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First-Crop Yearling Previews: Audible

The 2022 class of first-crop yearling sires features a diverse batch of Kentucky-based young stallions including a pair of Breeders' Cup champions, two sons of reigning top sire Into Mischief, five graded stakes winners at two and five Grade I winners on turf. Throughout the course of the yearling sales season, we will feature a series of freshman sires as their first crop points toward the sales ring. Check out the first few editions of our series here.

WinStar Farm's Liam O'Rourke vividly recalls the day that breeders got their first look at Audible (Into Mischief – Blue Devil Bel, by Gilded Time) just after the new stallion moved into the stud barn.

“We had a little party here to welcome him to the WinStar stallion barn and when we brought him out in front of breeders, there was an immediate draw to him,” O'Rourke explained. “He's just such a eyeful and is among the very best of the physicals by Into Mischief. From that point, people started shouting for seasons.”

Demand to breed to the 2018 GI Florida Derby winner was so high that Audible was the most popular first-year stallion in WinStar's history, breeding just over 220 mares in his debut season with a $25,000 stud fee.

“Demand for him has been extremely strong through all three years he's been here,” O'Rourke reported. “Right from the get go, there was a buzz around town on Audible.”

A $175,000 New York-bred yearling pinhook and a $500,000 2-year-old purchase for WinStar Farm and China Horse Club, Audible broke his maiden as a juvenile for Todd Pletcher and returned at three to take the GII Holy Bull S. by over five lengths and the GI Florida Derby by three. He ran third to Justify in the GI Kentucky Derby and later added another victory in the Cherokee Run S. Audible retired at four with over $2 million in career earnings.

As Audible's first crop of foals arrived last year, O'Rourke said that he quickly found several common trends in the youngsters.

“They're a very consistent group,” he noted. “He throws great substance, plenty of length, great quality and good bone. They're a robust, muscular type but with lots of length and they look like they can stretch out. The feedback from breeders was very positive from the start and we realized pretty early on that he was going to have a big November.”

Audible ranked second in his class with his first crop of weanlings. His progeny averaged $103,813 with 43 of 53 sold, including 16 six-figure weanlings led by a $360,000 filly out of Nagambie (Flatter) named Cosmic Thread and a $200,000 filly out of Safwah (Medaglia d'Oro).

With his first yearlings at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale, Audible's progeny continued to trend upward. Seven of his nine lots sold for six figures, led by a colt out of I'm Guilty (Verrazano) that brought $220,00 to Bradley Thoroughbreds and a second colt out of Wonder Stone (Super Saver) that sold to Gus King for $200,000.

“Some of the best judges were on the Audibles in July, including Donato Lanni, Peter Bradley, Travis Durr and Nick de Meric,” O'Rourke said. “He has seven entered at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, which is more than any other freshman sire, so we think that's a great sign.”

Machmer Hall's Audible filly sells as Hip 43 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale | Sara Gordon

One filly bound for Saratoga will represent the Machmer Hall consignment as Hip 43. The yearling out of Patsy's Kim (Dixie Union) was bred by Teresa Little and was a private purchase for Machmer Hall Sales. Carrie Brogden said that the youngster is the type of yearling that their consignment hopes to offer in Saratoga.

“She's big and fancy and two-turn, but looks like she'll have speed,” Brogden said. “She vets, she's correct and she's got a classy brain. Our farm has a share in Audible. I was a big fan of him as a racehorse and obviously WinStar has an incredible track record making stallions. We had two Audibles in July and they were more of a pinhooker-style horse. Both of them looked very speedy. This [Saratoga-bound] filly has a lot more scope and stretch.”

Of the Audibles that have been on her farm, Brogden said that all have shared one trait that she has also noticed in Into Mischief's progeny and the offspring of other sons of the champion sire.

“They all have the Into Mischief brain,” she said. “When you're pushing the feed cart, they're always whinnying and beating down the door for feed. For me that's a wonderful sign of a racehorse because it means they're not going to back out of their feed tub. It's a common theme that I see again and again.”

Another yearling slated for the sales ring in Saratoga is a colt out of Peter Blum's homebred Tapit mare Sundown. The gray will sell as Hip 97 with Bridie Harrison.

“We like this colt a lot,” Harrison reported. “He's tall with a lot of leg and great length. Audible added a lot of size and scope to Sundown. This is certainly one of her bigger foals. He's a very nice mover and has a great temperament.”

After the Select Sale in Saratoga, nine Audible yearlings will go through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Sale.

As Audible's progeny soon begin making their way to the racetrack, O'Rourke said to look for them to come out in force early next year.

“He was a precocious horse,” he noted. “He breezed fast and then went out and performed as a 2-year-old on the racetrack. His sire line has precocity so I do think there's going to be precocity there, but with the way he's built, I think they are built to carry that speed a route of ground. They'll be able to go around two turns with their length, but do so in a front-running fashion.”

The post First-Crop Yearling Previews: Audible appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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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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Foal Patrol Presented By National Museum Of Racing And Hall Of Fame: When Will Traveling Tiger’s Filly Meet New Friends?

The new Season 5 Education Site for Foal Patrol, an education initiative of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, provides a platform to respond to viewers' questions, share information about horse care and management from breeding through retirement, and spotlight efforts across the industry to provide the best possible care for Thoroughbreds before, during, and after their racing careers.

In partnership with industry collaborators, we will add new content to the Foal Patrol Education Site for viewers of all ages from now through June at www.foalpatrol.com/education.

To provide more answers to your questions and to bring you closer to this season's featured mares and foals, Foal Patrol has partnered with the Paulick Report to ask farm staff questions about mare and foal care and management.

In this episode with Traveling Tiger and her 2022 Audible filly at Safari North at Pauls Mill Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, Safari North's Deborah Ward addresses the question, “When will Traveling Tiger and her foal be turned out with other horses?”

For a chance to have one of your questions asked in an upcoming Foal Patrol episode on the Paulick Report, email your question to foalpatrol@racingmuseum.net. Be sure to let us know if your question is for a specific Season 5 mare.

Since its first season in 2018, people all over the world have engaged with Foal Patrol's live webcam series for a behind-the-scenes look at what daily life is like for in-foal mares and foals. Learn more about this season's lineup at www.foalpatrol.com and watch “Recent Updates” for Foal Patrol announcements, posts about featured Season 5 mares and foals, and updates on mares and foals from prior seasons.

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Mating Plans: Harper Ridge Thoroughbreds

With the 2022 breeding season right around the corner, we will feature a series of breeders' mating plans over the coming weeks. Today we have Erin Fisher of Harper Ridge Thoroughbreds.

“All my horses are crossed with stallions that I feel will throw appealing and sound horses that can provide second and third careers off the track and provide longevity to the breed,” said Fisher. “I look for soundness and attitude with the idea that my foals can have long futures in any discipline after racing.”

APPEALING WAY (m, 8, Tizway–Turkappeal, by Turkoman), to be bred to Complexity

This mare is a half-sister to [GSW] Pink Champagne (Awesome Again) and has a lovely physical. While small in stature, she crosses extremely well with Complexity and should produce a really nice foal.

CHARLIE'S CANDY (m, 6, Twirling Candy–Sister Charlie, by Indian Charlie), to be bred to Tonalist

With a recent black-type winner out of her sister, this mare is big in size and complements Tonalist quite nicely. She should produce a nice, big foal.

FAIRY KERI (m, 3, Fed Biz–Keri's Snowman, by Frosty the Snowman), to be bred to Leofric

She has a phenomenal pedigree with lots of black-type. I chose Leofric for her as he isn't overpowering in size but was a force on the track. His foals look good and have a decent chance to be productive runners.

LAST GREAT (m, 6, Albert the Great–Crouching Thunder, by Thunder Gulch), to be bred to Modernist

Her track record wasn't great but she has the pedigree of a nice regional mare. She is tall in size with excellent balance. Her size makes her a good cross for Modernist who, in my opinion, was bred to be a sire.

LINE OF VISION (m, 7, Court Vision–Gold Lined, by Numerous), to be bred to Audible

She was a multiple stakes winner and a hard-knocking mare. She is short and compact. I chose Audible for her as the line crosses well with Into Mischief. Also because he is tall but not overpowering and has good balance to him. Hopefully this cross will produce a foal that is tall and compact, capable of decent distance.

MONEY INTHE STARRS (m, 6, Abraaj–Our Monstarr, by Demons Begone), to be bred to Knicks Go

This mare is a regional champion in her home state. Sleek and built like a classic racehorse, I chose Knicks Go for this mare. Hoping to throw the heart of both horses and resilience that Knicks Go showed on the track.

LADYSGOTGAME (m, 11, Street Sense–Lady Gamer, by Game Plan), to be bred to Basin

He was a good racehorse and I'm hoping with her legs and stature, she will throw some bone and leg into her foal.

BAREFOOT NATIVE (m, 6, Graydar–Elke, by Dixie Union), to be bred to Spun to Run

It's an excellent cross and her size should put some leg and length to this horse.

NON NEGOTIABLE (m, 9, Distorted Humor–Kiss Mine, by Mineshaft), to be bred to Rock Your World

This Candy Ride (Arg) and Distorted Humor cross is excellent. While the mare herself isn't big, the hope is that they produce a nice foal with good leg and shoulder.

RICH IMAGE (m, 5, Imagining–Richetta, by Polish Numbers), to be bred to Independence Hall

He was an excellent racehorse. Tall with classic build and structure. This mare is good size while slightly compact. I'm hoping to get a foal of similar stature to the stallion.

SAFFRON GIRL (m, 5, Tapizar–Mattie Camp, by Forest Camp), to be bred to McKinzie

This stallion speaks for himself, but this mare is all class. She is tall with excellent motion in her movements. A bit long so am hoping for better balance in the cross.

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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