Frank's Rockette, a five-time graded stakes winner, has been retired from racing with stud plans to be determined, Daily Racing Form reports.
Owner Frank Fletcher told DRF that the decision came after a discussion with trainer Bill Mott and racing manager Kathy Moore following the 6-year-old Into Mischief mare's final start, a second in the Pumpkin Pie Stakes on Nov. 5 at Aqueduct.
Frank's Rockette will join Fletcher's broodmare band in Kentucky. While plans for her initial mating have not been finalized, Fletcher told DRF he was considering cornerstone Gainesway sire Tapit.
A homebred for Fletcher out of the Grade 3-winning Indian Charlie mare Rocket Twentyone, Frank's Rockette retired with 12 wins in 30 starts for earnings of $1,509,733.
After winning on debut as a juvenile by 8 3/4 lengths, she knocked on the door of a graded stakes win with runner-up efforts in her next three starts, two of them in Grade 1 competition. She broke through the following summer with a run of three graded victories in the Grade 3 Victory Ride Stakes, the G2 Prioress Stakes, and the G2 Gallant Bloom Handicap. In later campaigns, she added Grade 3 wins in the Sugar Swirl Stakes and Hurricane Bertie Stakes.
Mill Ridge Farm will open its gates at 2800 Bowman Mill Road in Lexington, Ky., to host a stallion open house each day from Tuesday, Nov. 7 through Sunday November 12, between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., serving up lunch for all.
The farm will showcase their Breeders' Cup winners in proven second-crop sire and Breeders' Juvenile Turf winner Oscar Performance and its second-year sire and Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Aloha West.
Oscar Performance is ranked second to Justify among the leading second-crop sires by percentage of graded stakes horses to named foals, putting him above Good Magic, Bolt d'Oro, Girvin, and Army Mule. His 2024 stud fee is $25,000 LF.
Aloha West is property of a syndicate, and had very good support from them and breeders in his first year, covering a quality book of mares.
Ben Glass said it best, “Most are unaware of the talent Aloha West showed in training as a 2-year-old with Bob Baffert. Considered one of his best, he had a condylar fracture in his left front and missed the racing year. We know he had genuine talent as a racehorse, and I believe he has all that it takes to be a successful stallion. Such an exciting prospect at an exceptional value.”
Randall Lowe is right at home pushing his chips to the middle of the table.
He's been handicapping the races since he was seven years old, and in that time, he's hit over 200 Pick 6 tickets for proceeds well into seven figures. Then, he walked away from the insurance company he founded four decades ago in Marina Del Ray, Calif., to put it all on a horse.
“I had told my brothers I'm gonna move to Vegas and they said, 'Why?' and I said, 'I've got this horse that's gonna make me a million dollars,'” Lowe said. “They said, 'You're crazy. You're gonna give up everything that you have and you're gonna move to Las Vegas?'”
The horse was a chestnut filly named Lady Shipman, and her entire career has been jackpot after jackpot for her breeder. After earning $902,387 on the racetrack, including 11 stakes wins and a narrow second in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint in 2015. Her first foal was the superstar turf sprinter Golden Pal, a horse he campaigned as a homebred to a G2 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint victory before selling him privately to the Coolmore partnership, who won the G1 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint with him.
A successful gambler knows when it's time to take their money off the table, and Lowe will aim to do just that on Tuesday when he offers Lady Shipman at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale.
The 11-year-old daughter of Midshipman will be offered as Hip 196, part of the first book of mares for the undefeated Horse of the Year Flightline. She'll be consigned by Lane's End, as agent.
Lowe has been inundated with offers on the mare since she was on the racetrack, and those overtures got even louder once Golden Pal became a superstar.
If Lady Shipman had come along earlier in Lowe's life, he might have continued to shrug them off. As it stands, Lowe knows the hand he's got, and he's playing it accordingly.
“If I was 10 years younger I would have bought a farm,” he lamented. “But, you know, I'm 66 going towards 67. I've been in this business for 38 years and, you know, sometimes you hate to see them go but sometimes you've got to let them go to people that really can take care of the horses more.”
Lady Shipman has long been the fulcrum of Lowe's nom de course Ranlo Investments' racing and breeding program. He purchased her dam, the Mutakddim mare Sumthingtotalkabt as a yearling for $28,000, and he campaigned her to five wins with trainer Wallace Dollase. Lady Shipman was her second foal, and Lowe decided to keep the filly after finishing under her reserve as a juvenile with a final bid of $35,000.
After Lady Shipman's success on the track, Lowe sold Sumthingtotalkabt privately to SF Bloodstock. He had his new cornerstone broodmare.
Lowe retired Lady Shipman at the end of her 4-year-old campaign to avoid the risk of losing her to injury on the track, and sent her to Uncle Mo for her first mating. Where Lady Shipman helped blaze the trail to improve turf sprinting's standing in the North American racing hierarchy, Golden Pal blasted down that path, winning eight of 13 and earning over $1.3 million with trainer Wesley Ward.
Golden Pal winning the Shakertown at Keeneland under Irad Ortiz Jr.
Like he was with Lady Shipman, Lowe was courted hard by Kentucky's horsemen after Golden Pal's first Breeders' Cup win. With a potential stallion in his stable, the stakes were higher, and he took that into account when he made his decision, ultimately landing with Coolmore after being impressed by its U.S. stallion operation, Ashford Stud.
Golden Pal was the busiest stallion in North America during his debut breeding season in 2023, covering 293 mares.
“I had fielded seven different offers from seven different farms and I wanted him to go to a good home, and I wanted him to be able to…I know this is kind of a weird statement to make, but, you know, when you have a little kid and you watch him grow up, you always want the best for them? I picked Coolmore because I figured they could enhance his stud career,” he said. “And lo and behold, he's like the most popular horse in Kentucky, if not all of North America.”
Lowe would like to think Golden Pal appreciated the thought he put into his decision.
“I went out to the farm to see him during my last trip here and – this is kind of sentimental on my part – he did something to me that he had never done before,” Lowe said. “I usually take my hand and I rub his muzzle and he tries to nip you a little bit and stuff. He was standing there and I thought I was talking to him and I said, 'These people will take good care of you. You're with a good organization. You always have a good home.' He literally was standing right there and he leaned forward and he actually kissed me on the lips. I could feel his whiskers.
“I was totally stunned, because the groom thought that he had bit me, but he didn't bite me, he actually lunged forward just to kiss me,” Lowe continued. “So do they understand what we're saying? I don't know. But, you know, the sentimental thing to me is, these things wouldn't be happening unless somehow it's true.”
Support our journalism
If you appreciate our work, you can support us by subscribing to our Patreon stream. Learn more.
Breeding arguably two of the best turf sprinters of the 21st century is not something one tends to fall backward into, and Lowe was quick to credit the mentorship of multiple Eclipse Award-winning breeder John C. Mabee, the late owner of prominent California operation Golden Eagle Farm and at one time co-owner of the NFL's San Diego Chargers.
Under Mabee's tutelage, Lowe was allowed to select potential matings for the Golden Eagle mares, and Mabee would offer his feedback, fine-tuning Lowe's eye for what works between a stallion and a mare. They watched races together at Del Mar, where Mabee was a member of the board of directors, and he helped Lowe apply those lessons from the farm to the racetrack, and, most importantly, he taught him how to work with the people he'd meet along the way. That last lesson would be invaluable as he fielded offers for his star runners.
“That's why when you see me, when I won the first Breeders Cup, I hoisted the trophy up in the air as a thank you to John,” Lowe said. “And then at Del Mar, I also hoisted the trophy in the air for him.”
Applying those lessons on matings and pedigrees to Lady Shipman, Lowe also has a 2-year-old Omaha Beach colt named Lieutenant General, a yearling Uncle Mo filly named Luvwhatyoudo, and a weanling Essential Quality filly named Essential Lady. He keeps his young horses at Stockplace Farm in Lexington, Ky., and he said that trio will stay with him to race.
“This is to be the last time somebody can try to corner me in a bathroom or at the stakes room table and pick my brain for three hours trying to figure out how I know what I did,” Lowe said with a chuckle.
Lowe arrived in Lexington, Ky., from Las Vegas late Sunday night to watch Lady Shipman show and sell. He fed the mare a handful of mints, and she thanked him by resting her head on his shoulder. Then, Allaire Ryan of Lane's End showed Lowe and his family around the Fasig-Tipton sales grounds to give them a primer on what to expect on Tuesday night. Lowe was jet-lagged, but still ever-affable.
As a younger man, he was on the Redondo Beach police force, trying to scrape together enough money to both play a cheap Pick 6 and eat dinner. Days like Tuesday are what he was trying to manifest back then, and whether he sells the mare for a big price or takes her home under-reserve with an extremely commercial foal in-utero, he knows he's playing with house money.
“My motto has been, and will always be, if you try hard enough and you really want it – and I mean, you really want it – no matter how many times someone could knock you down or put you down or tell you you're stupid, or tell you that you don't know what you're doing; as long as you keep believing you can do it, your dreams will become fulfilled,” he said. “It will happen.”
The definition of success for a stallion varies from horse to horse and farm to farm, but few would argue that a stallion is set up to accomplish those goals without a robust book of mares to support them.
There are always caveats – restrictive stud fees, stud book caps, geography, and pedigree mismatches will eliminate certain mares from certain sires – but there are few truer indicators of a stallion's approval rating with breeders than the number of mares they cover during the breeding season. With The Jockey Club's release of the 2023 Report of Mares Bred last month, we can see exactly how those straw polls shook out, and which veteran stallions saw the biggest year-to-year gains in visitors.
A dramatic increase in mares bred for a stallion can mean a number of things for that horse's present and future. For many, the boost comes in the wake of a strong freshman season, where successful juveniles help convince breeders that a stallion is on his way to becoming a proven commodity. Many of these stallions experience a swoon in mares bred during their third and fourth books from cautious breeders not wanting to get stuck with a non-commercial foal if those first runners flop on the track, but once that hurdle is cleared, those stallions often enjoy a healthy bump of more and better mares.
Others benefit from a change in scenery, whether that's relocating to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond or climbing the ladder to prove oneself with higher-quality mares.
Of course, not every stallion's number of mares bred is created equal. Some stallions' books are capped by their farms to minimize wear and tear. Deals are made. Stallion seasons are donated. Stallion owners breed their own mares. If a stallion has 100 reported mares bred, that does not mean he generated 100 paying customers.
Furthermore, the starting point can change the meaning of a gain or loss in mares bred. If a proven stallion covering over 175 mares per year fluctuates by 20 mares, they've still got a busy season in the shed. If 20 mares doubles a stallion's book, that could change his entire career trajectory.
Regardless, if the number of mares bred is up, business is probably good for a stallion and a farm. Following is a list of the stallions who saw the biggest jumps in mares bred in 2023.
The stallion with the biggest year-over-year gain in mares bred was Mill Ridge Farm's Oscar Performance, who saw a 97-mare increase from 63 bred in 2022 to 160 in 2023.
The 9-year-old son of Kitten's Joy (and a member of the 2022-23 All-Value Sire Team) was last year's leading North American freshman sire by turf winners and earnings in 2022. Leading that charge throughout the year was Andthewinneris, a colt who won on debut during Keeneland's spring meet and came back that fall to win the Grade 2 Bourbon Stakes en route to a start in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.
“I think that, realistically and reasonably, a number of breeders kind of waited to see, but we have continued to have more inquiries from more depth of breeders, starting last year than we'd had before,” said Price Bell of Mill Ridge Farm. “There's a little bit of a, 'Show me what he is. Show me what he's got.' We've been very blessed to have that kind of momentum continue.”
Oscar Performance at Mill Ridge 10.07.20.
Oscar Performance's pedigree leans heavily toward turf, and he was a four-time Grade 1 winner on the surface, including the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. While his freshman success on the grass could be easily expected, the rise of Red Carpet Ready was not quite as forecastable.
After winning her debut on the main track at Churchill Downs by 10 lengths, the filly easily won the Fern Creek Stakes at the same track a month later. She then started her 3-year-old campaign with a win in the G3 Forward Gal Stakes on the dirt at Gulfstream Park.
The hard truth of the North American Thoroughbred industry at the moment is a sire with turf leanings is usually burdened with a commercial ceiling. Being able to sire foals beyond that scope likely helped when breeders came back around to examine the performance of the freshman sires.
“I've always always felt like his foals – yearlings, 2-year-olds, just exceeded expectations,” Bell said. “Whatever a 'turf horse' looks like, they didn't look like a turf horse. Even though the expectation was around turf, to see the results on the dirt, I think has, given an extra lift to him.”
Support our journalism
If you appreciate our work, you can support us by subscribing to our Patreon stream. Learn more.
Looking to Oscar Performance's long-term place in the North American stud book, he holds a great advantage in the race to be the continent's primary extension of the Kitten's Joy sire line. After repeatedly proving himself with his runners, Kitten's Joy saw a shift from being bred primarily to mares claimed by owner/breeder Ken Ramsey to finding acceptance within the greater bloodstock community later in his career. With higher quality mares came more physically attractive and commercially appealing stock, and Oscar Performance is arguably the greatest example of that second phase.
However, Bell said his conversations with breeders have had them looking further back in his family tree for his ultimate place in the lexicon.
“Of late, people been talking more about El Prado,” Bell said, referring to Oscar Performance's paternal grandsire, “I don't know if maybe they're associating him more with Medaglia d'Oro (a son of El Prado), than maybe Kitten's Joy, getting good precocious 2-year-old dirt horses. … Maybe there will be continuation of the line and maybe that line really ends up capturing kind of the El Prado line. If you've got Violence (a son of Medaglia d'Oro) and Volatile, and now Forte (sons of Violence), maybe Oscar performance kind of plays within that space as well.”
Finishing close behind Oscar Performance was Airdrie Stud's Girvin, who saw his mare count rise by 95, from 86 last year to 181 during the most recent breeding season.
Girvin at Airdrie 9.09.22
This was the first season at Airdrie Stud in Midway, Ky., for the 9-year-old Tale of Ekati horse, who began his stud career in Florida at Ocala Stud. His debut juveniles blew away their expectations, landing Girvin in the top five freshman sires by total progeny earnings, and tied for second by stakes winners.
His summer slate was led by Damon's Mound, who smashed his debut by 12 1/2 lengths, and followed up with a 3 1/4-length win in the G2 Saratoga Special Stakes. Girvin was then led into the breeding season by Faiza going unbeaten in her first five starts, including the G1 Starlet Stakes and the G2 Santa Anita Oaks. On the East Coast, Girvin sent Dorth Vader to this year's Kentucky Oaks after scoring in a pair of Florida stakes and springing an upset in the G2 Davona Dale Stakes.
When Girvin moved to Kentucky, he opened himself up to a much broader scope of mares. When Girvin stood his final season in Florida, there were 1,530 mares bred in the state. During the most recently completed season in Kentucky, there were 16,953 reported mares bred. There are obviously more stallions in Kentucky to compete for all of those mares, but a bigger pie has this far led to a bigger slice.
[Story Continues Below]
Army Mule, another freshman sire of 2022, finished third with a gain of 84 mares, going up 115 to 199.
The resident of Hill 'n' Dale Farms finished fourth in his freshman class by progeny earnings, and he tied for second by stakes winners, with four.
In fourth was Sharp Azteca, whose book grew by 76 mares from 37 to 115. Yet another member of last year's freshman class, the son of Freud finished sixth among first-crop sires by earnings, led by four-time stakes winner Tyler's Tribe.
A pair of Ashford Stud residents tied for the fifth spot – Justify and Uncle Mo – each growing by 74 mares.
Justify, like the stallions higher on this list, was a member of last year's freshman sire crop, finishing third by earnings and tying for the most stakes winners.
Uncle Mo saw the biggest year-to-year gain of any stallion that wasn't coming off their freshman season. He finished 2022 as the sixth-leading general sire with runners including Belmont Stakes winner Mo Donegal.
