2022 Mating Plans | Horse Racing Free Tips

Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Bonne Chance Farm

With the 2022 breeding season underway, we continue to feature a series of breeders' mating plans. Today we have Leah Alessandroni, Bloodstock and Office Manager of Bonne Chance Farm.

GLORY AND POWER (m, 8, Medaglia d'Oro – Dance Quietly, by A. P. Indy) to be bred to Essential Quality

We bought this mare as a weanling and she went on to become a winner for us. Her first foal was Momentous (Speightstown), who was an debut impressive winner at Fair Grounds on Feb. 19. This mare is out of a half-sister to MGISW Saint Liam (Saint Ballado) and Quiet Giant (Giant's Causeway), who of course is the dam of Gun Runner, so it's a really big and active family. We bred her to Tapit in 2019 and that colt was really well-received as a yearling. She has a Street Sense yearling that is also really nice.

Knowing that Glory and Power might not yet have a runner when we were looking at matings for 2022, we really thought hard about this mare. We were getting good reports from WinStar on Momentous, we liked all the other foals she'd had, and she was actually one of the last mares we settled on. We decided to send her to Essential Quality. She can be a bit of a tricky mare to mate physically and he is such a good physical. He's a strong horse and his race record speaks for itself. He was one of the more exciting first-year stallions this year. With this mating we also liked that she had already been to Tapit and it's a similar cross, but with Elusive Quality on the bottom it really offers us access to a different line. I think it's a really interesting mating in terms of the pieces coming together and it's one we're very excited about.

Bonne Chance Farm welcomed their first second-generation foal this year, an Uncle Mo filly out of SW Iva | Bonne Chance Twitter

IVA (m, 6, Scat Daddy – Sushi Empire, by Empire Maker) to be bred to Quality Road

This is a really special mare for us. She was one of the first foals that was born here at our farm in Kentucky in 2016. We actually bought her dam, Sushi Empire, when she was in foal with Iva. Iva herself became a stakes winner for us, winning the 2019 Cincinnati Trophy S. That was our first blacktype win as breeders. This year Iva had her first foal, an Uncle Mo filly, and it was kind of a full-circle moment for us with her giving us our first second-generation foal as breeders.

This mare is from a really nice family that includes MGSW Marchfield (A. P. Indy) and her dam, Sushi Empire, was also a stakes winner.

Iva is exactly what you would expect a Scat Daddy mare out of an Empire Maker dam to look like. When we were thinking of matings, we wanted a bigger, rangier stallion that offered some stretch. Quality Road had such an incredible 2021 with the champion 2-year-old and he had huge sales. This year he has already had Emblem Road win the G1 Saudi Cup. He's definitely a stallion that when you're looking to breed a quality, proven sire to a young mare, it's a no-brainer. In contrast to Glory and Power, this was probably the first mating that we decided on this year.

GOIABA (m, 8, Speightstown – Christies Treasure, by Belong To Me) to be bred to Curlin

Goiaba is a full-sister to the Japanese Group 1 winner Mozu Superflare (Speightstown). She is another mare that we bought early on as a yearling and she was a winner for us. She is from one of the most active families that we have on the farm right now. Mozu Superflare is doing great things in Japan and she has two half-sisters who have produce Grade I winners or Grade I-placed horses. It's the family of GIIISW Sacristy (Pulpit) and GISP Flor de La Mar (Tiznow).

Goiaba herself is a really nice, honest mare. She's a strong physical and is what we would consider a pretty typical Speightstown mare. She had her first foal last year. It's an Into Mischief filly that is without a doubt the nicest yearling we have this year. This year she is in foal to Medaglia d'Oro.

When we were looking to find a stallion for her this year, we thought long and hard about it. Any time you have a horse with a pedigree like this, you have to look at the big guns and so we settled on Curlin. We actually haven't bred to him yet, and so when we came to the table this year to talk about matings we all agreed that if we didn't use Curlin, we were missing a big opportunity this year. This mating will be offering a different branch of Mr. Prospector and it's maybe not super conventional, but it's another one we're excited about in sending Curlin a mare of this caliber with such an up-and-coming family that is actively producing all over the world. It's one of our biggest star power matings of the year.

LUCAS STREET (m, 18, Silver Deputy – Ruby Park, by Bold Ruckus) to be bred to Maxfield

Lucas Street is one of our more veteran mares here and she is the dam of 2015 GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Wavell Avenue (Harlington). We bought this mare privately a few years ago. She had a colt by Improbable this year.

Because she's a proven producer, when we purchased her it was an opportunity to get into some of the more commercial, popular stallion lines. Considering that she's a highly-desirable mare, we really wanted to breed her to a first-year stallion this year. The stud fee price point is usually appealing for those guys and you can see a return at the sales.

The stallion that we settled on for her this year was Maxfield. We are very conscious about who we breed this mare to physically and as soon as he walked out, it was a no-brainer for us. I think he's one of the strongest physicals of the group of stallions this year and he was such an honest, hard-knocking racehorse. With him being a Street Sense out of a Bernardini mare, those are two individual sires that we had considered for her in the past and for whatever reasons we never landed on them, so now we have the opportunity to get to both of those sires here.

From a breeding standpoint, this is going to be a very commercial pedigree and it still gives us a lot of options. If it's a colt, maybe we're a little more commercial. If it's a filly, she will have a strong pedigree under her and we've set ourselves up nicely to have a future broodmare. There was really no downside to this one.

ELEMENTAR (m, 10, More Than Ready – Val Marie, by Coronado's Quest) to be bred to American Pharoah

This is a bit of a younger mare whose pedigree is developing. She is a half-sister to MGSW Grand Adventure (Grand Slam), a champion Grass Horse in Canada. Elementar has had several foals for us including Ready To Purrform (Kitten's Joy), who won the Laurel Futurity last year. Her 2020 foal is a filly by Bernardini and not long after she foaled, we had pretty much decided to keep her to race ourselves. She also has a yearling colt by Runhappy.

The stallion we settled on for her this year is American Pharoah. Every year he has been in the conversation for her, but in the past we weren't sure if she warranted the stud fee. When Ready to Purrform won the Laurel Futurity, the mare earned her way to that level. I think at $80,000 this year for American Pharoah, that has to be a gift with what he's already done this year. This is probably my favorite mating physically. She's a beautiful, balanced mare and all of her foals have been really good movers and I think the same can be said of American Pharoah. This direct cross has already been extremely successful with G1SW Café Pharaoh and MGSW Four Wheel Drive, so all that gave us confidence to send her to him.

MAY BE NOW (m, 14, Smart Strike — Dans La Ville (Chi), by Winning) to be bred to Uncle Mo

May Be Now is a three-quarters sister to GISW Al's Gal (English Channel) and she is the dam of champion and MG1SW Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}). This mare was in our operation in South America and she was brought here to our American operation with the intention to sell. We sold her in 2017 in foal to Hard Spun and shortly after, Ivar hit the track and set the world on fire in Argentina. We quickly set to buy this mare back and when we did, she was again in foal to Hard Spun. That filly, foaled in 2020, is now in our racing stable. May Be Now also has a lovely yearling by Yoshida.

She is not in foal this year but we are sending her to Uncle Mo. He's a stallion that we all love. I think we've used him almost every year. This mare has not always been sent to super commercial stallions in the past, so this can generate a commercial mating but at the same time if it's a filly, we have the option of having a really strong broodmare. The mare is a very typical Smart Strike and I think Uncle Mo offers some size that she will benefit from.

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Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: China Horse Club

With the 2022 breeding season underway, we continue to feature a series of breeders' mating plans. Today we talk to China Horse Club's U.S. Representative Fabricio Buffolo.

CARA MARIE (m, 10, Unbridled's Song — Miss Kilroy, by A. P. Indy) to be bred to Uncle Mo

This mare is a beautiful individual from a European female family that was developed by the late Stonerside operation. They raced her second dam Miss Caerleona (FR) (Caerleon).

This year she goes back to Uncle Mo, which will be the same cross that produced her second foal GIIISW and GISP Girl Daddy. She also has a top-class yearling filly by Uncle Mo, so it's a cross that has been working.

COZZE UP LADY (m, 13, Cozzene — The White Lady, by Johannesburg) to be bred to Charlatan

This is a very nice, straightforward mare. We couldn't have been happier with such a nice comeback to the races this month for her second foal Kimari (Munnings) after selling for $2.7 million last November. Fingers crossed she defends her title in the GI Madison S. at Keeneland this spring.

This mare has a very nice Constitution yearling colt. Cozze Up Lady has proven herself already and now we can try something new. She goes to Charlatan–a horse with plenty of speed that proved to be popular amongst breeders. This cross has a similar characteristic to the cross that produced Kimari, as both Munnings and Charlatan are sons of Speightstown.

EMBELLISH THE LACE (m, 10, Super Saver — Expanse, by Distant View) to be bred to Quality Road

Embellish the Lace is a good-looking mare. You look at her and it's one of those cases where it makes sense that she was a top racehorse, winning a Grade I with just a few starts. She has produced two seven-figure yearlings at the sales, one filly by Tapit called Tap the Faith that won first time out and was fifth in a Grade II as a 2-year-old last year and another filly by Into Mischief that is currently a 2-year-old.

She was already covered by Quality Road this year; it was tried last year but unfortunately, she didn't get pregnant.

MOONLIGHT SKY (m, 9, Sky Mesa — Vargas Girl, by Deputy Minister) to be bred to Curlin

This mare is a stakes-placed half-sister to the great Abel Tasman (Quality Road), who gave so much joy to China Horse Club. We are excited about her, as her first foal Urban (Quality Road) was second in a Grade III already in her 3-year-old campaign. She could be a special mare for sure as the family is live with many updates.

This year she is in foal to Tiz the Law and is going to Curlin. His record with some specific A. P. Indy-line mares is impressive. With A. P. Indy mares, he has had 20% stakes winners to runners, including three Grade I winners. Looking at Bernardini mares, he has had 21 runners and eight stakes winners including five at the graded level. It's worth trying with a Sky Mesa mare as long as both physicals fit together.

YELLOW AGATE (m, 8, Gemologist– Lemon Sorbet, by Lemon Drop Kid) to be bred to Constitution

This mare gave China Horse Club a fantastic thrill by winning the 2016 GI Frizette S. in the red and yellow colors.

She is in foal to Quality Road and will be visiting Constitution this year. Constitution is a sire that has been doing well and should reach new heights with his progeny, having bred fantastic books of mares lately. Tiznow, the sire of Gemologist, has had 11 runners when his daughters crossed with Constitution and the mating has produced GISW Tiz the Law as well as MSW and GISP Never Surprised.

LAST FULL MEASURE (m, 14, Empire Maker — Lazy Slusan, by Slewvescent) to be bred to Quality Road

I think that Last Full Measure is what every breeder aspires to have. She is the daughter of a Grade I winner and she herself is a Grade I winner and producer as the dam of Valiance (Tapit).

This year she is in foal to Constitution. A stoutly-made mare and quite strong overall, she could use some scope and Quality Road seem to be a good fit physically.

SAMBUCA CLASSICA (m, 18 Cat Thief– In Her Glory, by Miswaki) to be bred to Quality Road

This is the dam of GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile S. winner and sire Classic Empire. She has produced several other stakes horses in Uptown Twirl (Twirling Candy), Anytime Magic (Fusaichi Pegasus) and Exclamation Point (Concord Point). In partnership with WinStar, we have a full-brother to Classic Empire called Harvard (Pioneerof the Nile) who could be another stakes horse on her resume.

She is currently in foal to Improbable and will be covered this year by Quality Road. Quality Road has had plenty of opportunities with Storm Cat-line broodmare sires and has produced 11 stakes winners. She is a neater type and should benefit from his scope.

IOTAPA (m, 12, Afleet Alex– Concinnous, by El Corredor) to be bred to Not This Time

This mare was quite versatile at the track having won Grade I races over the dirt and synthetic. On the breeding side, she has always produced good-sized foals like herself.

She went to Improbable last year and is close to foaling. This year she is visiting Not This Time, who has had six graded winners so far and five of those are out of Mr. Prospector-line mares.

Let us know who you're breeding your mares to in 2022, and why. We will print a selection of your responses in TDN over the coming weeks. Please send details to: garyking@thetdn.com.

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Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Mt. Brilliant Farm

With the 2022 breeding season underway, we continue to feature a series of breeders' mating plans. Today we have Cooper Sawyer, farm manager of Mt. Brilliant Farm.

MORENA (PER) (m, 18, Privately Held–Charytin {Per}, by Summing) to be bred to Liam's Map

This mare had a really nice Justify filly that we sold at the [Keeneland] September Sale last year ($375,000 to Japanese trainer Hideyuki Mori). This year she has a Constitution filly.

We are going back to Liam's Map with her this year. Morena herself was a champion in Peru and she's also the dam of Creator (Tapit), who won the 2016 GI Belmont S. We were thinking that Liam's Map, with the Unbridled's Song, would give her a little bit more turn of foot, which she needs.

We're big supporters of Liam's Map. We like the quality horse that he gets you and he's doing some really good things. She's also a really big mare, so he will hopefully tidy her up a bit. I think the biggest thing with this mating is that you'll get the natural speed from his pedigree.

SECRET SOMEONE (m, 11, A. P. Indy–Private Gift, by Unbridled) to be bred to Uncle Mo

Secret Someone was bred and raced by [farm owner] Mr. Greg Goodman, so she's a farm favorite. We kept her first filly by Candy Ride (Arg) and then last year we sold her Into Mischief colt to Mike Ryan for $1 million [at KEESEP].

Her dam Private Gift is one of our foundation mares. We have kept a lot of her fillies and raced them ourselves. We've tried to give this mare the absolute best chance we could. When she raced for us, she was third in the GIII Modesty H. and she won the Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf S.

This mare really hits home on a lot of levels for us, so we've tried to give her a big shot. She gives us beautiful foals. We were over the moon with her Into Mischief colt. I've been keeping up with him and he looks very fast. They're very excited about him.

Secret Someone had a Quality Road colt this year and she will be going to Uncle Mo. The Private Gift family works with so many different sire lines. We gave her Quality Road last year to hit on the line of GISW Dunbar Road (Quality Road) [out of a half-sister to Secret Someone] and the Into Mischief is the same line as MGSW Private Mission (Into Mischief) [half-sister to Secret Someone]. So we decided to go a little different route this year with Uncle Mo. He's a wonderful sire and we've done very well with him. He gives her a little bit of that brilliance you can always expect from him.

PRIVATE GIFT (m, 20, Unbridled–Private Status, by Alydar) to be bred to Into Mischief

Private Gift had a foal later in the season last year so we were not able to get her bred back. This year she is going back to Into Mischief. We were so excited with MGSW Private Mission (Into Mischief), who she foaled in 2018. She was such a beautiful filly. We sent her up to Saratoga and Donato Lanni fell in love with her.

URSULA (m, 5, Tapit–Debonnaire {GB}, by Anabaa) to be bred to Munnings

Ursula is a half-sister to G1P Hartnell (Authorized). We actually sent her dam Debonnaire back to Australia a few years ago. We had gotten several foals out of her here and we decided to keep Ursula. We did put her through a sale but we put a high reserve on her because we liked her so much, so we ended up racing her. She was very talented and ran against some top-class fillies. She ran second in two stakes at Fair Grounds.

She has a Medaglia d'Oro yearling filly and this year she had a stunning Into Mischief filly. We are sending her to Munnings this year. Ursula was talented and has some very nice foals, but we wanted to give her a bit more speed. With her international pedigree, we wanted to give her pure dirt without losing sight of her international flare as a half-sister to Hartnell. She was strictly dirt, but we wanted to give the opportunity for turf to still come through with the Speightstown line.

FAMOUS (Ire) (m, 15, Danehil Dancer {Ire}–Starlight Dreams, by Black Tie Affair {Ire}) to be bred to Tapit

Famous is a full-sister to champion Mastercraftsman (Ire). She was bred to Galileo a lot early and we bred her colt II Paradiso (Galileo) who was third in the G1 Melbourne Cup. We went away from Galileo and bred her to Bernardini, which produced stakes-placed Love Beach who is also in our broodmare band.

Famous was Group 1-placed and she has produced Classic-distance horses everywhere. This is a family we're trying to stay in. We were the underbidders on her daughter Sherbet Lemon (Lemon Drop Kid) at Tattersalls last year. There are all kinds of fillies coming up in this family so we're trying to give it a very good shot.

Famous has a Tapit yearling filly and this year she had a Quality Road filly. We have her going back to Tapit. Her yearling by Tapit is really nice so we wanted to repeat that. Tapit is a universal sire and we've done really well with him. We always say that if you're going to breed to Tapit, just get out of Tapit's way. She's a mare that has been somewhat unlucky in that she's been knocking on the door of being a superb broodmare, so we're giving her every chance we can by sending her to Tapit. We have a lot of confidence in her.

Into Mischief colt out of Superioritycomplex (Ire) sells for $1.35 million at the 2021 Keeneland September Sale | Keeneland

SUPERIORITYCOMPLEX (Ire) (m, 8, Hard Spun – Justlookdonttouch (Ire), by Galileo) to be bred to Tapit

This mare and her sister SW Abingdon (Street Cry {Ire}), who we purchased at Newmarket, are exactly what we're looking for in our program. They're mares that have older American families that have gone on to be successful in Europe and we try to bring them back here. We want to be able to take these types of mares and throw some good, old-fashioned dirt back into them and make them great American families again. This is a family that we think is knocking on the door to being a great American family.

We actually raced this mare here in America. She was fourth in a stakes at Arlington.

We first bred her to Into Mischief and got a $1.35-million colt purchased by Winchell Thoroughbreds last year. Unfortunately, she lost her Justify last year. She is now in foal to Tapit and then she will be going back to Tapit. We've been lucky with Tapit and figured it was a great opportunity to use him again. We want to breed to Tapit every chance we can get. We couldn't have been happier with the result from the Into Mischief and we have very high hopes for this mare as a producer.

LOOK ME OVER (m, 5, Hard Spun–Wasted Tears, by Najran) to be bred to Quality Road

As the half-sister to GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Corniche (Quality Road), we figured we would take a flyer and send her to Quality Road. It's a pretty obvious mating. We bought her last year at the Keeneland November Sale. We love Corniche and think he has a very bright future. We've been using Quality Road a lot and really like him. The trend is your friend, so we're not going to go against it.

Look Me Over is in foal to Kitten's Joy this year and we're really excited to see that foal and then send her to Quality Road.

SKY GIRL (m, 12, Sky Mesa–Vargas Girl, by Deputy Minister) to be bred to Maclean's Music

This is the half-sister to champion Abel Tasman (Quality Road). We have done very well with her in the auction ring. We sold a Quality Road yearling for $775,000 to David Ingordo last year. She has an Uncle Mo yearling filly who is a big, Indian Charlie-looking filly and then this year, she is in foal to Nyquist.

This year she is going to Maclean's Music. We have been using him for a while. We wanted to give this mare as much speed as possible. Maclean's Music is no secret anymore and his one start was, as everyone says, jaw-dropping. We figured that the A. P. Indy coming from Pulpit with her is a really good cross with him. We've used Maclean's Music a lot recently. We like what we are seeing out of his foals, so we believe in him enough to throw this kind of mare at him.

ITHINKISAWAPUDYCAT (m, 13, Bluegrass Cat – Unbridled Run, by Unbridled) to be bred to Curlin

This is an awesome mare; she's been very good to us. She's the dam of GISW Sweet Loretta (Tapit). We have had very nice-looking foals out of her and have raced almost everything out of her. We have her Tapit colt Predicted who is doing well and is in training now. We sold her Uncle Mo filly last year and this year we have a Quality Road yearling filly who is exceptional. She has a lot of leg and she's very classy and forward-looking. We can't wait to show her to the team at Fasig-Tipton for Saratoga.

I think if we were going to be critical of this mare, she doesn't put as much substance into her foals. They're all very athletic but they're medium-sized. This year we are sending her to Curlin, who I think will give her more substance to get that top-class, superior racehorse.

We put a lot of thought into our matings with Greg, Hutton and Bo Goodman, Marette Farrell and myself. We go through so many different things. It takes a lot for us to breed to an unproven stallion. We almost always go proven. We don't care who everyone else is breeding to. We try to breed the best athlete we can to get the best racehorse. Putting that in mind, Curlin jumped out at us this year. We've used him in the past and I think he's what we're looking for to get a bit more substance out of this mare.

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Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Brushy Hill

With the 2022 breeding season underway, we continue to feature a series of breeders' mating plans. Today we have Brian Moore of Brushy Hill, LLC, breeder of recent G1 Saudi Cup winner Emblem Road (Quality Road).

Before getting into Brushy Hill's mating plans this year, we asked Moore about the story behind the mating, which was put together by the late Mike Recio, that produced Emblem Road.

“That was a Mike Recio special,” Moore said. “All the matings up until last year and our entire portfolio is because of Mike's involvement. Emblem Road's dam Venturini (Bernardini) was out of a great race mare from a really exciting family. We bought her in foal to Temple City in 2016 and we felt like we got a great deal at $62,000. That first foal by Temple City went up to Canada and was stakes placed there. At that point we felt like we had a little bit of support behind the mare, so we wanted to go big with her breeding. Mike was super high on Quality Road that year and felt like he was the big horse on the upswing. Turns out he was right.”

Emblem Road fetched $230,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September Sale with South Point Sales Agency.

In 2020, Venturini produced a colt by Nyquist who sold for $185,000 at the Keeneland January Sale to OXO Equine, but Moore said the mare died shortly after foaling that year.

“It's unfortunate because we've done so well with all the babies out of her. She was producing runners, so it will be exciting to see what will happen with the Nyquist colt and hopefully this is the jumping off point for Emblem Road. We'll be watching and rooting for him.”

Moore said that Brushy Hill's program will be sending 15 mares to the breeding shed this year. While at one point they had over 25 mares, he said they have since scaled back due in large part to the loss of partner and advisor Recio.

“It was kind of a regrouping because he was our partner in a lot of these and obviously the advisor on all of them,” Moore explained. “We also thought that last year was a good time to do it. We weren't sure what the market would look like this year so we didn't want to get caught holding too much.”

Moore noted that maintaining a boutique-sized broodmare band helps them focus on their goal of seeking quality over quantity.

“It allows us to pick stallions that we really like without getting bogged down on what our total stud fee bill looks like,” he said. “I think the market is such that you have to breed to quality. Everyone knows that the middle market can be tough, so you have to try to play to the top of the market as best you can. For us, that means finding mares that maybe didn't make it as superstar racehorses but have quality, exciting, active families.”

ALMADA (m, 8, Lonhro (Aus) – Amerique (Ire), by Galileo (Ire)) to be bred to Violence

This year Almada will be going to Violence. Of course he was hot when he came off the track and we have always loved him.

Almada is a really nice mare out of a great European family. She had a filly a few years ago that we sold to Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners called Dressed (More Than Ready). We expect great things from her this year and we think the mare will get support from her on the track, so we're going back to a really nice, proven stallion for Almada. She had an Improbable colt a few days ago. We went unproven last year and this year we're going back to proven.

CATENARY (m, 7, Arch – Grand Pauline, by Two Punch) to be bred to Good Magic

Catenary is a big, beautiful Arch mare from the family of GIISW Keen Pauline (Pulpit). She never really made it as a racehorse but we love an Arch mare any chance we can get one and obviously her family is impressive. She had terrible luck last year from a breeding standpoint and with her being such a big mare, we have to be really careful about getting huge foals.

This year we are sending her to Good Magic. He has had some tremendous foals. While most of what we do is to sell, if we end up with a good filly that's by Good Magic and out of a nice Arch mare, that is something we would be totally content to keep and race in our own stable. We look at everything in terms of being as commercial as possible without getting to the point to where it's not something we would want to race ourselves.

CELIA'S SONG (m, 7, Distorted Humor – Warbling, by Unbridled's Song) to be bred to Audible

Celia's Song is named after my daughter, so she's one that will stick around with us for a while. We bought her as a 2-year-old and she won some races for us. She had a beautiful Ghostzapper colt last year. She foaled late, so we decided to keep her open.

This year she is going to Audible. Everyone loves Audible and is doing well with him. We've had a couple Audible fillies and have loved every single one we've seen, so this was an easy choice.

FORENSIC (m, 11, Medaglia d'Oro – Criminologist, by Maria's Mon) to be bred to Practical Joke

This mare is out of a great family and we also used to own her dam, a multiple stake-producing mare. Forensic was one of the first mares we bought for our breeding program, so she's another one that is a sentimental favorite.

Going back, this mare has had a Lemon Drop Kid, a Flatter, a Mastery and a Speightstown. It's a really blue-blooded family and she's a nice Medaglia d'Oro mare, so we try to breed her to as much class as we can. She will be going to Practical Joke. He's one that was a great horse to watch on the track and we've been big supporters of him. It's an easy decision for us to breed to Practical Joke. The battle we have is cutting the list down of who we want to send to him because he checks so many boxes of what we're looking for in a stallion. Plus, Forensic is a smaller mare with a slighter frame and we think Practical Joke will complement some of her size shortcomings.

OSAGE TREATY (m, 5, Declaration of War – Legendary Peace, by Peace Rules) to be bred to Mitole

This is a really beautiful mare. She was a $170,000 yearling and a nice turf mare, which we always like. We first bred her to Street Boss and this year she will be going back to Mitole. Last year we had one Mitole foal that we absolutely love. I know this is his third year which is always a roll of the dice, but he was such an impressive racehorse that we think adding speed to her turf pedigree is going to be really exciting. It's an easy formula for us.

VENKAT (m, 7, Distorted Humor – Stormy Welcome, by Storm Cat) to be bred to Upstart

We love her family and this mare is beautiful physically. We kind of struggled with her this year in deciding what we wanted to do with her, but in the end it was kind of a roll of the dice but we're going to go with Upstart. He's a horse that we've always liked. I really like Flatter as a stallion. When we started breeding, he was relatively new and we really liked the foals we had by him. I think Upstart is great value at $10,000 this year and I've always liked how Airdrie has managed their stallions. If we're right and he has a big year this year, with this mare's page I think we have the opportunity to do really well with the horse.

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