Conrad Bandoroff | Horse Racing Free Tips

2023 Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Denali Stud

As we approach the opening of the 2023 breeding season, the TDN staff is once again sitting down with leading breeders to find out what stallions they have chosen for their mares, and why. Today we spoke with Conrad Bandoroff at Denali Stud.

LIAM'S PROMENADE (m, 4, Liam's Map – Promenade Girl, by Carson City) to be bred to Curlin

We just purchased this mare with some partners in the January Sale and are very excited to have her. She hails from the family of MGISW Cavorting (Bernardini), who has of course produced MGISW Clairiere (Curlin). She is an attractive mare with a lot of quality and will suit Curlin quite well. It has worked in the family before!

HARD NOT TO LIKE (m, 14, Hard Spun – Like a Gem, by Tactical Cat) to be bred to Life Is Good

A multiple Grade I winner, this is a mare that we have always believed in. Her newly-turned 3-year-old colt Faustin (Curlin) was named a 'TDN Rising Star' after winning on debut sprinting. He has a ways to go, but looks like he could be a proper Saturday Afternoon Horse.

I have always wanted to breed her to the Into Mischief line and Life Is Good is a perfect physical match for her. She is a strong, powerful mare and needs a bit of size and scope from the stallion. This is the same cross that produced GSW Gerrymander (Into Mischief).

LADY APPLE (m, 7, Curlin – Miss Mary Apples, by Clever Trick) to be bred to Gun Runner

Last year Lady Apple delivered her first foal, a filly by Quality Road, that we like a lot. She's everything you look for in a first foal– good leg, and nice strength and substance to her. She is carrying and will soon foal an Into Mischief, so she is getting started with every chance. She is a multiple graded stakes winner who placed in the GI Kentucky Oaks. Her pedigree continues to blossom under Larry Doyle of KatieRich's management with her newly-turned 3-year-old half-sister American Apple (American Pharoah), a graded stakes winner at two.

Gun Runner needs no introduction and you just have to consider yourself fortunate to have a mare that can warrants a visit to him. This could get you a serious racehorse.

Dream Tree's Into Mischief yearling colt | Patrycja Szpyra

DREAM TREE (m, 8, Uncle Mo – Afleet Maggi, by Afleet Alex) to be bred to Flightline

The winner of the GI Starlet S. at two, Dream Tree is off to a good start in her broodmare career. Her first foal, a Curlin filly, sold for $700,000 to David Ingordo at last year's Keeneland September Sale. She has a highly promising Into Mischief yearling colt and is expecting a Gun Runner for this year. She is a beautiful, powerful mare.

This is a mating we are very excited about. Tapit has done very well over Indian Charlie-line mares. Flightline himself is a prime example. We are intrigued by this 3×3 to Indian Charlie and think it could produce a tremendous amount of speed. A generational talent in Flightline paired with a fast, precocious mare–a promising and potent mix, we hope!

PATHETIQUE (m, 5, Uncle Mo – Dothraki Queen, by Pure Prize) to be bred to Into Mischief

She is an Uncle Mo daughter of GII Pocahontas S. winner and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies-placed Dothraki Queen. Pathetique herself had a ton of ability. She broke her maiden second time out at Saratoga for owner Richard Rigney and trainer Phil Bauer and was a stakes-caliber filly, but unfortunately got hurt. She was fast. Really fast.

We decided to breed her to Into Mischief because we think this could produce a freaky fast horse.

STOP SHOPPIN TAMMY (m, 6, Tapit – Miss Shop, by Deputy Minister) to be bred to Curlin

This is a daughter of Tapit that we have high hopes for. She is out of Grade I winner Miss Shop and is a full-sister to the graded stakes-winning Tin Type Gal. She is a gorgeous mare that physically suits Curlin really well. On paper, it is highly productive cross and is responsible for MGISW Cody's Wish (Curlin), not to mention that it goes back to A.P. Indy, which has been the magic Curlin cross.

WINE PRINCESS (m, 14, Ghostzapper – Azeri, by Jade Hunter) to be bred to Constitution

She is a Grade II and Grade III stakes winner by a Horse of the Year and out of a Horse of the Year. Now 14, what we like about her is that four of her five foals of racing age have made it to the races, won in New York, showed promise, have been sound and have earned over $100,000.

We still feel she can produce a good horse. Her 4-year-old Smokin' T (War Front) has shown signs of being one and is stakes placed. He's due to start what we hope will be a good campaign this year.

We rate Constitution as an emerging top stallion. We really like the momentum that he has in some really well-bred crops in the waves. We chose Constitution because Ashiham and Felix the Fox, her two sons by Tapit, had talent and we wanted to send her back to the Tapit line.

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A Generational Shift at Keeneland January

In Italian, `generazio' means a generation, and so it's likely no coincidence that `generation' is the word to which Conrad Bandoroff continues to return when talking about the complete dispersal of Patricia Generazio's stock.

That dispersal, of which the first nine racing or broodmare prospects sell Monday at Keeneland, totals 43 entered at the Keeneland January sale sold under the Denali Stud banner.

Massachusetts natives, Generazio and her husband Frank got their racing start in New England, where Frank ran the family owned New England Sand and Gravel Company. He fell in love with Thoroughbred racing and was very involved in the sport for 50 years, serving as the president of the New England HBPA for almost a decade, and training his own horses for a time. In New England, the Generazios campaigned the graded stakes winner Concorde Bound. In later years, they moved their string to New York, New Jersey and Florida, racing horses with trainer Christophe Clement, among others. Trainer Mary Hartman campaigned their multiple Grade I winner Presious Passion, who ran over a remarkable eight seasons, earning over $2.5 million. They also campaigned graded stakes winners Disco Partner, Pure Sensation and Discreet Marq. Frank Generazio died in November, 2020, at the age of 91.

“Patricia and Frank have had tremendous success in the game,” said Bandoroff. “They enjoyed it thoroughly for many years, and there are generations of families that they've cultivated. But she has gotten to a point where I think the operation has grown to be almost overwhelming, and she felt that it was perhaps the right time to close it down. She had accumulated a lot of horses and I think from her perspective, it was the right time to kind of say, `okay, let's wrap this up.'”

Among those on offer Monday is the 5-year-old mare Mischievous Dream (Into Mischief), who sells as hip 98 as a racing or broodmare prospect. “She won the Sorority S. at Monmouth at two, and was stakes-placed at three,” said Bandoroff. “She won on debut for the Clements in Saratoga. She is just coming off her career-best Beyer in a race at the end of October up in New York and she's a big, pretty filly, very attractive, very clean-legged, and vets well. She's got a nice broodmare pedigree underneath her with her stakes performances, but has some run left if someone wanted to keep going with her.”

Denali will also offer Pure Bode (Bodemeister) on their behalf, a 6-year-old broodmare prospect who sells as hip 147.

“She has been very productive on the track,” said Bandoroff. “She is a hard-knocking filly who has won $180,000 and is a half to their multiple-graded stakes winner Pure Sensation (Zensational), from their broodmare Pure Disco. She comes from one of these multi-generational Generazio families. She really exemplifies what their program has been: these hard-knocking mares, really limited opportunities in terms of the stud fees and the stallions they've been bred to, but tremendous success getting the results on the racetrack and producing high-quality graded stakes horses.”

The genesis of the dispersal started with the idea of selling a few broodmares, but soon blossomed into the entire operation. “We have sold some horses that she had in training with the Clements and Christophe and Miguel have always been good friends of ours, and they're the ones who made the introduction,” Bandoroff said. “The dispersal started with three racing or broodmare prospects that the Clements had for Mrs .Generazio that we entered and then Mrs. Generazio said, `actually, you know, I think I want to sell everything.'”

In addition to Mischievous Dream and Pure Bode, more than 40 others will be offered over the course of the rest of the sale, and several more at Fasig-Tipton February.

Bandoroff said that dissolution of a life's work was a responsibility he didn't take lightly.

“It's something we take very seriously, because it encompassed a good portion of a lifetime, of cultivating these families,” he said. “Mrs. Generazio was very involved in mating the mares and she deserves a lot of credit for the success that the program has had. I think that it is certainly going to be hard for her over the next couple of days to watch some of these horses be sold, but that's the cycle of life, isn't it? But there are going to be plenty of opportunities from people who respect the program the Generazios put together over the years and recognize that they have done well.”

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Generazio Dispersal Set for Keeneland January

A complete dispersal of horses owned by Patricia Generazio will be offered at the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale and will be consigned by Denali Stud. The sale is scheduled for Jan. 9-12.

Among the horses that will be sold are racing/broodmare prospects SW Mischievous Dream (Into Mischief), Pure Bode (Bodemeister), and Marquet Legacy (Gio Ponti), all from the families of some of the most popular graded winners developed by the Generazio operation. Among the horses campaigned by Generazio and her late husband, Frank, are GISWs Presious Passion (Royal Anthem) and Discreet Marq (Discreet Cat), as well as MGSWs Pure Sensation (Zensational) and Disco Partner (Disco Rico). The latter three were all homebreds. The Generazio operation has tallied over $32 million in earnings and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in the New York-bred program in 2020.

“We are grateful that Mrs. Generazio has entrusted us to handle this dispersal,” said Denali's Conrad Bandoroff. “For buyers, this is an incredibly exciting opportunity to tap into these black-type families that have never been offered at auction.”

Christophe Clement, who has trained for Generazio for the last decade, added: “The quality of their program is in the strength of their mares and their ability to produce high-caliber racehorses with limited opportunity in terms of the stallions that they were bred to. You can really see this with how many successful homebreds they have campaigned over the years. What they've accomplished is extraordinary.”

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Spotlight on The Night of the Stars: Wicked Whisper

Wicked Whisper (Liam's Map – Zayanna, by Bernardini) made quite an impression in Saratoga during the summer of 2019 when she cruised to a 6 1/4-length juvenile maiden win and earned 'TDN Rising Star' status. That victory was just the beginning for the striking chestnut, who went on to become a Grade I winner at two and a graded winner at three. Now, she prepares to go through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale carrying her first foal by Curlin.

“Wicked Whisper has every ingredient to be a foundation mare for somebody,” said Conrad Bandoroff, whose Denali Stud will consign the 5-year-old. “There are no limits to what her offspring could achieve. She has so many traits that we feel not only American buyers, but also an international audience, will appreciate.”

A $500,000 yearling purchase for Alex and JoAnn Lieblong, Wicked Whisper was the priciest yearling to sell from the first crop of Liam's Map. Bandoroff said her physical is just as stunning today.

“Wicked Whisper is drop dead gorgeous,” he said. “She's big, she's pretty and she has an unbelievable shoulder and a great hind leg. Alex buys tremendous physicals and this has been a special filly for them.”

The Steve Asmussen trainee followed her Rising Star-worthy debut with a win in the GI Frizette S., where she established control early and made easy work of the one-mile contest to win by almost three lengths over future MGSW Frank's Rockette (Into Mischief).

“It was a commanding performance,” Bandoroff said. “I think that 2-year-old form and that level of precocity is rare and it's a great quality when you're looking at a broodmare prospect. So many good mares showed ability and precocity at two. She looked like a winner throughout that race and she carried that confidence into a lot of her races.”

Wicked Whisper continued to excel at three, taking the GIII Miss Preakness S. and running second in the GIII Charles Town Oaks.

Meanwhile her half-sister Point of Honor (Curlin) was building up her own resume, winning the 2019 GII Black-Eyed Susan S. at three and placing in a trio of Grade I starts in 2020.

Their dam Zayanna, a daughter of successful broodmare sire Bernardini, is a half-sister to three graded stakes winners. Zayanna has produced four stakes performers in total including Velvet Mood (Lonhro {Aus}), who was a stakes winner at two, sold for $1 million in 2020 and now has two foals on her own produce record.

Fasig-Tipton's Boyd Browning said he believes that Wicked Whisper's young family has all the potential to become even more active.

“The depth of her pedigree is sensational,” Browning said. “She has some high-quality sisters that are producing and will be producing for many, many years. So you have this pedigree that is really strong and really deep, but it has the opportunity to explode and expand exponentially over the next decade as well.”

Bandoroff explained that after Wicked Whisper retired from racing last year, the Denali team put their heads together with the Lieblongs to decide on her first mating. It was an easy consensuses when they landed on Curlin. The mating replicates the cross that produced Wicked Whisper's Curlin sister Point of Honor.

“We thought it was a perfect mating to get a Grade I-winning mare like Wicked Whisper started,” he said. “Curlin is having arguably his best year ever with the likes of Clairiere, Nest and Malathaat. The cross that we've replicated with Wicked Whisper and Curlin is a similar cross to GISW Clairiere (Curlin), who is out of the Bernardini mare Cavorting. Not only has this cross worked directly in the family with Point of Honor, but it's a cross that has proven to be gold time and time again.”

Wicked Whisper will sells as Hip 253 at the Fasig-Tipton Night of the Stars Sale. Bandoroff said he expects the young mare to be popular as buyers are scouting out broodmare prospects.

“I think Wicked Whisper has a very wide and varying appeal,” he noted. “If you're shopping for top-quality, high-end mares, she has to be on your list.”

“To me it's the complete package,” added Browning. “She's a young, Grade I winner in foal to the leading sire of Grade I stakes winners this year in Curlin, plus she's a beautiful physical and has an unbelievable pedigree. I think she gives you the opportunity, based on her 2-year-old ability, to dream early. But also based on her pedigree and the way she is bred, she gives you the opportunity to dream big in terms of being able to compete successfully at Classic-type distances. She has all the attributes to be a game changer from a broodmare perspective.”

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