And when I say horses, I mean horses. Copelan once held Citation on the end of a shank. Ellis, for his part, remembers being taken to see a stallion by his father, who had 20 years previously been the first to slip a halter over the same horse's ears as a foal. His name was Man o' War.

It's a genuine privilege, then, to sample the pristine recollection and observation that unites the old friends, especially on a day when they're able to make up for TDN's intrusion with the company of a rather more welcome interloper in Arthur B. Hancock III-a mere stripling, barely into his 80s. (Ellis is 92, Copelan 97.)

Man o' War, Citation, Sunday Silence. Where do we start? How can we ever finish? Somehow we must make do with an hour or so of chat and this inadequate record. Right now Ellis is talking about his maternal grandfather, a Civil War veteran who seems to have spent his entire waking life in the saddle. “He died the year I was born,” he says. “I don't believe he ever was in a car. One time he rode a horse up the steps of the Phoenix Hotel in downtown Lexington. He was up and down those courthouse steps all the time, as well. They'd ask him to lead the Labor Day parade down Main Street. My mother was standing there watching and she heard this lady behind her saying, 'Look at old Colonel Redd, leading the Labor Day parade. Never worked a day in his life!'”

In 1929 Ellis's father was hired to manage Dixiana Farm by its new owner, Charles T. Fisher.

“And he was there until he died in 1964,” Ellis says. “Wonderful place to grow up. Mata Hari was foaled in the same 'crop' as me, 1931. She was top of the Experimental Handicap over the colts. Ended up dam of Spy Song, good speed horse for Dixiana and a very good sire as well.

“Mata Hari was out a Man o' War mare named War Woman. I'm pretty sure she was supposed to go to E.R. Bradley's to breed to one of those stud horses over there, but they just couldn't get her loaded. Next day, same thing. And they had this unraced horse named Peter Hastings turned out there. They said, 'We gotta breed this damned mare!' So they brought her round to him, and the only runner he ever sired was Mata Hari.”

But it was on tales of Man o' War that Ellis was raised. Like the time a clocker sought out his groom at Saratoga.

“What's the name of that big red colt?”

“Man o' War.”

“Who's he by?”

“By himself, mostly.”

Sunday Silence in Japan | Junji Fukuda

Or the day he came to stand at Elizabeth Dangerfield's farm. “They'd turned him out the first time and, that horse, all he ever wanted to do was run,” Ellis says. “So he was flying, and she called the groom out and said: 'Tom, God's sake go catch that horse before he gets hurt.' And he said, 'Miss Elizabeth, if all those good horses in New York couldn't catch him, how d'you expect me to?'”

“I'd trade anything to have been brought up at a place like Dixiana,” Copelan complains. “I was raised in the city. My father was managing editor of the Cincinnati Times-Star, which was owned by the Taft family. I always wanted a pony, but my parents would never get me one. So I had to wait until I was in Ohio State when I borrowed a fraternity brother's car, went out to Darby Dan and got a job with the broodmares.”

Copelan always had the build to be a jockey and, back then, that was still his dream.

“There was a mile racetrack on the farm,” he recalls. “We weren't allowed up there, but I couldn't get my mind off it while I was rubbing these broodmares. So one day I waited until after everybody left at 4 p.m. They had this spotted pony there and I put a saddle on him and rode down between these paddocks, where they had a yearling that was going to be sold at Keeneland. I remember one of them was out of Bloodroot [1946 Broodmare of the Year]. Well, these yearlings had never seen a spotted pony. And so one of them came running, jumped out onto the road in front of me, jumped into the other paddock, then with that other yearling raced down to the end, they both jumped that fence, and down into Big Darby Creek.”

Copelan pauses. He's a masterly storyteller, unfurling the words with dry precision.

“I wanted to be dead,” he resumes. “I'd done something that was illegal and dishonest, and didn't know but what those two colts were drowned. So I rode that pony up to Will Corman's house-he was the manager-and knocked the front door. And Mrs. Corman came to the door. 'It's suppertime!' 'Yes ma'am, I know, but I need to see Will.' 'You come back after supper!' And she started shutting the door. 'Mrs. Corman, please God, listen to me: I've done something and I need Will.' So Will came out. 'Well, what the **** you done now?' So we went down there and by now it's getting dark. It was eight or nine feet down into the Creek, but finally we saw their eyes in the flashlight. And we put shanks on them and didn't they just hop up that bank. We hosed them off, and Will said, 'These two S.O.B.s can't be worth a quarter. There's not a goddamned scratch on either of them!' And sure as the world, neither one broke their maiden.”

Next morning Copelan was on the carpet before the hardboot legend, Olin Gentry.

“And he was very calm,” Copelan says, still exuding relief and gratitude 75 years later. “He said, 'You did a damned foolish thing yesterday. I hope you learned a lesson. I know you wanted to be a jockey. I remember when I did.' And no matter what anybody ever said about Mr. Gentry, after that they couldn't say it in front of me.”

During veterinary college Copelan spent a couple of summers as an exercise rider at Calumet. For one of them, Citation was on the farm for running repairs. Once having held a medical tray for that horse, not even a patient like Secretariat was going to find Copelan overawed.

As for Ellis, he served with the navy in Korea before joining Dixiana's trainer Jack Hodgins at the Fair Grounds. That was where he first became aware of Copelan, who had just started in practice there.

“We knew that we both came from this area,” Copelan says. “I saw him every day, and he saw me every day. But we never spoke to one another.”

“He had time to run around with girls,” Ellis retorts teasingly. “When you worked for Jack Hodgins, all you ever wanted was to grab an hour of sleep. He had a lot of old time racetrackers working for him, and after payday I never knew how many stalls, I'd have to clean next morning. When we shipped back up to Kentucky or Chicago, first you had to load the horses and then you had to load the drunks. But though he was a tough old so-and-so, he kept them on.”

The first time their paths crossed unavoidably, Copelan was sent to inspect a couple of 2-year-olds Ellis was trying to sell.

“He turned them both down,” Ellis says. “I thought to myself: what a ****. But he was right. Neither one of them was worth a ham sandwich.”

Deciding that the racetrack was no place for a newlywed, Ellis switched to press and advertising. In 1958 he started filling in for the regular host of a 15-minute radio broadcast, “Post Time,” long the principal national hub for the latest results. Eventually he took over–and he's been “too stupid to stop” ever since, since 1998 entertaining devotees with two hours of “Horse Tales” every Saturday morning.

In fact, neither of these gentlemen have made much concession to age, albeit Ellis has conceded that he can no longer tend the couple of retired claimers he used to train. Instead he visits them every Sunday at Old Friends, where they rub shoulders with household names.

Yet Copelan yields nothing to his friend in terms of professional longevity. Five years the senior of the pair, he only ended a 65-year career in 2018, at 91-a career so pioneering that you routinely hear him invoked as an inspiration by outstanding practitioners of the next generation. But does Copelan want to tell us about the innovations he authored, or the champions he repaired? Nope: once again, he's instead telling a story against himself.

“Lester Joffrion trained a horse for a wealthy man from Chicago, and thought he was off behind,” Copelan recalls. “So I went to Arlington and they brought him up with a rider on. I said, 'Okay, jog him up there 100 yards, and then turn around and jog him back.' 'Oh man,' he said, 'you can't do that with this horse.' 'What d'you mean?' 'Jog him up there, he'd run off with you.' And I said, 'Let's get this straight, you mean to tell me you can't jog this S.O.B. 100 yards?' 'That's right.' 'Get down off that goddamned horse.'”

Copelan went back to the car for the boots he'd used to pay his way through college, exercising horses at Beulah Park.

“And I had a white coverall, remember when veterinarians used to wear those? So up I get onto that horse, with Lester on the pony next to me. So we jogged the 100 yards, turned round, jogged back. And just for the hell of it I jogged him another 100. So now we're on the racetrack and I said, 'Let's just jog him off here as well.' And Lester said, 'Doc, you know what you're doing?' 'Of course I do.' 'Because, listen to me, this S.O.B. is tougher than hell.' 'Well, we'll see. Turn him loose.'”

Copelan pauses. We know what's coming. Sure enough, the horse takes off. Copelan recalls yelling back, asking how far this horse was ready to go?

“And I just heard this voice fading away: 'To the Rocky Mountaaaiins…”

You really need to hear those unhurried, wry tones for the full, hilarious effect.

“I hadn't been on a horse for a number of years,” Copelan continues. “And soon my ace leg, the shorter of the two stirrups, went paralyzed: I had no feeling in it. So I was putting my weight on the outside, and this horse was running his butt off. I really was afraid for my life. And I thought to myself: 'You wanted to show them? Now look at you, you're going to kill yourself.'

“I didn't even know whether I'd gone by the wire and was going round again. But suddenly I saw this crowd at the gate, where the gallopers were coming on, so I just eased him to the outside, woah, and he pulled right up. And Lester galloped over and said, 'You can't breathe can you, you dumb so-and-so?'”

He shook his head, panting. And we, too, find ourselves wordless-only with mirth-after the pay-off.

“And you know the second last page of the Racing Form, where they published the workouts, and the horse that worked the fastest was in black letters? Well, I got black letters for my half-mile.”

But that episode had a happy sequel. It turned out that the horse's groom Sonny Henderson was originally from Lexington and, later, when he'd had enough shipping up and down between Chicago and New Orleans, he applied for a job at the surgery.

“And he worked with us for maybe 35 years,” Copelan says. “He meant a great deal to me: a wonderful man, knew his job so well. He and I were about the same size, and he's buried in one of my suits.”

The presence at the table of his old friend's son now prompts Copelan to share a couple of memories of Bull Hancock. Like the time at Hialeah when Bull asked him to X-ray a horse's knee. Copelan developed the picture and was coming back through the gate when Bull spotted him.

“And he came toward me at what I considered a higher speed than normal,” Copelan recalls. “As you know, he was an imposing figure. And he had that hat on, that the sweat had leaked through. 'Well, what did the X-ray show?' 'Bull, he's got a slab fracture.' And he took off that hat, threw it on the ground and stomped on it. 'Hell, I promise you one thing, I'm not going to operate on that S.O.B., I'll tell you that!' And he turned around and started back over toward the barn. And I was glad he was going that way. And then turned round and said, 'What day you want him up there?'”

Arthur Hancock at Stone Farm | EquiSport

Drone was another that had the same injury. Copelan remembers arriving at the Thoroughbred Club dinner straight after getting the results. When told, the big man was again distraught. “Goddamit!” he bellowed. “Right, I'm going to stand him, $25,000 a share! Are you in?”

“And I said yes!” says Copelan with a chuckle. “I didn't have anything like that money. But John Thornbury [his partner in Sunnyside Farm] and I bought a share, and he was certainly a good investment.”

“Daddy said he was best horse he ever had,” Hancock observes. “He could outrun Dike by 10 lengths, and Dike was third to Majestic Prince and Arts And Letters in the Derby. It broke Daddy's heart when he had that fracture. I remember him saying at supper, 'Lord's got his finger pointed at me, I'm never going to win the goddamned Derby. Best horse I ever had, and this happens.'”

As a celebrated raconteur himself, Hancock is soon on a roll. He's telling us how Forli came to Claiborne after being confined to his stall for some time, recuperating from injury. This was before tranquillizers were available, so his father suggested they walk the horse three or four hours before turning him out.

Hancock mimics the reply made by the farm veterinarian, Colonel Sager, in his upstate New York accents: “Oh, Mr. Bull, he's like a hospital patient that's been in bed two months. He's not going to have any energy.”

“So Daddy said okay, and we took him out in the field,” Hancock recalls. “We lined the paddock, I was there in one of corners. Well, Forli took off, jumped a double fence, cleared the first, hit the second, flipped over. I jumped across into the other paddock and caught him. All he'd done was skin a stifle. And Daddy just said, 'Goddam, Colonel!'”

Another time Sager decided that he would solve a curious quirk in Nasrullah, who never wanted to be observed eating.

“As soon as you walked up to his stall, he'd just stop,” Hancock says. “Wouldn't eat, wouldn't chew, he'd just stand there like a statue. So the Colonel said, 'I'm going to break the old gentleman of that habit.' And he pulled a chair up right in front of the stall. Eventually he came back and said, 'I sat there for three hours and in all that time the old gentleman didn't move once. So I decided to let him enjoy his meal and left.'”

All too soon, it's time to go. The talk has been regularly interrupted by friends and admirers, several women planting a kiss on Copelan's pate. These are all remarkable men, of a vigor and sparkle that amply entitles them to outstay even Fred W. Hooper, who lived to 103. It was Hooper who sent Susan's Girl to Copelan after she broke down in California. He patched her up so well that she was able to return and win a championship at six, adding to those already won at three and four. Hooper expressed his gratitude by naming her son by Tri Jet for the man who had salvaged her. Copelan, the horse, won three Grade Is as a 2-year-old.

In terms of caliber, however, even that puts him behind his human namesake. At the end of lunch Copelan gives a flawless recital of High Flight, the extraordinary poem written by the Spitfire pilot John Gillespie Magee Jr., who was just 19 when killed in a mid-air collision in 1941:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of…

What amazing things we humans are capable of, at 19 or 97! It is the “surly bonds” of time itself that these gentlemen appear to have slipped. And if a younger person will always leave their company feeling younger still, that has absolutely nothing to do with a mere contrast in years. It's because these men remind us, whatever our age, to live to the full each new day that we're granted.

The post Lunching With Legends at Lil’s appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

In his early 60s, Peel joined Claiborne in 1985 and spent 15 years in the farm's yearling division. He moved to stallions in 2000 and has been responsible for Arch, Blame, Danzig, Flatter, Pulpit, Seeking the Gold, Unbridled, and War Front, among others.

“Joe will be remembered for his unwavering loyalty and toughness,” said the farm in the post. “We grieve this loss with his wife, Sheena, and his daughter, Crystal, who continues Joe's legacy in her role as our Assistant Broodmare Manager.

“To honor Joe and his tremendous impact on the farm, we now breed mares at the 'Joe Peel Breeding Shed.'”

Joe Peel (1962-2023)

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our long time Stallion Manager, Joe Peel, after a 10 year battle with cancer.

Joe was hired at Claiborne in August 1985, where he worked in the yearling division for 15 years before joining the… pic.twitter.com/bP1Hntvhah

— Claiborne Farm (@claibornefarm) November 8, 2023

The post Claiborne’s Joe Peel Passes Away; Claiborne to Rename Breeding Shed in his Honor appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

#10 COIN MINER ($23.64) comes flying home late under @James_D_Graham to win the 6th at @KYDownsRacing.

The 2yo filly by @spendthriftfarm's Cloud Computing is trained by Keith Desormeaux for Rocker O Ranch. pic.twitter.com/5GYrWvZeXc

— TVG (@TVG) August 31, 2023

The post Coin Miner Narrowly Best In Keeneland Colts’ Allowance appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Horse Racing Nation was first with the story.

“This was sudden and a tough experience for me and my wife,” said owner-breeder Bruce Lunsford. “I can summarize this pretty easily. He gave me my highest highs in this business and now my lowest low. That's as simple as I can put it. He will be in my brain and my thoughts for the rest of my life. He was very special. The biggest win of my life was in the Pegasus down in Miami, so this was a really big loss. And he was going to be a great sire.”

Trainer Bill Mott said the problems started only a few days ago but became more serious by the day.

“He started to develop laminitis a couple of days ago and he went in a hurry,” Mott said. “He had a very good work on the fifth of August and was fine the next day. Then he developed what appeared to be a small foot abscess two days later. We were soaking it and treating it. We didn't think it was going to be anything serious, but it developed into laminitis in all four feet. He was with us in Saratoga and was in his stall. He started to get real uncomfortable on Tuesday. Yesterday was a bad day and it was getting worse and we had to make the decision to put him asleep.”

Art Collector was originally trained by Joe Sharp. He was transferred to trainer Tom Drury for his 3-year-old campaign. His first graded stakes win came for Drury in the 2020 GII Blue Grass S., which, because of the pandemic, was run on July 11. He returned with a win in the Ellis Park Derby before finishing fourth in the GI Preakness S., which began a three-race losing streak.

In July of 2021, Lunsford made the decision to turn the horse over to Mott, who helped turn around the horse's career. He won his first three starts for Mott in a streak that included the Alydar S., the GII Charles Town Classic and the Woodward. He scored another win in the Charles Town Classic in 2022. After winning this year's Pegasus, he finished his career with second-place finishes in the GII New Orleans Classic and the GII Alysheba.

He was being pointed for a return visit to this year's Charles Town Classic. Lunsford said the plan was to retire Art Collector after the Charles Town race and then to send him to Claiborne Farm, where he was to stand at stud.

Art Collector won 11 of 21 starts and earned $4,231,290.

“To win the Pegasus, what a brilliant race that was for him,” Mott said. “It may be the biggest race of the year so far in North America. We all have great memories of that. He won 50% of his races. He wasn't just an average race horse. He was pretty special.”

The post Multiple Grade I Winner Art Collector Euthanized after Developing Laminitis appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

6th-GP, $84k, Msw, 3yo, f, 1mT, 2:37p.m. ET
Richard Schermerhorn's $390,000 OBSAPR purchase LADY BETH (Hard Spun) will be unveiled on what looks like a very active Sunday of racing across the country. Drawn toward the middle in this Gulfstream maiden, she is the first registered foal for her dam, the Werthemier et Frere-bred and West Point-campaigned Boreale (Makfi {GB}); four times stakes-placed in her career in America as well as a multiple winner in France. This is the female family of MGSW Interactif (Broken Vow), GSP Stretching (Red Ransom), and the extended family of GSW Etonian (Ire) (Olympic Glory {Ire}), GISP Ocho Ocho Ocho, and MGSW Divine Oath (Broken Vow). Chad Brown sends her to post. To the inside is $320,000 KEESEP buy Le Beau (Mendelssohn), a half-sister to GSP Burn the Mortgage (Kitten's Joy) and three other multiple winners including that one's full-sister, SW Lien on Kitten. Christophe Clement trains the grey for Hoolie Racing Stable. TJCIS PPs

1st-SA, $67k, Msw, 3yo, f, 6 1/2f, 3:30p.m. ET
Bob Baffert and owners Baoma Corp team up once again with an $825,000 KEESEP procurement named CONQUISTAR (Quality Road). Coming into this contest on the back of a blowout bullet work Feb. 1 when she clicked through three furlongs in :35.20 in company, the bay is out of GSP My Miss Chiff (Into Mischief), herself hailing from a three-generation line of Louisiana Champions Day Ladies S./ Ladies Sprint S. winners or placers. The dam is a half-sister to Louisiana Cup Juvenile Fillies victress Silvercents (Goldencents). Not unexpectedly, the morning line has Conquistar tabbed as the 6-5 favorite. TJCIS PPs

8th-GP, $62k, AOC, 4yo/up, 1 1/16m, 3:37p.m. ET
The eighth contest on the Gulfstream card marks the return of GIII Dwyer S. winner CHARGE IT (Tapit), who ran off the screen in the aforementioned contest with his best impression of the hallowed Red Horse in New York. Gone since that 23-length romp, he's been on the work tab religiously in January for Todd Pletcher–posting a bullet five furlongs two works back at Palm Beach when going 1:00.59 in company with GISP Emmanuel (More Than Ready)–and will make his first start at 1 1/16-miles in this allowance optional claimer. TJCIS PPs

9th-GP, $84k, Msw, 3yo, f, 1mT, 4:06p.m. ET
The day for the greys continues as C R K Stable unveils their $800,000 FTSAUG daughter of Tapit, SILVER STRIPES. Out of Madame Stripes (Arg) (Equal Stripes {Arg})–Group 1-stakes placed in her native Argentina but also a Graded-stakes winner and Grade I-stakes placed in America–the Cherie DeVaux trainee lays claim to an Argentinean family rich with Group 1 runners, including her dam's full-sibling, MG1SP Equal Councellor (Arg). This is also the family of G1SW Cagnotte (Arg) (Sunray Spirit); Argentinean champion 3-year-old filly, MGISP-US Campagnarde (Arg) (Oak Dancer {GB}); GSW Rize (Theatrical {Ire}); and MGSP Calvados (Arg) (Snipewalk). The Repole stable will send out that filly's neighbor Nonna's Tiramisu (Medaglia d'Oro), a homebred half-sister to GISW Outwork (Uncle Mo), who also raced in their shared breeder's colors. Her dam is a 3/4 sister to Cairo Prince (Pioneerof the Nile). Todd Pletcher looks to cap what could be a big day in Florida, here. TJCIS PPs

6th-FG, $50k, Msw, 3yo, 6f, 4:45p.m. ET
Stonestreet homebred DREAMBOAT (Uncle Mo) will make his debut in this baby dash over the main track for Steve Asmussen. Out of GSP Supreme, the colt claims Claiborne stallion, GISW Silver State (Hard Spun) as his half-brother. Second dam Mon Belle (Maria's Mon) is the full-sister to Monarchos. John Oxley's $110,000 KEESEP grad Classic Dancer (Collected) will also make his first start here. The Mark Casse trainee is a half-brother to 2021 Queen's Plate winner Safe Conduct (Bodemeister), their dam herself a half-sister to Canadian Horse of the Year and champion sprinter Fatal Bullet (Red Bullet). TJCIS PPs

8th-OP, $105k, Alw, 4yo/up, 6f, 5:10p.m. ET
Drawn on the rail and rolling in with a three-strong string of bullet works at the Fair Grounds, COGBURN (Not This Time) returns to the races for the first time since his gutsy runner-up effort last May in Pimlico's GIII Chick Lang S. He'll face a salty group of runners including the returning MyRacehorse colt Chasing Time (Not This Time). TJCIS PPs

The post February 5 Insights: Charge It Makes Seasonal Bow in Florida appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

“Big farm or small, we thank them all,” said Jockeys and Jeans President Barry Pearl. “There are many other valuable seasons and one for every pocketbook. And ours is the only season sale whose entire proceeds goes to those special humans; brave jockeys who gave a big part of their lives to racing.”

All funds raised by the all-volunteer group goes to the PDJF, which pays a monthly stipend of $1,000 to over 60 jockeys who suffered career-ending injuries.

Donating farms include Airdrie, Calumet, Claiborne, Darby Dan, Crestwood, Hill 'n' Dale, Spendthrift, Taylor Made, Darley, Gainesway and Walmac

The post Jockeys And Jeans Stallion Season Sale Begins Tuesday, Jan. 10 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

In contrast, we now come to that awkward bubble for stallions between the market testing of first weanlings (and soon first yearlings) and the racetrack testing of first juveniles. Even that, of course, will scarcely be a fair measure of those that might need two turns and maturity to show their full hand. There's nothing like having a strong third and fourth book behind you, then, if a stallion actually starts delivering on the track. But this is instead typically a time when book numbers begin to slide, and farms often start dangling lower fees to keep these horses in the game.

Fee cuts are duly one of the “value” factors we must weigh now, alongside the initial vibes from the weanling marketplace. As a result, we can't just replicate our previous choices among this intake. The sands are shifting. On the other hand, we do need to persevere somewhat. If you truly believe in a horse, you will expect him to make an impact on the track even if he has meanwhile endured a tepid reception at market. And, if he does indeed vindicate your belief, there might actually be a commercial dividend for those who keep the faith now.

That makes this is a devilish group to sieve down to a “podium.” We want to respect the professional verdict of horsemen, presented with the first flesh-and-blood evidence of a stallion's genetic imprint. But we also want to respect those horses that will have to ride out diminishing books pending any racetrack impact. We all know of great stallions who were clinging to the precipice around this point. Yet we also know that many who find themselves in that kind of early pickle will indeed just keep slithering into the abyss.

So let's hit and hope, and see if we can strike a balance between these conflicting forces.

Bubbling Under:

We've often noted that those directing ringside investment tend to be pretty obedient, in that sale averages broadly tend to align with the order suggested by sires' opening fees. This intake, however, actually featured one or two that dropped out of that sequence, with their weanlings, and who will duly be under pressure to raise their game at the yearling sales next year.

Among those who did best behind Authentic-who topped the averages, as required by his fee-were Game Winner and McKinzie, who both duly maintain their $30,000 tags.

Of those who have been processing “mega” books, VEKOMA appeals as a valid play right now. He has taken another friendly clip to $15,000 at Spendthrift (started at $20,000) which should help to maintain momentum pending a remarkable stampede of runners. (First books of 222 and 196!) While the sheer volume of his stock will ensure a wide range of experiences for vendors, a $92,222 average is highly respectable in view of the fact that he sold no fewer than 27 of 29 offered. A Grade I winner at seven, eight and nine furlongs, Vekoma is from a stallion-producing family and channels a lot of speed by the standards of his sire of sires.

It is only with extreme reluctance that we ask HONOR A.P. to dismount the podium, as I remain certain that he was extremely close to the summit of his generation, in ability and looks alike. I suspect it may have been a little difficult for him to start out alongside his own sire, who would ideally have elevated himself into a different commercial tier by now. In the round, however, Honor A.P. has ample pedigree to convert his inherent gifts into an awful lot of “run” for your money.

He should have an adequate foothold with opening books of 110 and 81, and we will be keeping the faith at $15,000 at Lane's End. With that tremendous frame of his, I wouldn't be at all surprised if one or two of his foals mature into major pinhook scores from a median touching $45,000.

Complexity | Sarah Andrew

We gave COMPLEXITY high rank in this group last year and he made a very solid auction debut, finding a home for 27 of 33 weanlings at $58,518. But while his yields are basically in step with the other $12,500 start-up in the intake, he cedes the podium purely because the rival in question-as we'll see in a moment-has taken a fee cut even as his family tree had been elevated.

Everything remains in place for Complexity, however, not least after covering as many as 282 mares across his first two years at Airdrie. He was the most expensive yearling of his crop by a stallion who has since elevated himself to a much less accessible fee; and, for such a fast horse, you might have expected him to spend a rather larger portion of his career in sprints. I'm confident Complexity will have a say in the freshman sires' championship-and, if he does, obviously those who support him now will be well ahead of the curve.

Bronze: WAR OF WILL (War Front-Visions Of Clarity by Sadler's Wells)
$25,000 Claiborne

This series is not about finding stallions who are simply the most credentialed to succeed. That said, I do feel that this guy may have the best prospects of this group of turning himself into an important stallion. For a dirt Classic winner to combine Northern Dancer's parallel breed-shapers Danzig and Sadler's Wells as closely as he does-they respectively account for his sire and dam-feels like a fairly historic opportunity to reconcile the culpably separated gene pools of North America and Europe.

And, in those terms, he looks value as well. Certainly the early signs are that War of Will is getting the commercial traction he needs, with 255 mares across his first two books and a highly promising ring debut, processing 21 of 28 weanlings offered at $102,761.

Standing alongside another young grandson of Danzig, Silver State, War of Will similarly has an opportunity to enrich the legacy of a stallion who founded a global dynasty on this same farm. The maternal line, moreover, is regal: extending to matriarch Best In Show (Traffic Judge) through a line decorated by such brilliant Niarchos performers as his dam's sibling Spinning World (Nureyev) and granddam's half-sister Chimes Of Freedom (Private Account), herself dam of Aldebaran (Mr Prospector) among others. The result is a “stairwell” of quality through War of Will's third and fourth generations that makes it irrelevant which genes filter through, because they are uniformly proven to be potent (i.e. not just by the names that bring them into this pedigree).

That's how you end up with a Preakness winner who could then add a Grade I mile on turf at four. We know that the commercial market often betrays a childish dread of any flavor of chlorophyll in a pedigree, but hopefully everyone can see that the grass elements in this horse are all about miler speed and class.

War of Will | Claiborne

Obviously, War of Will remains a far more affordable alternative to his ageing sire. In the next instalment of this series we'll see whether another elite dirt winner by War Front, Omaha Beach, can retain gold in his own class. But for now we note with pleasure that War of Will and Silver State share a chance to take their farm back to the future, lighting a path from the glorious torch that was Danzig.

Silver: GLOBAL CAMPAIGN (Curlin-Globe Trot by A.P. Indy)
$10,000 WinStar

I've been with this fellow throughout and will gladly double down now that he gets a trim in fee, from $12,500, even as his genes have been exalted by a stellar start to his own stud career by half-brother Bolt d'Oro.

With 177 mares in his first book, Global Campaign will have the necessary ammunition for his bid potentially to give their remarkable dam a second consecutive champion freshman from just three foals delivered before her premature loss.

It'll be fun to see whether her only other son, Sonic Mule (Distorted Humor), can thrive in his own stud career, in Uruguay. Even as things stand, however, Globe Trot was clearly a conduit of some very potent genes.

This is a branch of the Myrtlewood dynasty that has conspicuously concentrated speed. Globe Trot's dam was a triple graded stakes winner (including round one turn) whose half-sister produced triple Grade I sprint winner Zensational (Unbridled's Song)-an unusually quick horse, for his sire, just as two juvenile Grade Is hardly made Bolt d'Oro a standard issue Medaglia d'Oro. Sonic Mule was graded stakes-placed at six furlongs. Sure enough, Global Campaign himself was loaded with a good deal more speed than might be expected in a son of Curlin out of an A.P. Indy mare.

Indeed, he outpaced Yorkton (Speightstown) over seven furlongs on his comeback at four. And while he never ran at two, that was pretty marginal: he romped on debut on January 5. I always felt that his slightly uneven development-which didn't stop him clocking four triple-digit Beyers in 10 starts-meant that people never quite recognized the level he had reached once putting it all together. Conceivably, moreover, his outlying family left him unfinished business over slightly shorter distances (unpressured in the GI Woodward H.).

Global Campaign | Sarah Andrew

Global Campaign made a solid debut at the sales, hitting a median of $52,500 for 16 weanlings sold (25 offered). And while his second book halved to 87, the chance presented by his big first crop could really work in favor of those who persevered. The fee cut gives them every incentive to do so again, not least with Bolt d'Oro ($15,000 in 2021, now $35,000) now surging beyond the reach of many operating at this level.

Gold: COUNTRY HOUSE (Lookin At Lucky-Quake Lake by War Chant)
$7,500 Darby Dan

No point undertaking an exercise like this if you're not prepared to stick your neck out from time to time. Quite clearly the odds are steeply against Country House, favored by no more than 89 mares across his first two books, but he deserves someone to stand up and point out what the herd is missing.

He was scandalously underrated as a racehorse, a victim of all the hoopla about the horse he supplanted as Derby winner. He got no credit for beating all the rest of his crop on the day that counted-including horses like Improbable and Game Winner, who were launched at much higher fees-though his performance actually sat very coherently with the way he had been progressing through his rehearsals.

He was then unfortunate to be denied any chance of authenticating his breakout (becoming even more of a forgotten horse, sadly, after the decision to keep him in training backfired) and, though sensibly priced and inbred to the Sam-Son matriarch No Class (Nodouble), has evidently remained in the margins of breeders' attention.

What a fabulous achievement, then, to hit a $250,000 home run with one of only four weanlings into the ring from his debut crop. Obviously, the colt he sold at Keeneland in November, buried deep in the catalogue as Hip 2370, could turn out to be a flash in the pan. But the fact is that far more expensive peers had to summon two or three dozen weanlings from enormous books to muster a single sale in that kind of range.

Congratulations to those who banked that dividend off a $7,500 cover. It may be too much to hope others will now sit up and take notice, given how deplorably the market has treated Lookin At Lucky over the years. But that horse has never lost his appeal to those prepared to swim against the tide in pursuit of merit. And perhaps it will also prove true of his son that there's no limit to the kind of runner he might produce, if only he is given a chance.

As we've said, this is an agonizing podium because it permits wildly different interpretations of value, bringing together horses like Vekoma, who have suggested immediate viability on a more industrial model, with others who can overcome early neglect and prove long-term value once they get runners.

Country House, while clearly belonging in the latter category, has also made a resounding commercial statement from tiny opportunity. He's an audacious pick, no doubt, but plenty of less deserving prospects will be receiving far more attention-and we must do the little we can to redress that.

The post Value Sires, Part 3: First Yearlings in ’23 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

“Will Levis loves racing,” said Claiborne's Walker Hancock. “He came out to the farm two weeks ago and he met War of Will. We filmed a commercial and that will be airing on FOX Sports this weekend on America's Day at the Races. He's going to do some social media posts and help promote the stallion. It's kind of a new approach. It's different. It's innovative. It's a different kind of way of looking at marketing. The name was obviously a big play as well. Kind of made perfect sense, with the University of Kentucky right here, and it has been a great partnership. He's awesome. He's a fierce competitor on the field, but in person, he's easy going, soft spoken, and nice to talk to.”

The agreement will consist of a multimedia advertising campaign that will center on the athleticism of both football players and racehorses. It represents the first N.I.L. deal for any collegiate student-athlete with a Thoroughbred syndicate.

Continued Hancock: “We are thrilled to be the first farm to partner with a Division I athlete in this newly created N.I.L. space. Having a star quarterback help promote one of our young and promising stallions is a new way of advertising that we think provides a perfect synergy of our brands. Will's athleticism and performance displayed on the football field mirrors what we saw with War of Will on the racetrack and the reason he is such an exciting stallion prospect.”

War of Will, best known for his GI Preakness S. win after being impeded with in the GI Kentucky Derby and praised for his athleticism for staying on his feet, also won a number of other graded races, including the GI Maker's Mark Mile on the turf.

From Connecticut, Levis threw for over 2,820 yards last year and is attributed with 24 touchdowns. He was part of UK's second win in the VRBO Citrus Bowl and one of the school's most successful seasons on record.

The post War of Will Syndicate Partners with UK Football’s Will Levis appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

We've often complained that a market so perilously tilted towards unproven sires is driven by ringside investors, that many breeders feel obliged to choose their matings accordingly, like it or not and that the system works least well for the stallion farms themselves. It's a lose-lose scenario. On the one hand, an awful lot of sires with marginal eligibility weaken the gene pool with hundreds of mediocre foals. On the other, since almost all have exhausted their commercial usefulness within a couple of years, some will be discarded while retaining valid potential, but having simply required a little patience.

I do accept that stallions must nowadays expect to be judged pretty early, in that debut books are the biggest and best most will ever muster. So it's only right to celebrate those that do make a breakthrough. But that doesn't mean, as you often hear, that freshmen are the only pragmatic option for most investors because the proven operators have all priced themselves out of reach.

The object today is to refute that theory. To give examples of the affordable stallions out there, besides your Into Mischiefs and Tapits and Curlins, with a body of work that will only ever be matched by a tiny percentage of the dozens of rookies starting up every spring.

Those featured in the previous instalment, “Through The Crossroads,” already verge on this status. Now we move onto the real veterans, who have carved out a sustainable niche for themselves despite perennial competition, not least on their own farms, from lavishly promoted new rivals.

The nature of this particular beast, along with the compression of the format this year, means that we will inevitably be rounding up some of the usual suspects. No apologies for that. If we reckoned a horse to be both proven and well-priced last year, then something pretty dramatic will need to have happened to alter that perception, whether for better or worse.

Tragically, the most dramatic change of all has claimed English Channel, Malibu Moon and Bernardini since we included them, last year, in a wider survey of those who had contributed more to the breed than was implied by their fees. Their loss reminds us, however, how very precious are those stallions that do replicate their prowess and how very irresponsible it is to neglect them in favor of smooth-talking freshmen, almost invariably here today and gone tomorrow.

As it is, one or two of our favorites have actually seen their fees come down again for the coming season. If they have for once lacked the kind of headline horse that can cover a multitude of sins, especially among sires with more industrial books, then they have made no such descent in our esteem. After all, if there's one thing we all find hard to mend, it's obstinacy!

Good luck to you all in '22.

Bubbling under: It has been inevitable for a long time now and Lookin at Lucky must finally accept that his Ashford buddy Munnings has disappeared over the horizon. They started out together, a decade ago, but somehow Munnings was always credited with a glamor that nobody would ever grant to poor old Lookin at Lucky. That has steadily told in both the size and quality of their books, which last spring weighed in at 217 and 80, respectively, to the point that one has now soared to $85,000, while the other dwindles to $15,000.

Lookin at Lucky has long been burdened with a self-fulfilling reputation as supposedly not being a “sales horse.” Even way back when he was champion freshman by winners, at a stunning 29 from 44 starters, it was Munnings who doubled his next book to enter the national top six, while Lookin at Lucky trod water at 115 (from 121). Since then, of course, Lookin at Lucky has sired winners of the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Breeders' Cup Classic (with only Monomoy Girl {Tapizar} denying Grade I winner Wow Cat {Chi} the double in the GI Distaff on the same card). But nothing he does ever seems to make any difference. He'd be an annual podium lock, strictly for end-users, but they have enough sense to accept that we can't keep using up a step for a horse whose commercial treatment is so stubbornly short-sighted.

Suffice to say that while the relative volume and quality of their support has gradually told in black-type action, even a stallion as avowedly splendid as Munnings still can't separate himself from Lookin at Lucky by their Grade I/overall graded stakes ratios. His fee now, if an insult to the horse himself and a rebuke to the marketplace, is conversely a gift to anyone in the business of breeding a runner. You couldn't prove a mare more economically.

Another we've long admired is Midnight Lute, who retains a fee of $15,000 after producing a fourth Grade I winner in 2020 and a fifth in 2021. Smooth Like Strait, moreover, was only caught by half a length when trying to add the GI Breeders' Cup Mile. The Hill 'n' Dale sire has long made plain that there's far more to him than Midnight Bisou, with 38 graded stakes performers overall, and one-in-10 of his named foals making the grade as stakes horses.

Sky Mesa beats even that lifetime clip. The Three Chimneys veteran had a quiet year by his standards, but those are ridiculously high for a $12,500 cover.

Bronze: MIDSHIPMAN (Unbridled's Song–Fleet Lady, by Avenue Of Flags), $10,000, Darley

What an incredible nugget of a horse this is. After eight years, his fee has finally inched back up (from $7,500) in some small testament to his metronomic production of stakes horses from basement covers. All he needs is that breakout Grade I success, but he's getting ever closer–Royal Ship (Brz) having been foiled by a head in the Hollywood Gold Cup and Special Reserve by half a length in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt.

That pair featured among 21 stakes performers for Midshipman in 2021, contributing to a lifetime percentage of 13.5% of named foals, a match for Medaglia d'Oro among many others. Okay, so he can't reach the higher grades quite as often, but that's hardly surprising when his studmate is getting mares deserving of a six-figure cover.

This is a great example of one of the game's mighty empires really looking after the little guy. Midshipman, reliably ticking over three-figure books deep in his career, is a half-brother to the dam of Frosted but their mother is out of a Roberto half-sister to a very good horse in Europe. Remember Midshipman was a top-class juvenile on synthetics, and with his mixed pedigree he can get you any kind.

This year, moreover, he moved up his yearlings to $48,671 from $33,236. Midshipman will never let you down, and it's only a matter of time before a small breeder in Kentucky gratefully pulls that first Grade I winner out of the pack.

Silver: BLAME (Arch–Liable, by Seeking The Gold)

$20,000, Claiborne

Oh, will somebody please give this guy a break! I feel sorry for the horse and sorry for the farm. How is it that a stallion who has rallied so well from tough times, elevating his ninth crop of yearlings to an average of $124,402 (from $57,884 in 2020), must take a cut from $30,000?

A year ago even that fee looked the best value around to me, based on his overall body of work, so what are we to make of this new tag? Sure, Blame had a pretty quiet year by his standards, with only a couple of graded stakes winners. But that's no surprise, given that his available footprint was so narrow. His current sophomores graduate from the book that represented his nadir, when he slumped to just 48 mares (from 105) in 2017. That crisis required his fee to be halved from $25,000 to $12,500, and breeders took their cue by promptly restoring him to 112 mares in 2018.

In the myopic world we live in, doubtless there were limits to how much encouragement they had found in the fact that his breakout first Classic success, the previous year, should have been over in France. But he promptly added two Grade I winners on dirt from the same crop, only his third. Since then Blame has mustered two more elite winners from the book preceding his 2017 blip: the brilliant but luckless Nadal, a millionaire in just four starts and alertly picked up by Shadai for a stud career; as well as another turf filly in Abscond.

Despite his aristocratic pedigree and exemplary record, on and off the track, in his whole stud career Blame has never received more than 119 mares. No doubt people have been diffident, albeit childishly so, about a son of Arch who reached his peak in his third campaign. Unsurprisingly, as such, his latest fee cut presumably reflects the fact that last spring his book suffered one of its sporadic dips, to 69. But his superb performance at the yearling sales suggests that he has really seized the chance he created for himself in turning round his 2017 crisis. It also suggests that those who stick with him now can expect his upgrading stock to renew his momentum, on the racetrack, by the time foals conceived this coming spring reach the sales ring.

So he's actually a feasible commercial proposition, at this fee–quite apart from the fact that his lifetime output identifies him as outstanding value for any persisting in so quaint a pursuit as trying to breed a runner.

Even in what we know was always going to be a limited year, Blame has had eight stakes winners. He's had a juvenile filly beaten barely half a length for a Grade I, his tiny sophomore group still included a group winner who flew into fourth of 19 in the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club, and his black-type and graded-stakes action has maintained a ratio that measures up to, well, Uncle Mo for a start! (And beats many other expensive stallions.)

That's just what we know to expect of Blame, whose output across all indices is as consistent as many a more expensive stallion. To sample just a few established names too excellent to be embarrassed by the comparison, across-the-board Blame can match or surpass the ratios for stakes winners/performers, graded stakes winners/performers and Grade I winners/performers of Candy Ride (Arg), More Than Ready, Munnings, Twirling Candy, Street Sense and Kitten's Joy. In individual categories, moreover, he can match even more expensive and prestigious stallions.

I don't really know what else he's supposed to do. Remember that this was a nine-for-13 winner of nearly $4.4 million, with nine consecutive triple-figure Beyers, whose grand-dam is a half-sister to Nureyev and Fairy Bridge. He presents Thong and Courtly Dee opposite each other as third dams of his respective parents.

Maybe that's not enough for you, but anyone who wants to breed a runner–as well, of course, as anyone who might be inclined to retain a filly–will remain extremely happy to take the Blame.

Gold: HARD SPUN (Danzig—Turkish Tryst by Turkoman)

$35,000, Darley

Okay, so Knicks Go has put Paynter in there, too. But this is going to be Hard Spun's third consecutive year in the top 10 of the general sires' list, which is otherwise populated by stallions available in 2022 at $250,000, $75,000, $175,000, $100,000, $90,000, $185,000 and $160,000. He's the parting gift of a breed-changing patriarch, and this year sired his 11th and 12th domestic Grade I winners (to add to three in Australia) in races as resonant as the GI Met Mile and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint.

So how is Hard Spun still available at a fraction of the cost of his peers? Well, as usual, fees must refer to the market and a yearling average of $80,353 limits how far Hard Spun can be elevated in line with his achievements. While that's a perfectly respectable yield, and he has never missed a beat in terms of subscription, I guess that the fact he doesn't get the most precocious stock will always make some commercial breeders nervous.

Yet to add to his resume the fastest horse at a Breeders' Cup staged round the dizzy turns of Del Mar just confirms his versatility. Short, long; dirt, turf, and everything in between. His top earner is a turf sprinter in Australia, and he's had a winner of the sharpest group test in Europe, down the five-furlong ramp at Goodwood. He's had two-turn dirt machines like Questing (GB) and Smooth Roller. Spun To Run made all in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, Hard Not To Love scythed them down in the GI La Brea. Already, moreover, he's showing huge promise as an international broodmare sire. His daughters have so far given us the likes of Good Magic (Curlin), Japanese sprint star Danon Smash (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) and, in Europe this year, dual Group 1 miler Alcohol Free (Ire) (No Nay Never).

It all stands to reason. Though he later landed the GI King's Bishop over seven, Hard Spun held out for second in the GI Kentucky Derby after setting a pace that left the eventual winner, third and fourth, respectively, in 19th, 13th and 20th after half a mile. He complements Danzig with Darby Dan royalty down the bottom line. His granddam was a Roberto half-sister to Little Current (Sea-Bird {Fr}), while the fourth dam produced two farm legends (both by Swaps) in Chateaugay and Primonetta. True, his damsire offers little more than substance, but that hasn't stopped his stakes-winning half-sister from freshening up the page as second dam of multiple Grade I winner Improbable (City Zip).

Hard Spun was standing at $60,000 before he took a year in Hokkaido, and has somehow never quite recovered from being nearly halved in fee for his Kentucky relaunch despite dominating the fourth-crop sires' table during his absence (ahead of Street Sense, English Channel and Scat Daddy). He's always been class, always been value. And anyone who prefers to spend this kind of money on an unproven sire might as well wear a baseball hat bearing the words: Gimme Fast Bucks, Not Fast Horses.

The post Value Sires for ’22: Part VIII: Established Stallions appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

The participants are MGISW Elate (Medaglia d'Oro) at Claiborne, who is carrying her second foal by Speightstown; Gainesway's Spanish Bunny (Unusual Heat), who is in foal to Uncle Mo; Traveling Tiger (Candy Ride {Arg}), in foal to Audible, at Safari North; Repeta (Broken Vow) at Three Chimneys, who is in foal to Volatile; and Floripa (Tapit) at Old Tavern Farm, who is in foal to Vekoma.

The post Season 5 of Foal Patrol Debuts appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post