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Million-Dollar Matings

The fireworks at the annual Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton November sales are always a highlight of the year as seven-figure bids abound on some of racing's top broodmares and broodmare prospects. But after the dust settles, it can be years before words get out on the breeding careers of the sales' top offerings. We catch up with the connections of a few of these most recent million-dollar broodmares and learn of their mating plans for 2021 in our ongoing 'Million-Dollar Matings' series.

CONSTELLATION (Bellamy Road-For Royalty, by Not For Love)

Sale: 2018 Fasig-Tipton November Sale

Purchaser/Owner: Don Alberto Corporation

Produce Record: 2019 Curlin colt, 2021 Into Mischief filly

2021 Booking: Quality Road

Offered carrying her first foal by Curlin, Grade I winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Constellation was purchased for $3.15 million by the Don Alberto Corporation at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton November Sale.

Her Curlin colt would go on to sell for $250,000 to Repole Stables and St. Elias Stables at last year's Keeneland September Sale.

After visiting Into Mischief but failing to produce a foal in her first year with Don Alberto, she was bred back to the Spendthrift sire last year.

Don Alberto's former Executive Director Fabricio Buffolo reported that Constellation foaled her Into Mischief filly on Jan. 31.

“We are extremely happy that she had a nice, robust filly,” he said. “She has been developing well. You can tell that she has all the parts there to turn into a nice filly as she grows.”

Buffolo said that Constellation will be bred to Quality Road this year.

“It will be interesting to see how she will produce with a horse like him with more scope and size,” he noted. “It's all about getting to know the mares and how they produce and it's a mating that has some contrasts on the physical aspect, which sometimes can be rewarding. Bellamy Road has only three blacktype winners as a broodmares sire and all three are from Mr. Prospector-line stallions.”

After a 'Rising Star'-worthy debut win as a juvenile for LNJ Foxwoods, Constellation ran in the money in her next two graded starts before capping off her 2-year-old season with a win in the Furlough S. As a sophomore, she added two more stakes wins before taking the GI La Brea S. At four, the chestnut ran second in four straight graded races including the GI Madison S. at Keeneland.

CALEDONIA ROAD (Quality Road-Come A Callin, by Dixie Union)

Sale: 2018 Fasig-Tipton November Sale

Purchaser/Owner: Narvick International

Produce Record: 2020 Justify filly, 2021 Justify colt

2021 Booking: Kizuna (Jpn)

Eclipse Champion Caledonia Road was purchased by agent Emmanuel de Seroux of Narvick International for $2.3 million at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton November Sale.

The million-dollar earner was bred to Justify as a maiden and produced a filly in January last year. De Seroux reported that the filly is “doing great” at the Ito family's Grand Farm in Japan, where Caledonia Road also resides.

The mare was bred back to Justify and foaled a colt on Jan. 27 this year.

“He's reported to be a very good foal,” de Seroux said.

This year, Caledonia Road will visit champion Kizuna, a son of the late influential Japanese sire Deep Impact and the leading Japanese freshman sire in 2019.

Trained by Ralph Nicks, Caledonia Road won on debut and ran second in the GI Frizette S. before taking the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Filles to win Eclipse honors for Champion 2-Year-Old Filly in 2017. She is a half-sister to stakes winner One of a Kind (Lemon Drop Kid) and hails from the family of Grade I winners Data Link (War Front) and Hymn Book (Arch).

CATHRYN SOPHIA (Street Boss-Sheave, by Mineshaft)

Sale: 2017 Keeneland November Sale

Purchaser/Owner: Bridlewood Farm and Don Alberto

Produce Record: 2018 Pioneerof the Nile filly, 2019 Medaglia d'Oro filly, 2020 Into Mischief colt. In foal to Curlin.

2021 Booking: None

One year after Bridlewood Farm and Don Alberto partnered up to buy a sales-topping Baffled (Distorted Humor) for $3.5 million, the same duo went to $2.3 million at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale to purchase 'TDN Rising Star' Cathryn Sophia. The 2016 Oaks heroine was carrying her first foal by Pioneerof the Nile.

The Pioneerof the Nile filly, now named Mezcal, was purchased for $625,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September Sale by Bobby Flay, but does not yet have any recorded works or starts.

Cathryn Sophia produced a Medaglia d'Oro filly in 2019 and last year, foaled an Into Mischief colt in May.

“He is a late foal that has developed so well over the last few months,” said Don Alberto's Fabricio Buffolo. “He is a strong individual and typical of what you expect of the sire.”

Buffolo reported that this year, Cathryn Sophia is in foal to Curlin. A similar mating proved successful when the Hill 'n' Dale sire produced champion and young sire Vino Rosso with a Street Cry (Ire) mare.

Because Cathryn Sophia's Curlin foal is expected to arrive late, Buffolo said that she will take a year off this year.

Purchased as a yearling by Cash Is King LLC and trained by John Servis, Cathryn Sophia broke her maiden on debut by 12 3/4 lengths before crushing the competition in the Gin Talking S. by 16 1/4 lengths in her next start. She won her sophomore debut in the GII Forward Gal. and maintained the undefeated streak in the GII Davona Dale S. After a third-place finish in the GI Ashland S., the Maryland-bred scored a victory in the GI Kentucky Oaks. In the later half of her sophomore season, she ran third in both the GI Acorn S. and GI Cotillion S. and caught a win in the Princess of Sylmar S.

Cathryn Sophia was offered at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton November Sale as a broodmare or racing prospect and sold to SF Bloodstock for $1.4 million. It was announced a month later that she would retire from racing, and she returned to the sales ring a year later in foal to Pioneerof the Nile.

GALILEO GAL (Galileo (Ire)-Alpha Lupi (Ire), by Rahy)

Sale: 2018 Fasig-Tipton November Sale

Purchaser/Owner: Craig Bernick

Produce Record: 2020 Kingman (GB) filly. In foal to Lope de Vega (Ire).

2021 Booking: Kingman (GB)

The regally-bred Galileo Gal was offered at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Watch out feature leading up to the sale here. She was purchased by Craig Bernick for $1.4 million.

She was sent to Norelands Stud in Ireland and was first bred to Juddmonte's hot young sire Kingman.

That mating produced a filly that is now a yearling.

“We are happy with [her],” Bernick said. “Our plan is to put her into training with Jessica Harrington next year.”

Galileo Gal was next bred to Ballylinch Stud's Lope de Vega (Ire) and Bernick reported that she is expected to foal any day now. She will return to Kingman later this year.

Bred by the Niarchos family, Galileo Gal was purchased by Gary Barber as a yearling and brought to race in North America, where she was a winner at three and four. The chestnut is a half-sister to champion and four-time Group 1 winner Alpha Centauri (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), as well a second G1 Coronation S. winner in Alpine Star (Ire) (Sea the Moon {Ger}) and stakes winner Tenth Star (Ire) (Dansili {GB}). Her family includes several other champions in Miesque (Nureyev), East of the Moon (Private Account) and Rumplestiltskin (Ire) (Danehill), as well as Group 1 winners and sires Kingmambo (Mr. Prospector) and Karakontie (Jpn) (Bernstein).

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Chance Timm Named Executive Director At Don Alberto

Chance Timm has been named Executive Director of the Don Alberto Corporation, the farm announced Sunday morning. He takes over in that new role March 1.

With over 100 broodmares, Don Alberto, based in Lexington, was a top 15 breeder nationally last year. Timm succeeds Fabricio Buffolo, who has been the Executive Director for the past four years. Both are graduates of the prestigious Godolphin Flying Start program.

Beginning with the purchase of the former Vinery Stud in 2013, Don Alberto has subsequently expanded its holdings in America to occupy 1300 acres and has positioned itself as an active breeder at the top of the bloodstock market.

Originally from Murray, Utah, Chance Timm has over 14 years experience in the Thoroughbred industry. He has been with Lane's End Farm since 2014 as the Director of Stallion
Seasons and Shares, where he has also had an active role in their sales consignment. “Don Alberto has established itself as a major force in the worldwide thoroughbred industry,” said
Timm. “I am confident that our team will further that success in the coming years and am very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it. I'd like to thank Bill Farish and everyone at
Lane's End; it has been a privilege to work at such a distinguished farm.”

Don Alberto was founded in South America in 1987, when Liliana Solari Falabella bought an estate near Los Angeles, Chile, and founded the Haras Don Alberto, a Thoroughbred breeding farm. With her sons Andrea and Carlos Heller, Falabella developed the farm as well as their Bethia brand, which includes a dairy, winery, milk transportation and trucking, and more. The company employs more than 4,500 people.

Buffolo, originally from Brazil will return to his home country to be closer to his family while continuing his career in the thoroughbred industry. “I look forward to Chance leading our progression as one of the top breeding and racing organizations in North America. Although I am sad to see Fabricio go, I am very thankful for his hard work which has led us to where we are today,” said Carlos Heller on behalf of the Heller Solari family.

“I want to personally thank Carlos and Ms. Liliana for this incredible opportunity and for understanding my desire to be closer to my family. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished and have no doubt Don Alberto will continue to ascend the ranks of the industry,” said Buffolo.

In addition to racing two-time Champion Unique Bella among other graded stakes winners, Don Alberto has bred and sold multiple million-dollar yearlings. In 2018, they bought Grade I winner Salty for $3,000,000 at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale, who produced a Tapit filly in 2020.. She was bred back to Tapit last year. They bought Dacita for $1.85 million the prior year at Fasig November, who has since produced an Uncle Mo colt in 2019, and a Quality Road filly in 2020.

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Half Sis to Constitution First to Seven Figs at KEESEP

A Medaglia d’Oro half-sister to leading second-crop sire and MGISW Constitution (Tapit) was the first to reach the seven-figure threshold during Sunday’s opening session of the Keeneland September sale when garnering a top bid of $1.1 million from Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm. Consigned by Denali Stud, Agent LIX as hip 58, the Mar. 21 foal was bred in a partnership between Bridlewood Farm and Don Alberto Corp. The powerful co-breeders paid a sale-topping $3.5 million for group-placed dam Baffled (Distorted Humor) in foal to Tapit at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Don Alberto subsequently bought out Bridlewood for $1.8 million while Baffled was carrying a full brother to hip 58 at last year’s renewal of that same sale.

“It was a little over; it was about what we expected, though,” said Pope’s bloodstock advisor Tod Quast. “It was a little more than we wanted to spend, but you are not going to get a bargain on a filly of that quality, even in this sale right now. We were super happy with her physical. We think she is a racehorse, but obviously she will be a broodmare later… [Pope] is a commercial breeder, but we race too and we are happy to have a good physical to race and when you have the pedigree side to go with it, it is a win-win.”

By Sunday, Whisper Hill had already sent another well-pedigreed filly back home–Pope made the decision to scratch hip 400, the first foal out of champion Songbird by the late superstar Arrogate. She paid $9.5 million for the mare.

“We didn’t really have a good Fasig sale,” Quast noted. “We love this filly and compare her to Songbird, so we just thought why sell her? She is already back in Ocala.”

Hip 58 is also a half to English Group 2 winner Boynton (More Than Ready) and American dirt GSW Jacaranda (Congrats). She hails from the deep female family of highest-level winners like Emcee and Awesome Humor.

“This filly was bred in partnership with Bridlewood,” noted Don Alberto’s Fernando Diaz-Valdes. “We have some foals out of her [together], including a filly who is at the farm. We’re very excited. She did what we wanted her to.”

Benvenutta, the 3-year-old Tapit filly who Baffled was carrying when Bridlewood and Don Alberto made their big buy, remains unraced and last breezed in October of 2019. Baffled’s 2-year-old Tapit colt Constitutional Law worked on Saturday for trainer Todd Pletcher (5f, 1:02.21, 16/30 over the Belmont training track). Baffled produced a full-brother to hip 58 this year and is carrying a Curlin filly.

Denali’s Conrad Bandoroff talks about the filly and the sale below.

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Grade I Winners Salty and Dacita Thriving at Don Alberto Farm

An intentional breeder is a student of their broodmares, diligently studying each mating and the resulting offspring while adjusting and making inferences at every corner.

Over the past seven years, the Don Alberto Corporation has meticulously analyzed each foal produced on their growing Kentucky-based farm and has endeavored to make each mating more successful that the last as they continue to learn from their elite broodmare band.

“The engine has started working,” Don Alberto’s Executive Director Fabricio Buffolo said. “We know the mares and know more about how they are producing. We are getting better matings because we know what we can do with them.”

Buffolo said that this year, two crosses in particular have proven to be successful–the mating of Chilean-bred millionaire Dacita with Quality Road, and of Grade I-winning maiden mare Salty with Tapit.

Dacita is a daughter of Scat Daddy, and is the leading earner for her dam Daja (Chi) (Seeker’s Reward). She was a dual champion in Chile before moving to the United States and into the barn of top turf trainer Chad Brown as a 4-year-old. She raced for three years in the States, claiming four graded stakes including two Grade I races in the Diana S. and Beverly D. S.

As fellow Chilean natives, the Don Alberto team had a strong attraction to the millionaire earner.

“Dacita is very dear for all of us because she raced in Chile,” Buffolo said. “She won Grade I races there, including the Chilean Oaks, and when she came here she had a long campaign, running until she was six years old.”

The chestnut mare was purchased by Don Alberto at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton November Sale for $1.85 million. Last year, Dacita had her first foal, a colt by Uncle Mo and was bred back to Quality Road. The resulting filly was born in January of this year, and Buffolo said their team is very happy with the result of the mating.

“We really like the scope that Quality Road gave her,” he said. “Size is really important for Dacita, because she’s a nice, medium-sized mare. Quality Road gave her the scope she needs.”

Buffolo also added that they had picked the mating in hopes that the offspring could be competitive on dirt or turf.

“Quality Road is a horse that could go either way,” he said. “He can have good runners on the grass and the dirt. And although Dacita was a turf runner, we know that Scat Daddy could do it all.”

Don Alberto liked Dacita’s second foal so well that the mare is now back in foal to Quality Road for next year.

A year after they purchased Dacita, they found another Grade I winner up for grabs in the Fasig-Tipton sales ring in Salty.

Produced by the stakes-placed Dixie Union mare Theycallmeladyluck, Salty broke her maiden second time out as a 3-year-old, and then won the GII Gulfstream Park Oaks when making her stakes debut in her next start for trainer Mark Casse. She placed in three Grade Is later that year before claiming her first Grade I in the 2018 La Troienne S. in her final career start. Among those behind her was Eclipse champion Abel Tasman (Quality Road).

Buffolo said he can easily recall initially seeing her at the sale.

“I remember very well the day that I first saw her there,” he said. “I was standing beside Leif Aaron from Juddmonte, and when we saw her, I was just like, ‘Wow.’ She was a beautiful individual, just gorgeous.”

Buffolo passed on his findings to Don Alberto’s Carlos Heller Solari, who also fell in love with the imposing bay filly.

They purchased Salty for an even $3 million, and bred their new addition to champion sire Tapit in 2019.

After the resulting filly was born in January of this year, Buffolo said that Salty was well worth the hefty price tag.

“We have an outstanding Tapit filly,” he said. “She’s just class. She’s very pretty, very feminine. She’s refined, and has almost an Arab-like head, but is a really good size. We were rewarded; Salty gave us a very pretty filly.”

Buffolo reported that the youngster has a sweet charm to go along with her quality physical.

“She has an incredible personality,” he said. “Every time somebody comes here to take pictures, she’s always the first one to come to you. She’s very inquisitive and has a curious mind. She wants to be with you. Even if you’re trying to take pictures of the other foals, she comes up behind you and is always trying to be with people.”

As the auspicious young fillies continue to develop, plans are formulated as to where they could end up.

“We will enter all of them [into a sale] as yearlings,” Buffolo said. “We will assess them one by one as we get closer to the deadlines. We’re not sure yet, but some we might retain.”

While the number of horses on the farm continues to grow, so too does the farm’s acreage. Since the original purchase of Vinery, they’ve added 400 acres from the adjoining Crestwood Farm, and recently, they also bought a portion of the nearby Hill ‘n’ Dale property, and look to receive more acreage later this year.

“We’ve grown a lot in the last few years,” Buffolo said. “For us, three, four, or five years seems like a lot of time, but in this industry it’s not. It takes a long time to get to know the good mares, to know how they are producing, especially when we bought a lot of maiden mares. You really need to learn what they are producing and adjust your matings accordingly so that you can make a plan for the future.”

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