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New York Racing Association Purchases Sugar Maple Farm For $12.1 Million

The New York Racing Association confirmed this week it is now the owner of Sugar Maple Farms, a breeding farm in Poughquag, N.Y. Property records show the property was purchased by Sugar Maple LLC for $12.1 million in December 2022.

“NYRA, through a wholly owned subsidiary, has acquired a large parcel of land in Duchess County, N.Y., known as Sugar Maple Farm,” said NYRA spokesman Pat McKenna. “The 466-acre property, which was previously utilized as a breeding farm, could be appropriate for a wide array of uses including as a new center for equine health and safety research, veterinary education programing, Thoroughbred aftercare as well as off-track training and layup services.

“The acquisition of Sugar Maple Farm will, for the first time, allow NYRA to directly contribute to New York's breeding industry and strengthen the NY-bred program. NYRA jumped at the opportunity to protect Sugar Maple Farm because it will strengthen the foundation of New York State's thoroughbred racing ecosystem, create jobs in the Hudson Valley, enhance equine safety and preserve important open space.”

Once listed for as much as $23.5 million, Sugar Maple first went up for sale in 2015. It was previously owned by Howard and Susan Kaskel and was part of Vinery's New York Division in the early 2010s. The farm had operated as a breeding operation and stood stallions for many years before coming under Vinery's umbrella.

According to a Wall Street Journal feature on the estate, it has six barns with 94 stalls and multiple managers' homes. Those barns include a stallion barn and breeding shed, receiving barn, and barns for foaling and yearlings, as well as ample paddock space. The main house on the property is an 18,803-square-foot Georgian style home built in the 1980s. NYRA officials say the home was not of particular interest to the organization in the purchase and could be used in the future for event space.

Sugar Maple is located about an hour from Belmont Park and two hours from Saratoga Race Course. There is no training track on the property, and significant grading would have to be done to install one, but there could be opportunities for grass gallops and trails over the existing undulating ground.

“Sugar Maple Farm has had a storied history in New York breeding as one of the largest breeding and boarding operations in the state — standing stallions, caring for mares, foals, yearlings, and racehorses on layups,” said Najja Thompson, executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders. “The news of NYRA purchasing the farm with plans to modernize the facility for a multitude of purposes with the overall goal and intent of helping to further improve the landscape of New York breeding and racing is exciting and we look forward to working with NYRA toward these goals.”

Officials with NYRA say they haven't finalized plans for how the farm will be used, but the size and good condition of the existing facilities lends itself to plenty of options. There are no plans for the organization, which owns three racetracks, to get into the business of producing foals it owns, but it could provide boarding options for stallions or mares to participate in New York's breeding program.

The purchase is expected to be a long-term investment and final decisions on usage/infrastructure will be made gradually.

The post New York Racing Association Purchases Sugar Maple Farm For $12.1 Million appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Catching Up with 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Winner Mendelssohn

If ever there was a horse whose CV matches his pedigree, it is Mendelssohn. He topped the Keeneland September sale on a bid of $3 million from Coolmore in 2016, the year before he captured the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. And that pedigree? When he won the Breeders' Cup, he pushed his dam, the reigning Broodmare of the Year Leslie's Lady, into rare territory: she became what was then one of five mares to produce two Breeders' Cup winners. The year prior, her multiple champion daughter Beholder had captured her third Breeders' Cup. If that isn't enough of a 'wow' factor, Mendelssohn has another pretty well-known half-sibling as well, four-time leading sire Into Mischief.

“All of our team loved Mendelssohn from the first time we saw him as a yearling and he developed into a magnificent-looking horse,” said Coolmore's Charlie O'Connor. “Being by our own Scat Daddy and a half-brother to Into Mischief and Beholder, you couldn't ask for a better pedigree and he showed real brilliance when winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar and the [G2] U.A.E. Derby by a street, recording a new track record. He is currently the No. 4 leading sire of 2-year-olds in North America… With big crops to come he should keep rising up the ranks.”

Mendelssohn (2015 bay horse, Scat Daddy–Leslie's Lady, by Tricky Creek)

Lifetime record: Hwt. at 3-U.A.E, GISW-U.S., GSW-U.A.E., G1SP-Eng, SW-Ire, 13-4-2-2, $2,542,137

Breeders' Cup connections: B-Clarkland Farm (KY); O-Michael B. Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier, and Derrick Smith; T-Aidan O'Brien; J-Ryan Moore.

Current location: Coolmore America/Ashford Stud, Versailles, Ky.

The post Catching Up with 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Winner Mendelssohn appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Woods Signs For Top Two At OBS October Finale

Under his Quarter Pole Enterprises banner, noted yearling-to-juvenile reseller Eddie Woods signed for the two top horses during Wednesday's second and final session of the OBS October Sale in Central Florida. The veteran horseman paid $250,000 for a colt by promising young sire Mitole about a third of the way through the session and hung around to the bitter end, when he gave $150,000 for a colt from the first crop of Global Campaign (Curlin). The topper was the most-expensive at the October Sale since 2018, when a colt by Cairo Prince was knocked down for $340,000.

Over the course of two days of trade, OBS reported sales on 386 yearlings for gross receipts of $7,692,100, good for an average price of $19,928. The number declined by 25.7% from last year's sale–which featured a 'select' session followed by an open session–when 394 horses sold for $10,560,900 or an average of $26,804. The median also took a hit, dropping 26.5% to $12,500. In 2022, some 15 horses sold in excess of $100,000, while seven crossed the six-figure threshold this year.

“The horses near the top of the market sold good, but at the lower levels of the market, there certainly was some weakness,” said OBS President Tom Ventura. “I think it's the nature of the market reacting. We have been spoiled somewhat post-pandemic where the market has been moving, even in the face of increased interest rates and the financial markets and the general financial situation. We just keep doing what we can, recruiting horses, recruiting people trying to put the best product we can in front of our clientele.”

Woods struck first for hip 507, a Sue Vacek-consigned Florida-bred son of Mitole and Midnight Magic (Midnight Lute) and was the recipient of a positive update when his half-sister, last year's GIII Delaware Oaks heroine and two-time OBS graduate Midnight Stroll (Not This Time), padded her resume with a close runner-up effort in the GII Presque Isle Downs Masters S. Sept. 18.

With time ticking away on the sale, Woods snapped up hip 745, another Florida-bred, who fetched $82,000 when offered as a short yearling at the OBS January Sale. The late February foal was consigned to the October Sale by Richard Kaizen's Kaizen Sales, agent.

“The two horses I bought, I loved. I didn't think I could get them bought, but I did,” Woods said. “I might have stretched on the [Mitole] a little bit, but gosh, he's gorgeous, by a sire that's on the come with a fashionable pedigree, he just did everything right and that mare throws a good-looking horse.

“The Global Campaign was a magnificent-looking horse, it's just a family of runners. He looked a bit like [the stakes-winning] A. J. Melini (Matty G) [who appears in the second dam], that's a horse I had for Marion Montanari once upon a time, just a bit of a stronger version of him. Two really good, strong, physical colts.”

Ice Cold, a 2-year-old daughter of Mitole and a graduate of the Woods program, won the Oct. 4 Miss Indiana S., and the consignor thinks Mitole is a stallion with a bright future.

“They're showing up and as they get older, they're starting to get a little bit better, which is a good sign,” he said. “I thought they may be a little quick and early, but they're getting a route of ground and that usually augurs for a decent kind of stallion.”

Both of Woods's purchases are naturally ticketed for next year's breeze-up sales, and Woods is equal parts pragmatic and optimistic.

“We've got a long ways to go,” he said. “If everything goes right, they're perfect for resale candidates. They need to be quick, they need to vet well and have good videos. But they both move really well, they're both quite handsome and there's no reason to think they wouldn't do well going forward.

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Animal Rising protester who ran onto the track during Epsom Derby handed suspended prison sentence and fined £10,000 for breaching Jockey Club’s High Court injunction

Ben Newman, who breached a High Court Injunction when he ran onto the course at Epsom seconds after the Derby started, has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

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