Tag: Bloodstock

The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale is a long way from the Quarter Horse show circuit in northern Iowa, no matter which figurative or literal measurement one chooses to employ to describe the chasm.

Tim and Nancy Hamlin will create a new common thread between the two disparate scenes this week during the boutique auction, drawing upon the experience of their past life operating a world-class Quarter Horse operation to debut their Wynnstay Sales consignment in Saratoga.

For over three decades, the Hamlins built up their Quarter Horse program into a powerhouse, breeding and showing in halter class events around the country, and rising the ranks high enough to own an AQHA Open World Champion in Kidlook, who earned the title among 3-year-old stallions in 2004.

Showing in the halter class might sound familiar to veterans of the Thoroughbred auction business. The showperson has their horse on the end of the shank, and they are asked to walk, jog, and stand for a judge, who examines the horse's physical and mechanics down to minute details.

Looking over his four-horse Saratoga consignment, Tim Hamlin said the skills translated into his new equine vocation beautifully, even if the Thoroughbred auction sphere offered a few new wrinkles.

“In the show horse world, you had to have the best-looking horse,” he said. “The difference here is you have to have the best-looking and soundest horse. It's kind of hard to do, but we figured it out. All of our horses lived outside. We turned them out until right before the sale, and they got some scrapes on them, but they have to be horses.”

Hamlin started phasing out of the Quarter Horse sphere in the mid-2000s after Kidlook earned his world title, selling off his farm and stock and moving to Kentucky to pursue the Thoroughbreds. Part of it was finding a new mountain to climb after reaching the pinnacle of the Quarter Horse breed, and part of it was nipping in the bud a genetic defect that had worked its way into their breeding program.

After experiencing some initial success in the pinhooking realm, the Hamlins found a farm in Winchester, Ky., which they have built up into several properties, gaining high-profile clients including Allen Poindexter.

Poindexter, himself a pillar of the Iowa Thoroughbred industry, factors into why the Hamlins are in the midst of their Saratoga debut.

Though the sign above the shedrow is new to Saratoga, the Hamilns are far from rookies in upstate New York. The Wynnstay Sales consignment was founded in November 2018, and in previous years, the Hamlins sold their Saratoga stock through other consignors including Bluewater Sales, Machmer Hall, and Gainesway. When Poindexter asked them to handle some of his select offerings under the Wynnstay banner, though, they answered the call.

“We would just let other people bring them, and we'd just come up here and enjoy ourselves,” Hamlin said. “Now, we have to come and be responsible, but it's okay. It's what we do.

“We've always gotten along selling horses up here, and the best thing is they get into good hands,” he continued. “They get to good trainers, and that makes your mares.”

The Wynnstay consignment features a pair of first-crop fillies by Spendthrift Farm's Horse of the Year Authentic, a filly by fellow rookie sire Volatile, and a colt from the final crop of More Than Ready.

Horses tabbed for the elite Saratoga sale might get treated differently by sellers for the high financial ceiling they possess just from being in the catalog, but Hamlin said he's been preparing his Saratoga draft differently from the ones pointed toward local Kentucky sales for reasons altogether removed from the dollars and cents.

“They usually go a half-hour from my house to the sale, and now they're 16 hours, so you have to prep them a little different,” he said. “You have to have them a little heavier and a little different so they can deal with the trip.

“We ask a little more of them, and we start a little earlier,” Hamlin continued. “We used to show horses, so we know what it's like to haul horses across the country, and we know what it takes. They made it, they look great. You've just got to prepare them different. It's just more of a project getting everybody up here, getting them places to stay and figuring how to get all your help up here. There's a lot more to it, but if you've got the right horses, this is a great place to sell them. The atmosphere's the best. There's no better place to come up and sell one.”

The showing philosophy hasn't changed much from the halter class days, and Hamlin said that goes well before the shank is clipped to the halter.

The Wynnstay program calls for the young horses to get the same feed that the champion Quarter Horses received on their way to the top. Where it differs is in how the Thoroughbreds spend the rest of their day. Where he said his Thoroughbreds are sent out to pasture to develop themselves, show Quarter Horses are often kept inside for more of the day.

That's one part of the old style Hamlin said he was happy to abandon. A Thoroughbred develops a bit of grit being outside, and that reminded him of home.

“If you can raise a horse in northwest Iowa, you can raise a horse anywhere,” he said. “It took us a while to figure it all out, but it seems like it's coming together.”

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Trainer Melanie Giddings returned to work on Sunday morning at Saratoga Race Course even though her heart was still broken after the loss of undefeated 3-year-old filly Maple Leaf Mel, who was just a few short strides from victory in Saturday's Test (G1) when she fell to the track.

“I'm here. My crew is here. It's not easy for them either. I spend time with the horses every single day, so we're all here as a team,” Giddings said.

The New York-bred daughter of Cross Traffic was owned by the August Dawn Farm of Hall of Fame NFL coach Bill Parcells, who named the strapping gray after Giddings – a 39-year-old native of Cobourg, Ontario.

Maple Leaf Mel started her racing career with trainer Jeremiah Englehart, and Giddings, his longtime assistant, was there with the young filly every step of the way from before her maiden win in August 2022 at Saratoga and through stakes wins against fellow state-breds in the Seeking the Ante on August 26 at the Spa and the East View in March at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Giddings traveled with the filly through winter training in Florida and back up to Pimlico Race Course in May to win the Miss Preakness (G3) in her first start against open company. Along the way, Giddings would post photos and videos on her social media channels of the pair of them together snoozing in Maple Leaf Mel's stall and one popular video of the towering filly chewing on the zipper of Giddings' jacket.

“She was my little traveling buddy. It's a sad day. It's what she loved to do,” Giddings said. “She never looked worse than when she came in from two months at the farm. She just loved running and she loved being here at the track. That's what she loved the most.”

When Giddings, a cancer survivor, went out on her own as a trainer, Parcells made the decision to let Maple Leaf Mel move to her namesake's barn. The success continued as Maple Leaf Mel romped to a front-running victory for Giddings in the Victory Ride (G3) on July 8 at Belmont Park, earning a career-best 99 Beyer Speed Figure.

The filly entered Saturday's seven-furlong Test (G1) undefeated in five starts and led a talented field – that included the Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Pretty Mischievous – through swift fractions under her regular rider Joel Rosario.

Maple Leaf Mel was lengths in front of the field as the finish line approached and on the verge of providing a first Grade 1 win for her trainer and Parcells – but she sustained a significant injury to her right foreleg and went down in the final strides. Despite the immediate response of on-site veterinarians, the filly was humanely euthanized due to the severity of the injury.

“He was wrapping up to the wire and I don't know if she just took a bad step,” said Giddings.

Rosario, unseated in the fall, was body sore after the incident and would require stitches to his lip. He booked off his mounts for the remainder of Saturday's card as well as Sunday's racing program.

Pretty Mischievous would cross the wire first in the Test, but the connections – owner Godolphin and trainer Brendan Walsh – did not bring their horse to the winner's circle for the customary trophy presentation.

Class often shines when catastrophe shudders, and such was the case on Sunday morning when Walsh gifted the winner's floral blanket to Giddings.

“It was the right thing to do and we feel terrible for them,” Walsh said. “If that happened to me and my filly, I don't know what I would do. I would be distraught. She was the best filly on the day, too, and I feel terrible for Melanie and especially after all she's been through. I can't even begin to imagine how she feels.

“We all got in this because of our love for the animals,” he continued. “They may think we're doing this or we're doing that, but we genuinely care for them. I've never seen the place so somber this morning or even after the races yesterday. Hopefully, we'll all be able to pick up the pieces and put it all back together again.”

An emotionally exhausted Giddings found comfort in her friends and colleagues Sunday morning in a quiet shedrow full of curious horses nodding their heads above their stalls and one desperately empty where she used to lay quietly with her friend and dream big.

“She was never going to lose,” Giddings said. “It's hard to say how talented she could have been the rest of her life. She was so fast.”

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In a catalog as deep as the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearling Sale, a page needs a little extra special something to really stand out. Being the first son of a Hall of Famer to be offered at auction ought to do the trick.

Hip 165 of the Saratoga catalog is the fifth foal out of the Hall of Famer Beholder, and the Curlin colt is her first to be offered by breeder Spendthrift Farm at public auction.

The first four foals out of Beholder, a 13-year-old daughter of Henny Hughes, were kept by Spendthrift to race as homebreds, so let's get the question on everyone's mind out of the way now: Why is this colt being offered for sale?

Spendthrift General Manager Ned Toffey said putting the colt on the market was a return to the commercial philosophy set by Spendthrift's former owner, the late B. Wayne Hughes.

“What we did historically when Mr. Hughes was here was every horse in the organization has gone to market,” he said. “The Beholders haven't, but we just decided it's important to treat this like a business. If they want him, they're going to have to pay for him, and he certainly warrants that. He may be sold outright, or we may keep a piece. There are a lot of different options.

“He's a nice colt, and we're going to have a lot of really nice bloodstock coming down the pipeline over the next several years with some of the high-end mares that we've bought, and we felt it was important to keep in mind that it's a business,” Toffey continued. “Buyers will get a shot in the marketplace, and hopefully we'll have some luck with them.”

Of Beholder's five foals, three have reached the races, one will likely be hitting the races soon, and one is a winner; that being the 3-year-old War Front filly Teena Ella, who most recently won the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes on May 6 at Santa Anita Park.

The colt being offered during Tuesday's second and final session of the Saratoga sale represents Beholder's second visit to Hall of Famer Curlin, following the mare's second foal, the 4-year-old filly Karin With an I. Beholder has also produced an Uncle Mo colt (5-year-old Q B One) and a Bolt d'Oro filly (the 2-year-old Tamara). She was part of the first book of mares for Spendthrift's 2021 champion male sprinter Jackie's Warrior during the 2023 breeding season.

“Most of the offspring are a combination of her, but you see a lot of the sire in them,” Toffey said. “That's what you see here. You see plenty of Beholder, but you see lots of Curlin in this colt, too.”

The colt is being handled at the Saratoga sale by consignor Taylor Made Sales Agency, and he's been handled a lot.

During a visit to Taylor Made's outpost at Barn 10 on Fasig-Tipton's sales grounds, the chestnut was spending little time in his stall, going through his paces for one inspector after another before moving to the next open show ring, because practically every show ticket had his box checked.

“He's on everybody's list, and a lot of people just want to see the horse, because it's such a unique horse,” said Taylor Made's Duncan Taylor, “but all the right people are looking.”

Taylor had plenty of opportunities to watch the colt handle the process of being shown repeatedly, which is not only physically taxing for the steps the horse puts in, but also a test of his composure.

The colt, he said, was passing every test with flying colors.

“He's just a really good Curlin,” Taylor said. “He's got a lot of substance to him, and he's just a beautiful mover. When the horse walks, he overstrides and does everything an athlete does.”

In addition to the appeal of his sire and dam, the colt also benefits from an extended family anchored by his second dam, the 2016 Broodmare of the Year Leslie's Lady, whose foals of note include Spendthrift's four-time leading sire Into Mischief, 2017 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) winner and popular young sire Mendelssohn, and successful California sire Curlin to Mischief.

The stallion potential is obvious for a colt with a page like that, and Taylor put that into further perspective, listing all the combined accolades that back him up.

“When you have Curlin and Into Mischief teaming up into one horse, and you've got Beholder as the mother, that's just an opportunity that very rarely presents itself,” he said. “There's eight Eclipse Awards between Beholder and Curlin, and Into Mischief's going on his fifth time in a row being leading sire. If he gets five, he's going to outdo Bold Ruler, and it's been a hell of a long time since Bold Ruler stood, so he does present a unique opportunity for a well-bred horse that looks the part and has everything you want.”

While the Curlin colt draws closer to his time in the spotlight, his 2-year-old half-sister by Bolt d'Oro, named Tamara, is preparing for her own star turn.

Toffey said Tamara is likely a week or two away from her debut start. Under the shedrow of trainer Richard Mandella, who also conditioned Beholder, the filly most recently breezed five furlongs from the gate in :59.20 on Aug. 2 at Santa Anita Park.

“We haven't run a race yet, so we'll find out, but she appears to be the most talented of the bunch so far,” Toffey said. “She's a very medium-sized filly, not real big, but very well put together, and she seems to have the most zip. Her sister by War Front is a Grade 3 winner, so that's an awfully lofty statement.”

@paulickreport Will this colt out of @spendthriftfarm ♬ Lofi (Live) – Adam Raoul

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