California breeder Adrian Gonzalez got quite the thrill when Yo Yo Candy, bred by his family's Checkmate Thoroughbreds, jumped up to win a graded stakes race at Saratoga on July 15.
The 2-year-old son of Danzing Candy paid $94 for his unlikely victory in the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes, but his win also represented a potential boon for Gonzalez and all of California's breeders in the coming month: it was great marketing for the upcoming California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Northern California Yearling Sale, at which Yo Yo Candy sold for $6,000 in 2022.
“I was getting all these congratulatory texts, and people were telling me, 'This is going to be the best sale we've ever had!'” recalled Gonzalez, a member of the board of directors for the CTBA. “Well, we didn't even get 24 hours to celebrate, because the next day was the news that Golden Gate is shutting down.”
The sale grounds are just 30 minutes away from Golden Gate Fields. The surprise announcement rocked the foundation of California's Thoroughbred industry, especially those farms located nearest to the Northern California racetrack.
Gonzalez quipped: “Well, Golden Gate won't be there for these horses to run at, but we really only sell horses that win graded stakes at Saratoga, so come on up to Pleasanton and get one!”
On a personal level, it was the second major blow for Gonzalez in under a month. He and his family lost several promising yearlings they'd shipped to Kentucky for Keeneland's September Sale when a horrific trailer fire on the Bluegrass Parkway claimed their lives.
“The highs in this game are few and far between, and the lows can be so crushing, so you can't take the good things for granted when they come,” Gonzalez said.
The loss of those yearlings could be considered an even bigger blow because Gonzalez may not have had to ship them to Kentucky in the first place if California's Thoroughbred sales market was healthy enough to support that kind of quality.
“We really have to jump through a lot more hoops with our good ones,” he said. “Of course, it's tough to get a weanling to show up to Keeneland in November when you have a farm five minutes away! It's asking a lot of them to be ready for that, but now add shipping across the country. We have pulled it off many times, but I wish we wouldn't have to, that we had a suitable venue here.
“I try to send out to other markets the ones that I think will be valued there, because here in California, we've just had such a struggle with Barretts shutting down. We lost our training sales, which really hurt our yearling sale market by completely eliminating the pinhookers. Now we're feeling it when we don't have strong yearling sales, and it's hard to get people to breed their mares.
“I manage four stallions in California so I'm heavily invested in the market, and the market only works if people pay to breed their mares, so I think that's why we've seen so many farms shut down over the years.
“That's why you're seeing fewer breeders in the state, I think. California-breds still run for good purse money, but our sales struggle, so then the breeding industry struggles. At our Select Yearling sale, the median price is $20,000, but I would argue that it takes $35,000 to raise one.
“That's part of why I'm on the CTBA board of directors: I'm trying to push to help fix our sales, because it's up to all of us to help kind of navigate how we move forward. This is a scary time, for sure.”
The sales issue in California brings a bit of a double-edged sword to the success of Yo Yo Candy, as well.
“We were disappointed with what he sold for,” Gonzalez admitted, referencing the colt's $6,000 sales price in 2022. “We are trying to raise them to be Grade 1 winners, and we have good clients that send us exceptional mares. I'm proud of that, but it doesn't necessarily translate to sales results. It's frustrating, when you win a graded stakes race with a 2-year-old Cal-bred at Saratoga, because as commercial breeders, it would have been nice to have gotten paid for that horse!”
Despite all the frustrations and uncertainties, Gonzalez finds himself in awe of the attitudes of California's horsemen.
“I feel like we are the most resilient of all breeders,” he said. “Through all the lost sales companies, the craziness of the 2019 breakdowns at Santa Anita, the loss of Hollywood Park and Bay Meadows, we have had more bad things happen out here than most other places, but we're still breeding all these mares. It's amazing to talk to the breeders who can't be swayed!
“We're gonna be doing this longer than anybody else because we are so resilient. You can't tell us bad news that will scare us away. Not one of them has talked about, 'How do we get out?' and I love that. I think it's the love that everybody has for this game here. The resiliency here is amazing, and that makes me really proud to be a part of California breeding.”
That passion for the game isn't something Gonzalez was born into. In college at Cal Poly, Gonzalez needed a job to put himself through the engineering program. He'd grown up around cow horses, and happened to see a farm with horses on it, so he stopped to inquire about work.
“It turns out, of all the places to land, that was a very important farm in the state at the time. Cardiff Stud Farm had these really neat stallions, and B. Wayne Hughes boarded his California horses there prior to purchasing Spendthrift Farm. I remember one day holding horses for the horseshoer and he's telling me about the pedigrees of these horses, yearlings by A.P. Indy and Seattle Slew.
“Well, I grew up thinking that a $5,000 rope horse was as good as it gets! I wasn't meaning to get into racing, but I was hooked, so I did anything I could to stay a part of it.”
Eventually, the horses began taking time away from his engineering studies, and Gonzalez was put on academic probation. He had progressed at Cardiff to the point that he oversaw a student internship program, and a meeting with a student advisor for that program led to Gonzalez going “all in” to racing. He wound up graduating with an animal science degree and worked at several different farms around the state.
Unfortunately, land values continued going up, so the farms he worked at would sell after just a few years. In 2007, the farm that had been Cardiff Stud Farm was purchased by land investors just before the housing market crash occurred, so Gonzalez was able to work a deal to lease the farm.
“I still had some of the clients of the farm, and they became my clients,” Gonzalez said. “I kind of started my own business then. I never was somebody who wanted to run the show, but there wasn't anything else, so I leased the place and turned it into a big training operation.
“I learned a lot. It's one of those things where you raise a good one, and now you just figure, 'Okay, if I do exactly what I just did, get 10 more of those mares, I'll get 10 more good ones. That's the blueprint, I just have to do it again.' But of course, that's not the case. You can do everything right, but you get some slow ones. You're constantly questioning yourself, because none of them are exactly the same and they all have their own personality and habits.”
As the economy began to get stronger, Gonzalez realized he needed to shift his operation.
“When the market picked back up, the owners wanted to sell,” he explained. “It was tough when clients would show up to see their horses and say, 'Hey, what's with the for sale sign out front?' While the facility was amazing, it wasn't good to operate out of a place that could be taken from us, so we bought our own acreage about 10 years ago now.”
Today, despite the challenges of this industry, Gonzalez finds himself recommitting to the business each and every morning. Just before dawn, he takes the time each day to drive the feed truck himself, doling out the grain and hay to the 100 or so horses on his Checkmate Thoroughbreds property.
“I think that's one of the most important jobs on the farm,” he said. “You're the first to see if something is wrong; which mares don't come up to eat, who's getting bullied, things like that. I'm able to manage the farm better when I'm part of that. I've also been known to join zoom meetings and talk to dignitaries from other countries while I'm cleaning stalls!”
Those board meetings and strategy calls and sales discussions are far from his favorite part of the business, but Gonzalez recognizes their importance all the same.
“You know, I do have a lot of confidence in the leadership that we do have out here,” he said. “We have some very smart people in those meetings that I do believe will be able to fix this and make a transition to a better racing future. That's partly why I keep doing what I'm doing; maybe it's blind faith, but I have to keep doing what I know how to do best, and that's raising good horses.”
The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Resiliency’ Keeps California Breeder Adrian Gonzalez Looking Forward appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
