play on the racetrack, as well.
The stallion ranked fifth overall with an average one-furlong breeze time of :10.215 seconds, and with 40 breezes at an eighth at major sales this year, that's not an easy number to maintain unless the horses are coming out firing.
Omaha Beach finished the season with seven juveniles clocking times under :10 flat – 17.5 percent of his overall workers – which was the most of any qualifying sire. Forty horses is a lot to throw at a bulk statistic like this, of course, but there were plenty of sires, both rookies and veterans, with comparable ranks who didn't get that many under the bar.
This is a fascinating turn of events for a horse that didn't break his maiden until January of his 3-year-old season and got better as his sophomore season progressed. Like overall Power Rankings leader Justify, it appears the quality of mares backing up Omaha Beach, combined with his own extremely high-level performances, has given him the ability to slide his window of opportunity ahead into the early 2-year-old season.
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The 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner finished tied for 14th in the overall rankings, and he was easily the best among sires that a snap judgment would label as “turf-leaning.”
As a multiple graded stakes-winning 2-year-old, it makes sense that Oscar Performance's standing on this list was propelled by his offerings' breeze times. His average of :10.250 seconds put him 12th in that category, and it was achieved not with flashy sub-:10 times, but with a remarkable consistency.
Of his eight breezes at one furlong this season, four went in :10.2 seconds (remember, we're dealing in tenths, so that would be :10 1/5 on the board), and another three went in :10.4 seconds. The only outlier went in :10-flat. There were no duds.
Oscar Performance's median sale price of $75,000 ranked him 28th in that category. Leading the way was Zverev, a colt out of the multiple Grade 1 winner Balance who sold to Belladonna Racing for $330,000 at the OBS Spring Sale. Offered as Hip 64, the colt's page includes Horse of the Year Zenyatta and her dam, Broodmare of the Year Vertigineux. He was consigned by Eisaman Equine, agent.
Highest Ranking Sire Standing Outside Kentucky
Bucchero, Pleasant Acres Stallions
The 2-year-old sales are a big chunk of the economy for Florida's stallion market, so it makes sense that a resident of the Sunshine State would come out on top in this category.
Bucchero finished the season tied for 37th overall, finishing ahead of fellow Florida resident The Big Beast in 44th. He got to that lofty spot because his juveniles went out there and broke the stopwatch.
In addition to finishing 14th by average breeze time at :10.257 seconds, Bucchero sired of one of the seven runners to breeze a furlong in a season-best :9.6 seconds.
That came during the OBS June 2-Year-Olds in Training and Horses of Racing Age Sale when Hip 999, a filly named Etrurian sped across the Ocala Training Center before selling to Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt for $100,000. Consigned by Britton Peak, agent, the Florida-bred Etrurian is out of the stakes-placed Imperialism mare Imperial Strike.
Etrurian was hardly a fluke among Bucchero's breezers in 2023. His four sub-:10 workers tied him for third-best among all qualifying sires, and he had another five go in :10-flat. Of his 28 works at one furlong, roughly a third of them went in :10-flat or faster. Not bad at all.
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Biggest Year-To-Year Gain
Ghostzapper, Hill 'n' Dale Farms
Ghostzapper
It might seem more logical for a fast-rising young sire to take this category over one of the most established members of the North American stallion roster, but the biggest year-to-year jumps were almost all veterans, led by Horse of the Year Ghostzapper.
Ghostzapper finished 93rd in 2022, then improved 77 spots this year to 16th.
So, what changed? Just about everything.
In 2022, Ghostzapper's juveniles averaged a breeze time of :10.575 seconds and posted a median sale price of $30,000. A year later, the group averaged an eighth in :10.289 and sold for a median price of $120,000. Sometimes the first metric can help influence the second.
Ghostzapper has put near-seven-figure juveniles through the ring in the past, so he's certainly a known commodity in this segment of the marketplace. The market can certainly ebb and flow on veteran sires, and getting a 2022 Breeders' Cup winner in Filly and Mare Sprint victress Goodnight Olive certainly didn't hurt, as well, but recency bias can only make up so much ground compared to a solid crop of horses in the catalogs.
This year's most expensive Ghostzapper juvenile was Gettingawaywithit, a colt who sold to Muir Hut Stables for $575,000 at the OBS Spring Sale. The Florida-bred colt, offered as Hip 450, is out of the winning Malibu Moon mare Hannahanna, from the family of Grade 3 winner Silent Bird. Paul Sharp consigned the colt, as agent.
This crop of juveniles was the last one conceived at Adena Springs before Ghostzapper moved to Hill 'n' Dale Farms ahead of the 2021 breeding season. It will be worth watching if the new scenery will have any bearing on his market momentum going forward.
Presque Isle Downs will have a race on July 26 to honor the remarkable career of Stevis Man. The big chestnut gelding amassed 26 career wins during his racing career of which 20 of those victories were at Presque Isle Downs. Needless to say Stevis Man accumulated quite a fan base at the Erie, Pa., track over the years.
Stevis Man was retired to the R.A.C.E. Fund, Inc., a non-profit organization, after his last race on Oct, 24, 2022. After some letdown time, Stevis Man was sent to Thoroughbred Placement Resources in Upper Marlboro, Md., to eventually begin retraining for a second career.
Both R.A.C.E. Fund and Thoroughbred Placement Resources are accredited by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.
“We are just taking our time with Stevis Man – – aka Stevie and letting him show us the way to what discipline he wants to do, and right now he seems to be taking a liking to dressage,” stated R.A.C.E. Fund president Marlene Murray.
“Kim Clark at Thoroughbred Placement Resources is an excellent rider and equestrian and we are fortunate to work with her,” Murray added. “She and Stevis Man are like poetry in motion in the ring. He is such a nice horse, kind, smart, willing to learn and remarkably sound after 74 lifetime starts. He is the whole package and deserves nothing but the best.”
“We would like to thank Presque Isle Downs and especially racing secretary Alan Plever for honoring Stevis Man in this way and all of his fans who followed him during his long and amazing career,” said Murray.
A video will be displayed on the track TV screens of Stevis Man since his retirement. Stevis Man may compete in the Retired Racehorse Project Makeover in Lexington, Ky., in October.
