The evening will also include numerous items in live and silent auctions, including a Knicks Go package, a Not This Time halter, horseshoes from Medina Spirit and Arabian Knight, and a California Chrome saddle towel. Bidding on silent auction items begins Wednesday. For more information, click here.

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But, on rare occasions, there are diamonds in the rough to be found. Just ask Nadir Khassanov and while you're at it, talk to the people at Mulholland Springs. On Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, Khassanov, a bloodstock agent from Kazakhstan, paid $12,000 for hip 3831, a chestnut colt with three white socks and a big baldy face who very much resembled his sire California Chrome, who had since departed these shores for Japan.

For a horse on day 11 of the sale, the February foal had a fair amount of black-type on his page. His dam Little Emily (Castledale {Ire}) was a stakes winner of better than $132,000 and was kin to a pair of stakes horses, including a solid black-type producer.

“I think I would have given up to $20,000 for it, it's just that the prices for California Chrome foals fell that year, and I managed to buy Kabirkhan,” Khassanov explained. “There were some minor flaws, but I liked his conformation and I was a fan of California Chrome.”

Mulholland Springs's John Henry Mulholland thought Khassanov was getting a bargain.

“Good-looking colt. Very athletic and carried himself with class,” he said. “Not a thing wrong with the colt. If it had been Book 3 or 4 and the market was hot on California Chrome, he brings $100,000. Just one of those things where the commercial market goes cold and it's the last day of the Keeneland September Sale.”

So, the colt was off to Kazakhstan to race in the colors of Tlek Mukanbetkaliyev. By now, you've probably seen the video–a three-horse race in which Kabirkhan beat Sky Indy (Sky Mesa)–purchased by Khassanov for $10,000 during Session 10 of the September Sale–by about three lengths at a very sloppy Almaty Racecourse in Kazakhstan's most-populous city. The victory was worth the equivalent of about $350.

This is INCREDIBLE!

Watch KABIRKHAN make his debut at Almaty Hippodrome in Kazakhstan in 2022…and then watch his runaway G1 win in the Al Maktoum Challenge at Meydan @RacingDubai last night! pic.twitter.com/Z6jKSZtLwp

— World Horse Racing (@WHR) January 27, 2024

Two more wins followed at Almaty, including a local Group 1 over 1600 meters, and by the time 2023 had rolled around, Kabirkhan was moved to Russia. There he ran his undefeated streak to eight in the Kabardino Balkaria Derby, good for a $12,000 payday, but he tasted defeat for the first time in $113,000 Russian Derby when beaten by Hero Mo (Mo Town) last September.

Russian-based horses have recently left their mark in Dubai, with Azure Coast (Street Sense) winning the 2022 G3 UAE 2000 Guineas as well as Tuz (Oxbow), who took out this year's G3 Al Shindagha Sprint and is not without his chances in this weekend's G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen. So it was not entirely shocking to see Kabirkhan transferred to the care of perennial leading trainer Doug Watson in the Emirates.

“We Kazakh equestrians have long dreamed of getting to Dubai, and then such a magnificent horse as Kabirkhan turned up, and we decided to try it,” Khassanov said. “At the moment, he is the most famous horse in Kazakhstan, we all love and support him.”

Beyond the agent's wildest dreams, Kabirkhan became arguably the story of this year's Dubai Racing Carnival, turning the tables on Hero Mo in a 2000-meter handicap before following up with another impressive victory in the G1 Al Maktoum Challenge on two weeks' rest.

“We really believed in him,” Khassanov insisted.

And now he has the opportunity to do something even more special in Saturday's G1 Dubai World Cup against a field that includes defending champion Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}), Derma Sotogake (Jpn) (Mind Your Biscuits) and GI Santa Anita H. hero Newgate (Into Mischief).

“We are considered the third favorites in the race and I will cheer and support him, I think we have a chance to write our name in the history of the Cup,” Khassanov said. “I am very proud of him and wish him only victory.”

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That was special

Kabirkhan brilliantly preserves his unbeaten Meydan record in the Al Maktoum Challenge presented by @Longines

What a horse … #FashionFriday | #DubaiCarnival pic.twitter.com/h9jWut1TmU

— Dubai Racing Club (@RacingDubai) January 26, 2024

Wild celebrations from the Kazakhstan connections @RacingDubai as KABIRKHAN become a first Thoroughbred G1 winner for trainer Doug Watson pic.twitter.com/uTCkUxg4BE

— Laura King لورا كنج 金樂雅 (@LauraKingDXB) January 26, 2024

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“There was a spot there, where the horses come out from the saddling enclosure and make a right,” Evan Ferraro recalls.

“From there you could look at them straight on, so you could see their conformation, their joints, and my dad would point stuff out to me.”

And there was one filly by In Excess (Ire) that just blew the veteran horseman away: a Harris Farms homebred, saddled by Carla Gaines to win on debut down the turf chute. This was 2005, soon after Evan had graduated USC as an English major.

Since then, he has become a familiar face through 15 years at Fasig-Tipton, where he is now director of marketing. But at the time he was still wondering about emulating his father Stephen, who had for 20 years operated a small barn on the Southern California circuit before retiring in 1990 to join the family's vending-machine business.

Stephen Ferraro | Ralph Merlino

“He liked to have a 12-to-16 horse stable, and back then you could make a good living doing that,” Evan says. “It was a different time. But he was well respected and had some nice graded stakes horses.”

Evan was doubly blessed, then, not only to grow up in the immaculate climate of Sierra Madre-around the corner from Charlie Whittingham-but also to have many formative experiences on the backside.

“I just loved getting up early and hanging out at the track,” Evan says. “I'd sit in the tack room while Dad worked, walk out with him to watch training, or he'd put me on the outrider's pony, things like that. Santa Anita was still getting 30,000 people at the races during the week, and 50,000 on the weekends, as standard.”

To this day, Stephen retains a box at Santa Anita. But his attention over recent months has shifted to Kentucky-and all thanks to that In Excess filly. Her name was Never to Excess, and Stephen knew the family well. The dam had won the Torrey Pines S. at Del Mar and was a half-sister to elite winners Fabulous Notion (Somethingfabulous) and Cacoethes (Alydar).

Never to Excess only managed a couple more starts. “But my dad just loved her in the paddock, every time, and it was a family he'd always revered,” Evan says. “In fact the first broodmare he ever owned, in the '60s, was from this family. So eventually he inquired whether John Harris would consider selling her. Mr. Harris already had a lot of the family, so fortunately he agreed and let us into it.”

The Ferraros sent her to Tribal Rule, a son of Storm Cat who tore up the track a couple of times in a curtailed career for Pam and Martin Wygod. Here they had some extra encouragement from Evan's mom Richmond, who had brought her own Turf pedigree from the opposite coast. Her mother had managed several farms in northern Virginia, including a stint running a training barn for none other than Liz Tippett.

View from the Santa Anita Park grandstand | Horsephotos

“Oh yeah, we're a racing family,” Evan says. “That's how I got the bug, being around it so much. My paternal grandmother was a racing commissioner [in California] in the '80s. And my mother did stallion advertising for years, and worked for Barretts during that company's whole existence. Anyway she was doing advertising for the Wygods, so we knew how talented Tribal Rule had been. He never won a stake or anything, but in his few races he'd put up a couple of incredible, open-length romps in fast times. And that speed was what worked for us, raising Cal-breds.”

So they bred Never to Excess to Tribal Rule three times running. The first foal was stakes-placed on his second start, albeit didn't really build from there. But the Ferraros struck gold with the third, a 2009 filly they named Ismene. (She was Antigone's sister, never inclined to excess: Stephen, demonstrably, had also majored in literature!)

“She was raised by Russell Drake, Mr. Wygod's farm manager,” Evan says. “And all along he told my dad, 'This is a really nice filly you've got here.' Dad put her in training with Bill Spawr, an old buddy of his. Patrick Valenzuela rode her at Del Mar in her first race, and she 'whistled.' And then she came back and won two stakes: the Anoakia at Oak Tree, against open company, and then the Cal Breeders [Champion S.] on opening day at Santa Anita.”

That qualified Ismene as champion state-bred filly of her crop. Unfortunately she had to sit out her sophomore campaign with a knee chip, but she returned to finish runner-up three times in stakes company at four. She even took a swing at the GI Breeders Cup' Filly and Mare Sprint, but that proved a bridge too far and they retired her.

Never to Excess had shown speed, class and versatility, being effective on dirt, turf and synthetic. Throw in the looks that had captivated Stephen, and some elite blood close up, and Ismene appeared a very eligible proposition for her next career.

Clocker's Corner | Zoe Metz

Her first date was with Lucky Pulpit, freshly exalted by his son California Chrome. And there was a sentimental connection here, too, Evan having held Lucky Pulpit in the breeding shed during his first season at stud.

“I'd gone to Harris Farms to get some experience,” he explains. “I'd worked at TVG for my last semester of college, as a production assistant, but wanted to get closer to the horses. So I went to work there and did a little bit of everything: breeding shed, worked with mares and foals, yearling sales prep, sales consignments, just learning all the aspects of a horse farm.”

Then one morning at Clockers' Corner he was introduced to Walt Robertson, at the time president of Fasig-Tipton, and sent him a resumé. Evan was offered an internship, and has never looked back.

“So that's how I ended up not being a trainer,” he says with a smile. “The hours were better, and it was a lot of fun. I got to travel-and I saw that these Fasig-Tipton guys all eat pretty well!”

We'll come back to life at Fasig, but meanwhile let's not forget the mare we left with Lucky Pulpit. Their daughter made $90,000 as a yearling and won a stakes. Next came an Acclamation filly, who brought $160,000 and was placed in four stakes. “She was gorgeous, still is,” Evan says. “I think she was as high a priced filly as her sire ever had. So after those first two, because she was showing herself to be a good producer, we decided to bring Ismene to Kentucky.”

Her first couple of covers in the Bluegrass did not prove productive, but then they rolled the dice with an upgrade to Arrogate.

“He was a horse my dad saw coming up the ranks in California, and always loved,” Evan explains.  “And he believed strongly in a cross to Caro [grandsire of In Excess]. That's what he got with that first foal, with Lucky Pulpit [whose dam is by Caro's son Cozzene]. And then with Arrogate, you get it through Unbridled's Song [out of a Caro mare].”

Right from the outset, James Herbener Jr. was upbeat about the resulting colt.

“Jimmy was just as good a horseman as there was in Kentucky,” Evan says. “And though he usually never said a whole lot, he was pretty high on this foal the whole way.”

So was there a temptation to convert that promise into dollars and cents, at a certain auction house down the road on the Newtown Pike?

“Yeah, we hemmed and hawed about it,” admits Evan. “You had to, because that's how you keep the whole thing going. But this was such a cool horse. And finally my dad just said, 'I want to race him.' We thought that potentially he could be a bit special, certainly he was the best-bred we'd ever had, and at my dad's age [80] he'd rather just give the horse a shot.”

Liberal Arts | Coady Photography

As a pair of English majors, with a mare named from Greek myth, Stephen and Evan named the colt Liberal Arts. They put him into pre-training with Robbie Medina. Then at Blackwood, Medina subsequently decided to open a public stable based at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington.

“And when Robbie went out on his own, we just kept it simple, kept the horse where he was doing well,” says Evan. “Robbie had broken the horse for us, he'd spoken highly of him and wanted to continue on with him. I'd met Robbie several years back, through a good friend and colleague at Fasig-Tipton, Max Hodge. They'd worked together for Shug [McGaughey] way back when, and remained very close friends. So I knew how good a horseman Robbie was.”

For these patrons, Medina had to meet high standards. For Stephen had learned much about their calling from his friend Willard Proctor, the Texas hardboot who had trained his first winner in 1933. Sure enough, Liberal Arts has been given a fairly throwback grounding as a 2-year-old.

“He's had an old school campaign, really,” Evan notes. “He ran five furlongs at Churchill in May, six furlongs a month later at Ellis, and then broke his maiden five or six weeks later, going seven furlongs. Then he had a one-turn mile race in the [GIII] Iroquois. He had a bit of trouble, almost clipped heels in the stretch. I don't know if he would have caught the winner, but I think that cost him second anyways.”

But that's the whole point: if a horse gets to learn its trade by racing, those little reverses can be worn as learning experiences. Okay, this year we had a GI Kentucky Derby winner unraced until late January; but runner-up Two Phil's (Hard Spun) showed that the time-honored “school of hard knocks” remains as valid as ever. In the big picture, then, the Iroquois could be counted a net gain.

“Absolutely,” agrees Evan. “That was the deal all along. He was just starting to mature, and we knew that he was going to like going two turns. Robbie was really excited to stretch him out in the [GIII] Street Sense S., and he relished it. I know there was the off-going, but I think he benefitted from the distance more than anything.”

Certainly it was a revelatory performance, Liberal Arts bursting through from the rear to take control in the stretch, hitting the wire in full cry. While you sometimes see odd scenarios in slop, this just looked like a horse for whom everything is falling into place.

“I watched every race that day, and nobody else made up that much ground,” Evan reflects. “He's really learned to relax and turn off a little bit. He's an unusual horse. Truthfully, we thought he'd be a fall 2-year-old. He's a good-sized horse by Arrogate. I think Arrogate's only had one other 2-year-old colt win a graded stakes, and that was Cave Rock.”

“But Robbie broke this horse and then just went on with him, because he kept picking it up. He didn't want to stop on him, when he was going along so naturally. The horse has learned with each race, and hopefully he's only going to get better as he gets older. He's got a great foundation now, with five starts in him, and I think he's only just getting into what he wants to do. Hopefully, that bodes well for him as a 3-year-old.”

Liberal Arts under the Twin Spires | Coady Photography

The Ferraros know the game too well to be getting carried away. Its vagaries have already intruded poignantly, in that Ismene is no longer around. But for all the lows that must be weighed against its occasional highs, somehow the captivation of our sport never fades.

Certainly Evan adores the life. “I love going to farms, being on the road, working with the people breeding and raising these horses, and trying to direct them to the best place possible to get the best return they can,” he says. “I do advertising and marketing, but I'm also inspecting horses, recruiting for the November Sale, handling certain accounts. We all wear a lot of different hats at Fasig-Tipton. We have a tremendous team and a wonderful working environment.”

That team spirit at Fasig has certainly contributed to the enjoyment Evan and his father are deriving from Liberal Arts. Even the heartbreaking loss of Herbener, in September 2021, ended up widening the circle of engagement.

“We were all just rattled, it was such a sad deal,” Evan recalls. “And then when his family decided not to go on with a boarding operation, we had to find a spot for Liberal Arts to be raised. So then Bayne Welker, another colleague at Fasig-Tipton, steps in and says, 'I need one more colt on my farm to pair some stuff up. I'd be happy to take him.' So he and his wife Chris raise him as a yearling for us.”

Those extra layers have made the emergence of Liberal Arts feel extra special.

“I think about all that stuff,” Evan says. “We bred our only mare to this horse my dad always really liked; decided not to sell; he was raised by Jimmy; Jimmy passes away, a colleague and friend steps in; and then another one introduces us to the guy who trains him. Robbie goes out on his own, and Liberal Arts becomes his first graded stakes winner. And it's actually the first time I've been in partnership with my dad, the first time our names have ever been on the program together.

“So there's a lot of different pieces all fitting together. I can't say enough about the job Robbie has just done, developing this horse. He's a first-class horseman, with great staff. It's a long ways to get this horse to the big dance. If we get there, it's because he's going to take us there; we're not going to take him. But before the Breeders' Cup, he was the top-ranked horse by Derby points. That felt pretty wild. You've got to stay grounded, because so much can change or go wrong. But no, we're really excited.”

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Out of GSP Zinzay (Smart Strike), who went for $525,000 to Summer Wind Equine back in 2016 during Keeneland November when she carrying eventual SW & GISP Moon Over Miami (Malibu Moon), hails from an extended female family which includes GSW She Can't Sing (Bernardini) and G1 Dubai World Cup hero and 'TDN Rising Star' Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper). TJCIS PPS

1st-WO, $111K, Msw, 3yo/up, 1 1/8mT, 1:15 p.m. ET.
Up in Toronto, Loose Wire (Street Sense) makes his debut as a 3-year-old against six other more experienced runners. The Sam-Son Farm Ontario-bred was purchased for $925,000 by Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable to top the 2021 Fasig-Tipton October Sale. The Kevin Attard trainee's second dam is Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Dancethruthedawn (Mr. Prospector), who is responsible for the dam of GI Whitney S. champ Moreno (Ghostzpper), and the third dam is Canadian Horse of the Year, Eclipse Award and GI Breeders' Cup Distaff heroine Dance Smartly (Danzig). TJCIS PPS

2nd-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, 6f, 1:30 p.m. ET.
Out of Indian Miss (Indian Charlie), OXO Equine homebred Bowstreet (Into Mischief) hails from a well-regarded family which includes his half-brothers, champion male sprinter and top five first-crop sire Mitole (Eskendereya) and GISW and GI Belmont S. and G1 Dubai World Cup runner-up Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow).

Indian Miss was initially purchased at the 2018 Keeneland November sale for $240,000 by WinStar Farm while carrying Indigo Miss (Into Mischief), who was hammered down to Larry Best's operation for $525,000 at Keeneland September in 2020. Bowstreet's dam was then purchased by OXO two months later for $1.9 million at KEENOV while carrying this colt. Before entering training with Paulo Lobo, Bowstreet was bought back on a bid of $1.6 million at the Fasig-Tipton Select Yearling Sale last summer. TJCIS PPS

3rd-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 2:00 p.m. ET.
Coastal Invasion (Omaha Beach) debuts for Hoffman Family Racing and Schwing Thoroughbreds after agent Clay Scherer signed the ticket for $700,000 back in April at OBS. Prior to that, the Brad Cox trainee went to Red Wings Enterprises for $200,000 at Keeneland September. Dam Intelyhente (Smart Strike) is a full-sister to GII Darley Alcibiades S. heroine Bel Air Beauty, who produced Canadian champion sprinter Stacked Deck (First Samurai). TJCIS PPS

4th-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 2:30 p.m. ET.
Perry Martin, who sadly lost his wife and Martin Racing partner Denise back in 2021, received five lifetime breeding rights when he and Steve Coburn's GI Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) was sold to Japan's JS Company, who manages the stallion business at Arrow Stud. Martin purchased MSW Lake Ponchatrain (Afleet Express) in a private sale in 2019 that was brokered by California-based bloodstock consultant Lisa Groothedde and sent her to California Chrome. The result is juvenile Tazawako (Jpn), her first to the races under the tutelage of trainer Mike Maker. California Chrome has been represented by nine 2-year-old winners to date from his first Japanese-foaled crop. TJCIS PPS

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Champions California Chrome, Arrogate (Unbridled's Song) and Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro), all in their first year of eligibility, joined jockey Corey Nakatani in the contemporary class of 2023. Fernando Toro was selected by the Historic Review Committee. Three people–the late John Hanes II, the late Leonard Jerome and Stella F. Thayer–were inducted as Pillars of the Turf in the ceremony at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion.

Award-winning journalist Edward Bowen, a museum trustee who has chaired a number of Hall of Fame committees, was presented with the inaugural Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Award for his contributions to the museum.

With his big cowboy hat in hand, Coburn accepted for California Chrome, winner of the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Preakness S. and G1 Dubai World Cup and a two-time Horse of the Year. California Chrome won 16 of 27 starts, a total of seven Grade I races and earned $14,752,650.

Coburn thanked the horse for taking him and his wife in a remarkable journey over five seasons. He praised the work of trainer Art Sherman and his son and assistant Alan, and the staff, who he named, for the way they developed and handled the horse.

California Chrome's story–from his modest breeding, to difficulty the mare Love the Chase had with his foaling, to his personality and his connections–blended nicely with his success on the track and produced a legion of fans who called themselves “Chromies.”

“The mare had problems giving birth to Chrome, so as a baby, he was in the stall with the mare,” Coburn said. “He wasn't turned out with the rest of them. The only time he got to play with anybody was when they came to check on him. That's how come he became so loveable to people. He just liked people. I don't know how to express the love that people gave this horse. The Chromies are here. They've come in from all over the place, you know. Thank you.”

As he moved to the end of his remarks, Coburn, hesitated for a moment to control his emotions.

“Last but not least, I would like to thank that little nervous filly, Love the Chase,” he said. “Without her we wouldn't have Chrome and for Chrome to be inducted into the Hall of Fame it's indescribable. Just like winning the Kentucky Derby. This is a good way to say that story has come to an end. I told Laffit Pincay, III after he won the Santa Anita Derby, 'Mark my words. This horse is going to go down in history.' And today's the day. Period.”

Plenty of emotion from Steve Coburn, as he accepts the plaque for 2023 @nmrhof inductee: California Chrome pic.twitter.com/09u9qydCdC

— TDN (@theTDN) August 4, 2023

Nakatani, 52, was the final inductee on the program. He came to the sport as a teenager with no background with horses, but fashioned an outstanding 31-year career. He won 3,909 races; 10 of his 341 graded stakes wins came in the Breeders' Cup. His $234,554,534 in purse earnings ranks 14th.

To describe his attitude and determination, Nakatani told the story of what he did in a game of youth football. He said he weighed about 58 pounds at the time and was told by his coach to run around a defensive player to score a touchdown. Instead, he decided to try to run over the other player and was stopped on the two-yard line.

“Long story short, that was the first time that I was told not to do something and was like 'I better just go it.' That tells my career in a nutshell,” he said as the audience roared.

Nakatani was built to be a jockey, and, despite his lack of experience, he developed the skill needed to succeed against the odds on the tough Southern California circuit.

“The guys I was riding against were Gary Stevens, Chris McCarron, Laffit Pincay,  all these Hall of Fame riders,” he said. “I was very fortunate to have an opportunity to ride with them and take a lot of learning from all of it. Sandy Hawley. Alex Solis. All the guys that I had the chance to ride with, even the King of Saratoga, Angel (Cordero, Jr.). These guys have a special place in my heart.”

Toro, 82, did not make the cross-continent trip from his home in California and will be honored at Del Mar. The native of Chile, was a top rider in his home country before moving to California in 1966. He retired in 1990 with North America totals of 3,555 victories and purse earnings of $56,299,765. He won 80 graded stakes. At the time of his retirement, he was sixth in stakes wins at Del Mar, eighth at Hollywood Park and tied for eighth at Santa Anita.

During the ceremony, a video was shown of how California turf writers Jay Hovdey and Jay Privman told Toro that he had been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Arrogate, trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, showed that he had the makings of a superstar in the 2016 GI Travers just down the street from the sales pavilion at Saratoga Race Course. In his first graded stakes attempt, he won by 13 1/2 lengths and broke a 37-year-old track record for 1 1/4 miles. He went on to win the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, edging California Chrome, the 2017 GI Pegasus World Cup and the 2017 Dubai World Cup in a seven-race win streak. The gray colt owned by Juddmonte Farm retired with a record $17,422,600 in purse earnings.

Dr. John Chandler accepted on behalf of Juddmonte Farms, the racing powerhouse launched by the late Saudi Prince Khalid bin Abdullah.

“It's very sad that Prince Khalid himself unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago,” Chandler said. “He would have liked to have been here and appreciate the recognition.”

Arrogate was a departure from the norm for Prince Khalid's international stable.

“For many years at Juddmonte, we had a lot of turf horses, because our racing started in England,” Chandler said. “We were going through a bad spell after our trainer Bobby Frankel passed away. The Prince had been looking through all the results, week after week, and he said, 'This man in California, Bob Baffert, is doing very well isn't he, training a lot of winners. Why don't we send him some horses?'”

Since Baffert mainly trained dirt horses, Chandler said the turf horses bred by Juddmonte would not be a good fit. He said the Prince said, 'So, we'll buy some dirt horses.' The trainer and Garrett (O'Rourke, Juddmonte's U.S. manager), went to the sales and they bought some horses, some nice, expensive dirt horses. One of them turned out to be Arrogate. That brought the Prince more pleasure than anything else that I'd seen in a long time. We're very grateful to the Hall of Fame committee to take our horse. All I can say is thank you.”

Songbird, owned by the late Rick Porter's Fox Hill Farm, started her career with 11 consecutive victories and retired in 2017 with a record of 13 wins and two seconds from 15 starts. Trained by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer, she secured Grade I victories at two, three and four and earned $4,692,000.

“In her 15 races, it took being a champion to beat Songbird,” said Fox Hill manager Victoria Keith. “She lost, finishing second twice, to Beholder and champion Forever Unbridled.”

Keith described Songbird as a talented but laid-back filly.

“You often hear that great racehorses have a fiery side and this contributes to them being a great race horse,” she said. “You particularly hear this about speed horses. Songbird was a speed horse but she had no fiery side. She's a sweet, loving and gentle horse.”

Keith and Porter's widow, Betsy, accepted Songbird's plaque.

“We are so pleased that Songbird is being inducted into the Hall of Fame,” Keith said. “We consider it not only an honor for Songbird, but also for Rick Porter and Fox Hill Farm. It is bittersweet because we dearly wish that it was Rick on the stage today.”

ICYMI: Watch SONGBIRD's induction into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame! #FasigGrad #FasigSaratoga @nmrhof pic.twitter.com/4YRAbNLaaw

— Fasig-Tipton (@FasigTiptonCo) August 4, 2023

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Exactly, five years after he earned his final victory then suffered career-ending injuries in a spill at Del Mar, Nakatani will be inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame on Friday morning at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion. The event, which is open to the public, begins at 10:30 a.m.

Nakatani, 52, is a member of the Class of 2023 elected in the contemporary category with three champion horses all in their first year of eligibility: Arrogate (Unbridled's Song), California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) and Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro). Jockey Fernando Toro was elected by the Historic Review Committee. The Pillars of the Turf honorees are John Hanes II, Leonard Jerome, and Stella F. Thayer.

During his freshman year in high school, Nakatani made a visit to Santa Anita Park with his father and discovered the sport that would become his life's work. Soon after, he found a job working around horses, went to jockey school and began building toward a career as a jockey. He made his professional debut at the Stockton Fair in June 1988 at the age of 17, had a couple of mounts at Del Mar and headed south to Aqua Caliente in Mexico, where he picked up his first victory.

In January 1989, Nakatani started riding at Santa Anita and grew into a top rider on the Southern California circuit, winning 10 titles. He won 3,909 races with purse earnings of $234,554,534. Nakatani's resume is topped by 341 graded stakes victories, including 10 in Breeders' Cup races. He ranks No. 14 in career earnings and 11 times finished in the top 10 of annual earnings nationally. The Covina, California native ranks in the top 10 in overall wins and stakes wins at both Santa Anita and Del Mar.

The long list of the accomplishments earned Nakatani a spot in the Hall of Fame, where he will take his place among racing's all-time greats.

“I'm excited about it,” he said. “Obviously, you want to thank a lot of people. There's a lot of trainers you were involved with, but at the end of the day it's for your family. There was a lot of the time you were away from them, at work riding races.

“It's all glamorous and everything, but it's a lot of hard work out there. Dreams come true. If you work hard enough and you're able to be successful at it, then being in the Hall of Fame is once in a lifetime.”

Though he had no background in the sport, Nakatani was the ideal size for be a jockey–he said he weighed 89 pounds as a freshman wrestler–was very athletic and fiercely competitive. Those attributes helped him find success competing against a slew of Hall of Fame riders based in Southern California. He said he went to school on what that gifted group of riders did every day and said Laffit Pincay, Jr. was his idol and mentor.

“To me, he's the best strongest finisher on a horse,” Nakatani said. “When I when I was learning to ride I took a little bit from Laffit, a little bit of Eddie D. [Delahoussaye], a little bit of Chris McCarron, a little bit of Gary Stevens, and [Bill] Shoemaker and put it into one rider. That's the way my mentality was.”

Toro, 82, was a top rider in his native Chile before moving to California in 1966. He retired in 1990 with North America totals of 3,555 victories and purse earnings of $56,299,765. He won 80 graded stakes. At the time of his retirement, he was sixth in stakes wins at Del Mar, eighth at Hollywood Park and tied for eighth at Santa Anita.

Though based in Southern California, Toro won major races all over the United States and in Canada. In Nov. 1983, Toro took over as the regular rider of Royal Heroine for British-born, California-based  trainer John Gosden. A Hall of Fame inductee in 2022, Royal Heroine flourished with Toro up, winning a division of the Hollywood Derby, the Inglewood, the Beverly Hills Handicap, the inaugural Breeders' Cup Mile, and the Matriarch.

Arrogate seized national and international attention on Aug. 27, 2016 when he won the GI Travers S. at Saratoga–his first graded-stakes start–by 13 1/2 lengths with a track-record time of 1:59.36. The Bob Baffert trainee went from that Travers triumph to a half-length victory over California Chrome in a memorable GI Breeders' Cup Classic. The Juddmonte colt easily won the inaugural running of the GI Pegasus World Cup in January 2017, over a field that included California Chrome, and the GI Dubai World Cup in March 2017. He retired at the end of the 2017 season with record earnings of $17,422,600.

“I'll always be remembered for training the only two Triple Crown winners since the 1970s,” Baffert said, “but if Arrogate had made it to the track early enough as a 3-year-old there is a very good chance I would have trained a third. Stride for stride, furlong for furlong, from gate to wire, Arrogate was every bit as good as American Pharaoh and Justify.

In the Dubai World Cup, Arrogate extended his winning streak to seven despite a terrible start that left him at the back of the field of 14. Though Arrogate typically used his speed early in his races, Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith did not panic and gave the colt a patient ride. He made his way into contention and managed to beat Gun Runner by 2 1/4 lengths.

Baffert, a 2009 Hall of Fame inductee, called it the “greatest performance of any horse I ever trained.”

Arrogate was the 3-year-old male Eclipse Award winner and was named the Longines World's Best Racehorse of 2016.

California Chrome, a two-time Horse of the Year, had a great story to go with his remarkable success on the track. The California-bred rose from modest beginnings in state-bred company as a 2-year-old in 2013 to win the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness for trainer Art Sherman. He fell short of the Triple Crown sweep with a fourth-place finish in the GI Belmont S. In 2015, he was second in the Dubai World Cup. Healthy and in top form again in 2016, he won the Dubai World Cup, the GI Pacific Classic and the GI Awesome Again.

When California Chrome was retired after the Pegasus World Cup, he had two divisional titles to go with his pair of Horse of the Year awards, was a Grade I winner on dirt and turf, had 16 wins in 27 starts and earnings of $14,752,650.

Songbird was never worse than second in 15 starts for Rick Porter's Fox Hill Farms. She was good from the start of her 2-year-old season in July 2015, and won 11-consecutive races. Among those scores were Grade I wins in the Del Mar Debutante, the Chandelier, the Breeder's Cup Juvenile Fillies, the Santa Anita Oaks, the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Alabama. Her streak ended in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Distaff where she lost by a nose to Beholder–elected to the Hall of Fame last year–in an epic showdown.

Trained by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer, Songbird was a two-time Eclipse Award winner who earned $4,692,00 on the track.

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But before Mills can look forward to next Sunday on the Rowley Mile, he first has another four breezers to put through their paces for the Guineas Sale on Thursday. The quartet is shaping up nicely just a short hack away from where they will be asked to perform the first proper test of their young lives during Wednesday's gallop session. RMM Bloodstock is based at Bill O'Gorman's Seven Springs stable on Newmarket's Hamilton Road, meaning that the consignor has only to have his horses ridden straight onto the Heath that they have come to know well in recent months. 

He is understandably proud of Naomi Lapaglia, who races for Ed Babington and Phil Cunningham and is trained locally by Richard Spencer.

“Richard said she did a nice piece of work at the Rowley Mile last week and she will go straight to the Guineas,” he says.

Bred by Shadwell, Naomi Lapaglia had been selected by the pinhooker from the operation's reduction of stock at the Tattersalls December Yearling Sale for just 2,000gns. Five months later, she was knocked down at 110,000gns to Cunningham, with an extra boost coming when her half-sister Rogue Millennium (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), similarly let go relatively cheaply by Shadwell, won impressively on debut four days before the breeze-up sale. She went on to win the Lingfield Oaks Trial and finish seventh in the Oaks for Tom Clover.

“It was a hot race,” Mills recalls of Rogue Millennium's debut. “So that really helped  the two-year-old, it just put the icing on the cake really, going into the sale. And she did a solid breeze.”

Mills is by no means a newcomer to the breeze-up circuit, but this will be the largest draft he has brought to sale so far. The consigning part of his business, along with breaking and pre-training and some bloodstock agency work, is an area which he is planning to expand.

“Over the last few years we've always had a few to breeze, but then we've either sold them before the sale or the owners have changed their mind. A few years ago, I bought Pocket The Profit as a yearling, and Ed Babington bought him off me privately,” he adds.

The four-year-old Pocket The Profit (GB) (Mayson {GB}), a 10,000gns yearling, has now won six of his 22 starts, earning a rating of 90.

“We also buy some for Qatar, we know some trainers over there,” he says. “This year we won the Guineas and we were fourth in the Derby with a horse called Conflict, who we bought from Andrew Balding.

“We've got good team of people, so we're going to try and do some yearling prep this summer and angle more towards consigning. With the horses is in training as well, with staff shortages it's better for the trainers to ask someone else to do it.  It's something that we're going to build on and we've got a few yearlings already on the books to come. We're lucky to have the most beautiful yard and we're just building every year now.”

Mills is also planning to build on his good contacts in America, where he spent four years as a track rider and was assistant trainer to Michelle Nihei in Florida. 

“I went all over really, from Gulfstream, up to New York, Saratoga, and California to Hollywood Park, when it was open, and Santa Anita. Then I came back here and was riding out, and RMM Bloodstock has been going about eight years now.

“It's working, anyhow, because we're having winners after they've breezed, we've made horses from 10 and 12,000 into 40,000 the last couple of years. And then obviously last year was pretty exceptional, turning 2,000 into 110,000,” he recalls.

“I just scratched my head all winter, I still couldn't believe that I bought her for 2,000 because I couldn't really find a lot wrong with her. Luckily everything just went perfectly in the prep. We knew she had a lot of ability, and she won first time out.”

Mills's own skills as a former track rider have been called upon by American trainers visiting the UK for Royal Ascot. He rode the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome in all his exercise in Newmarket during the spring of 2015, and more recently he partnered with Bucchero, who was fifth in the King's Stand in 2018 and is managed by Harlan Malter of Ironhorse Racing Stable. 

“I bought Harlan a filly called Improvise (Fr), who was the Queen's last runner before she died,” he notes. Bucchero has made a good start as a stallion and this year we've been discussing with Harlan about trying to get some to bring here to breeze.”

In the meantime, the RMM Bloodstock draft heading to Tattersalls next week consists of three colts and a filly by stallions a little closer to home and Mills has drawn extra encouragement from events at Doncaster on Tuesday. Among the group is a colt by young Darley stallion Harry Angel (Ire) and a filly by Cheveley Park Stud's Twilight Son (GB), the same two stallions who provided the top colt and top filly at the Goffs UK Breeze-up Sale.

“I try not to buy a horse just for the sake of having a breezer,” says Mills. “The Guineas Sale has always been good to us and in this year's draft there's four really nice horses.

“The Harry Angel, he speaks for himself when he comes out of his stable. Through the winter we've had to go easy on him really, because he's grown a lot and has been  immature physically, but now he's just come right for us for the sale, which is nice of him.”

Offered as lot 345, the colt is a grandson of a filly who had plenty of top-level experience of the Rowley Mile: Natagora (Fr) (Divine Light {Jpn}), winner of the 1,000 Guineas and the G1 Cheveley Park S.

“I think he's a horse with a lot of ability,” Mills adds. “And again, with the Kessaar colt, he's grown and matured a lot and he really goes well. He's got a good brain on him, which means you're halfway there, especially with the breeze-up horses.”

The colt by Kessaar (Ire) is a half-brother to treble winner Hurry Up Hedley (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) and will be sold at lot 294. The consignment also contains a Time Test (GB) colt whose family was seen to good effect on Saturday through the good Newbury maiden winner Klondike (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), whose grand-dam Kithanga (Ire) is the third dam of lot 316.

Mills continues, “Our Time Test is another solid, good-bodied colt and we're expecting them to do good breezes this year. The Twilight Son filly is extremely sharp.”

He adds, “I try, obviously, to buy a good-looking horse, a solid horse. And you want a sire and that'll stand out so they don't get a line put through them, just in the index, when people open their catalogue. 

“We're lucky that, with the results we've been having, Tattersalls have supported us and given us spots to fill and we're taking them there to sell. 

“We haven't got to travel too far. It's a great warm-up from here over to [the Rowley Mile], so if we've got the advantage, we'll use it.”

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The late Arrogate, whose bankroll of $17,422,600 still ranks him as North America's wealthiest racehorse of all time, won the Eclipse Award for 3-Year-Old Male in 2016. Overall the gray Juddmonte Farms homebred won four Grade/Group I races in the care of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. He was unraced as a 2-year-old and broke his maiden in his second career start in 2016 and in his first stakes appearance set a track record of 1:59.36 when winning the GI Travers S. by 13 1/2 lengths, the only time in Saratoga history a horse has gone 10 furlongs on the dirt in less than two minutes. He also won the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita and set a Gulfstream Park dirt record of 1:46.83 in the 1/8-mile GI Pegasus World Cup in his 4-year-old debut. He then captured the GI Dubai World Cup to become the all-time earnings leader. Arrogate was retired with a record of 7-1-1 from 11 starts.

California Chrome | Benoit

California Chrome won Eclipse Awards for Horse of the Year in 2014 and 2016, as well as champion 3-Year-Old Male in 2014 and champion Older Male in 2016. Trained by Art Sherman for Perry Martin and Steve Coburn, and later Taylor Made Farm, California Chrome won a total of 10 graded/group stakes including the Kentucky Derby, Preakness S., Santa Anita Derby, and Hollywood Derby in his first Horse of the Year campaign in 2014. In 2016, he surpassed Hall of Famer Curlin for the North American earnings record, which was subsequently broken by Arrogate. Overall, California Chrome won at seven different tracks retired with a career line of 27-16-4-1, $14,752,650. He now stands at Arrow Stud in Japan.

Songbird | Chris Rahayel

Songbird won Eclipse Awards for champion 2-Year-Old Filly in 2015 and champion 3-Year-Old Filly in 2016. Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer for the late Rick Porter's Fox Hill Farms, Songbird won the first 11 races of her career, including Grade I victories in the Del Mar Debutante, Chandelier, Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, Santa Anita Oaks, Coaching Club American Oaks, Alabama, and Cotillion. As a 4-year-old she also won consecutive Grade Is in the Ogden Phipps and Delaware H. Overall, Songbird posted a record of 13-2-0 from 15 starts and earned $4,692,000.

Nakatani, 52, won 3,909 races with purse earnings of $234,554,534 million in a career that spanned from 1988 to 2018. He ranks 14th all time in career earnings and won 341 graded stakes. Nakatani won 10 Breeders' Cup races (one of only 10 riders to do so), including four editions of the Sprint. He won three riding titles at Del Mar, two at Santa Anita and one at Hollywood Park, as well as four Oak Tree meetings. Nakatani won a record 19 stakes during the 2006-2007 Santa Anita meet, breaking the track's previous single-meet record held by Hall of Famer Laffit Pincay, Jr. He ranks eighth all time in stakes wins at Santa Anita with 134 and ninth in overall wins at there with 1,075. He also stands second all-time at Del Mar with 108 stakes wins and sixth in overall wins with 705.

Corey Nakatani | Benoit

Chilean native Fernando Toro won 3,555 for earnings of $56,299,765 during his career, which began in North America in 1966 and ended upon his retirement in 1990. Before arriving in America, Toro won three editions of the prestigious Gran Premio, as well as the 1964 Clasico St. Leger, a race in the Chilean Triple Crown series. Based in Southern California, Toro won 80 graded stakes in North America and at the time of his retirement, ranked in the top 10 in stakes wins at all three major Southern California tracks. Outside of California he won a number of graded stakes as well, including the GI Apple Blossom, GI Arlington Million and GI Ashland S. Among his most notable mounts include fellow Hall of Famers Royal Heroine (Lypheor {GB}), Manila (Lyphard) and Ancient Title (Gummo).

So the other day the ⁦@nmrhof⁩ gave ⁦@JayHovdey⁩ and I the honor of informing Fernando Toro that he had been voted into the Hall of Fame.
Jay H. told Toro he needed some photos autographed. On the photos it said Toro was in the class of 2023.
Sorry, it's dusty in here pic.twitter.com/maKolCURrK

— Jay Privman (@jayprivman) April 25, 2023

Navy veteran John W. Hanes II (1892–1987), with his wife Hope Hanes, campaigned runners in the U.S., England, and Ireland. On his own or in partnership, Hanes bred 19 stakes winners, including the champion Idun (Royal Charger). He also played a key role in the revitalization of New York racing in the 1950s and was elected a steward of The Jockey Club in 1953, tasked to chair a special committee to improve New York's tracks and quality of racing. He also assisted in securing $109 million to revitalize Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga and helped pass legislation to establish the management corporation that eventually became the New York Racing Association where he served as the organization's president from 1954 through 1960 before transitioning to the role of NYRA chairman. He remained a NYRA
trustee until 1973.

Attorney Leonard W. Jerome (1818–1891) was a driving force in the creation of three major racetracks in the New York City area and helped establish the American Jockey Club (not affiliated with the modern Jockey Club). He served as the first vice president of Saratoga Race Course upon its opening in 1864. In 1866, Jerome bought the 230-acre estate and mansion of James Bathgate in what was then rural Westchester County, N.Y. where he and August Belmont I built Jerome Park and held the inaugural Belmont Stakes there in 1867, where it remained until 1890. Other key races inaugurated at Jerome Park include the Champagne S., Juvenile S. and Ladies H. The Jerome H., first run in 1866, was named in his honor and is one of the oldest stakes races in America.

Stella Thayer | Emma Berry

Stella F. Thayer, 82, purchased Tampa Bay Downs with her brother, Howell Ferguson, in 1986 and still serves as the track's president. She was elected as the ninth president of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2005, the first woman to hold the position in the institution's history, and served in the role until 2014. She is a member of the Florida, New Jersey, and New York Bar Associations. In 1986, Thayer named controller Lorraine M. King as general manager, the first time in turf history a Thoroughbred track had separate female ownership and management. In 1990, Tampa Bay Downs became the first track in Florida to accept a simulcast signal. She is also a past president of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations. As an owner, her 2-year-old Wonderment (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) in 2018 became the first filly in 14 years to win the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud in France.

The 2023 Hall of Fame class will be enshrined on Friday, Aug. 4, at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs at 10:30 a.m. The ceremony will be broadcast live on the Museum website. The event is open to the public and free to attend.

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