Every year for nearly a decade, Jose Sarinana's commercial bloodstock program has looked roughly the same: One broodmare, one foal arriving in the first half of the year, and one yearling going to market in the second half.
In an industry where commercial breeding operations stack their broodmare bands as deep as a football team's roster, and cull their ranks just as readily, Sarinana and his mare Planeta have been an inseparable duo since 2014. Planeta's latest yearling, a filly from the first crop of Kentucky Derby winner Country House, goes through the ring Wednesday as Hip 1062 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearling Sale.
The chestnut filly, named Perfect Poser, is the seventh foal out of Planeta, an unraced daughter of Giant's Causeway who was born into the Wertheimer et Frere breeding program at Hagyard Farm near Lexington, Ky. Sarinana has worked at Hagyard Farm for 17 years, serving as assistant farm manager.
Expectations were high for Planeta – a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Meteore, out of a mare the Wertheimer operation purchased for $740,000 – but a fractured sesamoid suffered as a foal put an early and abrupt end to her racetrack aspirations. Still, Sarinana took a liking to the filly as she recovered.
“We nursed her to be a broodmare, and when the yearlings left to start under saddle, she got left behind because of that injury,” he said. “I asked if I could buy her or have her, and my bosses gave her to me. That's how she got stuck with me.”
Planeta was damaged goods from a racing perspective, but a horse isn't born into the Wertheimer program without a deep page, and the filly was no different, with at least eight Grade/Group 1 winners on her page. Even if she never ran a step in competition, the potential Planeta offered as a broodmare made her quite the gift.
Sarinana sent Planeta to Tizway for her first mating in 2014. He then added a second mare to his roster at the following year's Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale – the Brazilian-born Zaragoza Girl, also from the Wertheimer program – but after losing both the new mare and foal due to foaling complications just a few months later, he decided to let Planeta be his only broodmare.
“She's well put together,” Sarinana said. “Kind of small-sized for a Giant's Causeway, but she's well put together with a really good pedigree. I couldn't buy her at the sales.”
He admitted that the journey with Planeta has been one of ups and downs. Planeta's first foal went winless in five starts and the second never made the track at all. After that, things have picked up.
All three of her foals that followed have been winners on the racetrack, including Mr. Sarinana, a Mr Speaker gelding who became a stakes-level steeplechase runner after starting his career on the flat.
“He broke his maiden the same year on the flat at Turfway, and at the end of the year he broke his maiden at the steeplechase, so it's a very versatile family,” the human Mr. Sarinana said.
However, Sarinana was most excited about the Broken Vow gelding Kbcya Later, who gave him his first 2-year-old Saratoga winner as a breeder in 2022, when he took a maiden special weight over the turf.
As Planeta has produced more foals, Sarinana noted that the mare tends to let the sire stamp the foals. That is definitely the case with the Country House filly he brought to this year's sale.
Country House, a son of champion Lookin at Lucky standing at Darby Dan Farm, is a rangy horse with leg to spare and powerful features, especially in the shoulder. Perfect Poser carried on those traits into her own physical makeup, and pointing her for the final yearling sale of the season played a part in showing that off.
“She's a late April baby, so I wanted to give her a little more time to mature,” Sarinana said. “Hopefully on Wednesday, people will agree with me and we'll make a sale.”
Sarinana grew up on a ranch in Durango, Mexico, with working horses and cattle, but the allure of the Thoroughbred breed led him to Kentucky. Someday, he hopes to bring some of those bloodlines back to his hometown.
In the meantime, the foundation of horsemanship he developed in Durango and at Hagyard Farm has guided his ultra-focused yearling prep, led by the principle that the steps a horse takes on the track are much more important than the ones they take on the sales grounds.
“I'm easy going, I don't push them hard,” Sarinana said. “I just get them to walk and get them a little fit. The feeding regimen is the same as they grow up. They can get the mileage when they get to the track. Sometimes people put too much mileage in the sale prep and can't into training. I just try to make sure they don't get hurt.”
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If you appreciate our work, you can support us by subscribing to our Patreon stream. Learn more.The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October sale is a melting pot of consignments, from the giant operations that stretch across multiple barns to the single-stall sellers like Sarinana, all occupying the Newtown Paddocks property at the same time.
Sarinana said he has to work hard to stand out from the crowd and let buyers know his horse is there, but the reputation he has developed working for the Wertheimer operation has helped bring foot traffic to his spot in Barn 23.
On a related note, just because he's standing under his own Sarinana Racing sign at the Fasig-Tipton sale, he's not off the clock at Hagyard Farm this week.
“I have to be there in the morning, checking to make sure everything goes smoothly, and then swing by over here for a couple hours and go back and forth,” he said with a chuckle.
Planeta is 12 years old, and she likely has plenty of years left in her career as Sarinana's first-and-0nly-call broodmare. Whenever it's time for her to retire, he said he'll look for the next one to help further build his resume as a horseman, but he doesn't want that number to get much bigger than one mare.
In the meantime, Planeta was not bred for the 2023 foaling season, so there isn't a yearling for next season. Earlier this year, she was part of the debut book of mares for Happy Saver, a Grade 1-winning Wertheimer-homebred standing at Airdrie Stud, and the foal will arrive in 2024.
“Hopefully we'll get a healthy foal, and I haven't decided if it'll go to the sale as a weanling or a yearling,” Sarinana said. “I have never liked to sell weanlings, because I like to give them time to mature, but being by Happy Saver, it might be outstanding and go as a weanling.”
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