With the 2022 breeding season underway, we continue to feature a series of breeders' mating plans. Today we have Cooper Sawyer, farm manager of Mt. Brilliant Farm.
MORENA (PER) (m, 18, Privately Held–Charytin {Per}, by Summing) to be bred to Liam's Map
This mare had a really nice Justify filly that we sold at the [Keeneland] September Sale last year ($375,000 to Japanese trainer Hideyuki Mori). This year she has a Constitution filly.
We are going back to Liam's Map with her this year. Morena herself was a champion in Peru and she's also the dam of Creator (Tapit), who won the 2016 GI Belmont S. We were thinking that Liam's Map, with the Unbridled's Song, would give her a little bit more turn of foot, which she needs.
We're big supporters of Liam's Map. We like the quality horse that he gets you and he's doing some really good things. She's also a really big mare, so he will hopefully tidy her up a bit. I think the biggest thing with this mating is that you'll get the natural speed from his pedigree.
SECRET SOMEONE (m, 11, A. P. Indy–Private Gift, by Unbridled) to be bred to Uncle Mo
Secret Someone was bred and raced by [farm owner] Mr. Greg Goodman, so she's a farm favorite. We kept her first filly by Candy Ride (Arg) and then last year we sold her Into Mischief colt to Mike Ryan for $1 million [at KEESEP].
Her dam Private Gift is one of our foundation mares. We have kept a lot of her fillies and raced them ourselves. We've tried to give this mare the absolute best chance we could. When she raced for us, she was third in the GIII Modesty H. and she won the Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf S.
This mare really hits home on a lot of levels for us, so we've tried to give her a big shot. She gives us beautiful foals. We were over the moon with her Into Mischief colt. I've been keeping up with him and he looks very fast. They're very excited about him.
Secret Someone had a Quality Road colt this year and she will be going to Uncle Mo. The Private Gift family works with so many different sire lines. We gave her Quality Road last year to hit on the line of GISW Dunbar Road (Quality Road) [out of a half-sister to Secret Someone] and the Into Mischief is the same line as MGSW Private Mission (Into Mischief) [half-sister to Secret Someone]. So we decided to go a little different route this year with Uncle Mo. He's a wonderful sire and we've done very well with him. He gives her a little bit of that brilliance you can always expect from him.
PRIVATE GIFT (m, 20, Unbridled–Private Status, by Alydar) to be bred to Into Mischief
Private Gift had a foal later in the season last year so we were not able to get her bred back. This year she is going back to Into Mischief. We were so excited with MGSW Private Mission (Into Mischief), who she foaled in 2018. She was such a beautiful filly. We sent her up to Saratoga and Donato Lanni fell in love with her.
URSULA (m, 5, Tapit–Debonnaire {GB}, by Anabaa) to be bred to Munnings
Ursula is a half-sister to G1P Hartnell (Authorized). We actually sent her dam Debonnaire back to Australia a few years ago. We had gotten several foals out of her here and we decided to keep Ursula. We did put her through a sale but we put a high reserve on her because we liked her so much, so we ended up racing her. She was very talented and ran against some top-class fillies. She ran second in two stakes at Fair Grounds.
She has a Medaglia d'Oro yearling filly and this year she had a stunning Into Mischief filly. We are sending her to Munnings this year. Ursula was talented and has some very nice foals, but we wanted to give her a bit more speed. With her international pedigree, we wanted to give her pure dirt without losing sight of her international flare as a half-sister to Hartnell. She was strictly dirt, but we wanted to give the opportunity for turf to still come through with the Speightstown line.
FAMOUS (Ire) (m, 15, Danehil Dancer {Ire}–Starlight Dreams, by Black Tie Affair {Ire}) to be bred to Tapit
Famous is a full-sister to champion Mastercraftsman (Ire). She was bred to Galileo a lot early and we bred her colt II Paradiso (Galileo) who was third in the G1 Melbourne Cup. We went away from Galileo and bred her to Bernardini, which produced stakes-placed Love Beach who is also in our broodmare band.
Famous was Group 1-placed and she has produced Classic-distance horses everywhere. This is a family we're trying to stay in. We were the underbidders on her daughter Sherbet Lemon (Lemon Drop Kid) at Tattersalls last year. There are all kinds of fillies coming up in this family so we're trying to give it a very good shot.
Famous has a Tapit yearling filly and this year she had a Quality Road filly. We have her going back to Tapit. Her yearling by Tapit is really nice so we wanted to repeat that. Tapit is a universal sire and we've done really well with him. We always say that if you're going to breed to Tapit, just get out of Tapit's way. She's a mare that has been somewhat unlucky in that she's been knocking on the door of being a superb broodmare, so we're giving her every chance we can by sending her to Tapit. We have a lot of confidence in her.
Into Mischief colt out of Superioritycomplex (Ire) sells for $1.35 million at the 2021 Keeneland September Sale | Keeneland
SUPERIORITYCOMPLEX (Ire) (m, 8, Hard Spun – Justlookdonttouch (Ire), by Galileo) to be bred to Tapit
This mare and her sister SW Abingdon (Street Cry {Ire}), who we purchased at Newmarket, are exactly what we're looking for in our program. They're mares that have older American families that have gone on to be successful in Europe and we try to bring them back here. We want to be able to take these types of mares and throw some good, old-fashioned dirt back into them and make them great American families again. This is a family that we think is knocking on the door to being a great American family.
We actually raced this mare here in America. She was fourth in a stakes at Arlington.
We first bred her to Into Mischief and got a $1.35-million colt purchased by Winchell Thoroughbreds last year. Unfortunately, she lost her Justify last year. She is now in foal to Tapit and then she will be going back to Tapit. We've been lucky with Tapit and figured it was a great opportunity to use him again. We want to breed to Tapit every chance we can get. We couldn't have been happier with the result from the Into Mischief and we have very high hopes for this mare as a producer.
LOOK ME OVER (m, 5, Hard Spun–Wasted Tears, by Najran) to be bred to Quality Road
As the half-sister to GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Corniche (Quality Road), we figured we would take a flyer and send her to Quality Road. It's a pretty obvious mating. We bought her last year at the Keeneland November Sale. We love Corniche and think he has a very bright future. We've been using Quality Road a lot and really like him. The trend is your friend, so we're not going to go against it.
Look Me Over is in foal to Kitten's Joy this year and we're really excited to see that foal and then send her to Quality Road.
SKY GIRL (m, 12, Sky Mesa–Vargas Girl, by Deputy Minister) to be bred to Maclean's Music
This is the half-sister to champion Abel Tasman (Quality Road). We have done very well with her in the auction ring. We sold a Quality Road yearling for $775,000 to David Ingordo last year. She has an Uncle Mo yearling filly who is a big, Indian Charlie-looking filly and then this year, she is in foal to Nyquist.
This year she is going to Maclean's Music. We have been using him for a while. We wanted to give this mare as much speed as possible. Maclean's Music is no secret anymore and his one start was, as everyone says, jaw-dropping. We figured that the A. P. Indy coming from Pulpit with her is a really good cross with him. We've used Maclean's Music a lot recently. We like what we are seeing out of his foals, so we believe in him enough to throw this kind of mare at him.
ITHINKISAWAPUDYCAT (m, 13, Bluegrass Cat – Unbridled Run, by Unbridled) to be bred to Curlin
This is an awesome mare; she's been very good to us. She's the dam of GISW Sweet Loretta (Tapit). We have had very nice-looking foals out of her and have raced almost everything out of her. We have her Tapit colt Predicted who is doing well and is in training now. We sold her Uncle Mo filly last year and this year we have a Quality Road yearling filly who is exceptional. She has a lot of leg and she's very classy and forward-looking. We can't wait to show her to the team at Fasig-Tipton for Saratoga.
I think if we were going to be critical of this mare, she doesn't put as much substance into her foals. They're all very athletic but they're medium-sized. This year we are sending her to Curlin, who I think will give her more substance to get that top-class, superior racehorse.
We put a lot of thought into our matings with Greg, Hutton and Bo Goodman, Marette Farrell and myself. We go through so many different things. It takes a lot for us to breed to an unproven stallion. We almost always go proven. We don't care who everyone else is breeding to. We try to breed the best athlete we can to get the best racehorse. Putting that in mind, Curlin jumped out at us this year. We've used him in the past and I think he's what we're looking for to get a bit more substance out of this mare.
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