Amermans Credit Performance to Best Supporting Actors

Most of us, in this business, have experienced times when we would implore Jerry Amerman to leave that flier, promoting a horseracing syndicate, right where her husband John had thrown it–in the wastebasket. Happily, while they have sampled the full spectrum of the Turf's ups and downs in the 35 years since, their sense of fulfilment only continues to grow.

And the sport has itself welcomed corresponding gains from their presence: John's judgement, seasoned by a stellar business career, has been drafted by numerous regulatory and benevolent bodies; Jerry's love of animals, besides prompting service of her own, has forged a special place in the community of horsemen; and now, in an unexpected sequel, they find themselves creating a living legacy in a young stallion with the potential to seize an important moment in the evolution of American grass racing.

But first let's go back to that wastebasket. It wasn't their first mailshot from Barry Irwin at Clover Racing and John, wearily going through the post after another long day at work, had promptly disposed of this postcard the same way.

“More junk mail,” he said.

“Wait a minute,” said Jerry, fishing it out again. “It says: 'You too can own a Thoroughbred racehorse.' Isn't that what we're always talking about doing?”

Well, yes it was. So they dipped their toes. A couple of their early experiments never got anywhere, and the first to do so had to be retired after winning her graded stakes debut. But they were impressed with the way the syndicate was run and stayed aboard as it evolved into Team Valor–where they would enjoy an especially thrilling ride with that tireless globetrotter Star of Cozzene (Cozzene).

“You know, the camaraderie with the other people in the syndicate was great,” John reflects. “But most importantly, we learned a lot. If you're just getting into horseracing, a syndicate is a great way to start; a great learning exp

erience.”

By the time Star of Cozzene was sold to Japan, John was approaching the end of a spectacular stint as CEO of Mattel. When he took the helm in 1987, Barbie and her friends were in big trouble: the company had just soaked up a loss of $113 million. As early as 1990, John had turned things round for a record $91-million profit. In between, unsurprisingly to those in our industry who have since come to appreciate his affability and teamwork, he had prioritized morale at workshop level. He became a familiar daily presence around headquarters: eating in the cafeteria, encouraging questions, expanding horizons.

John Amerman at Santa Anita last year | Benoit

John stood down as CEO in 1997, having radically expanded international trade, and in the preceding couple of years he and Jerry had resolved to branch out into their own racing stable. Asked whether he adapted any lessons from his Mattel experience to this new enterprise, John doesn't hesitate.

“Good people,” he says. “If I think back to my days at Mattel, we had terrific people. And horseracing is a complicated sport. It's very spread out. You really have to rely on others, to find the right mix. If you have good people working on your behalf, it makes things a lot simpler. If you're trying to do these things without knowing who the good people are, and knowing their backgrounds, then it just becomes so much harder for the horse. And all the way through we've been very blessed by having excellent support people.”

Take, for instance, bloodstock agent Bob Feld. They had observed his expertise with the syndicates, and he was duly enlisted to help lay foundations for their stable. One inspired early find was GI Hollywood Futurity winner Siphonic (Siphon {Brz}), whose loss to a heart attack was a harrowing moment for the Amermans. But there was a happier sequel for another Grade I winner acquired by Feld as a yearling, Balance (Thunder Gulch), whose A.P. Indy colt made $4.2 million as a yearling after her half-sister proved to be none other than Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}).

“I still think Siphonic was probably the best we ever had,” Jerry says. “What happened to him was one of the most painful things that we have experienced. But Bob has been invaluable. We've been buying horses together a long time, since the very beginning, really. Frankly, I tend to look at the whole horse and, if the whole picture looks good to me, I'll say 'yea'. But Bob will say, 'No, wait, there's a little problem here.'”

Balance | Sarah Andrew

Jerry's own eye for a horse, and curiosity as a breeder, was first stimulated by German Shepherds.

“At times I've had as many as four of those dogs in my house!” she says. “And several have been champions. And I tell you, it's been a great help watching horses. Because if you know Shepherds, movement is the big thing: their trot is incredible. And I've found that sharpens your eye for looking at how horses move, too.”

That was evidently one key to Jerry's warm relationship with an equally passionate dog owner, in his case Australian Shepherds. Because the surest way for any human being to get on the same wavelength as the late Bobby Frankel was to share his devotion to animals.

“I think Bobby liked us not because of me, but because of Jerry!” says John with a chuckle. “She just loves horses, so did he, and they just got along so well. Bobby took us to great heights. I think we've had close to 30 Grade I wins and Bobby was involved with so many of them. Just an amazing horseman. I remember one time on the backstretch Bobby was talking to me and, without even turning his head, just out of the side of his eye, he was able to call out to his assistant, 'Hey, Humberto, that horse is off in the back!'”

John will always remember Frankel calling to ask: “Would you like to buy a Grade I horse?”

“Well, sure.”

“There's only one catch. She's in Australia.”

“Well,” John said. “I guess we've got planes now.”

And that turned out to be their first elite runner: triple Grade I winner Happyanunoit (NZ) (Yachtie {Aus}). But the introduction for which the Amermans will always be most grateful was to Mill Ridge: initially to the late Alice Chandler and subsequently to her esteemed son and grandson, Headley and Price Bell. This was in 1998, still early days for their stable, and began with a partnership in a Gone West colt that had lacked commercial size.

“Bobby said, 'You need to go and talk to Alice Chandler,'” Jerry recalls. “Of course we knew about her, we'd bought yearlings from Mill Ridge, so we went and introduced ourselves. And it turned out she had this yearling, as she said: 'I just can't throw him to the wolves at the sale.' I said, 'Of course you can't.'

“So we went halves on that colt, who didn't do anything but bring us together. Which was so wonderful for us, because there was nobody like Alice. She should be everybody's hero. I admired her tremendously. And now I feel I have family in Kentucky: Alice was a terrible loss but Headley and Price are terrific, and it's so nice that Oscar can stand at the same farm where he was born.”

Ah yes: Oscar! Their premier racetrack earner, with nearly $2.5 million, Oscar Performance was homebred from Devine Actress (Theatrical {Ire}), who had been acquired after winning a maiden for another owner in the Dave Hofmans barn.

Oscar Performance (blaze) heads for home in the Woodbine Mile | Michael Burns

Headley and Price have now launched him as a stallion at a critical moment for turf breeding in the Bluegrass, following the loss of his own sire Kitten's Joy and also English Channel. Their farm long had international influence as home to Gone West and Diesis (GB), and the way Oscar Performance has started–with four graded-stakes performers already, from 11 first-crop winners to date–is highly auspicious, given how he continued to thrive after winning at the Breeders' Cup as a juvenile.

“Oscar has been pretty precocious, with winners spread all over the place,” John remarks. “But we were very proud, when he was running, that he could win Grade Is at two, three and four. Though from my perspective the best race he ever ran was the [GIII] Poker, where he tied the world record for a mile in 1:31.23. He just blew them away. He was a tremendous horse, and now he's proving it as a stallion as well.

“Full credit to Mill Ridge. They hadn't had a stallion for a few years so we're just very pleased with what has happened. He's really prospered and it's been such fun, this late summer and fall, watching all the Oscar babies run. I don't think we ever thought having a stallion could be this exciting, but it's terrific. It's almost like they're your own, when you're watching them. And we're looking forward to the Breeders' Cup because, knock wood, we think he's going to have quite a few in the turf races.”

Coffee Clique | Horsephotos

Needless to say, the Amermans have supported the horse with their own mares, where compatible. Developing their own families has been one of the joys of their program, and the stock nowadays grazing Mill Ridge include fourth generation foals tracing to Society Dream (Fr) (Arakad {Fr}), imported by Neil Drysdale to win them a stake in California. Her daughter Miss Chapin (Royal Academy) was a sparkling winner on her only start for Frankel and, though now 21, has delivered consecutive sons for Oscar Performance. Previously Miss Chapin had produced millionaire Coffee Clique (Medaglia d'Oro), winner of the GI Just a Game S.; while another daughter, graded stakes-placed Royal Fury (Langfuhr), now has her first foal up and running in Furiously, a son of Oscar Performance who recently broke his maiden for Graham Motion.

Coffee Clique was actually culled at the Keeneland November Sale last year, in one of those disciplined decisions required of every elite program. The Amermans try to keep the broodmare band to around 15, and everyone knows that sales are essential to each new cycle–as, for instance, when shock GI Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Adoration (Honor Grades) was cashed in to Demi O'Byrne for $3.1 million at the equivalent auction in 2007.

This time round their star offering is imported GII Edgewood S. winner Gift List (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}).

“We're always interested in mares and fillies from Europe, as we feel there are good opportunities for racing and a residual value, too,” John explains. “And it has turned out that way with Gift List. We looked at her races in Britain and I thought she showed a tremendous kick. So we brought her over and she ran second in the [GII] Appalachian S. and then won the Grade II at Churchill by four and a half. We were on top of the world, to see her do that against horses like Aunt Pearl (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}). Unfortunately she then got a chip, and didn't really return as well as we thought she might, but she's obviously very talented.”

Gift List | Coady

“It's pretty hard to let any mare go, when you have a stallion like Oscar,” admits Jerry. “But I do know that sometimes you have to.”

After many decades of practice, the Amermans have learned to trust each other's judgement: inevitably there are times when one spouse has to proceed with a purchase even when the other is not available to sign it off. But that's where the reliable caliber of their counsel is so crucial: whether Headley and Price Bell, or Bob Feld, or trainers like Brian Lynch, who handled Oscar Performance so well; or their valued pre-trainer in Ocala, Barry Berkelhammer.

And, with a profound sense of gratitude for their Turf adventure, both Amermans have reciprocated with their own experience and judgement. John has been on many boards, including as a steward of The Jockey Club, and especially enjoyed seven years with the American Graded Stakes Committee; while Jerry served on the University of Kentucky Gluck Equine Research Foundation. And then there's Peacefield Farm, their aptly named rehab sanctuary at Temecula, California, for racetrack warriors that require patching up.

“The last few years we had Beholder (Henny Hughes) here, and Ce Ce (Elusive Quality), and United (Giant's Causeway),” John says. “Many good horses that have been banged up a little bit have come here before going back to the track and excelling, so we're proud of that.”

It tells you everything that the race John singles out as his highlight, with Oscar Performance, was one he couldn't even bring himself to watch.

“I stood behind him,” Jerry remembers with a laugh. “And had to tell him what was happening.”

“But that's it, you get so involved,” John replies. “It's such an incredible sport. The lows are not fun, but the highs are so high. We got involved when I was just about to retire: after working for many years, I thought, 'Well, now I'm going to sit back and rest.' I soon discovered that running a business had been easy. It was horseracing that was really difficult. But it's been a very gratifying experience, and a very rewarding one. We just feel blessed. I'm so pleased that Jerry took that card back out of the wastebasket.”

The post Amermans Credit Performance to Best Supporting Actors appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Berger Shepherds Duo Into the Belmont Fold

What are the chances? Well, actually, it's easy enough to do the math. There were 21,181 Thoroughbred foals in the North American crop of 2018. Of these, Woodstock Farm took in its usual dozen or so colts. And, of these, two will line up next Saturday among the favorites for the final leg of the Triple Crown.

“I'm sure it's happened before,” says the farm's owner Ben Berger. “At Gainesway and Claiborne, Taylor Made and Lane's End, Darby Dan, all these farms. I'm sure they've had some really good horses come out of the same field. Stone Farm is supposed to have a magic field. But we probably have between 10 to 15 colts a year, and for two of them to end up in this race, one having placed in the [GI Kentucky] Derby and the other won the [GI] Preakness [S.], for a farm of our size it's awfully satisfying.”

None of us, even the most sensitive and devoted of their custodians, can get into the heads of these animals sufficiently to know whether some frisson of recognition might be renewed when Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) and Rombauer (Twirling Candy) stroll into the parade ring before the GI Belmont S. All we can do is marvel that the whole crop, conceived and foaled and raised for no greater purpose, should include among the elite sieved into the Classics these two former paddock buddies from a small Bluegrass nursery.

Rombauer was actually foaled and weaned at Machmer Hall but transferred to Woodstock, a 190-acre farm on the Old Frankfort Pike, by breeders John and Diane Fradkin after that operation went private; while Hot Rod Charlie was sent here after being astutely picked out by Bob and Sean Feld as a $17,000 short yearling.

Aside from coinciding in their trackwork over the coming mornings, the Belmont won't be actually the first time the two colts have met since Hot Rod Charlie went back down the road to Fasig-Tipton following an eight-month sojourn with Berger. Both lined up for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile a year later, finishing third and fifth respectively, but they have performed still better in the Classics. Hot Rod Charlie ran third in the Kentucky Derby; while Rombauer, having sat out that race, pounced as a fresh horse to win the Preakness. It now feels as though a couple of star pupils from the same provincial high school have ended up as opposing attorneys at the Supreme Court.

“They would have been in the same field, from February on,” Berger recalls. “We buddied them up because one was going to the racetrack and the other was going to October and didn't need to start at the same time as the September horses. So they'd have gone together from a large, 15- or 20-acre field down to a couple acre paddock.”

Hot Rod Charlie, of course, had soon been redeemed from virtual anonymity at the Fasig-Tipton February Sale by the blossoming of his half-brother Mitole (Eskendereya) into champion sprinter. As such, he was still very well bought at the Fasig-Tipton October Sale by Dennis O'Neill for $110,000. In the meantime, he had already shown a tendency to draw attention to himself.

“He was one of those that want to do things at his speed, as opposed to what we wanted him to do,” Berger recalls. “He was a nice, good-bodied horse, always very forward. But he was a high energy kind of colt, and wanted to do things his way. We could hardly ever get him just to let down and walk. He constantly wanted to jog on the shank. He wanted to be first in, and first out, and if he wasn't he got a little bit excitable. In sales prep it all came together a bit, we were taking more effort out of him every day, and he settled and showed himself nicely.”

Rombauer, in contrast, was a model pupil who obligingly followed a different program before heading down to Eddie Woods in Ocala.

“He was a more laidback horse,” Berger recalls. “Very straightforward, very easy to deal with. Maybe because he was that way, that's why they got along like they did. When Hot Rod Charlie went into prep, Rombauer kind of stayed with him. They stayed paddocked next to each other, once we separated them, and he was on the same routine.”

When you consider that Woodstock did something pretty similar at Keeneland's first Breeders' Cup, then they must be doing something right. In 2016, they could claim a share of the credit for both first and third in the GI Juvenile Fillies' Turf: winner Catch a Glimpse (City Zip) was bred by Branch Equine, then operated by Berger's late father Robert; while the third Nemoralia (More Than Ready) had been pinhooked by Berger with David Egan.

For good measure, that crop also included Suddenbreakingnews (Mineshaft), bred by Branch Equine and fifth in the Derby after winning the GIII Southwest S. He was duly fancied for the Belmont, but disappointed, so Berger knows not to get ahead of himself this time round. But then that's something that becomes second nature when you deal with young Thoroughbreds, whose only reliability is their capacity to surprise.

“There's some that you think will do well that go out and don't do a thing, and others you think are just nice horses, they go and surprise you and are really good horses,” Berger says. “Suddenbreakingnews was a nice, straightforward horse, but I never thought he would end up in a photo for third in the Derby. Catch a Glimpse was a nice filly, but we let her go for $75,000 because that's what we thought she was worth. But, while I can't look at a horse that I've raised and say, 'This is going to be a Grade I horse,' I think you can say, 'This horse has got a chance.' A better chance than others. But so many things after they leave us have to happen right.”

It's precisely because you can't ever be certain that you must give them all the same opportunity: if you believe in your regime, your system, then they will have a platform whatever their potential. For Berger, less is more: the less he interferes, the more Nature can draw on her own resources. And the relatively intimate scale of Woodstock enables him to back off without ever losing sight of the nuances.

“I think I tend to be a little bit less intensive, in terms of micromanaging their day,” he explains. “I bring them in, feed them, exercise them, groom them, turn them back out, and just try not to get in their way too much. I think horses are better in their natural element. I don't like to overthink it, don't want to reinvent the wheel. Keep them outside as long as you can. Take care of issues as they come up, and then get them back out there. Just let them be horses as much as possible, and become the best they can be. I can't make a horse be what it's not.”

Obviously, sales preparation entails a little more discipline, with dates pretty well carved in stone, but Berger retains due flexibility for the likes of Hot Rod Charlie.

“He couldn't just do the same thing every day, like some of them,” he explains. “We couldn't lunge him or put him on the walker every day. We had to take our time: exercise him harder for periods, and then when he started getting a little over the top, back up and hand walk for a while. I think sometimes we're able to do things like that, because we have less numbers. It's always easier if you try to work with a horse's personality and quirks rather than against them.”

Berger lost his father a couple of years ago but he had been present when Catch a Glimpse won at the Breeders' Cup.

“He bought her mother Halo River [Irish River {Fr}] as a weanling and raced her,” Berger says. “She won the Appalachian before it was graded, but probably the best race he ever won. And he was there the day Catch a Glimpse broke her dam's track record in the same race. That was the year my mother passed, and I think Catch a Glimpse helped a lot, she was a special horse to all of us.”

Berger Sr. had a long and colorful career before entering the Turf. He had grown up on a coal camp in Harlan County, Ky., but went away to Duke University where he played linebacker and defensive guard for the Blue Devils under Wallace Wade. He served in the Air Force as first lieutenant before returning to Duke for law school, and practiced for 20 years before buying an explosives plant to supply mining clients.

“All along, he loved animals,” Berger recalls. “He bred dogs at one point, imported a field trial dog from England or Ireland, and with horses he started with Morgans. He had some success showing, but soon found out that Morgan horse babies don't bring near as much as Thoroughbred babies do, so he kind of transitioned that way.”

Berger Sr. cut his teeth with syndicates, with Centennial Farms and Dogwood, and struck gold with a stake in 1990 Preakness winner Summer Squall (Storm Bird) before initiating his own program.

“My father always had fairly strong ideas, and liked to be able to test them without having to answer to someone else,” Berger says. “If it succeeded, great. If it didn't, then he would learn from it and do it different next time. So, he started buying mares and breeding some on his own. And then after about 15 or 20 years [in 1997] my mother bought the farm and he brought his horses there.”

Berger himself graduated from Amherst College, Ma., and spent a year in Manhattan as a paralegal. But his heart wasn't in city life and when he went up to Saratoga to see his father sell a Storm Bird filly, her disappointing price didn't prevent a game-changing weekend. Berger was introduced to the Taylor brothers, who were looking after some of his father's mares at the time (along with Mill Ridge and Darby Dan) and were suitably polite when he mentioned the idea of getting some experience on their farm someday. A couple of weeks later he showed up at the farm office.

One of the Taylor boys got onto the phone to Berger Sr.

“Your son's here. We kind of told him he could have a job. He wants to learn about horses. What do you think?”

“Well,” came the reply. “If he wants to learn about horses, put him where you think he's going to learn about horses.”

“So, they stuck me in a barn with 26 foaling mares,” recalls Berger. “He didn't ask them to coddle me or to treat me any differently than anybody else. I think he would probably have been happier if I'd gone to law school. But after a couple of years, I just found that I liked what I was doing, and thought I could make a living doing it.”

Even when the family acquired a farm, and Berger was given the chance to transfer the skills he had honed with stints in South Carolina and New York, besides one at Mill Ridge, he was left no doubt that he would have to earn his stripes. The manager Tom Wright was retained, and became something of a mentor. Berger spent a winter as nightwatchman, he mucked out, he did the accounts. On Wright's death, however, he was given his chance.

“Of course I made mistakes along the way, but we kept at it together,” Berger says. “I think in the end my father was fine about me working with the horses, it just wasn't something he had expected or pointed me towards. If anything, he may have tried to steer me away–but I was a little too hard-headed to listen.”

And thank goodness for that. Berger is meeting the exemplary standards to which he was raised and, while determinedly modest, can surely take pride in the niche he has created for Woodstock.

“My father liked to do a lot of different things, and liked to make his own way,” he says. “In almost everything he set out to do, he typically got pretty doggone close to what he wanted. He never tried to be real hands-on, raising foals, and didn't want to race an awful lot. What he really enjoyed was studying pedigrees and putting matings together. And whether they sold well or not, he enjoyed seeing those horses run well for other people as much as anything.

“The horses gave him great pleasure. And so did his children and grandchildren. He was a huge supporter of Duke football, and basketball, which didn't necessarily make him the most liked person in Lexington! He was a lucky guy. He lived his life the way he chose, and made it work out for himself. We were lucky to have him as a father, and as a boss. Wasn't always the easiest guy to work for, but I learned a lot of things from him that I probably don't want to admit now.”

Now Berger is likewise improvising his own path. He has just four mares of his own, and pinhooks four or five weanlings.

“We're a small farm, and I've been lucky to have good people here the whole time,” he says. “These two horses, I think we just tried to stay out of their way, and let them became what they could. Machmer Hall foaled and raised Rombauer, and we've had luck before with them. We all know each other, all work with each other. Every year there's a lot of really nice horses that go through sales, a lot that don't go through sales. But out of a 20,000-plus foal crop, for two to be in the same field and end up in the same Classic race two years down the line, well, we'd sure like to see them run one-two. This is a big business, but it's a small world.”

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Industry Voices: Bob Feld On What it Means to Try

The man lying in the hospital bed silent and completely still was a good man and led a good life. A loving husband, amazing father and a relentless provider for his family was slipping closer to death. My dad was a man of conviction, integrity and faith and I try every day to be the man he was. I won't get there, but I try. It's all about trying. He lived a full life and gave up a lot of the freedoms of his youth when he got married, which included owning racehorses.

My mom and dad raised five children on very low incomes. We all grew up thinking we were a middle-class family but in hindsight we were far from it. My parents created a way of life for us so that we never questioned our status growing up. We were happy and lacked nothing, especially love. In his younger days, John Feld dressed well, drove fancy cars, loved to bet on the horses and his getaway was Las Vegas. He was quite the bachelor and lived a fun and adventurous single life and a bit beyond his means because he could.

On one fortuitous trip to Las Vegas, he made a nice chunk of change over the weekend by hitting number 17 on the roulette wheel multiple times. The number 17 became the “Feld family lucky number” and includes events like his first born son born on February 17. The number 17's karmatic showing continues to this day.

My dad had slowly but surely gone into a coma as he was slowly but surely dying in front of his family. My mom, brother, sister, brother-in-law and I were all in the room to be in his presence as he passed. The doctor had told us that his coma was so deep that we would not be able to communicate with him nor would we see any response from him. As the hours went by, it became very apparent that the end of his life was near.

My son Sean and his “Pop” were close because they shared the passion of horse racing. Pop was the quintessential two-dollar bettor who loved the puzzle of picking the winner more than the gamble. In the 1980's, the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita started a tradition of giving away a commemorative stein each year on Opening Day of the meet. Pop started his own personal tradition of taking his oldest grandson, Sean, to Opening Day each year to get his stein. Annually on a Wednesday, his Mom and I allowed him to ditch school each year to go with Pop to add to his collection of steins.

I decided since Pop's life was about to end, to call Sean on my cell phone to see if he would like to say goodbye to his grandpa. He agreed. The room was deafeningly silent as if a vigil for my dad had already started. I held my phone up to Pop's ear and I could hear Sean through the phone tell his grandpa, “We are going to win the Kentucky Derby for you Pop.”

At that moment, my dad made a grunting sound. Time stood still. All of us in attendance could not believe there was this fleeting moment of “life” coming from my father to his grandson as he was about to take his last breath. Teary-eyed, I hung the phone up and the silence continued. It wasn't much later when my dad did take his very last breath. It was 9:17 a.m. and of course, on April 17th.

During the past 21 years since Pop passed, like everyone else in the Thoroughbred business, we have “tried” to win the Kentucky Derby, not for ourselves really but for Pop. Our budgets have ebbed and flowed over the years but with any and all budgets we try. That's what we do, it's all about trying. We got close a few years ago when a $61,000 yearling purchase, Sueno, would have been the last horse “scratched” into the race but he chipped his ankle Kentucky Derby week and did not enter. This year, our (not kidding) $17,000 yearling purchase is second in the point standings and has the look of a real contender coming off an impressive win in the Louisiana Derby.

My brother Jude trained on the Southern California circuit for 20 years so Pop knew the game well and he knew how tough it was to win a race, any race. Hot Rod Charlie doesn't have to win on the first Saturday in May and he still has to get there. The fact we have come this far with a $17,000 horse while knowing that Pop was “with us” when we bought him at that price is a victory in itself. I know Pop is proud of us already for trying, but if a 14-year-old boy could keep his promise to his dying grandfather, that would be the most satisfying and greatest victory of all and I have a feeling time will stand still once again for Pop!

Bob Feld, posted on Facebook and published with his permission

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PR Back Ring Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale: Remembering Sheikh Hamdan’s Seven-Figure Star, Dayjur

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FASIG-TIPTON GULFSTREAM EDITION OF THE PR BACK RING

The inaugural edition of the PR Back Ring is now online, ahead of the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale of Selected 2-Year-Olds In Training.

The PR Back Ring is the Paulick Report's new bloodstock newsletter, released ahead of every major North American Thoroughbred auction. Seeking to expand beyond the usual pdf presentation, the Back Ring offers a dynamic experience for bloodstock content, heavy on visual elements and statistics to appeal to readers on all platforms, especially mobile devices.

Here is what's inside the debut issue…

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FASIG-TIPTON GULFSTREAM EDITION OF THE PR BACK RING

  • Remembering Dayjur, a watershed horse for Shadwell Farm and Taylor Made Sales Agency
  • Stallion Spotlight presented by Kentucky Research: Spendthrift Farm's Mark Toothaker on Gormley
  • Honor Roll presented by Breeze Up Consignors Association: War of Will's path from Europe to the Preakness
  • The Stat presented by Kirkwood Stables: Leading third-crop sires of 2020 by average progeny earnings (without their top earner)
  • Lesson Horses presented by Texas Thoroughbred Association: Bob Feld on Lucky Baldwin
  • Ask Your Veterinarian presented by Kentucky Performance Products: How do crushed heels happen?
  • On their own time: Kirkwood Stables' Gulfstream Gallop program continues to grow
  • Ask Your Insurer presented by Muirfield Insurance: Considerations for your new 2-year-old
  • Pennsylvania Leaderboard presented by Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association: Wait For It tops 2020 incentive earners
  • First-Crop Sire Watch: First juveniles of Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FASIG-TIPTON GULFSTREAM EDITION OF THE PR BACK RING

The post PR Back Ring Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale: Remembering Sheikh Hamdan’s Seven-Figure Star, Dayjur appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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