Alice Chandler | Horse Racing Free Tips

First Foal for Aloha West

Aloha West (Hard Spun–Island Bound, by Speightstown) was represented by his first foal when Bashful (Orb) produced a colt by the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Monday at Machmer Hall Farm.

“The baby has great bone, size, and substance,” said Machmer Hall owner Craig Brogden. “Very happy with the beautiful baby.”

In addition to the 2021 Breeders' Cup Sprint, Aloha West also finished second in that year's GII Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix S. and third in the 2022 GI Churchill Downs S.

Aloha West stands at Mill Ridge Farm for $8,500 LF.

“As a side note, this foal was born on my grandmother, Alice Chandler's birthday,” said Mill Ridge's Price Bell. “Also, Oscar Performance's first foal was born on her birthday, January 15, 2020…serendipitous!”

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This Side Up: A Tour With Many Dates

Well, I guess in the week we lost Mrs. Chandler–that elegant bridge at the center of five generations (and counting) of Kentucky horse lore–nobody will need reminding to take the long view. Certainly not Shug McGaughey, who will perhaps be reminding the disappointed connections of Greatest Honour (Tapit) how things didn't turn out too badly for Coronado's Quest (Forty Niner) after he was likewise derailed from the Classic trail. Maybe Greatest Honour can now become Shug's fifth winner of the GI Travers S., a race with an even longer history than the one he was targeting on the first Saturday in May.

Even so, the heart goes out to Mr. Adam and his team at Courtlandt Farm. We learn perspective with the passing of years, but horses teach us forbearance every single day. (That's the idea, anyway: some of us remain stubbornly slow to absorb our lessons…) But there's no getting away from it. Greatest Honour's absence further weakens a GI Kentucky Derby already deprived of the charismatic Life Is Good (Into Mischief); and reiterates how ruthlessly the race secures its mystique. Because from the moment every single Thoroughbred colt slithers into the straw, his breeders will already know the date–set in stone, albeit three Mays hence–when he will need to be fit and firing if he is to fulfil their ultimate dream.

True, last year was an unprecedented exception, as will be bitterly remembered by those who presented Nadal (Blame) and Charlatan (Speightstown) in imperious condition on the first Saturday in May. Oaklawn stepped up to the plate that day, after Churchill had unilaterally subverted the whole calendar (making a gamble, of course, that didn't pay off anyway). Water under the bridge, by now, and anyway imperfection is a constant of our species–and especially pardonable, as such, in such bewildering times. Oaklawn themselves, after all, arguably diluted their service to the breed by dividing a race that might just as well have been extended, exceptionally, into a 10th furlong.

This time round we must settle for a field that depends pretty exorbitantly on one colt. After the defections already suffered, certainly, we don't want that blanket of roses to lose any more petals. Concert Tour (Street Sense) arrives with an immaculate record to date, and bids to emulate Sunny's Halo (Halo), Smarty Jones (Elusive Quality) and American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile) by adding the Arkansas and Kentucky Derbys to the GII Rebel S.

Bob Baffert permitted himself comparisons with American Pharoah himself in the ease and swagger of Concert Tour's Rebel performance and, given how most of these were strewn hopelessly in his wake that day, the most intriguing question this time is whether their trainer will now extend the similarities by seeking some evidence of versatility. If he Concert Tour can rate as readily as Pharoah, that will obviously open up options in the 20-runner stampede at Churchill. Such an experiment, moreover, may well result in a more meaningful test here, as Caddo River (Hard Spun) clearly did not respond well when denied a chance to throw down the gauntlet in the Rebel. It was almost like he was stamping his feet and hollering that everybody knows you don't give an uncontested lead to horses from that barn.

As we've noted in the past, it was in the 1993 Arkansas Derby that Ben Glass saddled Rockamundo (Key To The Mint) for a 108-1 success that introduced patrons Gary and Mary West to the next level in their adventure on Turf. A lot of their success since traces to the happy fact that they were able to persuade Glass to stay on as racing manager after he quit training a couple of years later, and the homebred Concert Tour has the wholesome two-turn pedigree central to this program.

The Wests also bred Life Is Good, selling him for $525,000 as a yearling, but were already amply versed in the kind of vicissitudes that can befall a Derby horse. Two years ago they discovered that there are zero guarantees even if you not only show up on the day to run the race of your life, but also beat 19 rivals to that winning post. Maybe Concert Tour is the colt to redress their experience with Maximum Security (New Year's Day); maybe not. Who can say? Because the way destiny operates, in selecting a single member of the crop for that place in the Derby annals, is entirely unreadable.

None of us, then, can determine our fulfilment with Thoroughbreds solely on a two-minute roll of the dice in a race for which the odds of being both eligible and fit are so enormous. You wouldn't, for instance, want Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) to stand or fall on his performance under the Twin Spires: he was stone last that day, but while the winner Nyquist (Uncle Mo) has meanwhile sired an Eclipse Award winner, Whitmore was himself honored at the same ceremony at the age of eight, having discovered his true metier in sprinting.

And, to be fair, he's the real star turn on this card. The old gelding makes his fifth appearance in the GIII Count Fleet H., in which race only another champion, Mitole (Eskendereya), has ever beaten him.

Currently tied with 1965 Arkansas Derby winner Swift Ruler (Sir Ruler) on seven stakes wins at Oaklawn, he stands on the brink of the outright record. Whatever happens, he is already a Hot Springs legend and a huge credit to Ron Moquett.

Let's not forget that in terms of their optimal maturity, all these sophomores we obsess about are barely adolescent. Unfortunately, we tend to permit Thoroughbreds their full racetrack potential only by removing their competence to recycle at stud the hardiness they can then explore. That's one of the reasons I hope that Whitmore's contemporary Tom's d'Etat excels at WinStar. Because sometimes the only way horses can teach us the long view is if we let them play a long game.

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Chandler Made Sure Daddy’s Legacy Endured

As the librarians at Keeneland were making plans to move items from the old facility in the general offices to a new, larger building, they realized how many duplicates they had of many books, periodicals, papers, catalogs, etc.

Working at The Blood-Horse at the time, I received a call inquiring if the publication would be interested in any items. As the library there was bursting at the seams, the short answer was no.

But … I would come take a look.

Searching through boxes, I found a set of old, old stud books and decided to take them. Surely I could find a place somewhere.

That somewhere ended up being in my office.

Six months later, I had cause to look up something in one of those books. Sitting down with worn leather bindings in my hands, I noticed writing inside the front cover. There in cursive was the name Hal Price Headley.

I phoned his daughter, Alice Chandler, at her Mill Ridge Farm, and we had a wonderful conversation–one of many over the years–about the books.

Hal Price Headley was a co-founder and former president of Keeneland and we figured they were in his office and later boxed up and put in the library, as were many of his archives.

I could feel Alice's warm smile through the phone lines as we chatted.

I offered to bring the books to her, but in typical Alice fashion, she insisted that I keep them. She said her Daddy–she always called him that–would be happy with them on my shelves.

Years later, the day I learned The Blood-Horse was moving from its longtime home on Alexandria Drive to Beaumont Centre Circle, the first person I phoned with the news was Alice.

It was fun telling her that her Daddy's books were coming home, so to speak. Beaumont Centre is named for Hal Price Headley's Beaumont Farm, which once encompassed 4,000 acres of land outside Lexington.

Today Lexington has grown well past Beaumont.

Alice, who died this week at 95, took part of the old family land and developed Mill Ridge, now overseen by her children and grandchildren.

Alice Chandler was a pioneer in the Thoroughbred industry, as has been beautifully recounted in recent days. Sure, she and I often discussed racing, breeding, sales, industry topics, etc., but most often we loved to chat about the history of the game, the days of Sir Ivor, whom she bred, and when stallions covered maybe 32 mares in a season.

She was a great storyteller. Seems her Daddy taught her well.

And, just as her Daddy was aware of continued industry success by passing along his land to his daughter, she, too, knew the future of her family in the business was secure.

I will miss Alice Chandler, but there is much comfort in that thought.

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The Next Generation with Shayna Tiller

The TDN has partnered with Amplify Horse Racing to present “The Next Generation,” an ongoing video series featuring young people who were not born into the Thoroughbred business, but are now excelling within the industry.

Growing up next to Laurel Park, 24-year-old Shayna Tiller always felt a strong attraction to horse racing. But it wasn’t until she was in college that she decided to pursue a career in the industry.

On a whim, she applied for an internship with the Saratoga Special. After spending one summer at the Spa, she was hooked for life. Over the past four years, Shayna has been on a whirlwind tour of the industry- doing everything from foaling out mares, chasing down a story on the Saratoga backstretch, working as an exercise rider, and interning for Fasig-Tipton.

Last year, she graduated from the Irish National Stud course. She now works as the Director of Sales for Mill Ridge Farm, and also shares her passion for promoting the stories of the people behind the sport through the ‘Riders Up’ Podcast she created with roommate Autry Graham.

KR: How did you get involved in horse racing?

ST: I’m originally from Laurel, Maryland and I grew up 10 minutes from the racetrack there. My mom and sister are deathly allergic to horses, ironically, so no one in my family was really into it. But my parents are from Bowie, Maryland and my dad always liked to go to the track and he took me with him a couple times. I did one Pony Pal ride there, and I was sold for life.

So I rode horses growing up, and I did a school project in high school on Lasix in horse racing and I interned with some of the state vets there at Laurel and Pimlico. I learned all about it and was kind of hooked from that point.

When I was in college at the University of Maryland, we had to apply for a fake internship as part of the general education requirements. I found an ad for the Saratoga Special, and just decided to apply. So I shipped up to Saratoga, didn’t even know what a blacktype race was, and I was interviewing Todd Pletcher the next day.

They put us up in a barn apartment above the McMahon’s Farm. Ann McMahon drives a car with a license plate that says ‘Funny Cide One’ on it. They raised Funny Cide and he was my favorite horse growing up. So I thought, “Well, I want to come back and learn more.” So I spent my winters with them, and any break I had from college, I was there.

I transferred my last year of college to a smaller agricultural school in Pennsylvania to get more hands-on experience. I galloped in the mornings and interned with the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation when it was in its beginning stages. Then I was with Fasig-Tipton for a while before going to Ireland for the Irish National Stud Program last year.

So I guess as a new person in the industry who knew that I knew nothing, I wanted to get a full perspective on the industry and I was just eating it up. I think that’s what’s so cool, is that people in this industry really allow you to do anything you’re interested in.

KR: What was it that drew you to this industry?

ST: I think that it’s all rooted in a love for the horse. I went to college to be a vet, but when I was going through it, I realized I didn’t really want to do that. When you grow up as a little horse girl you think you’re either going to be a barn manager or maybe manage a tack shop or be a vet. So when I found horse racing, I just saw that you can actually go and make a career for yourself and work in a dynamic industry, and that’s what drew me in.

Being in Saratoga, it’s the most inspiring place you can be, really. I was around the top horses in the country and the top trainers- the people you see on TV. I wanted more and more of it, and it snowballed from there.

KR: What is your favorite part about this business?

ST: I really love the sales. I think what’s so cool about them is you sell horses at different stages of life and you’re trying to find where they’re going to peak. It’s also a bit of a matchmaking project with each horse, so it’s really neat seeing them grow, especially the foals to yearlings and the yearlings to 2-year-olds. You’re trying to find the perfect match of who’s going to purchase them and then you get to see them go on and win races and become big bad race horses that you’ve seen since they were babies. There’s really nothing like it.

KR: Tell us about what you do now.

ST: I’m the Director of Sales at Mill Ridge Farm. Mill Ridge was founded by Alice Chandler in 1962, which is really special for me, being a woman in the industry as well. She was just inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. So it’s kind of cool to be a female working here and carry on her legacy.

In my position, I oversee all of the sales operations, so that consists of recruiting, seeing the horses prep and placing them in sales, and then working in marketing to make sure they reach the right buyers and communicating with clients to help them succeed. I get to do a lot of different things, which is what’s so fun. No day is the same, and obviously going to the sales is a whole other job when I do that.

Another fun thing I do with my roommate Autry Graham is we started a podcast called Riders Up. We’re two young girls in racing and we like to have conversations with different people on the podcast and talk about their lives. It’s not your stereotypical handicapping podcast. You don’t want our picks. We tell the stories behind the business, and it’s really fun. You can find us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and we have an Instagram that we interact with a lot too.

KR: What are your career goals?

ST: I’ve always wanted to have my own consignment, so that’s something that I’m getting a little taste of here at Mill Ridge. I’m hoping in the next 10-plus years, I’ll be able to do that on my own.

KR: If you could change one thing about this industry, what would it be?

ST: I think if I could change one thing, it would be how we interact with the public. I come from a family that knows nothing about horse racing, so every time we have our newest public scandal or whatever the situation may be, I hear it from the public’s standpoint, rather than our standpoint as an industry. I think it’s so important for us to educate the public and tell them what’s really going on and be more transparent, because the more transparent you are, the less you have to lose.

I also think we need to work to appeal to the public. My friends all used to go to the Preakness and they wouldn’t even watch a horse race during the day, but they all got hooked on it from there, and it made them want to go back for more. It was more like a sporting event for them than a serious gambling experience. So I think we need to improve our engagement with the public.

KR: What was it like being a total newcomer in the sport?

ST: I was definitely very intimidated when I first started in racing. It just seems completely isolated and you don’t really know how you’re going to break that barrier. I got into it pretty late. I was in college when I first started, and I was around people who have grown up in it their whole lives and knew all these things that I didn’t even know were possible.

I’ve found though, in racing, how much people do embrace you once you actually get into it and show you want to learn. I have had so many great people who have helped me along the way. It’s kind of incredible. I don’t know why they’ve done so much for me. So I think that was the initial struggle, but now I just feel really lucky to be a part of it, and it’s amazing how much people help you.

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