Justify's 2024 fee is the fourth-highest of the stallions announced so far for 2024, placing him behind perennial leading sires Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday) and Curlin (Smart Strike), and third-crop standout Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}).

Veteran sire Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie) remains at $150,000 while 17-year-old Munnings (Speightstown) sits at $75,000.

Following the top three are American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) $50,000; Practical Joke (Into Mischief) $45,000; Epicenter (Not This Time), $40,000; Jack Christopher (Munnings) $40,000; Corniche (Quality Road) $25,000; Golden Pal (Uncle Mo) $25,000; Tiz The Law (Constitution) $20,000; Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy) $15,000; Maximum Security (New Year's Day) $7,500; Echo Town (Speightstown) $5,000; and Mo Town (Uncle Mo) $5,000.

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Justify, who had four black-type winners from his first crop in 2022, will stand for the farm's second highest-fee, at $100,000, the same as in 2022. He is currently the third-leading first-crop sire by earnings.

The largest jump among the Coolmore stallions comes for Munnings. With 13 black-type winners in 2022, including the GI Woody Stephens S. winner Jack Christopher, he gets a hike from his 2022 fee of $85,000 to $100,000 to become the co-second-highest fee on the farm.

American Pharoah, who was the sire of four GI winners in 2022, gets a trim from $80,000 to $60,000.

Mendelssohn, having a strong first year at stud and currently seventh on the first-crop sires list in North America by earnings, will see his fee drop from $35,000 to $25,000.

The farm offers three new stallions in 2023: Corniche, who will stand for $30,000; Preakness winner Early Voting at $25,000; and Golden Pal, whose post-Breeders' Cup retirement was announced Wednesday morning, and will stand alongside his sire, Uncle Mo, at a fee to be determined after the Breeders' Cup.

The entire roster, with fees for 2023, will be:

American Pharoah – $60,000

Classic Empire – $15,000

Corniche – $30,000

Cupid – $5,000

Early Voting – $25,000

Echo Town – $5,000

Golden Pal – TBA

Justify – $100,00

Lookin At Lucky – $10,000

Maximum Security – $10,000

Mendelssohn – $25,000

Mo Town – $5,000

Munnings – $100,000

Practical Joke – $25,000

Tiz The Law – $30,000

Uncle Mo – $150,000

All fees live foal stands and nurses.

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“Back then they had those weed-eaters with a motor you strapped onto your back,” Betz recalls. “Weighed about 40lbs. So 7:00 a.m., I started weeding down the front of the farm. Get to 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 1:00 p.m., I don't see anybody. I'm thinking, 'Boy, people really work hard on a farm.' Finally, about quarter to six, no lunch or anything, I'm weeding round these trees up here, and Doc McGee comes in off his rounds. And he drives by, backs up, rolls down the window and says: 'Who are you?'”

Betz introduced himself to the Hagyard veterinarian. First day of his summer job, funding classes at the University of Kentucky: nutrition, farm management, that kind of thing. He'd arrived from Notre Dame with all his worldly possessions–a '64 Dodge and a dog–with a vague plan to transfer some Bluegrass know-how to the Quarter Horse game where he'd been learning the ropes.

At that moment Mrs. McGee appeared with a tray.

“Young man,” she said. “You look like you could use some iced tea.”

Many years later, they all met again on the top floor of the First Security building in downtown Lexington, to close on the sale of the farm. And Mrs. McGee reminded Betz of his response.

With a self-deprecating chuckle, he admits: “Apparently I said to her, 'Yes, I could. Because now I know how Jesus felt when he carried that cross up Golgotha.'”

When Mine That Bird crossed the line, the first person to call was Dr. McGee, saying how happy he was that the farm had raised a Kentucky Derby winner.

Mine That Bird famously brought only $9,500 as a yearling. Betz doesn't pretend he was any kind of standout, though he always believed in the genes: he'd bought the granddam because she managed second in the Canadian Oaks despite cracking a knee. “Something like Mine That Bird, though, that's just the icing on the cake,” Betz says. “That's just being in the game and giving yourself a chance to get lucky.”

Among countless other photos sharing the office walls, however, are a sale-topper and the half-brother to Roman Ruler and El Corredor who made $4.6 million at the 2006 Keeneland September Sale; and many besides, that did their job both in the ring and on the track. The latest is Echo Zulu (Gun Runner), herself a $300,000 yearling, who assisted her American Pharoah half-sister to $1.4 million last September at Keeneland, even though she had just won the first of the three Grade Is that secured her Eclipse Award.

These mementos of elite horses-remarkably copious, for a farm that has seldom grazed more than a couple of dozen mares–attest to the journey dividing that perspiring college kid from the reflective figure now lounging behind the desk. But perhaps it can better be charted by less familiar navigational points dotted about the room: native American totems, a scale model of a Great Lakes freighter, even the “Meditations” of Marcus Aurelius. Hardly standard issue, on horse farms. But never mind that Betz was a Philosophy and English major; here, simply put, is a man profoundly inquisitive about the world around him. And, really, that was also what drew him to horses.

“I think that's the number one thing you need in this business,” he says. “A natural curiosity. To be a careful observer. I think in some ways it's probably been an advantage, not to be second or third generation [in the industry]. Some of those people either don't have that curiosity to really see things and learn. Experience is a great teacher.”

Betz is instead indebted to his father for the template of a self-made man. Having started out as locomotive fireman, he had ended up president of the railroad–and his sons, in turn, were expected to learn about life by experiencing it. Hence the desk replica of the SS Kinsman Enterprise, where Betz had another of his summer jobs.

“She was built in 1927 and was sister ship to the Edmund Fitzgerald that they wrote the song about,” Betz says, referring to the loss of all hands in a Lake Superior storm in 1975. “Having this here reminds me of a different time in my life. We'd bring taconite pellets mined in Minnesota and Wisconsin down to the steel mills. Loading onto the dock, being the young kid, they'd swing you over in what they called the bosun's chair, with a big cable you had to run up and put on a cleat. And the taconite, of course it spills out and you're running over these marbles, with the boat coming in and the gap so wide.” He holds his hands apart. “These boats come in at 660 feet, into a real high dock. And there are no brakes on a boat! There weren't a lot of safety rules back then.”

It was a grounding that gives Betz a distaste for any sign of entitlement in young people today, and he's grateful that his father's “nepotism” was confined to putting his sons on a section gang, laying the track.

“We were knocking these spikes in with a sledgehammer, and the Mexican men would go all day and then build a fire and cook their tacos,” Betz recalls. “But after about five hits, my arms were rubber. And they'd come up, put their arms round me and say, 'That's okay, you go rest.' So when the Mexicans started embracing the horse business, I had nothing but respect for them. It does open your eyes: what the real world is like, and that if you want something you have to go out and earn it.”

A first exposure to horses came through upcountry Ohio weekends with his great uncle, who drove a school bus, but traded work horses on the side.

“He was quite a character,” Betz recalls. “He'd go in there and next thing you knew he'd be coming out with a different horse from the one he went in with. And he'd hook them up to a sleigh, and we'd go on trail rides, and he'd tell all these stories round the camp fire.”

Having learned to handle horses, Betz hooked up with another rare type to show Quarter Horses through his high school years.    “This trainer took me all over the country: Dallas, Denver, Fort Worth, Chicago,” he says. “He liked the drink, he liked the ladies, so he'd go out and party while I stayed behind to feed and groom and then bed down in the corner of the stall. Interesting experience, to say the least. But there I was, a 15-year-old kid, paid $25 for every horse I showed in the ring. I'd go into tack shops and buy myself fancy chaps, I was king of the walk.”

To persevere with horses, even so, struck his family as “a ridiculous thing to do” with law school beckoning. But it was a time of opportunity. People were starting to cross Quarter Horses with Thoroughbreds, and Betz figured that he should come to the Bluegrass and learn a few angles–only to become so absorbed by Thoroughbreds that he never went back.

Lee Eaton gave him a little office to comb through regional racecards, digging out the pedigrees of any fillies entered for a claim. He also had to index, longhand, the families of the many horses sold by Eaton's pioneering agency: toil that left him thoroughly versed in pedigrees. Betz then rounded out his education with the chance to manage Helmore Farm for Edgar Lucas in Maryland.

“They stood three stallions and bred a couple of hundred mares each year,” he recalls. “I didn't have much experience of handling stallions, and it was three old racetrackers and me. I can remember to this day the first mare I foaled on my own, I was so nervous. But you got a lot of stuff thrown at you, real quick, and you learned how to deal with it. After that baptism under fire, coupled what I'd learnt with Lee, I felt there wasn't anything I couldn't do in this business if I kept working hard.”

Betz befriended another outstanding horseman in David Hanley, nowadays at WinStar, but then managing a farm in Ireland before an impressive stint as a trainer. They'd begun a transatlantic pinhook partnership, along with Irish vet James Egan, at a time when the weanling market was little contested.

By now Betz was leasing a farm near Paris from his former boss Lucas, who kept his mares there as part of the package. But then he heard that the McGees were selling and Betz, initially with partners, became only the third proprietor of 300 lush acres previously maintained on a revolutionary war land grant by heirs of Patrick Henry. (“Give me liberty, or give me death!”)

“I knew I didn't want to work for anybody else,” Betz reflects. “I'm my own best critic. It's my life, not somebody else's, and you're not going to give that away. But I realized early on that there was no money in boarding horses, if you do it as you should without cutting corners. So if I was going to have a farm, I decided I'd want a piece of everything that's on it. That was the business model: populate the farm in partnerships, with people loyal to your program. And then upgrade as much as you can, whenever you have the capital.

“You have to be willing to take chances–I started out week to week, payroll to payroll–and you have to be objective. It's like running a sports franchise. These mares are draft choices: some work out, some don't. I want to strengthen their weaknesses without weakening their strengths, but to do that you have to see those strengths and weaknesses clearly. You can't be sentimental. And I think over the years, you develop intuition about it.”

To Betz, mating is all about match-making. “I don't think any stallion is too 'cheap' or too 'expensive',” he says. “All that matters is whether it's the right one for the mare. Can he enhance her? That's what you strive for. Breed the best to the best? Nice if you're Vanderbilt. But sometimes best to the best isn't the best. Yes, I have to be aware of the commercial side, because I sell yearlings for a living. I only race the odd filly. But within that context, within that group of successful stallions, there will always be matches that fit my mare.”

A case in point is Echo Zulu's dam Letgomyecho (Menifee), who had fallen beyond reach in the 2010 Keeneland November Sale, at $235,000, only to slip to $135,000 in the same ring a year later. Her first covers had been pricey, commensurate with her record as winner of her first three starts including the GII Forward Gal S. But maybe they weren't the right covers. Betz sent her to Mineshaft, and came up with graded stakes winner J Boys Echo; to Speightstown, for Grade I winner Echo Town; and then to Gun Runner for her champion. As Steve Asmussen said to him, after Letgomyecho's American Pharoah hit the home run last September: “'Well, I got mine. Now you got yours!'”

“I want to breed aptitude to aptitude,” Betz says, dismissing another lazy convention. “If your mare's fast, don't breed her to a stayer. Breed a stayer to a stayer and hope it's fast, or a sprinter to a sprinter and hope it can carry its speed. But those are just principles over-riding the program. It's like if you're a painter, and someone says why did you use that color? It all goes together at the end of the day, and you just hope that you got it right.”

That feels an instructive analogy, for there's a really creative sensibility at work here.

“I think I do have an artistic side,” Betz accepts. “I love music, I love art, and the way people can express themselves like that. To me, this is really my way to express myself. I'd love to be a musician, but I'm not, so this is kind of my extension.”

Like all artistry, all intuition, horsemanship is hard to articulate. As Betz says, if he can't always remedy a situation with a horse, he tries not to be confused by what's causing it.

“We like to give them human qualities, say they're courageous or whatever,” he muses. “And maybe there's a little bit of that: they can be competitive. But truth be told, the ones that excel, I think it's probably just easier for them. What did Vince Lombardi say? 'Fatigue makes cowards of us all.'

“I remember being sent down to Hialeah to look at this filly Jimmy Conway had, who used to train for Darby Dan. And I was asking him what he looked for, in terms of soundness and all that, and he said: 'Bill, if they can run, they're all unsound.' You train them hard; they run hard. So there's probably some truth to that, too.”

What does seem obvious is that Betz's empathy must reflect a hinterland so much wider than you tend to encounter in the obsessive, all-consuming world of Thoroughbreds. Asked about the Native American totems, for instance, Betz gives a shrug.    “They understood one very important premise, in my view,” he says. “People complain about the world. But if there's a God, maybe he didn't just make the world for us. That may be inconvenient for us, but maybe we're missing the point. We think we're the center of everything-and those native cultures understood that maybe they weren't.”

Not that he pretends the slightest immunity to the vexations of a horseman's life, whether in trivial daily frustrations or the disasters that can ruin a whole business cycle.

“It is a rollercoaster,” he says. “The emotional highs and lows can be pretty dramatic. That's not for everybody. I've had people over the years wanting to get into the business, but I'm pretty careful who I partner with-just because you know what's coming, and you need the mentality to accept those pitfalls. But I guess if you've got enough nerve to keep getting back on the rollercoaster, the thrills can be memorable.”

And surely the good days, all those photos on the wall, redress the disappointments?

“I think that's true in life,” Betz replies. “But I don't know that you do this for those kinds of things. You do it because this is what you do.”

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Miss Sephora (First Samurai), a half-sister to GSW Pataky Kid (Rockport Harbor), produced a bay filly by Echo Town bred by Allen Poindexter.

“She's a good, correct, leggy quality foal,” Tim Hamlin said. “Delighted with her. We'll be sending mares back to Echo Town in 2022.”

Then on Thursday, My Tempo (Declaration of War) foaled a chestnut colt at Chesapeake Farm by Echo Town bred by
Crown Chase Farm.

“He is a really nice colt, very correct with plenty of bone and quality,” Collier Mathes said. “After seeing him, Echo Town is definitely a stallion that I'd be looking to breed back to.”

Echo Town, winner of the 2020 GI H. Allen Jerkens S. at Saratoga and a half-brother to the brilliant unbeaten GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies heroine Echo Zulu (Gun Runner), stands for $7,500 at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky.

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Uncle Mo, a 13-year-old son of Indian Charlie, has been led this year by the star sprinter Yaupon, who won the Grade 1 Forego Stakes at Saratoga.

Other runners of note by Uncle Mo in 2021 include Grade 2 winners Golden Pal and Mo Forza, Grade 3 winners Mo Mosa and Modernist, and Grade 1-placed Envoutante.

Triple Crown winner Justify will stand for $100,000. The son of Scat Daddy's first foals will be 2-year-olds of 2022.

Fellow Triple Crown winner American Pharoah will stand for $80,000. A son of Pioneerof the Nile, American Pharoah's 2021 runners have included Japanese Group 1 winner Cafe Pharoah, and U.S. Grade 2 winners As Time Goes By and Merneith.

Three stallions on the Ashford roster saw increased fees for 2022, led by the red-hot Munnings, whose rate rose from $40,000 to $85,000.

The son of Speightstown is among North America's leading sires of stakes winners in 2021, including a pair of high-profile Grade 1 winners in leading Breeders' Cup Juvenile contender Jack Christopher and Madison Stakes winner Kimari.

Caravaggio will see his fee increase from $25,000 to $35,000. The Scat Daddy stallion's first crop of Irish-sired runners hit the track in 2021, led by English Group 1 winner Tenebrism, and Irish Group 2 winner Agartha. His first crop of North American-sired foals will arrive in 2022.

Fellow freshman sire Practical Joke also saw his fee rise to $35,000 after previously standing for $22,500. Runners from the son of Into Mischief's first class of juveniles include Grade 3 winner Wit and stakes winner Joker Boy.

Following is a complete list of advertised fees for Ashford Stud's 2022 roster:

Air Force Blue – $7,500
American Pharoah – $80,000
Caravaggio – $35,000
Classic Empire – $17,500
Cupid – $5,000
Echo Town – $7,500
Justify – $100,000
Lookin at Lucky – $15,000
Maximum Security – $15,000
Mendelssohn – $35,000
Mo Town – $7,500
Munnings – $85,000
Practical Joke – $35,000
Tiz the Law – $35,000
Uncle Mo – $160,000

The post Uncle Mo Leads Ashford Stud’s 2022 Roster At $160,000 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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During the first of two sessions of the prestigious Book 1 catalog, Keeneland sold 95 yearlings for a total of $38,172,000, for an average of $401,811 and a median of $325,000. Totals include six horses sold via online bidding for $2,605,000. Three horses brought seven figures.

In addition to the 95 sold, 61 yearlings failed to exceed their reserve price, 39.1% of the 156 through the ring (compared to 36.3% RNA's from the opening session in 2020). Combined with the 45 lots withdrawn, there were 106 yearlings from the 201 catalogued (52.7%) that did not sell.

Keeneland amped up the atmosphere in the Sales Pavilion to kick off the September Sale to create excitement and showcase the best of what the Bluegrass has to offer.

“The sale should be a fun environment,” Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin said. “It is exciting that we are here, that we are all back together and that we have these phenomenal horses on offer in Book 1. We had complimentary cocktails being passed and brunch being served, a Bluegrass band playing 'My Old Kentucky Home' on the auction stage right before the sale started. We worked hard to create that environment, and we got a lot of positive feedback. Book 1 at Keeneland's September Sale is special, and it deserves to feel that way.”

“Trade was really strong today,” Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy said. “There was confidence, and the money was spread out over more horses. The energy on the grounds was very strong. I have not seen the Sales Pavilion this full in a long time.”

Betz Thoroughbreds, agent, consigned Monday's top-priced yearling, who also is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Echo Town and Grade 3 winner J Boys Echo. They are out of Grade 2 winner Letgomyecho, by Menifee.

Alan Quartucci of Northshore purchased the filly for owner Joe Allen and said she most likely will go to trainer Shug McGaughey.

“She looks like a real runner,” Quartucci said. “She has a fantastic pedigree that's still going forward every day. The filly who won in Saratoga (Echo Zulu) was amazing. (The yearling) was the whole package.”

Consigned by Mt. Brilliant Farm, a colt by Into Mischief from the family of North American champion and English and Irish highweight Islington (IRE) sold to Ron Winchell's Winchell Thoroughbreds for $1.35 million. He will be trained by Steve Asmussen.

“He's probably an Into Mischief who doesn't look like an Into Mischief,” Winchell said, “and I've had Into Mischiefs that look like Into Mischiefs and I can't seem to find the winner's circle with them, so I figured I would go a different direction. I knew he might be expensive.”

“He has always been outstanding,” said Mt. Brilliant owner Greg Goodman, who purchased the colt's dam, the Hard Spun mare Superioritycomplex (IRE), as a 3-year-old in England. “He's always done everything right. A calm horse, smart; we're really happy with him and we're really happy Mr. Winchell got him and that he's going to a good home.”

A filly by Uncle Mo out of the winning Forestry mare Nikki's Choice sold for $1.1 million to Don Adam's Courtlandt Farm.

Paramount Sales, agent, consigned the filly, who is from the family of Canadian champion Charlie Barley, Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) winner Success Express and Grade 1 winner Greenwood Lake.

“She's an April foal, but you can see that she's still a little high behind and see she's gonna develop still,” Courtlandt's Ernie Retamoza said. “A real athletic, type-y filly, young mare, fits our program to a T. Not sure where we'll send her, but we'll get her home and break her. She acts like she's gonna be the right type of filly that we're looking for. Had to stretch, obviously, to get her, but Mr. Adam looked at her this morning and loved her – we all loved her – and we felt like she was a filly worth stretching for.”

“She was a beauty,” Pat Costello of Paramount said. “She didn't put a foot wrong from the day she was here, and we could see with the way the vetting was going, everybody was on her. She deserved to bring the kind of money she brought because she's just stunning. She came from a client of ours and she was always nice, very much so. We were delighted with the price. It was a little bit more than we thought she would bring.”

During the session, Courtlandt acquired five yearlings for $2.6 million to lead buyers.

Three yearlings on Monday sold for $950,000 apiece.

M.V. Magnier paid the amount for a colt by Quality Road whose dam is a half-sister to champion Rushing Fall. Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent for WinStar Bred & Raised, consigned the colt, who is out of stakes winner Milam, by Street Sense.

“He is a lovely colt and he has done well his whole life,” Elliott Walden, WinStar's President, CEO and Racing Manager, said. “We are very proud of him and that Coolmore got him and wish him nothing but the best.”

Walden said he is confident in the market at this point of the yearling sales season.

“There are six race tracks with maiden races for over $100,000,” he said. “When I trained 15 years ago, we were running for $30,000. It is amazing. Purses have caught up and gives a person a chance to make money on the race track. I think that will translate all the way through. I don't know about you, but I have never seen so many people on Day 1 in there sitting down (in the Sales Pavilion).”

Taylor Made Sales Agency sold 14 yearlings for $5,782,000 to lead consignors during the session.

Donato Lanni, agent, spent $950,000 for a Medaglia d'Oro filly consigned by Claiborne Farm, agent. She is the first foal of the Distorted Humor mare Naples Princess, a full sister to stakes winner Banker's Buy, and from the family of champion Mitole and 2021 Grade 2 winner and Belmont (G1) runner-up Hot Rod Charlie.

Lanni bought the filly as agent for Michael Lund Petersen and Willow Grace Farm, owners of recent TVG Del Mar Debutante (G1) winner Grace Adler.

“She wasn't a hard one to find – she had everything,” Lanni said. “He's (Medaglia d'Oro) just a proven sire over and over. He's got good fillies, colts. (She has a) great female family. She's an athlete, she's classy and she's got pedigree. I hate to say it: She just checked all the boxes.”

Lanni said the market has “really been strong all year. There's a big appetite for really good horses out there and it's nice to see us get back to some kind of normalcy.”

A colt from the first crop of Triple Crown winner Justify who is a half-brother to multiple Grade 2 winner Pretty N Cool sold for $950,000 to Hideyuki Mori of Japan. Consigned by Baccari Bloodstock, agent, he is out of the Rockport Harbor mare Stayclassysandiego and from the family of Grade 1 winner Sean Avery.

Seven horses in Tuesday's RNA Reoffer
Seven horses who did not meet their reserves during Monday's session have been entered in the RNA Reoffer, a new program at this year's September Sale that will begin immediately following the final hip of Tuesday's second session. They are:

• Hip 6 – Into Mischief-Indian Rush colt consigned by Paramount Sales, agent;
• Hip 70 – First Samurai-Miss Singhsix (IRE) filly consigned by Mill Ridge Sales, agent;
• Hip 72 – Justify-Mo Chuisle filly consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent;
• Hip 111 – More Than Ready-Polish a Diamond colt consigned by Four Star Sales, agent for Westbury Stables;
• Hip 179 – American Pharoah-Sweater Weather colt consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent;
• Hip 195 – Uncle Mo-Terrific Treasure filly consigned by Mill Ridge Sales, agent; and
• Hip 197 – Nyquist-Thank You Marylou colt consigned by Ramsey Farm, agent.

“The RNA Reoffer is a mechanism for free trade,” Lacy said. “It has been well received. We have some people who feel that the market didn't treat them the way they expected. This program allows them to come back (with the horse) and maybe have a better reception tomorrow. This gives people a safeguard.”

To participate in the RNA Reoffer, sellers were required to inform the Sales office in writing no later than 30 minutes following the sale of the final hip of today's session.

A reserve must be placed and approved on reoffered horses, and must be within 15 percent above or below the initial hammer price. (Click here for information about the RNA Reoffer.)

The second session of the September Sale starts tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET. TVG2 will have live coverage of the session from 1-7:30 p.m. The entire sale is streamed live at Keeneland.com.

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The historic event has been won by subsequent Champion 2-Year-Old Females Before Dawn [1981], Family Style [1985], Meadow Star [1990], Flanders [1994], Golden Attraction [1995], Countess Diana [1997] and Vequist [2020]. In its earlier years, the Spinaway was won by Hall of Fame fillies Miss Woodford [1883], Maskette [1908], Top Flight [1930], Cicada [1961], Affectionately [1962], La Prevoyante [1972] and Ruffian [1974].

Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, Echo Zulu was highly impressive on debut, romping to a 5 ½-length maiden score on July 15 at Saratoga, where she recorded a 92 Beyer Speed Figure – the highest recorded figure for a 2-year-old filly this year.

“The idea was always that she could be a Saratoga 2-year-old,” said Winchell Thoroughbreds racing and bloodstock advisor David Fiske. “She showed some early speed, but for her to win the way she did and to get the number she got, I don't think anyone was expecting that.”

Echo Zulu, bought for $300,000 out of the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, is out of the graded stakes winning Menifee mare Letgomyecho. She is a half-sister to L and N Racing's Echo Town, the winner of last year's Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial.

A victory would give her leading freshman stallion Gun Runner his first Grade 1 win as a sire. He has already sired two graded stakes winners in his first crop, including Grade 2 Adironack winner Wicked Halo who also is owned by Winchell and trained by Asmussen.

“She came out of Steve's parents' operation in Laredo pretty highly touted,” Fiske said. “We have some pretty big expectations for her. We were grateful that [co-owner Mike] Levinson let us partner up with her. We bought a few other yearlings last year and since he had Echo Town, he asked about her. We looked at her and got her as well.”

Jockey Ricardo Santana, Jr. will retain the mount from post 3.

While Echo Zulu attempts to rise to the occasion, Pretty Birdie will seek a second graded stakes triumph for trainer Norm Casse.

The Marylou Whitney Stables-owned daughter of Bird Song has led at every point of call in two starts. After a runaway debut victory on June 18 at Churchill Downs, she captured the Grade 3 Schuylerville on July 15 at Saratoga by two lengths.

Jockey Luis Saez will return aboard Pretty Birdie from post 5.

An impressive 2 ¼-length score on debut at 36-1 odds has given trainer Robertino Diodoro confidence that Dream Lith can step up to Grade 1 company.

The dark bay or brown daughter of Medaglia d'Oro, owned by Cypress Creek Equine and Arnold Bennewith, broke her maiden on August 8 going 6 ½ furlongs at the Spa. She tracked a close fourth in the clear down the backstretch before making her move in between horses in upper stretch and taking command at the eighth pole.

Despite always having high hopes in Dream Lith, Diodoro said the first-out success was a bit of a surprise.

“We're really excited about her,” Diodoro said. “She wasn't supposed to do what she did that day, not because of ability, we knew she had that. We thought it would take two turns for her to break her maiden. I think even the extra furlong going into the Spinaway is going to help her even more. She's awesome. Sometimes, you see a maiden win first out. Maybe she was more ready than the other horses, but this filly is the real deal.”

Diodoro added that Dream Lith bounced out of her maiden score exceptionally well.

“Some horses that break their maiden first out, you have to ease off. But she just came back like a pro,” Diodoro said. “She's giving us all the signs that she's the real deal.”

Jockey David Cohen retains the mount from post 7.

Tarabi is also seeking a breakthrough victory following an impressive debut maiden win on August 7 at Ellis Park.

In her six-furlong maiden score, the chestnut daughter of First Samurai maintained her inside position down the backstretch, inched her way to the front under no urging and was never in doubt in the stretch, winning by 5 ½ lengths.

Owned by LBD Stable, Manganaro Bloodstock and David Ingordo, Tarabi is out of the Indian Charlie mare Indian Bay, making her a full-sister to Shivaji, a Group 3 winner in Japan.

“As an early 2-year-old she was very forward and never had a bad day on the track,” said trainer Cherie DeVaux. “She's very straightforward and mature mentally. She showed a lot of talent in the morning and the plan was always to run her at Ellis and if she ran to our expectations, to give her a shot in the Spinaway.”

Tarabi has breezed twice at Saratoga following her maiden victory.

“She's adjusted really well,” DeVaux said. “She continues to train well. She's grown, matured and progressed physically. She's had one easy work over the track and one where we asked a bit more of her and she handled it really well and got over the track really well. She's come out of it in good shape.”

Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, a two-time Spinaway victor, will ride Tarabi from post 1.

Completing the field are Girl With a Dream [post 2, Florent Geroux], Benbang [post 4, Manny Franco], Saucy Lady T [post 6, Irad Ortiz, Jr.], Sequist [post 8, Junior Alvarado], Sue Ellen Mishkin [post 9, Jose Ortiz],

The prestigious race is named in honor of George Lorillard's talented chestnut who won seven of her nine starts, including stakes wins at the defunct Jerome Park and Sheepshead Bay Park. Successful in her career as a broodmare, Spinaway was the granddam of Tanya, who won her grandmother's namesake race in 1904 before defeating colts in the Belmont Stakes the following year. Other prominent descendants of Spinaway include multiple champion producing stallion Giant's Causeway, prolific broodmare Hasili and European champion Gleneagles.

The Spinaway is slated as Race 11 on Sunday's 12-race program, which offers a first post of 12:35 p.m. Eastern. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

The post Promising Filly Echo Zulu Tops Sunday’s Spinaway appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Split divisions of juvenile filly sprinters get the Saratoga baby race season underway on opening day Thursday, with this latter half appearing to be clearly the saltier spot on paper. Heads turned when a filly by thus-far unheralded freshman sire Valiant Minister hammered for $360,000–120 times the Bridlewood Farm resident's stud fee–at OBS April, but one viewing of OUTFOXED's breeze-show effort quickly explains why. The dark bay barreled through a powerful :20 4/5 quarter-mile work, sparking a bidding war that ended with Solis/Litt as the last entity standing on behalf of LNJ Foxwoods. The Bill Mott trainee shows a modest local worktab, but did work a half-mile in :49 flat (3/12) from the gate on the Oklahoma training track June 25. Two other debutantes have live looks in Solasta (Goldencents) and Echo Zulu (Gun Runner). The former, owned by Jeff Drown and Don Rachel, is a half-sister to GISW Mia Mischief who cost $300,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearling buy. The bay has breezed sharply for Jeremiah Englehart, including a best-of-31 bullet half-mile from the gate over this strip in :47 3/5 July 1. The latter, who goes out for L and N Racing and Winchell Thoroughbreds, is a half to last summer's GI H. Allen Jerkens S. hero Echo Town (Speightstown) and GSW J Boys Echo (Mineshaft). She sports a four-furlong gate bullet of her own, going the distance in :47 2/5 (1/44) June 15 at Keeneland. One of only two horses in the 10-horse group with racing experience, Pop-A-Top's Lady Scarlet (Union Rags) gets the slight nod on the morning line at 5-2 after showing good speed and finishing a clear second for Brad Cox in the opener June 4 at Churchill. TJCIS PPs

—@JBiancaTDN

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A total of 10 stallions will be on offer for breedings on Southern Hemisphere time, led by champion Uncle Mo, whose advertised fee for the season is $30,000.

The 13-year-old son of Indian Charlie's Southern Hemisphere runners are led by Man From Uncle, who is a multiple group stakes winner in Australia. Other runners of note on that side of the world include Australian group-placed Moqueen, St Covet's Spirit, Miss Moana, and Sister Sledge.

Two young stallions will stand for $10,000: the international runner Caravaggio, whose first foals are 2-year-olds of 2021, and Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law, who recently completed his first Northern Hemisphere season at stud. Tiz the Law was initially scheduled to stand in Chile this summer, but he will remain in the U.S.

Maximum Security and Classic Empire will stand for $7,500, while Air Force Blue, Cupid, Echo Town, and Mo Town will stand for $5,000.

The post Summer Southern Hemisphere Breeding Season Rates Set For Domestic Ashford Stud Residents appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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