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Breeders’ Cup Winner Aunt Pearl Retired; To Join Dayoutoftheoffice, Duopoly, Etoile In Fasig-Tipton November Sale

Aunt Pearl, winner of last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, has been retired from racing and will be consigned by Elite Sales at Fasig-Tipton's Night of the Stars on Nov. 9 in Lexington, Ky. She will be part of a consignment that features three other Grade 1 winners.

At last year's Fasig-Tipton Night of the Stars, Elite led all consigners by average, median, and gross sales, with its seven-horse consignment producing total sales of more than $22 million. Since its inception in 2017, Elite Sales has led the world in selling racehorses, having sold 15 millionaires in four years.

Aunt Pearl, owned by Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, Peter Deutsch, Michael Kisber and The Elkstone Group, went undefeated in 2020 with three gate-to-wire scores, culminating in her Breeders' Cup triumph. That race subsequently produced the winners of this year's Group 1 English 1,000 Guineas and the G1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot, cementing Aunt Pearl's global status as one of the best of her generation.

The 3-year-old daughter of Lope de Vega, became a TDN 'Rising Star' with a five-length maiden win over the Churchill Downs turf course before setting a new stakes record in winning the G2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland, completing the 1 1/16 miles on turf in 1:40 4/5.

Also featured in Elite's Night of the Stars draft is last year's G1 Frizette Stakes winner Dayoutoftheoffice.

Campaigned by Siena Farm and Blazing Meadows Farm, Dayoutoftheoffice will be just the second Grade 1-winning daughter of top sire Into Mischief to be sold at a breeding stock sale. After breaking her maiden in her debut at Gulfstream Park, Dayoutoftheoffice shipped to Saratoga and won the G3 Schuylerville by six lengths before defeating subsequent Eclipse champion Vequist by two lengths in the Frizette. Dayoutoftheoffice rounded out her 2-year-old season with a second-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland, besting fellow Grade 1 winners Simply Ravishing and Princess Noor.

Elite will also consign Etoile, a 5-year-old Grade 1 winning daughter of leading international sire Siyouni, to the Fasig-Tipton auction.

A top-rung stakes performer on both sides of the Atlantic, she captured last year's G1 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine for owners Peter M. Brant, Mrs. M. V. Magnier, and Mrs. Paul Shanahan. Prior to her Grade 1 victory in North America, Etoile captured France's G3 Prix Cleopatre at Saint-Cloud before missing by just a length in the G1 Prix de Diane. She finished ahead of eight group or listed stakes winners in that classic race, including two G1 winners. Etoile is on schedule to defend her crown in the E.P Taylor Stakes on Oct. 15.

Rounding out Elite's quartet of Grade 1 winners is last year's American Oaks conqueror Duopoly.

Owned by Klaravich Stables, Duopoly won the G1 American Oaks in impressive wire-to-wire fashion, finishing the last quarter mile in a sharp :22.63. She defeated a strong field that included two other G1 winners, one of which was 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner, Sharing. Prior to her win at Santa Anita, Duopoly also captured the Winter Memories Stakes at Aqueduct in front running style.

“We are honored that many of the sport's most successful owners are entrusting Elite to bring their best to the marketplace,” said Bradley Weisbord of Elite Sales. “These four Grade 1 winning females, all off the track, should have broad appeal to the world's leading buyers. We look forward to showcasing them at Fasig-Tipton's Night of the Stars on Nov. 9 after the Breeders' Cup.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Winner Aunt Pearl Retired; To Join Dayoutoftheoffice, Duopoly, Etoile In Fasig-Tipton November Sale appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Aunt Pearl Retired And Scheduled to Sell at FTKNOV

Breeders' Cup winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Aunt Pearl (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}–Matauri Pearl {Ire}, by Hurricane Run {Ire}) has been retired and will be entered in the Nov. 9 Fasig-Tipton November Sale, according to a release from Elite Sales, who will consign the 3-year-old filly. Campaigned by Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, Peter Deutsch, Michael Kisber, and The Elkstone Group, Aunt Pearl was undefeated in three starts at two, beginning with her five-length 'TDN Rising Star' debut in a Churchill Downs maiden special weight and continuing in the GII JPMorgan Chase Jessamine S., where she set a new stakes record, getting the 1 1/16 miles in 1:40.86 over the Keeneland turf. The Brad Cox trainee capped the season with victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. She made just one start this year, as the 1-5 favorite in the GII Edgewood S., but bled after not having raced on Lasix as a 2-year-old and finished off the board. She retires with three wins from four starts and earnings of $661,604.

In addition to Aunt Pearl and the previously announced GI Frizette S. winner Dayoutoftheoffice (Into Mischief), Elite will offer two other Grade I-winning fillies at Fasig's “Night of the Stars.” Lightly raced Duopoly (Animal Kingdom–Justaroundmidnight {Ire}, by Danehill Dancer {Ire}) enters the sale off a win in the Dec. 26 GI American Oaks. She is joined by stablemate Etoile (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}–Milena's Dream {Ire}, by Authorized {Ire}), who is scheduled to try and defend her title in the GI E.P. Taylor Oct. 17 for Chad Brown and the partnership of Peter M. Brant, Mrs. M. V. Magnier, and Mrs. Paul Shanahan.

“We are honored that many of the sport's most successful owners are entrusting Elite to bring their best to the marketplace,” said Elite's Bradley Weisbord. “These four Grade I-winning females, all off the track, should have broad appeal to the world's leading buyers. We look forward to showcasing them at Fasig-Tipton's Night of the Stars on Nov. 9 after the Breeders' Cup.”

The post Aunt Pearl Retired And Scheduled to Sell at FTKNOV appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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There’s No Cooling Off Sub-Zero’s Jim Bakke

Owner Jim Bakke's experience in horse racing has been fairly typical. He started off with a small stable, didn't have much success and waited for his day to come. It looks like he's not going to have to wait any longer.

Along with Gerald Isbister, Bakke is the co-owner of 'TDN Rising Star' Jack Christopher (Munnings), a Chad Brown-trained colt who brought down the house Saturday with an 8 3/4-length maiden win at Saratoga. Jack Christopher, who is named for Bakke's six-month-old grandson, will head to the GI Champagne S., which could be a springboard to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Bakke is also the owner of Girl With a Dream (Practical Joke). She broke her maiden impressively on July 24 at Ellis Park and will make her next start in Sunday's GI Spinaway S. for trainer Brad Cox. The hope is that she will earn her way to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Jack Christopher earned a 92 Beyer figure, just one point less than the leader among 2-year-olds, Big City Lights (Mr. Big).

Bakke is the president and CEO of Sub-Zero, a luxury refrigeration company based in Madison, Wisconsin that has been in the Bakke family since 1945. A longtime racing fan who attended many a running of the GI Kentucky Derby, he decided to get involved in ownership in the late nineties, but did so on a small scale.

“I started out really small with my brother-in-law, Fred Schwartz,” Bakke explained. “He's the one who introduced me to ownership back then. We had been going to the Derby forever and then we decided to buy some horses about 1998, 1999. We were buying just one or two a year, very modest horses. They were all claimers.”

Bakke enjoyed his first taste of real success when Mr Freeze (To Honor and Serve) came around in 2018. Trained by Dale Romans, he earned $1,595,000 and won the 2018 GIII West Virginia Derby, the GIII 2019 Ack Ack S., the 2020 GII Gulfstream Park Mile S. and the 2020 Hagyard Fayette S. He was also second in the 2020 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational.

Mr. Freeze, a $75,000 Keeneland September purchase, was part of a plan. Bakke was ready to spend a bit more on horses, building up quantity and quality. Mr Freeze is also co-owned by Isbsiter, who is a distributor for Sub-Zero.

“This has been about my love of the game,” he said. “I was hoping to have a little more luck and the way you do that in horse racing is to increase your numbers, the amount of horses you buy every year and who you have buying them for you.”

Bloodstock advisor Bradley Weisbord signed on to work for Bakke and was told to go find more horses like Mr Freeze.

“I have picked really great partners,” said Bakke, whose stable at this time of year usually numbers from 10 to 12. “Chad Brown is the trainer of Jack Christopher and Bradley Weisbord and his team did a tremendous job finding Jack Christopher.”

Bakke said he offers little, if any, input on picking out the horses, but there is a budget. Liz Crow chose Jack Christopher for $135,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall yearling sale, and Girl With a Dream for $115,000 at Keeneland September. That's his price range.

“Potentially, I could buy more expensive horses,” he said. “Over the years, I have bought a few in the 300 to 350 range. But when those horses don't turn out so well, it hurts. Buying them where I'm at right now, if they don't work out we can reload and try again. I have had tremendous luck buying horses in that price range, starting with Mr. Freeze, who I got for $75,000. If you employ people who know what they are looking for and are good at it, I think you can buy a little bit down market and be successful. Let's face it, you need a lot of luck in this game. And even if you do have a successful horse, keeping them sound is another issue. They are so fragile. When you start buying in those upper-price ranges and if your horse doesn't do well or does well and gets hurt, that's just a big bite out of you.”

Bakke is so hands off that he never once spoke to Brown prior to Jack Christopher's debut.

“I think they also appreciate that I don't micro-manage things,” he said. “I don't call them up and ask them how a horse is doing even on a weekly basis. I might call them before a big race or every once in a while. But I don't keep track of the horses on a daily basis. I still have my job back in Madison, so I've got plenty to do on a daily basis.”

Yet, he knew the colt had potential.

“With Jack Christopher, I think Chad was going to wait for the horse to run and let Jack Christopher do the talking,” he said. “I knew he was enthused about the horse because I was getting positive reports.”
While he is optimistic about Jack Christopher's future, Bakke says he tries not to get too carried away with his young horses. With Jack Christopher and Girl With a Dream, that may be hard to do.

“It's great to have these kind of quality 2-year-olds,” he said. “Once in a while, I've hit on a few, but probably nothing like this. Both of them will be running in Grade I's over the next 30 days. We'll see where it goes. It's been a great ride and I'm looking forward to the ride continuing in the future.”

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Weisbord to be Released from Hospital After Successful Brain Surgery

Bradley Weisbord is expected to be released from Weill-Cornell Medical Center in New York City on Saturday, Dec. 19, after a successful six-hour surgery Tuesday to remove a benign cavernous malformation symptomatic hemorrhage in the left temporal lobe of his brain, according to his father.

“The surgery went well, but it was difficult and complex,” said Barry Weisbord. “Brad will recover for six to eight weeks before returning to work in February.”

The surgery was performed by Dr. Philip Stieg, who has been the Neurosurgeon-in-Chief at New York Presbyterian/Weill-Cornell for 20 years.

Weisbord had sent a letter to friends and clients informing them of the impending surgery last Saturday, in which he explained the reasons for the procedure.

“As many of you know, in September of 2018, I was diagnosed with a cavernous malformation; a lesion in the brain that had hemorrhaged,” he wrote in the letter last week. “At that time, this caused the symptoms of severe headaches, speech issues and short-term recall issues. After a few surgical opinions deeming the surgery too risky for one bleed, and the odds that it was unlikely to bleed again (in the short term), I was able to recover to what I feel was 100% in a few months.”

But Weisbord, who suffered a severe bout of COVID-19 at the beginning of the outbreak in America, began feeling symptoms again this fall, he wrote.

“Unfortunately, after my rough bout with COVID-19 in March of this year, an MRI showed a second minor bleed. My neurologist thought this was due to COVID, and we continued to watch it. Most recently, beginning in late October, I have been in a tremendous amount of daily head pain. I waited until our work was done in Kentucky and got a scan as soon as I returned home to New York City in November. The MRI revealed the third, and biggest bleed to date, and we have all decided it’s time to try to safely remove the lesion as the malformation is now growing, considered a chronic bleeder, that if not addressed could lead to deficits down the road.”

The news came after this year’s Fasig-Tipton November Sale, where Weisbord and his partner, Liz Crow, sold the sales topper Monomoy Girl for $9.5 million, a record for a racing or broodmare prospect, among five seven-figure mares.

“Brad got through the sale, albeit in a lot of pain, which he hid well,” said his father. “As such, his doctors felt it was time to remove the lesion, as it was causing severe headaches and hemorrhage and could have become a more serious problem,” said his father.

Stieg performed what is known as an awake craniotomy, a procedure performed while the patient is awake and alert. During the procedure, the surgical team, led by Dr. Babacar Cisse, a neurosurgical expert in brain mapping, and Dr. Heider Alexander Bender, performed cortical mapping to identify the vital areas called the “eloquent brain” that controls speech and movement which surrounded the lesion, approximately the size of a raspberry.

“We all are so grateful to the doctors and feel so fortunate to have found this incredible group of surgeons that will allow him to make a full recovery,” said Barry Weisbord. “The team at BSW/Crow Bloodstock and Elite Sales, including Liz, Katelyn Jackson and Jake Memolo, have been fully prepared to run the business and their upcoming consignment at Keeneland January while he continues to recover. We expect to see him back at full strength and at the races and sales by February.”

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