Chris McGrath | Horse Racing Free Tips

Dr. Gary Lavin Passes Away

Dr. Gary Lavin, one of the Thoroughbred industry's most respected and accomplished veterinarians, passed away Saturday morning at his home in Louisville, Kentucky after a long battle with cancer, according to his family. He was 83 years old.

Lavin is a past president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, Steward of The Jockey Club, trustee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and the Breeders' Cup, director at Keeneland, and vice-chairman of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation.

Lavin was a 1962 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania veterinary college and was honored with the school's Bellweather Medal for Distinguished Leadership. He was recognized as an Honor Guest by the Thoroughbred Club of America in 2014.

The son of racing secretary Allan Lavin who started his career as an assistant trainer at Greentree in California before World War II, Lavin grew up in the sport. He worked for many years on the racetrack as an equine practitioner and surgeon, and was a member of the Keeneland inspection team for 16 years, retiring in 2010. His grandfather was a doctor, and though his family has Kentucky roots, he was born in New Orleans and raised in Arkansas.

Lavin was also an owner and breeder, and developed Longfield Farm in Goshen, Kentucky, a commercial breeding and boarding operation, which bred or raised notable horses such as Pine Bluff, Prairie Bayou, Eddington, Quality Road, Om, and Secret Circle.

“He was great, great, great man,” said Rogers Beasley, former Vice President of Racing at Keeneland and currently the Chief Strategy Officer at the Breeders' Cup. “He encompassed a whole range of our industry from racing to breeding, to being on many many boards that provided for the health and welfare of our horsemen. He was concerned for all involved in the industry, both horses, and on the backside.”

Lavin was the subject of the TDN and Keeneland's Life's Work Project in April, 2020, which may be read and viewed here.

One of the pioneers in early equine surgery, Lavin recalled Tim Tam's successful operation for a broken sesamoid in the wake of the 1958 Belmont Stakes as a turning point in equine surgery. “When I got to Churchill, surgery was in its very beginnings,” he told the TDN's Chris McGrath in 2019. “That was the summer Tim Tam broke down in the Belmont and went to the University of Pennsylvania for his surgery. I've always marked that as the time, when it made the front page of the Daily Racing Form for weeks after, that people knew it was possible.”

Lavin (front row, second from left) on the Keeneland inspections team

He and his colleague Dr. Robert Copelan were credited with saving Flip Sal, who broke down in the 1974 Kentucky Derby. “He had a good pulse in his pastern and we decided, well, we'll just see what happens,” he told McGrath. “We snugged him up in a tight bandage and, day by day by day, finally we put a cast on him. And he spent the entire summer there. And, of course, Dr. Copelan and I got all the credit for doing a wonderful job. All we did feed him, clean [his] stall and change the cast. That horse saved himself, is what happened.”

Shug McGaughey trained his first-ever stakes winner, Party School, for Lavin and his partner Henry Meyer's Mjaka Stable and said that Lavin was a transformational influence on his life.

“I don't think that anybody was a bigger influence on my career than Dr. Lavin was at an early age,” said McGaughey. “I don't think I'd be where I am today if it weren't for him. I knew he had been struggling a little bit, but I didn't expect this at this time. This one is hard. He was a wonderful man, he loved the game, he put a lot into the game through Grayson and being a surgeon in the old days, when they basically operated on horses with knives and forks. I remember him telling me when he retired that it wasn't because he was getting too old for it; he said, `I got tired of giving people bad news.' I repeated that story just the other day to a girl who works for me down in Florida. He was a great influence on me, we were great friends, not only on the racetrack, but off. He was a proud guy; proud of his accomplishments, though he would never say it. He was proud of his family, proud of his friends, and we had a lot of fun together and a lot of laughs. When they won a race, they celebrated and had a good time.”

Keeneland's Geoffrey Russell worked with Lavin for years on the inspection team and called him, “the most wonderful human being I think I've ever met. He never met a stranger. He had time for everybody. Sometimes, on inspections, it was difficult to get him off of the farms for all the chatting and catching up he did. That's what made him such a wonderful person. We had great trips across Kentucky, and up the East Coast, and the stories he would tell made those trips so much more enjoyable.”

Russell said that in 1998, Lavin was part of the group who told him that he had just seen the sales topper. “I said, `come on guys, it's the middle of March. It's the second day of inspections.'” That horse was Fusaichi Pegasus, who topped the Keeneland July Sale for $4 million and went on to win the Kentucky Derby. “`Dockie' always said about that horse, he had the skin of a seal.”

“He had all his priorities right. He loved what he did and he loved his family. He put everything in the right order.” –Dell Hancock

His experience, his eye and his willingness to share his knowledge made working with him on the inspection team “a blessing,” said Russell. “For anybody who worked with him, it was a blessing. Having worked 33, 34 years on the racetrack, he had seen every conformational flaw on a horse and would say, `I've seen that. That won't bother him.' He was a wonderful teacher, and so happy to share his information. He was in it for everybody.”

Dell Hancock, who worked closely with Dr. Lavin at Grayson, said she had known him since her early 20s, and said, “He was one of the kindest, most wonderful people I've ever met. He was obviously a great veterinarian, but his knowledge of horses went so much further than just this or that. He loved horses. He didn't just work on them, he loved them. That separated him from so many people.”

She called his work at Grayson “invaluable.”

“He always put the horse first,” she said. “His work for the horse at Grayson was invaluable and it's one of things that made Grayson what it is. He and Larry Bramlage are the ones who came up with an early look at all these projects and it's the backbone of Grayson, and each would say it wouldn't have happened without the other. I couldn't say enough good things about Doc Lavin. He's one of the few people who didn't have an enemy. Just a super, super person.

“He had all his priorities right,” said Hancock. “He loved what he did and he loved his family. He put everything in the right order.”

Lavin is survived by his wife, Elizabeth (Betsy), a former member of the Kentucky Racing Commission; his son Kevin and his wife, Amy; son Allan and his wife Susan; and grandchildren Catherine, Alexandra, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Lulu, and Hattie.

He will be buried Tuesday in Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery in a service for family only. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, 821 Corporate Drive, Lexington, Ky., 40503.

The entire Life's Work interview with Dr. Lavin, recorded July 18, 2019, may be viewed here at the University of Kentucky's Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History.

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This Side Up: It’s Elementary as Fire Tests Water on Dirt

On the day that the leading grass juvenile of 2020 rolls the dice on the GI Kentucky Derby trail, here's a really important question for every American horseman. Just what was it about European turf star Mishriff (Ire) that qualified him to run down as irresistible a dirt runner as Charlatan (Speightstown) for the richest prize in our sport last weekend? The answer is so straightforward that it condenses into a single word, yet the implications continue to elude almost everyone in our industry. And that word is: opportunity.

There were two very obvious reasons why Mishriff was given his opportunity in the Saudi Cup. One is that we're all rather more disposed to gamble when the odds of reward are so spectacular; the other is that the race was staged in his owner's hometown.

To be fair, Mishriff had made an encouraging reconnaissance the previous year, while his subsequent deeds in Europe left no doubt of his eligibility in terms of class. So that all figures. Yet the fact is that only those incidental incentives emboldened the kind of experiment nowadays almost manically forsworn on both sides of the Atlantic.

By this stage I have doubtless worn out the record over the shocking lack of adventure lately emasculating the European challenge at the Breeders' Cup, despite the remarkable achievements of those who did gamble on dirt in years past. But Americans have become barely less prescriptive in deciding a horse's surface requirements, carved in stone after a single glance at a pedigree. Both communities, as such, need sit down a minute and consider that of Mishriff.

His sire Make Believe (GB) is a French Classic winner by a British Classic winner, out of a daughter of Arc winner Suave Dancer, himself by a French Classic winner. Mishriff's dam Contradict (GB) is out of a half-sister to two remarkable Irish stallions in Invincible Spirit (Ire) and Kodiac (GB); and if Contradict is admittedly by a Breeders' Cup Classic winner, we all know that Raven's Pass was obliged, that year, with a synthetic surface congenially akin to turf.

The next three dams, meanwhile, are by turf milers Bahri, Kris (GB) and Artaius. Actually Bahri was also sire of Sakhee, whose dam won at Royal Ascot and was by the reputed chlorophyll addict Sadler's Wells. Nonetheless Sakhee was beaten a nose by dirt monster Tiznow at the Breeders' Cup, 20 days after romping the Arc in the mud. In terms of pedigree, the grounds for running Sakhee on dirt were the same as for Mishriff: zilch.

As I'm always saying–and I'm sorry to keep mounting the same soapbox, but nobody else seems to care–what is at stake is the kind of mutual transfusion that has historically energized the breed.
Speed-carrying dirt blood was the foundation of the Coolmore revolution, which continues to percolate through the twin branches of Northern Dancer's European dynasty, via Sadler's Wells and Danzig. Yet where is the rival with enough wit to challenge the same firm's Epsom hegemony by the same formula today, with stallions who–like Northern Dancer–carried their speed two turns on dirt? Anybody remotely serious about prising Classics out of the grasp of Galileo (Ire) and sons should have the big Bluegrass farms on speed-dial. As it is, the Europeans can't even absorb the blatant lessons of recent bargain imports by an accredited turf stallion in Kitten's Joy.

But American horsemen are no less myopic. Yes, some do import European bloodstock–as yearlings, or already in training–but only to target a weaker U.S. program. Few remember how farms like Claiborne and Darby Dan created Classic dirt pedigrees with stallions imported from Europe. Today turf sires in Kentucky are treated as commercial poison, and even when Noble Mission (GB) contrived a GI Kentucky Derby runner-up from his first crop–duly reminding us all that the running style of his brother Frankel (GB) was pure dirt–the next thing you know he has been driven out of town.

Fire At Will (Declaration of War) gets his shot on dirt in the GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S. for the same reason as Mishriff last weekend. Nothing to lose, and potentially enormous rewards. His sire, remember, was beaten a nose and a head when trying dirt for the first time on his final start at the Breeders' Cup. But Declaration Of War was obviously far too versatile for his own good, wandering four continents through his first seven years at stud. In fact, Noble Mission is now in the same barn. Someday, too late, breeders in Europe and America will wake up to the fact that the ultimate 21st Century Thoroughbred is being bred in Japan from blood they rejected.

As it happens, Fire At Will is himself a combination of those Danzig and Sadler's Wells highways to Northern Dancer: he's by a son of War Front out of a Kitten's Joy mare. Not even I can pretend that Kitten's Joy is a versatile influence, though it's interesting that his own sire El Prado (Ire) did give us one in Medaglia d'Oro. Regardless, the family tapers into outright dirt royalty, to Rough Shod through Flippers and Moccasin; and it's been seeded with corresponding quality, by Arch, Nureyev (third dam, of course, Rough Shod) and Seattle Slew.

Whether or not Fire At Will takes to dirt is immaterial. The principle can't stand or fall on a single horse. Nobody will be reading too much into that off-the-turf success in the slop last summer, and he's resurfacing from a long hibernation (curiously enough, on the same day as the dirt champ over at Oaklawn). He'll find no hiding place between the speedball Drain The Clock (Maclean's Music) and a two-turn prince in Greatest Honour (Tapit). But I simply hope he runs well enough, so soon after a finishing kick honed on grass was too much even for Charlatan, to make horsemen everywhere stop and think. Just how many other horses might be out there, you wonder, with capacities far exceeding their opportunity?

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Sires for 2021: The Regional Scene

After completing our marathon tour of covering options in the Bluegrass, today we take a tour of the main regional hubs. Clearly, it would be impractical to go into anything like the same depth and, besides, local breeders know their own markets best. But while we will only visit some of the principal centers, and pick out only one or two names in each, bloodstock investors anywhere can acknowledge the professionalism that unites horsemen, coast to coast, and think about the possibilities of diversification or experiment–above all in those programs that are incentivizing investment so successfully.

For one thing, many stallions discarded prematurely by Kentucky will deservedly flourish as bigger fish in smaller ponds. I'm sure that can still be the case, for instance, with Fed Biz–the son of Giant's Causeway making a fresh start at Highfield Stock Farm in Alberta. He has made a highly respectable start on the track, with only Cairo Prince in their intake exceeding his nine stakes winners to date, but just ran out of commercial oxygen where he was. Access to this true aristocrat, who beat Goldencents in a Del Mar track record, gives local breeders an exciting chance to raise the bar at $4,000.

Equally, of course, there have been many cases of sires working the reverse passage after starting out with regional mares–some, indeed, becoming massive influences–and those who have transferred Laoban to the Bluegrass from New York will be hoping that he can follow suit.

So we know for a fact that there will be stallions offering good value out there. Let's look for one or two nuggets.

FLORIDA
The big news round here is unmistakably Khozan (Distorted Humor), who maintains the highest fee in the state after winning its 2020 championship with only his second crop on the track. Nationally he stands fifth, by cumulative earnings, among his intake.

The late Awesome Again is an influence in Florida with Awesome Slew and Awesome of Course | Matt Wooley/EquiSport Photos

Royal Delta (Empire Maker)'s half-brother, a $1-million Fasig-Tipton Florida 2-year-old, would hardly be the first to become a significant influence after derailing so early in his track career. We'll see how far he can go, but it's surely only a matter of time before he makes a graded stakes breakthrough after five black-type winners last year. The great thing is that his stock should continue to thrive: being out of an elite producer by A.P. Indy, he's hardly confined to “Florida speed.”

But the word is out and he welcomed 181 mares to Journeyman Stud last year. And he can't be the only show in town. Even within his own class–i.e. about to launch a third crop of juveniles–The Big Beast (Yes It's True) is matching Khozan's ratio of winners and he, too, has two graded stakes performers to date. And, of course, he is less than half the price.

Brethren, by the same sire as Khozan and now with a first graded stakes winner in Cookie Dough (and overall 10.7% black-type horses-to-starters), and First Dude (Stephen Got Even) punched their $7,500 weight for second and third in the earnings table, albeit arguably nobody gives value more consistently than Adios Charlie (Indian Charlie) at just $4,000. His latest flagbearer Jean Elizabeth has been beaten once (by a nose) in her last 10 starts, including two at graded stakes and six at black-type level.

On the same Ocala Stud roster there's now a chance to tap into one of the great modern families through Seeking the Soul (Perfect Soul), while the first four dams (Live Oak family) of Awesome Slew (Awesome Again) are all graded stakes performers and producers. But don't forget another heir to the same, sadly departed sire: Awesome of Course (Awesome Again–Mais Oui, by Lyphard), even though he is now an acknowledged veteran quietly plying his trade to tiny books at $2,000.

Awesome of Course has real breadth of achievement, crowned by four graded stakes winners and five Grade I performers including Breeders' Cup champion Awesome Feather. In 2020 he numbered Florida Derby runner-up Shivaree among eight 90+ Beyers, so he's still keeping up an absolutely excellent output for this kind of fee.

Gunnevera | Sarah Andrew

In terms of fresh blood, meanwhile, it's good to see some promising two-turn stallions around the state (and some decent turf quality, too). The closing kick of Gunnevera (Dialed In–Unbridled Rage, by Unbridled) became so familiar–he was still picking up the pieces in the G1 Dubai World Cup at five, his sixth elite podium–that we tend to forget how he was already rolling in time to win the GII Saratoga Special S. And though he arrives at Pleasant Acres for $6,000 as a famous rags-to-riches story, you couldn't ask for better seeding of his family: first four dams by Unbridled, Graustark, The Minstrel and Turn-to.

Pleasant Acres Stallions is also home to Bucchero (Kantharos–Meetmeontime, by General Meeting), who has covered 291 mares in his first two years in the breeding shed, tops among all Florida-based stallions. Bucchero is a half-brother to the dam of dual-surface Grade I winner and Hill 'n' Dale-based World of Trouble (Kantharos), and he was the leading Florida stallion by average and median at last month's OBS Winter Mixed Sale, his first yearling through the ring having sold for $45,000, nine times his stud fee.

In the market backwaters, meanwhile, there's something pretty remarkable astir in Cajun Breeze (Congrats–Cajun Dawn, by Awesome Again), who is operating on private-treaty terms at Stonehedge Farm South. His track career (four-for-33) gave him highly marginal claims to one at stud, but the fact is that he has had a stakes winner from each of his three crops to date, despite an aggregate of only 31 runners (of which 19 are winners). He just came up with his fourth black-type winner in Cajun Brother, winner of the $75,000 Sunshine Sprint S. I can't really figure it out, either, even if the fourth dam is the very productive Fred W. Hooper mare Queen Pat (Crozier), but something seems to be working and people are gradually cottoning on: Cajun Breeze inched up to 45 mares last spring.

And I'm sorry, but I can't resist stressing that the venerable Greatness (Mr. Prospector–Harbour Club, by Danzig)–with another small firm, in Solera Farm–offers something pretty unique, nowadays, as a son of one breed-shaper out of mare by another, with next two dams by Graustark and, wait for it, Bold Ruler! His books/crops have largely dried up but he has sired some very tough and talented runners in his time (Lady's Island, aged six, won her latest graded stakes just before Christmas before selling for $310,000 at FTKFEB) and, if you could get a filly out of him, how could you price that bloodline at just $2,500? So please do the whole breed a favor and get a last residue of Greatness while we can!

NEW YORK
A changing of the guard here, with stalwarts Bellamy Road (Concerto) and Frost Giant (Giant's Causeway) pensioned even as the heavily subscribed young sensation Central Banker (Speightstown) charged into the slipstream of veteran Big Brown (Boundary) in the state championship–with only a third crop of juveniles in play. With six stakes winners to date, Central Banker stands fifth nationally, among his intake, in cumulative earnings.

Leading the next cycle, the imaginatively promoted War Dancer (War Front) duly became champion freshman, highlighted with a one-two at Saratoga. No less than anywhere else, however, newcomers will doubtless be in strong demand as everyone seeks out the next Laoban.

The most obvious candidate appears to be Solomini (Curlin), as a notably accomplished juvenile for a sire sooner associated with two-turn maturity, from the family of Frosted and Midshipman; so obvious, in fact, that he corralled the biggest book in the state (123) for his debut season alongside Central Banker at McMahon of Saratoga.

Bustin Stones | Sarah Andrew

But your heart meanwhile goes out to some who are doing pretty well from limited opportunity. Yes, there is bound to be much interest in Mr. Monomoy (Palace Malice) at Waldorf Farm, yet poor old Bustin Stones (City Zip–Shesasurething, by Prospectors Gamble) will be entitled to glare at breeders driving the van past him at just $2,500.

He doesn't have his new neighbor's glamorous pedigree–Mr. Monomoy is, of course, a Grade II-winning half-brother to Monomoy Girl (Tapizar)–but he was a very fast horse (GI Carter H., 109 Beyer) who once again came up with his mandatory stakes winners in 2020 (plus seven 90+ Beyers), while confined to a much smaller pool of talent than those he annually joins in the top echelons of the prize money table.

Above all, simply in terms of bang for buck, it feels crazy that you can now get to a stallion as accomplished as Freud (Storm Cat–Mariah's Storm, by Rahy) for just $5,000 at Sequel Stallions. I know he will probably benefit from suitably restrained management, now that he's 23, but Speightstown just got a big fee increase–and he's three weeks older!

Freud | Sarah Andrew

Freud remains an Empire State legend, as a six-time champion and brother to Giant's Causeway, and proved as potent as ever in 2020 with a state-high five stakes winners, eight stakes performers and 15 Beyers of 90+ from fewer runners than Big Brown and Central Banker, the only pair to exceed his earnings. His lifetime numbers put a whole bunch of expensive Kentucky stallions in the shade, with 55 winners and 109 performers at black-type level clocked at a ratio, against named foals, of six and 12% respectively; while his 10 graded stakes scorers include four at the elite level.

We've often spoken about the self-fulfilling prejudice against ageing stallions, and I guess some people would be embarrassed to pick one as “exposed” as Freud as the best value in the state against all these sparkly new stallions. But that's just what he is, and you know it. (If, that is, you want to breed yourself a racehorse.) In fact, there can't be much better value around, coast-to-coast, than Freud at a fee so much lower than all those Kentucky rookies with little realistic prospect of getting anywhere near his record.

A son of Freud's illustrious brother who has been around for a while without ever gaining much profile, meanwhile, is Giant Surprise (Giant's Causeway–Twisted Sis, by A.P. Indy) at Rockridge. His public career lasted 70 seconds in a Saratoga maiden, flimsy-enough grounds for a place at stud, but he has never failed to sire winners at a good percentage from a marginal foothold (including in 2020, with 20 from 37 starters) while his handful of black-type winners are headed by an earner of over $800,000. His dam is by A.P. Indy out of a Grade I winner and, still only 11, he is going to pull a smart one out of his hat someday at just $2,500.

MID-ATLANTIC
There's a big, Jump Start-sized hole hereabouts, as can be seen from the seventh consecutive championship posthumously secured by the Pennsylvania legend in 2020. Warrior's Reward, the strapping son of Medaglia d'Oro brought to the same state in 2018, did reiterate his credentials among active sires and remains in corresponding demand; while those eager to maintain the A.P. Indy connection, and at a very competitive rate, will see Friesan Fire ticking along reliably at Country Life. But a more recent recruit to the same roster has made an auspicious start in the quest to fill the gap.

Mosler | Ellen Pons

Mosler (War Front–Gold Vault, by Arch) has built quickly on his regional freshman title with Hello Hot Rod gamely holding out to complete a hat trick in the Jimmy Winkfield S. the other day. He's the second stakes winner to emerge from Mosler's debut crop, following Miss Nondescript in the Maryland Millions Lassie S., likewise a dirt sprint. But clearly his stock can be expected to emulate his own versatility in terms of surface, once given the chance, and there's a broader sense that he is only just getting going: he's had 13 winners so far from just 28 starters among 71 named foals in his first crop.

Grade II-placed and equal to four campaigns on the track, Mosler offers a conduit to the genes and physique that qualified him as a $1.05-million yearling. He's a half-brother to dual Grade I winner Contested (Ghostzapper) out of a half-sister to Pomeroy, winner of marquee Saratoga sprints in the Forego and King's Bishop, and ultimately traces to triple Classic winner Imprudence (Fr). The big dynamo in his pedigree, however, is the replication of grandsire Danzig behind his damsire, Arch, who was out of Danzig's daughter Aurora.

Mosler, standing at $4,000, will do well to consolidate on his freshman title as impressively as Golden Lad (Medaglia d'Oro), who arguably warranted a rise from $5,000 at Northview after finishing behind only set-your-clock studmate Great Notion (Elusive Quality) in Maryland earnings last year. Out of a stakes-winning half-sister to Dialed In (Mineshaft), he has scored some big sales and is motoring along with three-figure books.

The last word here, however, is reserved for one of the most remarkable stallions in the whole country in Fiber Sonde (Unbridled's Song–Silken Cat, by Storm Cat), who continues to turn out remarkable results from Beau Ridge Farm in West Virginia at a fee of just $1,000. In 2020, this unraced half-brother to Speightstown (Gone West) had eight black-type winners among 53 overall from 96 starters; while his lifetime stakes horses represent 12.2% of named foals.

John McKee bought him for just $8,000 in 2007 and there can't be many horsemen around who have secured–or offered–more horse-per-dollar in recent times. My respect to you, sir!

CALIFORNIA
The most accomplished trainer in the land keeps producing champions out of its most beautiful track, which has itself addressed some big challenges in impressive fashion. So it would certainly be heartening to see some fresh blood invigorating the Cal-bred program. The rookie stallions launched over the past couple of years are working from a small footprint of cheaply bred horses, however, and only a handful appear to be starting up this spring.

Cat Burglar | Elizabeth Hay

A couple of those about to launch their first juveniles have had plenty of support, however, including Danzing Candy (Twirling Candy) at Rancho San Miguel, who herded up 329 mares in his first three books. Hopes must also be high at Barton Thoroughbreds for Cat Burglar (Unbridled's Song–Be My Prospect, by Forest Wildcat), who launches his first juveniles this year. A hard-knocking, Grade II-placed campaigner from the family of Eight Belles (same sire) and Belong to Me (Danzig), he has been priced to have every chance at $2,500 and it's surely auspicious that he welcomed his biggest book yet in his third year.

New blood is never confined to outright rookies, however. Stay Thirsty (Bernardini) has shown the kind of demand that can be achieved by incomers, though he will only have his first state-bred runners this year; it'll be 2022 before Californian dollars start to put some perspective on the Japanese riches amassed by I'll Have Another (Flower Alley); and 2023 before another globetrotter, Sir Prancealot (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}), can test a reputation established by migrants on local tracks. That reputation is sufficient to have secured him the premier fee in the state, and the one thing nobody should have any reservations about is his own sire. (Tamayuz belongs to the modern European breed's royal family and has himself proved an admirable achiever, given the mares operating at his level of the market.)

Clubhouse Ride | Horsephotos

The developing story among those who have been here from the outset remains Clubhouse Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}–Seeking Results, by Seeking the Gold), listed at $3,500 by Legacy Ranch. He continues to discover striking quality from small numbers, and has already maintained his momentum in 2021 with Brickyard Ride (now six-for-12) showing blistering pace to win his stakes debut (Beyer 99) in the California Cup Sprint. This is a barnmate of graded stakes winner Warren's Showtime, who made the podium in the GI Del Mar Oaks last summer; and also of Margot's Boy, who missed the GII Del Mar Derby only by a head. All three are in the care of Craig Lewis, who supervised their sire's millionaire career through 43 starts, including Grade I podiums at ages two and six. Clubhouse Ride is out of a half-sister to GI Jockey Club Gold Cup winner River Keen (Ire) (Keen {GB}) from an interesting family, so it's no mystery. His books are going up now and he has really earned his stripes.

Another whose stature grows by the year is Smiling Tiger (Hold That Tiger–Shandra Smiles, by Cahill Road), who produced another five stakes winners in 2020. A multiple Grade I winner himself, he has already produced one to emulate that distinction in Spiced Perfection, and at $7,500 is taking an important role in a new phase for Harris Farms following the loss of Unusual Heat and Lucky Pulpit in 2017.

But the old guard remains admirably represented there by Vronsky (Danzig–Words of War, by Lord At War {Arg}) at $3,500. This very well-bred veteran's average crop only comprises a couple of dozen foals, but he has had a Grade I winner in his time and has certainly made a very sprightly start to 2021: The Chosen Vron following through an impressive debut score by tailcoating an exciting Baffert pair in the GII San Vicente S. last weekend, while the farm's homebred Closing Remarks won the $200,000 California Cup Oaks last month. We know that some of these expensive Kentucky start-ups won't even manage his last month's work in their whole careers, but this is not supposed to be an easy business at any point of the compass.

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Salvaged Vequist Puts Swilcan on Fairway

It's remarkable what people can do nowadays. The company co-founded by Tom McGrath converts glass bottles into lightweight construction aggregate. This stuff starts out as curbside recycling, your emptied beers and so on, and ends up supporting you as you drive over a bridge. But then there's nothing like raising and racing Thoroughbreds to show the latent capacities lurking in refuse material.

Because Vequist (Nyquist), the champion juvenile filly homebred by McGrath's Swilcan Stable, was rejected in the ring twice over. The first time, she was in utero when her dam Vero Amore (Mineshaft) was offered at the Keeneland November Sale of 2017. Still only six, and having run a neck second in the GII Black Eyed Susan S., Vero Amore was valued higher by her owner than by the market and was led away unsold at $135,000. Then McGrath offered Vequist herself back in the same ring, as a September yearling, but again couldn't drum up adequate interest and took her home at $120,000.

“I don't think she even got vetted,” McGrath remembers. “But I'll take good luck any day, you know? The vast majority of people that do this, breeding on a smaller scale, have to be able to turn over in order to have the cash flow. And we're no different. So we just got really fortunate that they both RNA'd when they went through. And then when we sent Vequist down to Barry Eisaman's, he loved her. I was just trying to figure out what other people didn't see that we saw.”

But then Vero Amore had herself confounded the market, found by trainer Robert E. “Butch” Reid, Jr. as a Timonium 2-year-old for just $15,000.

“Butch liked her, it seemed like she was going to be a steal, so he picked her up for me,” McGrath says. “She was only a little peanut, but she has a heart of gold. Small but mighty. She was such a tough competitor, always put a solid effort in.”

Vero Amore made nearly half her career starts at Parx, and it was at McGrath's hometown track that Vequist started out, too.

“Butch always tries to temper my expectations,” says McGrath with a laugh. “So I'm not sure he was giving me the full story the whole time! But I could tell he was excited about her.”

Sure enough, Vequist was beaten only a nose on debut while pulling a city block clear of the third. Promising though that effort was, McGrath was amazed how alertly even Parx maidens are dredged by the sharpest prospectors. After the speed figures came out, Reid called and told McGrath he had been approached about the filly by Gary Barber and Adam Wachtel.

“I have friends that are heavy into those Ragozins, and all the rest of it, but I'd be lost trying to figure them out,” confesses McGrath. “Anyway I guess she put up a really good number in that race, and that got the attention of Adam and Gary. They were really fair, with the offer they made, and it was an easy negotiation. I was thrilled: just based on everything that was happening beyond the racetrack in 2020, it made a lot of sense for us to lay off and open up some of the value. But it was fantastic also to be able to maintain 25% ownership. I really am appreciative of that, and it's been a great partnership with Gary and Adam. It's been a win across the board.”

Tom McGrath with Butch Reid | Courtesy of Tom McGrath

McGrath's one condition was that the filly stay in Reid's barn. His new partners were wise enough to be agreeable to that, too. After all, here was a guy who has been training for 35 years, closing on 800 wins from nearly 5,000 starts. There won't be many mornings when Reid meets a challenge in the shedrow that he won't have seen before. And when he has had the chance, he has seized it. He knows what a good juvenile looks like–he won the GII Remsen S. with Spendthrift's rookie Maximus Mischief (Into Mischief)–but can also reel out the spool to win a GII Breeders' Cup Marathon with a mature stayer like Afleet Again (Afleet Alex).

Actually it had been the sire of that horse that hooked McGrath into the sport. His Bucks County neighbor at the time, Joe Lerro, was an owner of Afleet Alex and after following the spectacular ups and downs of his Triple Crown campaign (or, more literally, the downs and ups), McGrath asked to be told next time there might be an opportunity to get involved.

Poseidon's Warrior | Coglianese

Among the first horses in which he partnered was a $90,000 Speightstown colt, purchased by Chuck Zacney at the same Timonium sale that would produce Vero Amore three years later. In Reid's care, Poseidon's Warrior matured into one of the top sprinters in the land, winning the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. in 2012.

Needless to say, he had started out winning at what was then still known as Philadelphia Park. With Vequist, however, Reid has taken McGrath to another level.

“Butch gets a lot of credit for all of this,” he says. “He's doing the day to day, him and [wife and assistant] Ginny and their crew, they do all the heavy lifting. I get the fun job, pop in once in a while and only have to nod and agree. So I'm absolutely thrilled for them. With Butch, what you see is what you get. He will always give you an honest answer. And he cares for the horses, always puts them first. He and Ginny have been lifelong in this, and deserve all the accolades.”

One thing is for sure: without his new partners, McGrath would never have been pressing to fast-track Vequist to Grade I company for her second start. “Gary and Adam had been looking at those numbers, and knew better than I did what the potential was,” McGrath says. “It was a good move.”

It most certainly was. Vequist won the Spinaway S. at Saratoga by a jaw-dropping 9 1/2 lengths and, while just given the slip in the GI Frizette S., she confirmed herself class leader on the day that mattered. Clinging to the rail as a gap obligingly opened into the stretch, she became the third Breeders' Cup winner out of Parx in three years–following Jaywalk (Cross Traffic) and Spun to Run (Hard Spun)–when scoring decisively in the GI Juvenile Fillies.

“What a day,” McGrath says. “It was my daughter's 16th birthday, and there was the traveling back and forth with the COVID going on, but my wife was just like, 'This doesn't happen often. You have to go.' And even though it had to be a little quieter than other years, Keeneland did a fantastic job and there was still a good atmosphere. The whole experience was tremendous. It's hard to describe the feeling of being there at the finish line in the Breeders' Cup, watching the horse that you bred go across the line like that. I had two fists high in the air. It was one of those moments you'll remember forever.”

The newly anointed champion put in a bullet :59.65 workout at Palm Meadows last weekend as she prepares for her resumption, and hopefully a crack at the GI Kentucky Oaks, in the GII Davona Dale S. next Saturday. In the meantime, however, a no less important appointment looms: any day now, Vero Amore is due to deliver an Accelerate foal at Brookdale Farm, Versailles.

Vero Amore at two | Equi-Photo

All going well, she will then be bred back to Nyquist–not a hard choice, in the circumstances. Since her last visit to the Darley sire she has produced two daughters, a Daredevil yearling and an Astern (Aus) juvenile, offering flexibility to Swilcan's breeding operation whatever the future may hold for Vequist and indeed her dam, who is still only 10.

“We've had some interest, for sure,” McGrath admits. “But if there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that while things are exciting, you don't want to make quick decisions. So we're just settling back and seeing how this year starts to play out. The Astern filly will be coming up from Florida to start training with Butch in late March or April: I made a deal with a friend of mine, Glenn Bennett from LC Racing, so he and I are partners on her. We've been fortunate that Vero Amore has had these fillies, that gives us lots of options and we can just figure it out as we go along.”

Indeed, Swilcan Stable has pretty much been a story of one thing leading to another. Once that little nugget Vero Amore had run as well as she did on Preakness eve, for instance, it just looked like it could only be fun to develop her second career, too. And then there was the decision to buy out the other partners in Poseidon's Warrior, and support him at stud with a few homebreds.

Poseidon's Warrior scored a Grade I success from his debut crop in Firenze Fire, homebred by Mr. Amore Stable and still as tough and classy as ever in his fourth campaign last year. After stints in Florida and Kentucky, however, Poseidon's Warrior has now come “home” to Equistar Training and Breeding at Annville, Pennsylvania.

“Unfortunately, we got the deal done pretty late last year, so he came up here pretty much at the last minute,” McGrath says. “And then COVID hit. So hopefully this year will be easier to organize. He was champion freshman in Florida, and has done a lot without a ton of support. We had him at Darby Dan, and I love those guys, but Kentucky just wasn't the spot for him. So now we're just trying to get some awareness about him up here. With the loss of Jump Start, I think he's a good option for folks looking for stallions that have bred Grade I winners. Pennsylvania has fantastic program and, living here like we do, it'll be great to go to the races and see his state-bred runners.”

Vequist dominated the Spinaway | Sarah Andrew

McGrath is also doing his bit for the local economy as President of the expanding AeroAggregates, based at a former locomotive works in Eddystone and now recycling the equivalent of over 140 million glass bottles per annum. The resulting low-density product is around 85% lighter than most quarried equivalents, and also serves the growing imperatives of the environment.

“We take 100% curbside recycled glass, clean it, mill it into a fine powder, put it through a process, and it comes out about 15 pound a cubic foot,” McGrath explains. “So it's a fraction of the weight of stone and perfect for bridge approaches, tunnels, foundations, a multitude of infrastructure applications. Actually we never pitched it as being green. In construction, when you talk about having this great new recycled material, people just say, 'You know what? It's going to be more expensive and it's not going to work as well.' So we just pitched it on its merits the first five years, and only after getting jobs would we say, 'By the way, if you're interested, this is extremely green.' So it's really starting to ramp up now.”

Exciting times, then, whether he's going into work Monday morning or to the races at the weekend–a more fulfilling pastime, by the sound of it, than the one that gave his stable its name.

McGrath remembers his attorney calling to press him for a name, so that he could finalize the LLC before going on vacation. He looked at the office wall, where he had hung a picture of the famous stone bridge linking the first and final fairways at St. Andrews, and blurted: “Swilcan Stable.”

Strictly as a golfer, however, he disowns any eligibility for that august connection. “I have a wife and five kids, and everybody's a golfer, and I'm the worst in the family,” he confides. “If the dog could play golf, too, I'd be worse than the dog.”

McGrath and connections celebrate | Breeders' Cup/Eclipse Sportswire

As it happens, despite having supported Poseidon's Warrior with a handful mares, Swilcan was pretty well down to Vero Amore and her daughters when Vequist started to soar. “We'd only ever been making a claim here, going to a sale there, and we had reduced,” McGrath says. “It was a very uncertain time, and unfortunately we lost a mare over the winter. Now we'll see what the future holds. We've been lucky the way we've done it so far, mostly breeding to race, so I think we're going to continue along and see how that all plays out. After this great experience with Gary and Adam, I think I'll be more open to having partners than in the past. But we're excited. Vequist just seems to find another gear. And if you can run long and run fast, the world's your oyster, right?”

Like everyone who understands this business, McGrath knows you have to work to improve the odds but that you will always still need the breaks.

“While I'd love to pretend that all this makes me smart, actually I've just had to be smart enough to say 'yes' a lot of the time,” he reflects. “The bits of luck, though, like those RNAs: they're incredible, part of the mystery of the sport. No question about it, we've been blessed. We've always been competitive, small as we are, we had the Grade I early on. But then the last year has been just unbelievable. To make it through 2020, such a tough year on everybody, and walk away in the way we did… it's not lost on me how big that is. I'm just very grateful for how it all transpired.”

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