Tag: Conor Foley

Who Will Be This Year’s Leading Freshman Sire? We’ve Asked the Experts

It's that time again. The first major 2-year-old sale, the March OBS sale, is in the books and the buyers, sellers and bloodstock agents have had their chance to evaluate this year's freshman sires. So who do they like? We asked the experts listed below to give us their pick for leading freshman sire and an under-the-radar stallion they expect will have a big 2024.

Liz Crow: “I really liked the Improbables at the OBS March breeze show. It's very sad that he passed away. I thought he had, overall, the most impressive breeze show. That doesn't always indicate who's going to be the leading freshman sire, but I have found in the past that it's a good model that tells you the horse is going in the right direction and that they have some 2-year-old speed. Overall, I was very impressed with his horses. Volatile is my sleeper pick. He had, overall, a good breeze show as well. And he bred a lot of mares, something around 180. I landed on quite a few of them that had nice works and he was speedy himself and, being by Violence, comes from a good line of 2 year olds. With the number of mares he had and with the solid breeze show he had I rank him high on the list.”

Phil Hager: “In terms of the quality that I've seen so far it's a toss-up between Authentic and McKinzie. A lot of the Authentics I have seen look really nice. Some look like they could be early, but a lot of them look like horses that can go on and go two turns. The McKinzies look like they might develop a little later in the year, but they seem to have a lot of quality. Both were well supported and will go to a lot of good trainers. My sleeper is Caracaro. That horse could run. I used to work at Crestwood, so I knew the horse's story. He had quite a few that worked really well at the March sale. I don't know if that was a surprise, but they were consistent.”

Mike McMahon: “McKinzie is my pick. I've owned three or four already. Not only were they in demand at the sales but they were all good looking horses. I haven't had a bad one yet. The one we bought to go racing with, if all is right, he will be pretty exceptional. I feel like I have a good group of McKinzies and have a good feel for them. His 2 year olds breezed just as well as they were supposed to.  My sleeper is Vekoma. It's a tough choice because I like several stallions that stand for $10,000 or less and are real bargains. Vekoma has the speed to be a sire, the sire line and the pedigree. I've loved the ones we have been around.”

Jon Green: “I was most impressed with the Improbables. His passing is unfortunate. He had a couple of horses who were on our short list for the 2-year-old sale and last year we saw 10 to 12 of his yearlings that we liked at the yearling sales. I think he will be an outstanding freshman sire. The sleeper is Tom's d'Etat. We bought two of his yearlings and I got outbid on one at the March sale. He won't be a juvenile stallion that throws precocious 2 year olds. Just like him, as they get older. I think you'll see them hitting the winner's circle in graded stakes.They will get better with age.”

Connor Foley: Based on what I saw at the OBS sale, my pick for leading freshman sire would be Tiz the Law.  They breezed well enough as a group and I thought they all had a lot of race-horse characteristics to them. Horses can breeze fast, but you still have to ask yourself the question, are they going to go on to be good race horses? They had that look to me. For my sleeper pick, I was impressed by the horses by Thousand Words.”

Zoe Cadman: “Volatile is my pick for leading freshman sire. Like last year's freshman sire Mitole, Volatile was also brilliantly fast and trained by one of the masters of the game in Steve Asmussen. How he ever paid $20 to win on debut is just beyond me. He was brilliantly fast and being out of an Unbridled's Song mare I see no reason why his babies won't go two turns . They made a great showing at the recently concluded OBS 2-year-old sales showing not only class, which is so important, but also some stretch and athleticism. Marette Farrell, who I work closely with at the sales, scooped one up out of the Lothenbach dispersal who we absolutely love. My under-the-radar pick was going to be Vekoma. But his 2-year-olds are no longer a secret. The were incredibly well received at both the yearling sales and at OBS March. The Farrell team bid on and secured several. So, I'm going with Complexity who stands for $12,500 at Airdrie stud, as my sleeper. He has it all. He was a Grade I winner at two and also the Kelso winner at four. His 2 year olds looked great skipping over the OBS surface and I am looking forward to seeing them hit the racetrack soon.”

Mark Casse: “I have to go with War of Will, who I trained. I have something like 20 of his offspring and they're training very well.  They're going to be very versatile. He was a versatile horse who could run on dirt or grass. My sleeper is Win Win Win. The horses by him have been very impressive on the track.”

David Ingordo: “I have to go with Game Winner. He was 2-year-old champion and he got a good book of mares. They look the part. We got a bunch of them that we bought to race that act precocious, but also high class, not cheap. He's my No. 1 pick. My sleeper is Honor A.P. I don't think they'll win going 4 ½ furlongs by any means, but you have the A.P. Indy line that is not Tapit. He was precocious enough, but I think he'll be a source of Classic type blood. I can see him getting a horse in the Breeders' Cup Classic or, earlier on, him getting a 2-year old in races like the American Pharoah and the Breeders' Futurity.”

Terry Finley: We have a couple of Game Winners we like and I know people liked him in Ocala. The McKinzies look like they have a lot of quality to them. I was very impressed with him at the yearling sales and at Ocala, where they sold well. He's got a good shot to come up with a big one and a horse who is going to slant those stats. I like them both but I'll go with Game Winner as my top pick and McKinzie as my sleeper.

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Fireworks For Hard Spun Colt As Momentum Continues Into Fasig-Tipton NY-Bred Sale

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – The momentum from last week's record-setting Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale carried into the first of two sessions of the company's New York-bred Yearlings Sale in Saratoga Sunday night, with a colt by Hard Spun bringing a record-tying final bid of $600,000 from owner Al Gold.

“It was an outstanding session tonight,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. “It was a great start to the New York-bred sale. The place was full of people and full of energy again, just like it was for the selected sale. There was broad participation across the board. There was just very, very good trade and enthusiastic bidding. It's a tribute to the quality of the program. It continues to be unquestionably the best state-bred program in the world. The quality of the program increases each year, in terms of pedigree and presentation.”

A total of 64 yearlings sold Sunday for a gross of $6,900,000. The average was $107,813 and the median was $77,000. The buy-back rate was 23.8%.

During last year's opening session of the New York-bred sale, 62 horses grossed $6,497,500. The average was $104,798 and the median was $80,000. The buy-back rate was 24.4%.

Agent Joe Hardoon made the session's highest bid of $600,000 when he acquired the colt by Hard Spun from the Perrone Sales consignment. That figure matched the highest price for a colt at the sale which was set by a Pioneerof the Nile yearling in 2018. The auction's record price was set by a filly by Malibu Moon who sold for $775,000 in 2019.

The Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Yearlings Sale continues with a final session Monday. Bidding begins at noon.

Hard Spun Colt All Gold At Saratoga

Owner Al Gold, through bloodstock agent Joe Hardoon, went to a co-sales record $600,000 to acquire a colt by Hard Spun (hip 378) from the Perrone Sales Ltd. consignment late in Sunday's opening session of the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Yearlings Sale.

“He is a big, beautiful chestnut colt with a lot of size and leg to him,” Hardoon said. “For how big he is, he was very light on his feet. He was a beautiful mover. It looks like he will be a nice two-turn horse. He was really everything we look for in a colt and he's a New York-bred on top of that.”

Gold has enjoyed top-level success this season with GI Arkansas Derby and GI Haskell S. winner Cyberknife (Gun Runner).

“When you have a horse like Cyberknife, you always have to try to find the next one,” Hardoon said. “Al has put so much into this game and he's waited so long for a horse like Cyberknife, we'd like to try to find the next one and not make him wait as long until he can get the next one.”

Consignor Jim Perrone watched the sale of the colt from the periphery of the auction stand while a pair of grooms stood in the ring doing a celebratory dance as the yearling's price continued to escalate.

Perrone was consigning the chestnut on behalf of his breeders, Bill and Jane Moriarty's Apache Farm.

“Bill and Jane Moriarty are unbelievable horse people,” Perrone said. “They are in Camden, South Carolina, they have a little farm. Their son has a farm in New York, it's called Apache Farm North. And Jane, she does everything herself. She foals them all herself. She brings them up there, they stay up here a while and then she brings them right back to Camden. She raises them and preps them. They are great people.”

The yearling, bred in partnership with Godolphin, is out of Passe (Dixie Union) and is a half-brother to the Apache-bred multiple stakes winner and multiple Grade I placed Wonder Gal (Tiz Wonderful).

“This colt has done everything right from day one,” Perrone said. “His name at the barn was 140 because he was 140 pounds when he was born. He was a monster, this guy.”

Of expectations for Sunday's sale, Perrone said, “We kind of felt like $300,000, in that vicinity, would be really good. The kind of people we had on him, we thought he would be ok. We never expected that. It was a great night for everyone.”

 

 

 

More Saratoga Magic for Reeveses

Dean and Patti Reeves, who made the highest bid at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Sale last year, were back in action at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion Sunday, going to $370,000 to acquire a filly by Good Magic (hip 341).

“I loved her,” Patti Reeves said after signing the ticket on the yearling. “When I saw her, I thought she looked fabulous. They had her on the short list, but I hadn't seen them at all. When I saw her, I said, 'If you're going to get one, get that one.'”

The Reeveses have recently acquired a farm in Micanopy, Florida, which is managed by Nellie and Chetley Breeden, along with Jimmy Gladwell.

“She'll go down there and get in with the rest of them,” said Dean Reeves. “We will be able to get her started early and look forward to how she stands up to the rest of the crop.”

The couple warmed up for the sale with a dominating score by their Big Invasion (Declaration of War) in the Mahony S. at the racetrack across the street Sunday. Friday evening, their colt Senbei (Candy Ride {Arg}) was named 2021 New York-bred champion 2-year-old.

“We really are enjoying the New York program,” Dean Reeves said of their focus on Empire-breds. “We have been successful in it and we're having a good time with it. The incentives of the New York program, being able to get a lot of the money back out of the horse quickly up here in New York is really a big deal for us. It helps turn the money back over for us. It is an integral part of our stable, right now, New York-breds, whether it's here or at Keeneland or at the 2-year-old sales. If they happen to be New York-breds, that's an added incentive for us.”

Hip 341 was consigned by Vinery Sales on behalf of her breeder, Lere Visagie's Rockridge Stud. She is out of graded stakes winner Majestic Heat (Unusual Heat), a full-sister to Grade I placed Mensa Heat.

Visagie acquired the mare, with this foal in utero, for $130,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November sale after she was originally led out unsold.

“I didn't have a lot of expectations,” Visagie admitted, while accepting congratulations Sunday. “I knew I needed to sell the filly and I knew she was good. Obviously, I didn't expect any of this, but now I feel so much better about buying the mare.”

Visagie, who has around 12 mares, said circumstances helped make his six-figure purchase of Majestic Heat.

“I knew she was the best mare I could afford ever,” Visagie said. “Because of the circumstances–somewhat I have to thank COVID because there were not a lot of people there to buy her.”

Sunday's sale came just a day after champion Good Magic was represented by his first graded winner when his daughter Vegas Magic upset the GII Sorrento S. at Del Mar.

“The timing on this was as good as it gets,” Visagie said. “You just sit and enjoy and savor every minute. This is my highest sale. It's life-changing.”

 

 

 

Bolt d'Oro Sets Early Pace at New York Sale

A colt by Bolt d'Oro (hip 314) set the early pace during the first session of the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Yearling sale in Saratoga when selling for $355,000 to the bid of bloodstock agent Gregory Martin. Martin signed for the ticket in the name of Jay Provenzano's Flying P Stable.

“He was just a gorgeous individual,” Martin said of the yearling's appeal. “He's put together really nicely and it looks like he will develop into a really nice horse. I love the Bolt d'Oros. He is an all-around beautiful animal.”

Flying P campaigns last year's GII Brooklyn S. winner Lone Rock (Majestic Warrior), as well as last year's GII Bernard Baruch H. winner Tell Your Daddy (Scat Daddy).

Martin admitted the team was almost at its limit with his final price tag.

“The market, I know, is going to be strong,” Martin said. “So we knew what our budget was going to be and we stayed very close to it.”

Consigned by Gainesway, the gray colt is out of Judge Lee (Street Cry {Ire}), a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Euro Platinum. The yearling was purchased by Carolyn Cannizzo's Willow Brook Stables for $120,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton New York Mixed Sale.

“He was a likeable horse,” Gainesway's Brian Graves said of the colt. “That was a little bit more than I thought we would get for him. He was vetted three or four times. I guess it's just a sign of the strength of the main sale and the carryover. Bolt d'Oro is doing well.”

Graves agreed with the sentiments of many horsemen on the grounds.

“I looked around at all the horses and I would say it is a really solid group of physicals,” he said. “It's a little stronger than what I've seen here in the past. Hopefully they all sell this well.”

 

 

 

Blue Chip Gets on the Board

Tom Grossman and wife Lisa D'Angelis, whose Blue Chip Farms is well known in the New York Harness-bred industry, made their biggest Thoroughbred yearling purchase Sunday in Saratoga, going to $350,000 to acquire a filly by freshman sire Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy) (hip 392).

“This is the first big one that I bought as a yearling,” Grossman said. “I have bought some mares and bred and raced, but it's the first yearling that I really stepped up to buy. We want to play on the high end. I think we started there.”

Grossman continued, “We are New York breeders and we understand the value of the program. We breed quite a few Harness horses and have sold some Thoroughbreds well. We love the program, love the filly and love the team.”

 

 

 

Bloodstock agent Conor Foley of Oracle Bloodstock signed the ticket on the filly on behalf of Blue Chip Bloodstock, West Paces, and Flying Partners.

The yearling is out of Reachfortheheavens (Pulpit) and is a half-sister to Grade I winner Real Solution (Kitten's Joy) and graded-placed Ava's Kitten (Kitten's Joy). She was bred and consigned by Jonathan Thorne of Thorndale Farm, who purchased the mare for $100,000 at the 2018 Keeneland November Sale.

“She probably had the best pedigree and the best physical in the sale,” Foley said. “I thought she was exceptional. It was tough to find anything wrong with her. When they walk and act like that and have a pedigree like that, it gives you a lot of confidence. Oscar Performance's start helps a lot. She's a half to a Grade I winner. But even if she didn't have that kind of pedigree, she was still exceptional just as an individual.”

 

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Mendelssohn On Top In Competitive Midlantic Opener

TIMONIUM, MD – Buyers had every right to expect competitive bidding during Monday's first session of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale–with normal Maryland shoppers joined by bidders shut out at previous sales–and the arena did not disappoint.

By the close of business Monday, 149 yearlings grossed $4,577,300. The average was $30,720 and the median was $20,000.

During the sale's first session in 2020, 122 yearlings sold for a total of $2,983,600. The session average was $24,456, the median was $15,000, and the buy-back rate was 24.7%.

“It was a great opening session,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said Monday evening. “The gross is up 53%, the average is up 26%, median is up 33%, and the RNA rate is a very low 16.2% today.”

While the 2020 auction was held during the uncertainty of the pre-vaccination pandemic, its figures remained fairly steady with the 2019 opening session when 102 yearlings sold for $2,680,000, an average of $26,275 and a median of $15,000.

“[Monday's results] are really more impressive when you consider this was one of the sales that, when you compare 2020 to 2019, it really didn't have a COVID drop,” Browning said. “So '20 and '19 were very similiar in terms of statistical results for this sale. Some other sales have had a little bit of an anti-COVID bump throughout the United States this year in 2021 compared to 2020. Well, this is a pretty genuine increase in terms of statistical performance. Results in '19 and '20 were basically flat, so this increase in 2021 is even more impressive than it has been for some of the other sales.”

Eight yearlings sold for six figures Monday, up from just two a year ago.

A colt by Mendelssohn (hip 189) brought the day's top price when selling for $230,000 to Oracle Bloodstock. Also topping the $200,000 mark was a colt by Union Rags (hip 113) who sold for $220,000 to trainer Mac Robertson. Both were consigned by locally based sellers, with Dreamtime Stables offering hip 189 and consignor/breeder Dark Hollow offering hip 113.

“One of the nice things we saw today was the support of the local breeders,” Browning said. “It was nice to see the sale topped by Dreamtime, which is Mike Palmer and his wife and their longtime association with Candyland Farm's Herb and Ellen Moelis, who have been long-time supporters of this sale and this region. And the second highest-priced horse was from David Hayden and his Dark Hollow Farm. They were both really legitimate pedigrees with Mendelssohn and Union Rags. It is really rewarding to see regional breeders who have quality product support this marketplace, which helps lure more buyers and more successful buyers to the sale this year and in future years as well.”

The day's top-priced filly was also a daughter of Mendelssohn with Donato Lanni bidding $160,000 to acquire hip 159.

Cary Frommer, traditionally an active buyer at the Midlantic Fall sale, signed for three yearlings Monday, including a Twirling Candy colt (hip 78) for $115,000. But Frommer agreed it was tough sledding.

“I feel like I am paying more than I thought I would have to,” she said. “For a nice horse, it's still very strong and I've been outbid on a bunch of very nice horses. I think the market is fair, but it's just that it's a trickle down effect from the other sale. People haven't been able to buy what they wanted. So it's strong here.”

Pinhookers, some of whom are not traditional bidders at the auction, were a dominant presence at the sale Monday.

“I knew they were coming,” Frommer said of the pinhooking buying bench. “I knew everybody was having trouble at the previous sale. So I knew they would be here and I was not happy about it.”

One of those pinhookers making an unusual appearance in Timonium was Susan Montayne, who purchased a filly by Tiznow (hip 76) for $150,000.

“We've never actually done this sale before,” Montayne, who is a regular presence as a consignor at the Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, said. “I have never come up here to buy horses. We usually focus on the Kentucky sales and sales at home in Ocala, but here we are. It was very hard to buy at Keeneland. Luckily, we have clients that send us horses to go to the races, but with the pinhook side, it was a little tough.”

The Midlantic sale continues Tuesday with bidding at the Maryland State Fairgrounds beginning at 10 a.m.

Mendelssohn Colt to Handal

Conor Foley of Oracle Bloodstock struck late in Monday's first day of the Midlantic Fall Yearling Sale to secure a colt by Mendelssohn (hip 189) for a session-topping $230,000 on behalf of a partnership.

“He's going to go to [trainer] Ray Handal,” Foley said. “I bought him for a group of people.”

Of the yearling, Foley said, “He just looks a lot like Mendelssohn. He just looked like an athlete that should run next year; what surface he can run on, I don't know. I think horses like him were few and far between here and he really stood out.”

The colt was bred by Classic Thoroughbred XXIX and was consigned by Dreamtime Stables. He is out of Tasha's Moon (Malibu Moon) and is a half-brother to stakes-placed Juror Number Four (Into Mischief) and from the family of multiple graded winner Tasha's Miracle.

Hip 189 was one of two yearlings from the first crop of Grade I winner Mendelssohn to bring six figures Monday in Timonium. Earlier in the session, bloodstock agent Donato Lanni, bidding on behalf of Caroline and Greg Bentley, acquired the day's top-priced filly when going to $160,000 for a daughter of the Coolmore stallion (hip 159).

Union Rags Colt to Novogratz

Trainer Mac Robertson, bidding on behalf of owner Joe Novogratz, purchased a colt by Union Rags for $220,000 Monday in Timonium. The bay colt was bred and consigned by Dark Hollow Farm and is out of Safe Journey (Flatter), who is also the dam of multiple stakes winners O Dionysus (Bodemeister) and Joy (Pure Prize). The yearling's second dam is Safe at the Plate (Double Zeus), a half-sister to champion sprinter Safely Kept.

“Safe Journey is an awful good mare for this sale,” Robertson said after signing the ticket on hip 113. “She has four or five really good horses that can win where we want to go. And I thought, for a Union Rags, he has enough length to be a really good horse.”

Several times a leading owner at Canterbury Park, Novogratz was a linebacker for the Pitt Panthers and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers before being traded to the Minnesota Vikings. He is the founder of IDI Distributors Inc., an insulation distribution company.

Robertson trained the multiple stakes winner Amy's Challenge (Artie Schiller) for Novogratz. The mare, second in the GI Madison S. and third in the GI Humana Distaff S. in 2019, was purchased for $20,000 at the Fasig Midlantic Yearling sale in 2016.

“I thought he'd bring between $200,000 and $250,000 when he vetted well and scoped well,” Robertson said of the yearling's final price. “Until you get your guy to vet him, you don't really know.”

Also on behalf of Novogratz Monday, Robertson purchased a filly by Malibu Moon (hip 158) for $95,000.

The competitive market was no surprise to Robertson.

“It's really strong,” he said with a rueful smile. “But I'm not surprised. I was at Keeneland–I've never seen an 80% clearance rate in my life. There are people who didn't get what they wanted at Keeneland, so of course they came here.

Tiznow Filly Likely for 2-Year-Old Sales

A filly by Tiznow (hip 76) is likely destined for a return to the sales ring next spring after selling for $150,000 to the bid of Ocala horsewoman Susan Montanye.

“She looks like a classy, two-turn filly,” Montanye, who signed for the pinhooking partnership in the name of her SBM Training and Sales, said of the yearling's appeal. “She is a little bit of a later foal, but she had all the right angles and parts. She vetted great for me. I watched her and I loved her walk, big overreach on her. What's not to like about her?”

Of the filly's final price, Montanye said, “Listen, if you want them right now, it looks like you're going to have to pay for them. She's a Tiznow filly and she's got some pedigree, so $150,000, I feel comfortable with that.”

The yearling was consigned by Sabrina Moore's GreenMount Farm and was bred by Moore in partnership with Tiznow Syndicate. She is out of Pinkprint (Not For Love), a half-sister to GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner and likely GI Breeders' Cup Classic favorite Knicks Go (Paynter).

Filly Adds Up for Newtownanner

Ron Blake liked a filly by Cloud Computing when he purchased her as a short yearling for $40,000 at the Keeneland January sale earlier this year and he still liked the bay yearling (hip 11) when he sent her through the sales ring in Timonium Monday. He  advised his clients, Samantha and Maurice Regan's Newtown Anner Stud, to purchase the bay for $145,000.

“We always loved her,” Blake said. “We bought her as a weanling and from the day we bought her I thought she was gorgeous. She's grown into a very pretty filly. She is a late foal and I think when you take that into account, you can see what she could become. She's by a first-year stallion and she was a late foal so she looked maybe a little small to some people. But because she is a May 20 foal, we thought she'd be a real beautiful filly. We advised our client to buy her.”

The yearling is out of Martini and is a three-quarter sister to stakes winner Dirty (Maclean's Music).

“I just think she has so much quality,” Blake said. “We think she'll be a good racehorse. She'll go back to the farm and be able to grow up a little bit. We will give her some time off before we break her and then go forward with her and see what she can do.”

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The Process: Conor Foley

With thousands of horses on offer from the top of the market and on down, Keeneland September is unlike any other yearling sale and requires serious hard work and focus to shop effectively. We've caught up with several prominent buyers to find out how they attack the auction from pre-sale preparations and into the two weeks of selling.

This installment features Conor Foley, whose Oracle Bloodstock is active in all segments of the yearling market acquiring horses for both domestic and foreign clients. At last year's September sale, Oracle was listed agent on 24 acquisitions totaling $3,673,500. Those purchases ranged from a $1.1-million Medaglia d'Oro filly now named Hodl to a $1,500 daughter of Mizzen Mast purchased in Book 6.

This year's sale will be held from Sept. 13 to Sept. 24. Visit theworldsyearlingsale.com for more information.

TDN: How much pedigree work do you do before the sale?

CF: I don't really look at all through the catalog beforehand. The only part that matters to me as a bloodstock agent is the physical part. I think your brain can play tricks on you. It's very hard to buy good racehorses, so I just try to protect myself from making any assumptions or things like that by looking too closely at the pedigree first. So, I go backwards and look at their pedigrees last after they've passed [physical inspection]. I don't want anything in their pedigree to trigger something in my mind that makes me want to like the horse more than I should.

For a lot of mares, they only ever have one good foal, so to me, if you throw out a pedigree because the mare's never produced anything, you may end up never looking at her best horse.

TDN: Do you do many pre-sale farm visits?

CF: Rarely. I'll do that if I'm out checking on another horse that we manage and the farm would like to show us their yearlings. The horses change so much over the last 60-90 days before the sale. What do you do if you liked a horse on the farm but not so much on the sales grounds? That's tough.

Our team makes sure we look at every horse at the sale, and because we're able to do that, we can work backwards.

TDN: Talk a bit more about your buying team.

CF: I work with Jim Hatchett and [more recently] Scotty Everett. Scotty's worked on the track his whole life–the first horse he ever hotwalked was Danzig. He's a really great guy and everybody who sees him has a smile on their face. He's a super person and a very good horseman who worked for a lot of great trainers. He's retired from the track in the last couple years and he's a super addition to Oracle for the sales. Megan Jones also joined our team this year. She's fantastic and helps with a number of things.

TDN: You usually have a flock of trainers in tow at the sales, including Danny Gargan, Tom Morley, Dan Blacker, Ray Handal and Jordan Blair. What's the dynamic like there?

CF: Among others, I've also helped Rob Falcone and sometimes Doug Watson–we'll buy some of his clients a yearling with the plan of it going to Dubai as a 2-year-old.

I love it. You have all these great horsemen that I'm getting to spend time with looking at horses. We're able to accomplish other things while we're together as far as talking about horses currently in training and stuff like that.

Everybody gets along. This is pro sports, and I treat it like that. There's a level of professionalism.

As far as who ends up on which horses, things tend to work themselves out given what surface we think they'll excel on; what type of horse we think they'll be in terms of when they'll mature; what part of the country or the world we think they might fit in best. So those things whittle it down along with budgets, and I've never really had an issue [with multiple trainers wanting to go for the same horse].

It's also like a workshop for them, because they end up talking about the struggles and the things that are going well or not well in their barns. Plus we just have a lot of fun.

TDN: What's the first thing you look for when inspecting a horse?

CF: Definitely the way it moves. The walk is so important. The conformation is so critical, and our horses, for the most part, make a lot of starts. So I'm kind of looking at a horse and asking myself, “Could you ride this horse from here to Los Angeles?” Because that's how many miles it's going to take to get him fit for a race. What problems are we going to run into based on how the horse is physically made? If the horse grows or changes in this way, what impact will that have given how it's made here or there? I try to ask myself about 100 questions once a horse comes out, and when you start coming up with negative answers, you start moving on to the next horse.

TDN: Any there any mistakes you think other buyers make or things they focus on that you don't find as important?

CF: I've seen a lot of people try to embrace new technologies, and I don't think any of them really work. Somebody would've figured it out by now. This is a sport that many people have been passionate about for hundreds of years.

TDN: How do you stay organized and focused when trying to get through so many horses and make decisions about them?

CF: Luckily, in the first couple books you can pretty much see every horse on your own. As the sale gets into the later books, we have to take the team approach where I'm looking at the horses who made the cut the day before. This is the sale where you get to look at a horse the fewest times [before they sell].

The other thing about Keeneland is that the grounds are physically demanding–it's not flat. It demands the most out of you, and you just have to stick to your good decision making. I try to stay conscious of it and just keep a level mind. If you get tired, it affects the way your brain makes decisions. The September sale tests that.

TDN: You bought horses from $1.1 million to $1500 at last year's September sale. Is it tough to adjust your eyes, so to speak, when going from the top end to the lower end?

CF: I think towards the end, the good ones stand out much easier. If you're buying a horse to go to Saudi Arabia or Russia, you're probably buying a different type of horse than if you're buying a cheaper horse to stay in America. For me, you're just trying to buy the best possible athlete every day. Nothing really changes in the process–it's just as hard to buy a horse for $5,000 as it is $500,000.

TDN: Anything among your purchases last year at September that you're particularly excited about?

CF: Probably the Medaglia d'Oro filly who cost all the money. She was always going to be a 3-year-old type, and we weren't really going to tighten the screws too early on an expensive filly with that kind of pedigree, but she's coming along nicely at her own pace with Dan Blacker and doing well.

TDN: Any past KEESEP successes you're especially proud of?

CF: One horse who puts a big smile on my face is a horse called Tuz (Oxbow). We bought him for $7,000 [on the second-to-last day of the 2018 sale]. He went to Russia and won his first three starts [by a combined 64 lengths]. Then he ran in Dubai and nearly won the prep for the UAE Derby last year [when second in the Al Bastakiya]… He finished third in this year's G3 Burj Nahaar. He provided a lot of excitement for $7,000.

TDN: Any trends you're looking for or market expectations heading into September?

CF: I think this sale will be very sale–they have been for the most part all year. It's always a shock to the system at first when there are horses you think you can buy for $200,000 or $250,000–which is an enormous amount of money–and they go for $700,000, $800,000, $1 million. So, you get outbid a lot, but you have to not get upset about it. It's tough when you barely lose, but you just have to move on to the next thing until it's over. Last year was not a great year, and all the breeders deserve to get rewarded. Things haven't been easy for anybody.

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