When the Fasig-Tipton July Sale of Selected Yearlings catalogue came out, Tony Ocampo admitted it was exciting to see Grade I winner Chocolate Gelato (Practical Joke), a graduate of his Rose Hill Farm, on the cover. It was not until a few weeks later, when the Fasig-Tipton July Selected Horses of Race Age Sale catalogue came out with Stilleto Boy (Shackleford) on the cover, that Ocampo realized the operation had completed a rare double.
“I didn't know it was going to happen,” Ocampo said. “The yearling catalogue came out earlier and we saw Chocolate Gelato was on the cover. That was very exciting. But then the Horses of Racing Age came out and all of a sudden we were like, 'Wow, look, Stilleto Boy is on there.' It's very rewarding because we aren't a large farm with a huge budget, but I am surrounded by great clients and great staff. I've been at it for a long, long time and it's nice to see two of your graduates be on those catalogues.”
Chocolate Gelato was bred by longtime Rose Hill client Vincent Colbert. She sold for $165,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton July sale and was acquired by Repole Stable for $475,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale before winning the GI Frizette S.
“She was always a very nice filly, very athletic and we loved the sire,” Ocampo said of the future Grade I winner. “We were happy with what she brought in July.”
At that same July sale, Rose Hill sold a filly by Mendelssohn, who the operation bred in partnership with John Trumbulovic, for $185,000. Named Opus Forty Two, she was second in the July 1 GIII Delaware Oaks.
“Those are the two fillies that we took to that sale,” Ocampo said. “So we are happy to see that, too.”
Stilleto Boy won the Iowa Derby for his breeders, the late John Kerber and his wife Iveta, and partners just days before selling for $420,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale. The chestnut gelding was second in the GI Awesome Again S. and third in the GI Malibu S., GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational and GI Santa Anita H. for the new connections before earning his first graded victory in the GII Californian S. He added a top-level victory this March with a win in the GI Santa Anita H.
The Kerbers added another graded winner from there breeding operation when Mr. Wireless (Dialed In) captured the 2021 GIII West Virginia Derby and GIII Indiana Derby.
“Stilleto was born, foaled and raised and then we also broke him, so that was pretty neat,” Ocampo said. “And that was special because John Kerber had been with me since the early '90s and he just recently passed away last year. It was bittersweet, but he put so much into this business and he was so passionate about it. Towards the end, he was very sick and lo and behold, he gets two of his yearlings that he kept become graded stakes winners. All of a sudden, he had two graded stakes winners out of his crops, so that was great.”
Rose Hill will be represented by three graduates at the July yearling sale next Tuesday. Bred by Colbert, hip 170 is a filly by Maclean's Music out of Salad Mood (Malibu Moon), a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Pacific Ocean (Ghostzapper) and to the dams of graded winners Blamed (Blame) and Litigate (Blame).
“She is a nice, big filly,” Ocampo said of the yearling, who sells with the Paramount Sales consignment.
Also consigned by Paramount Sales, hip 320 is a Rose Hill homebred colt from the first crop of Grade I winner Promises Fulfilled.
“We just got back his X-rays and they are clean and he's got a good throat, so we are very excited,” Ocampo said. “He is peaking at the right time. He is very athletic, good sized. He's by a sire who is a little bit of a question mark because he's by Shackleford. But I think he's going to be a useful horse. I think people will like him and I think he'll do well.”
Warrendale Sales consigns hip 322, a filly by Gift Box out of Flatter Me First (Flatter) who is bred by Beth Miller's ThoroughBred by Design.
“She is a really nice filly,” Ocampo said. “Also foaled and raised at Rose Hill for one of our good clients. [Miller] is a doctor at UK. We are excited about her, too.”
Miller is an allergy and immunology specialist and director of asthma, allergy and sinus clinics at University of Kentucky.
While Rose Hill will not be represented by any graduates in the July Horses of Racing Age Sale, the operation does have a connection through trainer John Ennis, who breaks the Rose Hill stock.
Ennis, who topped the 2020 auction with the $475,000 County Final (Oxbow), will offer five maiden-winning 2-year-olds at Monday's sale: Gewurztraminer (Collected) (hip 402); Intermittent Fast (Tapwrit) (hip 419); Laugh Now (Vino Rosso) (hip 431); Let's Go Mark (American Freedom) (hip 434); and Woodcourt (Ransom the Moon) (hip 528).
“We don't have any graduates in the racing age sale this year,” Ocampo said. “John Ennis has a few horses that he is selling, 2-year-olds, in that sale. The only connection is, he purchased them, but he broke them here at Rose Hill.”
The way Ocampo rattles off pedigrees and race records, it is clear graduates of Rose Hill never really leave the farm.
“We have them all on our stable mail and the owners are very involved–they tweet every time there is a work,” Ocampo said of keeping track of the farm's graduates. “So we are very involved. They are like your kids growing up. We do follow them and it's incredible when they start being so successful.”
Ocampo served as farm manager at Gleneagles Farm for nine years before he and his wife Lisa bought the operation and renamed it Rose Hill Farm in 1999. The main base of operations for the farm is 400 acres on Rice Road just behind Keeneland and it also includes 275 acres on Parkers Mill Road.
“This year, we foaled 45 mares and then we had about 20 maidens and barrens,” Ocampo said of the farm's resident broodmares. “So we have 70 or 75 total.”
While it's primary focus is on working for clients, Rose Hill does have a small number of its own broodmares.
“We probably have five or six mares that are owned by Rose Hill 100% and then we probably have another 10 mares that we have in different partnerships,” Ocampo said. “Our goal is to breed to sell. Every year we end up, for one reason or another, having to keep something. If it's a horse that we really like, but it has an issue and needs more time, or something that we didn't get what we wanted at the sale and we end up keeping. Usually those are horses that are out of a young mare and we want to help the mare, so maybe it will be a partnership with a trainer or between us we will keep it and race. But really our goal is to sell them all.”
The Fasig-Tipton July Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale will be held Monday at Newtown Paddocks with bidding beginning at 2 p.m. The Fasig-Tipton July Sale of Selected Yearlings will be held Tuesday beginning at 10 a.m.
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