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Mating Plans: OXO Equine

With the 2022 breeding season right around the corner, we will feature a series of breeders' mating plans over the coming weeks. Today we have Taylor Made's Katie Taylor Whalen on behalf of Larry Best, owner of OXO Equine.

Best retired two stallions to Taylor Made–GISW Instilled Regard (Arch) and GSW/GISP Instagrand (Into Mischief)–for their first seasons last year, with both represented by their first foals in 2022. A majority of his broodmare band, over 50 strong, will go to one of the two and are expecting foals by either of the young sires this year, but Best also supports another former runner who also entered stud last year in MGISP Rowayton (Into Mischief) at Diamond B Farm in Pennsylvania. He also uses a number of outside stallions.

With his first recorded start as an owner in 2017, Best has amassed a large and stellar group of broodmares in a short time, and said, “OXO has three priorities. 1, Quality. 2, Quality. 3, Quality.”

“OXO Equine has collected an unbelievably accomplished, well-bred, and beautiful group of mares,” said Taylor Whalen. “It is a joy to work with such an exceptional group. Larry has done a wonderful job of identifying young mares with active families. Breeders should pay close attention to the depth of his support for Instilled Regard and Instagrand. Both Instilled Regard and Instagrand were precocious accomplished racehorses, and they are receiving a caliber of mares that many stallions don't see until they are well established. Great things are in store for both OXO stallions and mares.”

With an addition of 18 maiden mares currently lined up for this season, in 2021 Best bred 33 mares he boards at Taylor Made. All but one of them went to Instagrand, Instilled Regard, or Rowayton. Every one of his maiden mares in 2022 is going to either Instagrand or Instilled Regard and all but 10 of his other mares will also stay with one of his own stallions.

Said Taylor Whelan, “Though OXO is excited and committed to support their own well accomplished stallions, they see the value in rotating top mares to interesting outside stallions. Essential Quality and Practical Joke both fit the mold. They were accomplished on the track, from the top two most powerful sire lines (Tapit/Into Michief) and have racing and commercial upside. We also learn from what goes well! We are taking Hung the Moon back to Quality Road. Her exceptional yearling colt by Quality Road was purchased last summer at Saratoga by Maverick Racing.”

Following is a selection of some of the biggest names in Best's broodmare band and their plans.

BEAU RECALL (IRE) (m, 8, Prancealot {Ire}–Greta d'Argent {Ire}, by Great Commotion), to be bred to Instagrand

Best acquired this MGSW for $350,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November sale. She went to Instilled Regard for her first season last year and will visit Instagrand this year.

BLUE PRIZE (ARG) (m, 9, Pure Prize–Blues for Sale {Arg}, by Not For Sale {Arg}), to be bred to Practical Joke

Best purchased the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Distaff winner for a sales-topping $5 million at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. He sent her to Into Mischief for her first foal, now a yearling filly. The MGISW and $2.6-million earner is due to Instagrand this year and will be bred back to Practical Joke. Taylor Whalen said the farm is very high on Blue Prize's yearling by Instagrand's sire.

CAMBIER PARC (m, 6, Medaglia d'Oro–Sealy Hill, by Point Given), to be bred to Instagrand

Out of Canada's 2007 Horse of the Year who has since produced four graded winners, Cambier Parc was a $1.25-million buy for Best at the 2017 Keeneland September sale and turned into a MGISW for him while under the tutelage of Chad Brown. The mare's first foal is due this year–an Instilled Regard foal–and she will be sent to the court of Instagrand.

CONCRETE ROSE (m, 6, Twirling Candy–Solerina, by Powerscourt {GB}), to be bred to Essential Quality

Another GISW in the OXO broodmare band, Concrete Rose was a $1.95-million acquisition by Best at the 2020 Keeneland November sale. The mare recently made headlines again when she delivered her first foal, which also happened to be one of the first reported foals by Instagrand.

FINITE (m, 5, Munnings–Remit, by Tapit), to be bred to Instagrand

Picked up at Fasig-Tipton November just two months ago for $2.2 million, Finite is a MGSW out of a full-sister to MGSW Tapiture. She is one of the maidens headed to Best's Instagrand.

INDIAN MISS (m, 13, Indian Charlie–Glacken's Gal, by Smoke Glacken), to be bred to Practical Joke

A $1.9-million buy by OXO at the 2020 Keeneland November sale, Indian Miss is the dam of 2019 champion sprinter Mitole (Eskendereya) and additional GISW Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), who is slated to contest the G1 Dubai World Cup Mar. 26. The oldest and most accomplished broodmare to date in the OXO broodmare band, Indian Miss is currently in foal to Instagrand and will go back to Practical Joke. Best also has her yearling colt by Into Mischief.

Let us know who you're breeding your mares to in 2022, and why. We will print a selection of your responses in TDN over the coming weeks. Please send details to: garyking@thetdn.com.

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Even In What Seems Like Failure, We’ve Still Achieved The Founding Goal’

Humans plan. Horses laugh.

Judge Johnny was bred to be a star racehorse. His dam had already produced a Breeders' Cup winner, he was sired by Empire Maker on the stallion's return from Japan, and he was in the second crop born at the up-and-coming boutique breeding farm, Bonne Chance.

As it turns out, JJ is definitely a star. He just prefers three-day eventing to winning races.

Bonne Chance has been supporting the 4-year-old gelding's career change with the assistance of trainer Carleigh Fedorka, with a short-term goal to compete him in the United States Eventing Association's Young Event Horse series throughout 2021.

“It's brought joy to us as a group, to see him be the superstar that we knew he was, even though we got the sport wrong,” said Leah Alessandroni, Bloodstock and Office Manager at Bonne Chance Farm. “I keep telling the guys, I know that it sucks he wasn't our Derby horse, but I think it says a lot about our program that we still produce this kind of animal.”

Bonne Chance was founded in 2015, and there were just six foals in the farm's first crop born in 2016. Among those first six foals was the future two-time Grade 1 winner Cambier Parc.

“As a small farm, we have to produce quality,” Alessandroni said. “That's why I really love how successful JJ is; even in what seems like failure, we've still achieved the founding goal.”

Judge Johnny made five starts on the track, never finishing better than sixth and earning comments on the carts like “never factored.” It was frustrating because of both his breeding and his good looks, but JJ clearly had other plans.

“It was so obvious that the horse did not want to be a racehorse,” Alessandroni said. “As much as his family was amazing racehorses, he would just sleep flat-out on the ground and was so laid back. He's so beautiful, it kind of breaks your heart because everything was right except he didn't want to do it.”

Alessandroni suggested the gelding be moved on to a second career, and that Bonne Chance support him through his first 90 days or so of re-training. The team enthusiastically agreed to send him to Fedorka's care.

“Thoroughbred aftercare is just something that I've seen take leaps and bounds forward during the last 10 years, but I still think we're missing a little bit of the connection from the racing side of the game,” said Alessadroni. “Some of the criticism I often hear is, 'Oh, those guys have so much money, why can't they pick up some of the cost?' And to be honest, they're right. It costs less to have them in training for a sporthorse career, so what's six months of training at half the cost, and everybody wins? And the mare's no longer embarrassed!”

That moment when CEO Alberto Figueiredo agreed to support Judge Johnny's transition to a new career was a big one for Alessandroni on a personal level.

Without any family or friends in the Thoroughbred racing industry, the Florida-born Alessandroni's introduction to the sport came through aftercare.

“I was one of those kids that was always horse crazy,” she explained. “There were a couple OTTBs at my barn, and I just loved them. My family would watch the Triple Crown races, so I learned how to look up horses on Equibase and learned some very basic handicapping.

“Somehow that snowballed into me being really passionate about the industry despite the fact that I never actually went to a racetrack until college at the University of Kentucky, when I went to Keeneland.”

From an internship at the Maker's Mark Secretariat Center, Alessandroni eventually transitioned to the bloodstock end of the business with an internship and then a job at WinStar Farm. While she learned a lot at the big-time operation, she didn't want to spend the rest of her career there.

“When I left, so many people told me I was insane,” Alessandroni said, laughing. “I didn't really have a plan, I just knew I hadn't found my niche. I wound up at Regis Farm, which was then sold after 1 ½ years to Bonne Chance. All of us that were there, we sat down with the new owners and listened to them, and I think all of us were all-in, no hesitation.

“It's so rare to be able to be at the ground level of a new program, one that has truly good people behind it. When I look back at my life and how I ended up here, it's just kind of amazing.”

Bonne Chance is also a joint owner in farms in Argentina, Brazil, and France. Stud R.D.I. is the Brazilian operation, which last year sent its dual Group 1 winner Ivar (Agnes Gold) to North America. Campaigned in partnership with Bonne Chance, Ivar won the G1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland last fall.

Ivar wins the G1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland, earning an expenses-paid berth to the Breeders' Cup Mile

“We have been able to piggyback off the success of the South American operation, building on a really strong foundation, which is why we look like we popped up out of nowhere,” Alessandroni explained. “When they sent Ivar up here and he won the Shadwell, that's the moment when the COVID situation really hit me for the first time, because not a single one of them were able to come to those races.”

As for Bonne Chance homebreds, the farm has sent out two other stakes winners so far, Iva and New York Groove. Its largest foal crop yet — 18 — hit the ground in 2020, and Alessandroni said this year's 2-year-olds are particularly exciting, as well.

“We spend so much time just looking at horses,” she said. “That's been the deciding factor. We're here to produce a racehorse; quality, not quantity.”

Since Bonne Chance is so new, Judge Johnny was really the farm management's first taste of aftercare. At first, Figueiredo was asking around to see if any employees wanted the horse, but Alessandroni suggested the alternative route of re-starting him on the farm's tab.

“We just started talking it out,” Alessandroni said. “It was really important to us to set him up for success, and really we were still saving money while giving the horse a chance to succeed.

“The plan was to put him up for sale last fall, but he kept getting better and better. Carleigh kept telling me, 'This is the nicest horse I've ever retrained.' She's not the type to say that if she doesn't mean it. I told the team, 'We will never have one this nice again. Let's see where it goes.'

“We didn't intend for it to be this in-depth of a process, but people are really excited about it. It's really cool to share the process with people who didn't know that side of it.”

Now, the goal is to showcase Judge Johnny's off-the-track skills during 2021, hopefully through the Young Event Horse series, and ultimately to find him his next partner. During the process, Alessandroni hopes to bring more attention to aftercare.

“I hate this idea of 'saving' OTTBs,” she said. “A better idea is that these Thoroughbreds are incredible athletes. There's not a more versatile horse in the world, and we should be continuing to celebrate them. Even the professional riders around the big five-star event in Lexington say there's nothing better than a Thoroughbred on the cross country course.

“To see the joy in JJ on cross country, that just drove it home for me. He's so happy to be out there.”

Alessandroni continued to say that she hopes more breeders will take an interest in their horses' second careers as well.

“You know, breeding for commercialism, it can be a tricky situation,” she said. “But, if the goal is to breed a sound racehorse, you're going to have superstars overall and you may accidentally breed a really nice sporthorse in the process!”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Even In What Seems Like Failure, We’ve Still Achieved The Founding Goal’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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First Mares Confirmed in Foal to Instagrand and Instilled Regard

Instagrand (Into Mischief) and Instilled Regard (Arch) have both had their first mares confirmed in foal. MGISW Cambier Parc (Medaglia d'Oro) scanned in foal to Instilled Regard, and Grade I winner Concrete Rose (Twirling Candy), confirmed in foal to Instagrand. Both stallions stand at Taylor Made.

The post First Mares Confirmed in Foal to Instagrand and Instilled Regard appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Canadian Horse Of The Year Sealy Hill Dies At Age 17

Sealy Hill, the 2007 Canadian Horse of the Year and successful broodmare, has been euthanized due to the infirmities of old age, BloodHorse reports.

The daughter of Point Given resided at Bonne Chance Farm in Versailles, Ky., where she spent nearly her entire broodmare career, owned either by Bonne Chance or Regis Farms. She will be buried on the farm.

Sealy Hill raced as an Ontario-born homebred for Eugene Melnyk, trained by Mark Casse, winning seven of 18 starts for earnings of $1,747,081.

She is best known for her 2007 campaign, where she secured the Sovereign Awards as Canada's Horse of the Year, champion turf female, and 3-year-old female. Her season started in the U.S., including a win in the Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks, then she moved back to Woodbine for the summer, where she became the first – and so far, only – horse to sweep Canada's Triple Tiara: the Woodbine Oaks, Bison City Stakes, and Wonder Where Stakes. She added runner-up efforts in the G2 Canadian Stakes and G1 E.P. Taylor Stakes in the fall.

Sealy Hill raced for one more season, where she earned placings in three graded stakes, including a runner-up effort in the 2008 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita Park.

As a broodmare, Sealy Hill had nine foals, with seven starters and five winners; four of which won in graded stakes company.

The most prominent among them is Cambier Parc, by Medaglia d'Oro, whose four graded stakes victories for owner Larry Best's OXO Equine include two against Grade 1 competition.

Sealy Hill passed the mantle of Sovereign Award success on to her first foal, the Distorted Humor filly Hillaby, who was named Canada's champion female sprinter of 2014. Other notable runners out of Sealy Hill include Grade 3 winners Belle Hill (by Sky Mesa) and Gale Force (by Giant's Causeway).

Sealy Hill's final foal, the Into Mischief colt Eleven Central, was born in 2018 and is working toward his first start at Palm Meadows Training Center. He was purchased as a yearling by Best for $950,000. The mare did not catch when she was bred to Distorted Humor in 2019, and she had not been bred since then.