Early on during Monday's opening session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, a Quality Road filly set a hot pace for the day's trade, hammering to Claiborne Farm, agent, for $1.2 million.
The filly, out of the Medaglia d'Oro mare Princesa Silvia, was bred by Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm. Pope is a familiar name in Keeneland September's select Book 1, both as a buyer and a seller, but going back a generation reveals a name not seen around these parts in a long while.
Pope purchased Princesa Silvia as a broodmare prospect for $1.4 million at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Princesa Silvia, a half-sister to Horse of the Year Saint Liam, Grade 1 winner Funtastic, and Grade 2 winner Quiet Giant – the dam of Horse of the Year Gun Runner, was bred and co-owned by Ben Leon's Besilu Stables.
Leon's Thoroughbred operation arrived on the scene with a bang in the auction ring and on the racetrack during the late 2000s and early 2010s, and it had downsized to almost nothing on the track, and a handful of mares in Europe, by the middle of the decade. Though Besilu Stables' time in the deep end of the Thoroughbred industry was brief, the mark it left on the North American stud book will be felt for generations to come.
Leon laid the foundation for his racing and breeding programs during the 2011 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, when he was one of the biggest buyers from two of the biggest dispersals in North American history: Prince Saud bin Khaled's Palides Investments N.V., Inc., and Edward P. Evans.
From the dispersal of Prince Saud bin Khaled, Leon purchased champion Royal Delta for $8.5 million, and her weanling half-sister, who would become Grade 1 winner Crown Queen under Leon's colors.
Leon's haul from the Evans dispersal included the $800,000 Quiet Dance, and two of her daughters: The $3 million Quiet Giant, who would eventually produce Gun Runner, and a $2.6 million weanling Medaglia d'Oro filly who would become Grade 1-placed Miss Besilu.
As an individual owner, and in partnership with Three Chimneys Farm, Besilu Stables won some of the game's top prizes, including the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic with Royal Delta and the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes with Crown Queen. The operation also co-bred the Tapit colt Gun It, who was the second most expensive offering at the 2017 Keeneland September Sale, going to Whisper Hill Farm for $2.6 million.
By the time Gun It went through the ring, Besilu Stables had already begun downsizing its Thoroughbred holdings. On the racetrack, Leon's on-track earnings were down to nearly zero by 2016 after topping out at over $2.1 million in 2012.
In 2022, Leon has started just one horse in the U.S.: the homebred Gun Runner colt Elusive Target, who races in Arkansas and Kentucky for trainer Paulo Lobo.
Looking at Leon's greater reach over the Thoroughbred industry, the conversation must start with Gun Runner; a son of Candy Ride out of $3 million purchase Quiet Giant, who went on to earn $15.9 million on the racetrack, and earn the 2017 Horse of the Year title.
Retired to stud at Three Chimneys in 2018, arguably no sire in modern North American bloodstock has gotten off to a hotter start at stud than Gun Runner. He set the North American record for freshman sire earnings in 2021, and he has continued to star this season with runners including Preakness Stakes winner Early Voting, and G1 winners Cyberknife and Taiba. All three of those runners have lucrative futures at stud, which will further extend Gun Runner's influence on the breed.
Gun Runner's place among the country's top commercial sires appears secure for the foreseeable future, as evidenced by Monday's trade at Keeneland, when Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys went to $1.5 million for a Gun Runner filly.
The list of Besilu breeding program graduates at stud also includes Funtastic, a G1-winning son of More Than Ready out of the $800,000 purchase Quiet Dance. His first foals are 2-year-olds of 2022.
Mr. Besilu, a $4.2-million son of A.P. Indy purchased as a yearling by Leon in 2010, stood a handful of seasons in Texas before being pensioned at Old Friends in Kentucky.
An early product of the Besilu breeding program, Mister Lucky Cat, a winning son of Storm Cat, has been standing in Oklahoma since 2015.
Besilu-bred Dubai Sky was briefly on the Kentucky Derby trail after winning the G3 Spiral Stakes in 2015, until that bid was stalled due to injury. He now stands at stud in Chile.
Royal Delta, Leon's biggest purchase and greatest runner, failed to produce a foal from her first two seasons visiting all-world sire Galileo, then she died due to foaling complications in 2017 while producing her lone foal: the Galileo filly Delta's Royalty. Leon has retained Delta's Royalty after a modest racing career in the U.K., and he bred her to Dubawi for her first mating, which produced a colt in 2022.
Crown Queen has also spent most of her broodmare career in Europe, most recently having a Kingman filly in May 2022. Her first foal, the Empire Maker gelding Queens Empire, is a stakes-placed steeplechaser in the U.S.
Miss Besilu, a $2.6 million Besilu purchase, was responsible for the $2.6 million Gun It. She later sold to Japanese connections for $2.2 million at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton November sale.
After selling to Besilu for $725,000 as a yearling in 2011, the Tapit filly Tapicat went on to become a G3 winner, then had the Medaglia d'Oro colt Lebron J, who sold for $1.2 million as a juvenile in 2018. Tapicat later sold to Summer Wind Equine for $2.2 million.
Indian Spell sold to Leon as a yearling for $500,000. A stakes winner at Monmouth Park, she sold to Airdrie Stud as a broodmare for $175,000 and went on to produce stakes winner and young Florida stallion Dak Attack.
Leon dipped into the Phipps family bloodlines when he bought With Flying Colors, a daughter of Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner My Flag. After a stakes-winning career on the racetrack, she went on to have Teresa Z, a daughter of Smart Strike who brought $635,000 as a yearling and became a multiple Grade 3 winner.
Between Gun Runner and Funtastic, a total of 68 entries in this year's Keeneland September sale were sired by direct products of the Besilu breeding program.
A small sampling of the broodmares with ties to the Besilu program that have foals in the September catalog include the aforementioned Princesa Silvia, Tapicat, Color Me Flying, Princesa Helena, and Secret Jewel.
The post Besilu Stables, Though Short-Lived In Racing’s Spotlight, Continues To Grow Its Legacy At Keeneland September And Beyond appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
