Transatlantic Syndicate Magnolia Racing Blossoms at Goffs

Some enterprises of great pitch and moment take years to come to fruition. Some take just a few weeks.

The latter scenario is true of the new partnership between bloodstock agent Justin Casse and trainer Joseph O'Brien. When Magnolia Racing Syndicate spent €562,000 at the recent Goffs Orby Sale, the group was built on relationships years in the making, but sprouted quickly from an idea into action.

“I started kicking the idea of a transatlantic syndicate around three or four months ago,” said Casse. “The fine-tuning part of who would get behind me and support me in this came to mind in the last 30 days, when I left the Arqana sale in France.”

Magnolia Racing plans to purchase 10 or so yearlings at sales in Europe and America, race them as 2-year-olds in both North America and Europe and then sell them next fall and winter at horses-of-racing-age sales, said Casse. They picked up seven at Goffs, all with purchase prices between €42,000 and €125,000. The horses, all with turf pedigrees, will be trained by O'Brien at his base, Owning Hill in County Kilkenny, Ireland.

In just 30 days, Casse assembled a supportive group of partners. “Almost all of them have had some level of participation in racing, whether it be frequent attendees of the Derby, one-off pinhookers that have partnered with me, and handicappers,” he said. “There is one other industry professional involved.”

At Goffs Orby, they bought seven colts and fillies, just three of them for six figures; a Footstepsinthesand (GB) colt, a Zoffany (Ire) colt, and a Sioux Nation colt.

For Casse, it's a slight change of direction in career, but one that leads him back down familiar paths.

Casse's roots are in Florida, the scion of a family who made its name, in many ways, with 2-year-olds.

“The pinhooking and breeze-up part of me is looking at these horses for their value and what they could sell for if they run well,” Casse said, “as opposed to trying not to get carried away, and pay end-user prices.”

You might say the Casses are an American equivalent to the O'Briens; Justin and his brother, Mark, are the successful sons of a successful father; Joseph and his brother Donnacha, the successful sons of Aidan, perhaps the world's greatest trainer. Both O'Brien sons were champion jockeys in Ireland, and daughters Sarah and Ana have ridden professionally as well, while their mother Annemarie was the first in the family to be champion trainer. Training for just five years now, Joseph has already trained the winners of a British Classic, a Breeders' Cup race, and two Melbourne Cups.

The pair has partnered in the past; Casse purchased Pretty Gorgeous (Fr) for John Oxley for 525,000gns at the 2019 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. Under Joseph's care, she was a 'TDN Rising Star' and Group 1 winner.

“I've been fortunate enough to have horses now with Joseph since the first year he started and what I've witnessed has far exceeded the expectations that I had,” he said. “I believe that he's a special person going special places and more than anything, I'm just happy to be a part of that.”

The concept of family is clearly a strong one, and one that resonates.

“Working with the family has been rejuvenating, and it has had a profound impact on my personal life as well as my professional life,” he said. “I think that their ability to stay close-knit and support one another and also care for old relationships in such a valuable place like they do has really taught me some life lessons. Aidan and Annemarie's level of horsemanship is equally matched by their ability to get the most out of people with compassion.”

In many ways as well, their lives prove to be a different model from the kind of self-promotional ones we find in America.

“Checking your ego at the door is key,” said Casse. “It was hard for some people to get past the prospect of my only working for family members, so that was always going to be difficult. As much as having the last name Casse could get you very far, it could also have its challenges from time to time.”

But Casse, who spent a semester in London while at Florida State, where he graduated with a B.A. in International Affairs, has always had an affinity for Europe. From his forays, he has brought back to America the likes of Preakness winner War of Will (War Front), who now stands at Claiborne Farm.

“In America, the attrition rate of the horses is tough,” he said. “European racing has been easy for me to get behind because it has a very high percentage of horses who make it to the races, and so we have a fair shot to succeed.”

He's not the only one who has caught onto this, he observed. “Obviously, Goffs had the greatest participation of Americans that it ever had. There's a heightened focus on turf racing in America. There's a great product here (in Europe) that can be developed, but yet, the prospect is to take advantage of American purse money while having the horses begin here. I have American partners in the syndicate who love the idea of running at Saratoga or Kentucky Downs in $150,000 maiden races. Obviously, there's a lot of prestige in Europe as well and it's really a hotbed for selling young horses when they run well first out, and that is a very promising prospect as well. The horses that we have begun to purchase have reasonably tradable prices, and prices where we can profit from earning purse money.”

Casse's father Norm, of course, was a co-founder of the Ocala Breeders' Sale Company, among many other achievements. His farm, Cardinal Hill, was on Magnolia Avenue, and the elder Casse planted 30 of the trees up and down the driveway, giving his son the task of nurturing them. “The majority of our partners are from the South,” said Casse, where the magnolia tree is a symbol of the region.

Next up, Magnolia turns its eye toward Tattersalls and Fasig-Tipton October, where the 2022 purses at Kentucky Downs will make Kentucky-breds all the more appealing. While they'll get their start in Ireland with O'Brien, the forward types that they're buying could potentially race anywhere, and certainly in America.

Casse said that O'Brien would handle the Arqana October sale, while he'll head to Fasig. In Europe for two weeks now, he's been away from his 11-year-old son long enough.

“As much as the sales are important,” he said “we try to keep the sense of family more important.”

If there is one thing that Casse and the O'Briens have learned in their time in racing, it's that family trumps all.

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Grade I Winner Santa Barbara Dies

Santa Barbara (Ire) (Camelot {GB}-Senta's Dream {GB}, by Danehill), the winner of this year's GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S. and GI Beverly D. S., has died after suffering complications from a fractured pelvis.

“Unfortunately she had fractured her pelvis and that displaced overnight,” said trainer Aidan O'Brien. “It's terrible really, when it displaced it caused internal bleeding and we didn't have any choice as she was in a lot of pain. It's such a shame.”

Bred by Aidan and Annemarie O'Brien's Whisperview Trading, Santa Barbara won her lone start at two at The Curragh last September and was early favourite for the G1 1000 Guineas and G1 Cazoo Oaks. She missed the board in both those races, but bounced back to be a neck second in the G1 Pretty Polly S. at The Curragh on July 27 before reeling off an American Grade I double. Santa Barbara was a half-sister to Breeders' Cup winners Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler of the World {Ire}) and Order Of Australia (Ire) (Australia {GB}), and their second dam, Starine (Fr) (Mendocino), won the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf for Bobby Frankel.

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Heider Purchases Agartha

Scott Heider has purchased the July 22 G3 Silver Flash S. winner Agartha (Ire) (Caravaggio) from breeder Annemarie O'Brien, with the 2-year-old filly set to stay in training with Joseph O'Brien.

One of three first-crop stakes winners thus far for Caravaggio, Agartha was placed on four occasions-including second-place finishes to 'TDN Rising Stars' Sacred Bridge (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}) and Homeless Songs (Ire) Frankel {GB})–before breaking her maiden by 2 3/4 lengths in the Silver Flash. She is the first foal out of Arya Tara (Ire) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}), with Group 1 winners Astarabad and Azamour (Ire) appearing under the third dam.

Heider, a Grade I-winning owner in America, has campaigned stakes winners Pista (American Pharoah), Crossfirehurricane (Kitten's Joy) and My Generation (Speightstown) with O'Brien.

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Noughts and Crosses Behind a Dream Mare

Now I do realise that I am in a minority of one here. But while everyone else seems to perceive some unique alchemy between Galileo (Ire) and Danehill, to me the number of good horses obtained by that cross is pretty much as you should expect when one breed-shaping stallion is mated with the daughters of another. After all, their dams will in turn have been well-bred and/or accomplished runners, simply to have gained access to an elite sire. If we call this “selective breeding”, we are surely flattering ourselves.

That said, it’s easy to acknowledge an elementary logic in combining the trademark influences of their respective sires; in reuniting the crucial division of Northern Dancer’s legacy between Sadler’s Wells stamina and Danzig speed. Seeking the best of both worlds, speed that can be carried Classic distances, is the simplest grail of all. It seldom works out, mind you, and hardly ever to the epoch-making degree we saw in Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), the ultimate template for the cross.

Regardless, there’s no arguing with the dividends achieved by John Magnier and his partners in Coolmore, who found themselves with paddocks full of Danehill mares just as Galileo was on the rise. And the model was eagerly adopted elsewhere.

The cross was back in focus last Saturday, after Ballydoyle’s historic GI FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile clean sweep. The winner, to general astonishment, was Order Of Australia (Ire)–by Galileo’s son Australia (GB) out of a mare from the very last crop of Danehill. And runner-up Circus Maximus (Ire) is by Galileo himself out of a Danehill Dancer (Ire) mare. Third (and fastest) to finish, Lope Y Fernandez (Ire), represented a different sire-line but completed a distaff trifecta for Danehill and his daughters, as a son of Lope De Vega (Ire) out of a Dansili (GB) mare.

All three, unusually for Ballydoyle, were the work of breeders other than Coolmore, entering the stable either through partnership or auction purchase. Lope Y Fernandez, bred by SF Bloodstock, was recruited as a €900,000 Arqana August yearling; while Circus Maximus (Ire) was bred by co-owners Flaxman Stables. But the winner himself attested to the mastery of his supervision in a fashion still more instructive, perhaps, than this unprecedented Breeders’ Cup 1-2-3.

For Order Of Australia is a half-brother to Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler Of The World), who won her fourth elite prize in the GI Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita last year. And both were bred by Aidan O’Brien and his wife Annemarie, herself a remarkable horsewoman, from a mare that cost just 14,000gns. (In the case of Iridessa, of course, their accomplishments extended to having also bred and raised the trainer, their son Joseph.)

Senta’s Dream (GB) was presumably added to the O’Briens’ Whisperview Trading broodmare band primarily because, as just noted, she belonged to that final crop of Danehill. (Along with the likes of Peeping Fawn, Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) and Duke Of Marmalade (Ire)… Gosh, the champ really was still in his pomp!)

While necessarily only part-time breeders, horse people as devoted and inspired as the O’Briens could never treat Whisperview as a mere pastime. With their access to so many different stallions “made” by Aidan, their customary professionalism has duly reaped many dividends besides Senta’s Dream. With Annemarie’s late father, the hugely respected Joe Crowley, the O’Briens co-bred Danehill’s record-breaking son Rock Of Gibraltar (Ire); and have since produced such Group 1 winners as Kingbarns (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), Beethoven (Ire) (Oratorio {Ire}) and the Fastnet Rock (Aus) pair Intricately (Ire) and Qualify (Ire). But the way they have realised the potential latent in Senta’s Dream represents a new peak.

The Breeders’ Cup is in the mare’s blood, as she is one of just two foals–and the only daughter–delivered by Starine (Fr) (Mendocino), who preceded Iridessa on the Filly and Mare Turf roll of honour by 17 years. Starine, however, had such a plain pedigree that Bobby Frankel was unable to find an owner when he imported her from France, and ended up racing her in the silks of one R.J. Frankel. He had the last laugh, cashing her in for $1 million to Newsells Park Stud at the Keeneland November Sale straight after the Breeders’ Cup.

Starine was all that salvaged her sire from oblivion. A son of Theatrical (Ire), Mendocino did win a small stakes race in France for owner-breeder Allen Paulson but his eligibility for stud presumably rested on the fact that his dam was by Caro (Ire) out of a half-sister to Exclusive Native. As a result, the mating that produced Starine did yield one conspicuous feature in a 3×3 presence for Caro, whose son Kaldoun (Fr) had sired her dam. But by the time Starine won at Arlington Park, her sire had mustered 61 foals across eight crops and just half a dozen other winners. Nor was there the least distinction in the past two or three generations of Starine’s maternal family.

Yet by the time the yearling Senta’s Dream was sent to Deauville in August, the death of both her illustrious parents had made her appear worth retaining at €300,000. After failing to make the track, however, her first foals made little impact either in the ring or at the races and she was culled as a 9-year-old for 14,000gns, the docket signed by BBA Ireland, at the Tattersalls December Sale of 2013.

Her new owners were quick to turn around her fortunes. Even the Equiano (Fr) filly she was carrying at the time was processed as a yearling for €92,000. (Now six, Tisa River (Ire) resurfaces as lot 1680 in the forthcoming Tattersalls December Sale.) And while Senta’s Dream appears to have missed the following year, her 2015 assignment with Ruler Of The World would give that luckless stallion–who suffered an untimely injury during his first covering season–the outstanding achievement to date, in Iridessa, of a career he is now pursuing in France.

Her next foal was Order Of Australia. He has clearly been well regarded all along, tried in the G1 Irish Derby and G1 Prix du Jockey Club when still a maiden. But the inspiration that he was not getting home, and should be dropped to a turning mile, would have eluded most of us after subsequent wins at 10 and 12 furlongs.

He was given his debut at the backend, remember, over a mile in heavy ground at Naas. But he travelled with high energy in a very different environment last Saturday and, while plainly well served by a jockey in electric form, looks absolutely entitled to consolidate his reinvention next year.

This feels like a key moment in the career of his young sire, whose Group 1 breakthrough had come just a few weeks previously when Galileo Chrome (Ire)–himself out of a Dansili mare–met the gruelling demands of the G1 St Leger. That Australia should impart that kind of stamina was unsurprising, as a Derby winner famously by a Derby winner out of Oaks winner Ouija Board (GB) (Cape Cross) (Ire); and, indeed, his only previous crop had produced the Leger runner-up in Sir Ron Priestley (GB).

But let’s not forget that Australia was beaten under a length by Night Of Thunder (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Kingman (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) in the G1 2000 Guineas. Or that he outpaced The Grey Gatsby (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) over 10 furlongs on fast ground in the G1 Juddmonte International. As a 2-year-old, moreover, he had thrashed subsequent Group 1 winner Free Eagle (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) by six lengths at Leopardstown.

Sure enough, two of Australia’s first juveniles were denied Group 1 prizes only by a neck apiece: Broome (Ire) in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, and Sydney Opera House (Ire) in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud. The latter race obviously represents an extreme test for a youngster, but at least Australia was quickly proving that he could produce an eligible Classic type at an accessible fee. Broome, indeed, failed by just half a length to emulate his sire and grandsire at Epsom, having taken the Ballysax-Derrinstown route often reserved at Ballydoyle for the “anointed” colt of the crop.

With the maturing of his stock, Australia has advanced annually within his intake: fourth in the prizemoney table with his first juveniles; third last year; and looking booked for second this time round, with a class-high five Group 1 performers, plus a tally of seven Group winners shared only by Kingman.

Despite having managed more or less to “lie up” with Kingman and No Nay Never–whose precocious achievements have sent their fees through the roof–Australia had been eased from an opening €50,000 to €27,500 for 2020. As such, especially in the current environment, a fee of €25,000 for 2021 represents a pretty solid “hold”.

Whatever the future holds for Australia, the fact is that Senta’s Dream has consecutively given two stallions their outstanding achiever to date. So perhaps the most exciting aspect of her story is the stunning debut of her latest juvenile, whose sire Camelot (GB) had been getting on very nicely without her. Santa Barbara (Ire), again registered in the regular Coolmore surnames plus Mrs. A.M. O’Brien, looked some prospect when outclassing 17 maidens at The Curragh in September.

No Galileo over Danehill here, obviously, with Camelot representing the Montjeu (Ire) branch of the Sadler’s Wells hegemony. (Actually Camelot instead introduces extra Danehill, as sire of his second dam.) Sometimes it really does seem as though we’re all simply seeking a proxy for Sadler’s Wells-Danzig. In the case of Australia himself, for instance, Galileo combines with the alternative route to Danzig, Ouija Board being by a son of Green Desert.

And the thing is that stretching a nick this far dismisses, for no intelligible reason, a ton of other good stuff in the vicinity. In the case of Santa Barbara, for instance, a lot of “Special” stuff. Camelot’s damsire Kingmambo was out of Nureyev’s peerless daughter Miesque; Mendocino was by Nureyev’s son Theatrical; and Nureyev’s mother Special also produced the dam of Sadler’s Wells.

Before her acquisition by the O’Briens, Senta’s Dream was tried with a son of Sadler’s Wells, High Chaparral (Ire), and a son of Montjeu, Motivator (GB), with dismal results. The simpler the breeding “formula”, the more it resembles a “system”, the more wary we should be. The only rule is that there are no rules. (Think Mendocino.)

In planning matings, I feel we should really only seek balance, in terms of type; and depth, in terms of pedigree. When people talk about nicks between entire sire-lines, often branded by patriarchs who have meanwhile receded into a third or fourth generation, I never understand why they feel able to discard so many other genetic strands with an equal footprint.

True, a wider reading of this cross soon takes us to the same kind of place anyway. Galileo and Danehill are both grandsons of Northern Dancer but Danehill brings that extra shot of Natalma into the equation, Northern Dancer’s dam also being granddam of Danehill’s mother Razyana. And Razyana is out of Buckpasser mare, just like Galileo’s damsire Miswaki.

In fact, if you think about it, there’s an awful lot of broodmare power behind this cross: a lot of stallions whose dams also produced other top-class horses. Danehill’s damsire His Majesty, for instance, was a sibling to Graustark and Bowl Of Flowers; Urban Sea gave us Sea The Stars as well as Galileo; and Sadler’s Wells, as just noted, was out of Nureyev’s half-sister.

In the end, we’re all trying to get to the middle of the same maze. You can use electric shears, if you like; or navigate from the stars. There are always umpteen factors in play. But perhaps none is more important than how a horse is raised, broken and trained. And, in the case of Senta’s Dream, to that extent you’re talking about a daily accretion of genius.

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