(9) Perfect Shances a convincing winner in race 2. (2) Citizen Judy and (3) Her Holy Name follow. pic.twitter.com/TJpnvq0JZE

— Keeneland Racing (@keenelandracing) April 11, 2024

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Joining recent arrival GI Preakness S. champ Rombauer (Twirling Candy), Hog Creek Hustle was campaigned by Something Special Racing and trained by Vickie Foley.

Retired in 2021, he earned $774,546 over the course of his racing career which spanned 24 starts with 13 in-the-money finishes and included a thrilling runner-up effort to MGISW Mind Control (Stay Thirsty) in the 2019 edition of the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S.

Hog Creek Hustle is out of Candy Fortune (Candy Ride {Arg}) and counts as a half-brother GSW Majestic Dunhill (Majesticperfection).

Breeders are invited to schedule inspections at their convenience by contacting the War Horse Place office at 859-519-5175.

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“The traffic has been outstanding,” consignor Dave Anderson outside his Barn 3. “Coming in with the economy being a little suspect, it was hard to know whether we would attract the usual suspects, but they are all here. Everybody is in good spirits, so I am expecting a good sale.”

Adrian Regan of Hunter Valley echoed Anderson's comments.

“We are delighted with the activity at the barn,” Regan said. “There's been a lot of showing. People look to be working it hard and from what we are hearing so far, people are saying that there are a good group of horses here.”

The boutique Saratoga catalogue attracted its usual array of sire power and glitzy pedigrees. Gun Runner who had two million-dollar yearlings, including the $2.3-million sale topper at last year's auction, has 12 yearlings in the auction this year. Curlin, who had three seven-figure yearlings in 2022, has seven in the catalogue in 2023, including a son of champion Beholder (Henny Hughes). That mare's half-brother, super-sire Into Mischief, who was represented by four million-dollar sales a year ago, has 12 to be offered in this year's catalogue.

The Saratoga sale is held just across the street from the historic racecourse, giving the power-packed catalogue that extra bit of bling.

“I think with the racing, it is as good as it gets,” Anderson said. “It gets people excited. And the wives and the husbands and the families come and they turn it into a mini-vacation. And when the weather cooperates, Fasig-Tipton knows how to put on a great party and a great show. People bring the product and it's really a special place.”

The atmosphere encourages buyers to attend the sale in person, rather than simply having agents acting on their behalf. That, too, adds to the success of the auction, according to Doug Arnold of Buck Pond Farm.

“This is what's great about coming up here,” said Arnold. “When you can put your hands on things, it kind of changes your mind on what you will and won't do.”

Buck Pond's consignment at Saratoga this year includes just one horse, a filly by Not This Time, and Arnold said horses at the boutique auction face plenty of scrutiny in the days leading up to sale time.

“The buyers have a long time to look at these horses, so they can talk themselves out of things,” Arnold said. “If you have something that is sticking out that they don't like, they will find a way not to buy. We would normally bring more than one up here and it was one of those years that we had a lot of May foals and I kept looking at them and thinking maybe this horse will work for Saratoga, but I am really happy I didn't. Everyone seems to love this filly.”

Tim and Nancy Hamlin's Wynnstay Sales is making its first appearance at the Saratoga sale with a four-horse consignment.

“We've sold horses up here, but we've never brought our own consignment,” Tim Hamlin explained. “One of our customers wanted to do it and Fasig wanted us to do it and we decided to do it.”

Hamlin continued, “I am hoping it's going to be a good sale. You have to have one that has the pedigree and by a hot sire and vets, you've got to jump through all of the hoops. But these are some of the best horses in Lexington, so I think the best ones will have a home.”

After a series of out-of-the-park results last year, the yearling sales season got off to a quieter start at last month's Fasig-Tipton July Selected Yearlings Sale.

“I am a glass is half-full kind of guy, but I think we've got to realize what is going on with interest rates and the economy in general,” Anderson said of a possible correction in the market. “The yearling market has to soften at some point here and that's a good thing, it probably needs to happen.”

While economic conditions might deter many buyers in the middle market, the top-end of the market targetted by Saratoga sellers seems to remain competitive.

“I don't think [the economy] is going to impact this sale,” Anderson said. “This is a boutique sale and buyers are coming here expecting to see some of the best horses in the United States and Canada. They are prepared to buy them at whatever cost it takes.”

Despite the dips and turns at yearling sales to come this fall, Regan feels confident bidding will be strong Monday and Tuesday in Saratoga.

“To be honest, I was a little bit cautious coming up here,” he said. “But we have seen the top end is where everybody wants to be at the moment. So with the group of horses that Fasig has here, I would be very positive about how the sale is going to go.”

Last year's Saratoga sale set records for gross, average and median as 14 yearlings sold for $1 million or over. A total of 135 head grossed $55,155,000 for an average of $408,556 and a median of $350,000.

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The 2014 GI Travers S. hero, V. E. Day (English Channel–California Sunset, by Deputy Minister) came to Old Friends following the death of his owner-breeder Magalen O. Bryant in 2021. Bryant's representative, Johnathan Miller, and her daughter, K. C. Graham, visited Old Friends earlier this year when it was decided that the stallion would retire from stud duty.

“V. E. Day was a courageous Travers winner and we inquired about his post-breeding career last year,” said Michael Blowen, president and founder of Old Friends. “We're very excited that his owner trusts us with her magnificent chestnut.”

Foaled in Kentucky on April 21, 2011, V. E. Day was trained by James Jerkens for Bryant his entire American racing career. After a stint racing in France as a 6-year-old, he retired with $1,044,061 in earnings over 17 career starts.

During his stud career, the stallion stood at Waldorf Farm in New York, Lovacres Ranch near Warner Springs, California and Buck Pond Farm in Versailles, Kentucky.

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The post First Mare In Foal To Sacred Life appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Victorious in the 2017 G3 Prix Thomas Bryon S. at Saint Cloud, the bay has been a fixture in the top turf races since his arrival in the U.S. in 2019. Sacred Life won the 2021 GIII Knickerbocker S. 2022 GIII Monmouth S. In addition to his graded successes, Sacred Life took the 2020 Oceanport S. at Monmouth, and in his final career start last August, he finished third in the in the GI Arlington Million, contested at Churchill Downs.

“We are very excited to have Sacred Life standing at Buck Pond for the 2023 breeding season,” said Doug Arnold Jr. “With 27 starts under his belt, Sacred Life proved to be an iron horse miler who was good at two and even better as he progressed.

“Turf racing has established a foothold in the United States and predominantly turf sires have seen increased popularity in the sales ring,” he continued. “With precocity and grit on the track, a fashionable pedigree, and an affordable stud fee, we believe Sacred Life will prove interesting to a wide array of breeders around the country.”

Campaigned in the U.S. by Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, Wonder Stables, and Michael Caruso and trained by Chad Brown, Sacred Life retires with eight wins from 27 lifetime starts. He also placed in 11 others, amassing career earnings of $920,768.

Sacred Life is the first foal out of the Knyazhna, who subsequently produced French group-placed Khagan (Ire). Sacred Life's second dam is a half-sister to Group 1 stakes winner Rule of Law.

Sacred Life will stand with a Black-Type Bonus incentive, where breeders will receive $1,000 for breeding a black-type performing mare to Sacred Life; $1,000 for a black-type-producing mare; or $2,000 if the mare is both.

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“He's by Flatter, who has not only been a great sire, but is also the sire of Upstart, who is a leading young sire himself,” Buck Pond's Doug Arnold told TDN. “He had incredible speed. He ran 1:33 and change two different times and he's extremely good looking. He looks like his daddy.”

Bred in Kentucky by Joseph Minor, owned by Shortleaf Stable, Inc. and trained by Brad Cox, the $350,000 KEEESEP yearling retires with a record of 32-9-7-6 and earnings of $1,408,412. Produced by a half-sister to MGSW Southdale (Street Cry {Ire}), Plainsman is a half-brother to GSP Liam (Liam's Map).

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The post First Mare in Foal to Hog Creek Hustle appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Runner-up in the GIII LeComte S. and GIII Pat Day Mile in 2019, Hog Creek Hustle sprung an 18-1 upset when rallying to victory in the GI Woody Stephens S. at Belmont that summer. He was also second in that term's GI H. Allen Jerkens S. He made just two starts in the spring of 2021 and was last seen finishing fourth in the GI Churchill Downs S. in May. Owned by Something Special Racing, Hog Creek Hustle retires with a record of 24-4-7-2 and earnings of $774,546.

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But if nobody could be surprised to see fresh tendrils of class on the family tree developed by Ogden Phipps from Dorine (Arg) (Aristophanes {GB})–the Argentine matriarch imported to Claiborne in 1970–then few will perhaps be aware that both these colts also find a more literal “bond” in a second remarkable female.

For the dams of both Dynamic One and Miles D are among just eight mares grazing the pasture of River Bend Farm, on the banks of the Ohio River near Goshen, north of Louisville. And while the farm's owner Ina Bond is in a position at least to ensure quality, if not quantity, then it is pretty astonishing for so small a band of broodmares to account for two of the six rivals to Essential Quality (Tapit)–especially when you consider that Bond has already bred one Grade I winner at Saratoga this summer, in Coaching Club American Oaks winner Maracuja (Honor Code).

In fairness, this apparent Midas touch did not prevent the sale of Maracuja's dam Patti's Regal Song (Unbridled's Song) for just $50,000 at the Keeneland November Sale of 2019. But if that has turned into a windfall for Checkmate Thoroughbreds, then at that same auction Bond herself achieved a similar coup in buying an 8-year-old mare named Beat the Drums (Smart Strike) for $400,000. She must have been delighted that the Phipps Stable had been willing to cull a mare whose latest yearling had raised as much as $725,000 at the September Sale. After all, while Beat the Drums had shown little in two career starts, the Phipps Stable was glad to retain a stake in the yearling with his purchasers Repole Stable & St. Elias Stable. And this colt, of course, has turned out to be none other than Dynamic One.

Beat the Drums, moreover, has started to pay her way already. The Honor Code colt she was carrying that November was sold as a yearling to Centennial Farms for $260,000; Bond is very pleased with her weanling colt by Ghostzapper; and the mare is in meanwhile foal to Street Sense.

Miles D, for his part, similarly helped to recoup Bond's investment in his dam. Sound the Trumpets had cost $675,000 at the Keeneland November Sale of 2017, with the bonus of a Curlin cover. The resulting foal was Miles D, who was sold through Denali to White Birch Farm as a September yearling for $470,000.

The next foal out of Sound the Trumpets, a Pioneerof the Nile colt, did not achieve quite the same traction, as a $120,000 RNA, and has been retained to race. “He's called Trumpets Blare, he's with Ian Wilkes and just getting ready to run shortly,” explained Bond, adding that Sound the Trumpets was given this cycle off after the late spring delivery of a fine colt by Medaglia d'Oro. The mare, after all, is still only eight.

“She also has a [Quality Road yearling] filly, that I think I'll keep,” Bond said. “I think I'd like to keep any fillies from that family. It just keeps producing, including in the last couple of years, not just runners but producers as well. And Sound the Trumpets is an extremely good-looking mare. We're very careful always to seek good conformation, because if they have an injury you're lost. Frankly I'm more of a commercial breeder than a racer, so I always try to get correct broodmares with a really strong pedigree–not just 'what have you done for me lately', the way a lot of people go for the hot new stallions. I spend a lot of time and get a lot of help doing the matings.”

There is hardly a stronger maternal line in the Stud Book, of course, than the sequence of three consecutive Breeders' Cup winners comprising Personal Ensign, My Flag (Easy Goer) and Storm Flag Flying. But if anyone should believe in pedigree, it is Ina Bond. For her own “page” is one of the most resonant in Kentucky: her great-grandfather George Garvin Brown founded Brown-Forman–think Woodford Reserve, Jack Daniels–and her grandfather Owsley Brown and father W.L. Lyons Brown both served as chairman. Bond in turn inherited an energetic commitment to both corporate and civic service, giving her time to a bewildering variety of business, community, educational and charity institutions. Now a septuagenarian, she admits that for much of her life, she has been too distracted to make the most of the sanctuary she has always relished on the farm since its acquisition in 1990.

“I got kind of overwhelmed,” she reflected. “I used to do a lot of volunteer work and was on a lot of different boards, commercial and non-commercial, I just got very busy and was always playing catch-up. Nowadays there are so many more tracks, so many horses and sires, everybody loves the betting. But it's a good thing, I suppose: it seems like whatever is going on in the world, the market for horses is very strong.

“I was always fascinated by horses, right from when I was little; in fact, I think I was in a horse show when I was in first grade. My mother was a good friend of Warner Jones, and I bought River Bend Farm from his son-in-law. It's a beautiful farm, but when I was starting out, the market was really bad. But though I had just a few mares, that first year one of them got us the second top price at the September Sale.

“I lived on the farm and it got me out a little bit, away from all these other things I was doing. But I also had children, and then eight grandchildren, as well as all those other different things stopping me from getting out with the horses as much as I'd like. But thankfully I did get some help. I have a nice crew who take care of the mares and foals; they never missed a day this summer no matter how hot it's been. And my farm manager Larry Weeden has helped me for 30 years; he's very good.”

Nurturing pedigrees is itself a task of conservation, and that is an area that has impassioned Bond's son Austin Mussulman–notably in the restoration of Ashbourne Farms in Oldham County, long part of the family and now a wedding, meeting and entertainment venue, securing the habitat alongside Harrods Creek. His wife Janie, meanwhile, comes from another storied Kentucky farm in Buck Pond, through which Maracuja–bred in partnership by Bond, her son and daughter-in-law–was sold as a Saratoga yearling for $200,000.

Buck Pond stands a surprise Travers winner in V.E. Day (English Channel) and now Bond, her family and her friends can root for another. The scrupulous standards of this boutique operation are certainly commensurate with the task facing Dynamic One and Miles D. Auspiciously, moreover, Bond reckons she has seldom had young stock on the farm of greater elegance and ease of motion than now. Look out, then, for the first foal of the young Ghostzapper mare Persephone's Dawn, an Into Mischief filly presented by Denali as Hip 488 at Keeneland September.

Aristocratic as these bloodlines are, any underdog can take legitimate inspiration from Bond's Saratoga summer: one mare cheaply culled after producing a subsequent Grade I winner, but promptly replaced by one whose own yearling son was even then embarking on a career that has meanwhile already taken in a shot at the Derby.

“That's what makes this business so attractive,” Bond observes. “You never know. When I sold the dam of Maracuja, she hadn't really produced much, but now she has a Grade I winner. I'm not a great big farm, like the ones around Lexington. We're not Juddmonte or Darley. I've basically been a small commercial breeder for 30 years. So needless to say, I'm quite excited by the Travers, though the competition is huge. I did not raise Dynamic One, but he's from that wonderful family; and I know Chad Brown is a great trainer, and he wouldn't have Miles D in there if he didn't think he had a shot, I think he really likes that colt. As I say, I've always been a small player. So this is a big deal for me, and I'd be thrilled if either of them were to be placed–or even give everyone a big surprise and win.”

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