elliott walden | Horse Racing Free Tips

TDN Q&A: WinStar’s Elliott Walden

WinStar Farm has had many big years, but this one may prove its biggest to date. Kenny Troutt’s operation has bred, raised and offered for sale four 2020 Grade I winners: Sept. 5 GI Woodward H. hero Global Campaign (Curlin); Paris Lights (Curlin), who led home a one-two for WinStar Stablemates in July’s GI Coaching Club American Oaks; and Shedaresthedevil and Swiss Skydiver, who completed the exacta for their former WinStar-based stallion Daredevil in last Friday’s GI Longines Kentucky Oaks. Plus, it co-campaigns GI Hollywood Gold Cup S. and GI Whitney S. hero Improbable (City Zip), and stands Constitution, whose first-crop son Tiz the Law has racked up three Grade I wins this year before a runner-up effort in the GI Kentucky Derby.

We caught up with WinStar President and CEO Elliott Walden Friday after a productive two days of buying and selling at the Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearlings Showcase and before the start Sunday of the Keeneland September sale at which the bulk of WinStar’s yearling crop will be offered.

TDN: WinStar is perennially at or near the top among North American breeders, and of course it has campaigned the likes of homebred 2010 GI Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, but this has been a particularly productive year for WinStar grads. What does that mean to the team at WinStar?

EW: It’s really exciting for the whole farm–it’s what everybody gets up every morning for and works towards. We try to compete at the highest level and it’s just really special for everyone to have four Grade I winners in a year.

Winning an Oaks, and having offered all four of them for sale makes it extra meaningful and really shows what we do. For the guys who work in the yearling barn, all these horses are the same to them–it doesn’t matter if they’re a Book 5 horse or a Book 1 horse. They treat them all the same, they care for them all the same. They all have personalities that make them different, but they love them all and it doesn’t matter if they’re a Curlin or a Daredevil.

I also think people wonder sometimes if we keep our best or anything like that, but that’s not the case. We have 90 yearlings this year, and all but three have or will be offered for sale and some of those were for vet issues.

TDN: Global Campaign sold for $250,000 to Sagamore Farm at the 2017 Keeneland September sale, but WinStar stayed in and is still a co-owner. How did that work out?

EW: Global Campaign was a beautiful horse. He had a little bit of epiphysitis in a knee, but [Sagamore President] Hunter Rankin and [trainer] Stanley Hough had zeroed in on him because of his pedigree. They were able to see through the epiphysitis, and asked us if we would be willing to stay in if they bought him, and we’re really glad we did. We’re looking forward to standing him at WinStar. Being a son of Curlin who has won from seven furlongs to 1 1/4 miles, with the speed that he has, we’re really excited about him. We’re also excited about the [GI] Breeders’ Cup Classic–he’s coming into it the right way. He’s on top of his game right now.

He is really exciting, not only because he’s a Grade I winner by Curlin, but the mare Globe Trot (A.P. Indy) [who died while foaling Global Campaign] had two Grade I winners from three foals (Bolt d’Oro) and all three of her foals are stallions (Sonic Mule).

TDN: Three-for-four Paris Lights was a $200,000 RNA at the 2018 September sale. What do you remember about her as a yearling?

EW: Paris Lights was a very nice Curlin filly–she was just kind of a plain brown wrapper, but moved well and was just one of those fillies who we wanted $250,000 for, but she fell through the cracks. There was nothing wrong with her. She was a pretty filly, but Curlin wasn’t as hot at the time as he is now.

TDN: Swiss Skydiver, who has earned more than $1.14 million this year and romped in the GI Alabama S., cost just $35,000 at the same September sale.

EW: Swiss Skydiver, as it’s been documented, had some vet issues that [trainer] Kenny McPeek saw through. We loved that filly all along. She was beautiful, had done everything right, never had any clinical issues with the X-rays that she had. She was always a big, strong, strapping filly.

TDN: Shedaresthedevil was a $100,000 Keeneland November weanling in 2017.

EW: Shedaresthedevil was a nice filly by a young sire in Daredevil, but she just fell through the cracks as well. We still have her dam [Starship Warpseed {Congrats}] and she is in foal to Uncle Mo. She has a 2-year-old Outwork filly that [Shedaresthedevil’s trainer] Brad Cox has who he really likes (Jemison, $150,000 FTKJUL).

TDN: None of the four WinStar-bred and offered Grade I winners carried enormous price tags. Do you think that should give buyers added confidence when shopping WinStar offerings? What does it say about the yearling market in general?

EW: That’s true about the business in general–nobody knows for sure what the future holds with these yearlings. That’s the great thing about it. That’s why you have so many people who are passionate about buying yearlings. They feel like they can pick out the next champion.

We sold [2017 GI Del Mar Futurity and GI FrontRunner S. winner] Bolt d’Oro (Medaglia d’Oro) for a lot of money ($630,000 FTSAUG ’16); and we also sold Grade I winner Eight Rings (Empire Maker) ($520,000 KEESEP ’18).

The thing about WinStar is that by offering our whole crop, you’re going to be able to pick out horses from $30,0000 to $1 million.

We try to raise them right–we’ve invested approximately $24 million in the last four years into our broodmare band. One great thing about Kenny is that everything we make at the farm is reinvested back into it. He’s never taken a dime out of the business, and we’ve continued to try to upgrade our bloodstock. I think we’re starting to see the fruition of that through our broodmare band.

TDN: After the Oaks, there was a lot of talk about WinStar’s decision to sell Daredevil to the Turkish Jockey Club ahead of the 2020 breeding season. What went into that decision and have you considered trying to bring him back like you did with Take Charge Indy?

EW: There have been discussions [about trying to bring him back]. At the time, we were just coming off a season where we only had 25 mares bred to him. It’s just hard to stand a stallion that isn’t very marketable. Obviously, it was a big mistake to sell him and I take that responsibility.

TDN: Micro-share syndicates and racing clubs have grown significantly in popularity, and likely will continue to do so after Authentic (Into Mischief)’s win the GI Kentucky Derby, as he’s co-owned by MyRacehorse.com. Paris Lights led home a one-two finish over Crystal Ball (Malibu Moon) in the CCA Oaks for your own program offering lower-cost access to high-end horses, WinStar Stablemates. Can you please explain the structure of that program?

EW: It was nice at the sixteenth pole with them coming down the stretch with five lengths back to another horse–you knew one of them was going to win it, but just didn’t know which one.

We started WinStar Stablemates as a pioneer in the space 10 years ago as a fan initiative. It was a compliment to the syndicates around like West Point, Starlight and Centennial, but at that time there wasn’t an engagement with the fans.

It morphed into a racing initiative two years ago, so we take our fillies who we’re going to put into training–whether it’s something that we buy and are targeting as a broodmare down the road or something that we don’t get sold–and we package them together and lease them to the Stablemates. They pay the training bills, they get the purses. It’s an exciting program, and there’s no way they could buy these types of fillies on their own, like a Curlin filly or Crystal Ball, who we paid $750,000 for as a 2-year-old at Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream.

So, we’re really excited for them. Both of those fillies are on the farm now turned out and we’ll crank them up again next year.

TDN: You sold a $570,000 Into Mischief colt (hip 433) to SF Racing, Starlight, Madaket, et al; and a $450,000 Speightstown filly (hip 448) to Robbie Medina at Fasig-Tipton Thursday. How did you find the market overall?

EW: I think the sale was solid and encouraging for the future and the sales season. It was a great start. Momentum from Fasig will hopefully continue into Keeneland. It seems like there are a lot of people looking for horses; the appetite for horses is good. Obviously, we’re in a difficult time, but I think if Fasig did one thing it gave you hope that the horse business is still alive and well.

TDN: You also made three purchases: a $400,000 Gun Runner colt (hip 366); a $200,000 Midnight Storm colt (hip 534); and a $100,000 Super Saver colt (hip 273).

EW: We really like the Midnight Storm colt who we bought. We’ve been very impressed with his progeny. We followed him closely given that he was by [late WinStar stallion] Pioneerof the Nile. The speed that he showed on the racetrack; his durability; the ability to handle all surfaces. For a mid-level stallion, I think he’s an exciting prospect. The Gun Runner we bought was very nice as well, and we bought a very nice Super Saver off great breeders in the Nardelllis.

TDN: How many will you sell at Keeneland September and who are some hips to watch?

EW: We have 75 yearlings entered in Keeneland September, and another 14 or so in Fasig-Tipton October. Some of the stand-outs at Keeneland include:

Hip 203, a Quality Road filly out of MGSW and GISP House Rules (Distorted Humor) consigned by Woodford Thoroughbreds.
Hip 208, an Into Mischief half-sister to champion sprinter Mitole (Eskendereya), also from the Woodford draft.
Hip 342, a Pioneerof the Nile half-sister to Eight Rings consigned by Denali.
Hip 512, an Uncle Mo filly out of Grade I winner Birdatthewire (Summmer Bird) offered by Machmer Hall Sales.
Hip 986, a Speightstown colt out of MSW and MGSP Galina Point (Saffir) consigned by Warrendale Sales.

TDN: This is an interesting year for Constitution–his current crop of yearlings was produced during his third season at stud, which is often a down year for a stallion. But, obviously, he’s done very well on the track with Tiz the Law and others and is the leading second-crop sire. His seven to sell at Fasig averaged $157,857. What did you think of his result there and what are your expectations for his progeny at KEESEP and beyond?

EW: I think at Fasig his sales were okay–they sold well for what they were. I’ve seen a few very nice ones at Keeneland who sell in Book 1. He’s in that cycle where the mares who he bred in his third and fourth years aren’t going to compare to what he bred this past year. He bred some phenomenal mares (220) this past season and was the most popular stallion we’ve ever had. The future is really bright.

There’s a real appetite for them, and some great people bought the ones who sold at Fasig–Alex Solis and Jason Litt bought two–so the right people are paying attention and trying to buy them.

We just had an Ohio-bred filly (Alexandria) finish third in the GIII Pocahontas S. The thing about Constitution is he really moves up his mares incredibly. We bred 12 to him this year ourselves will continue to fully support him.

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WinStar Farm Promotes O’Rourke To Director Of Bloodstock Services; Desch Joins Stallion Season Sales Team

WinStar Farm has announced the promotion of Liam O'Rourke as its new Director of Bloodstock Services. In conjunction with O'Rourke's promotion, Olivia Desch joins Chris Knehr on the Stallion Season Sales team.

“We are fortunate to be in a position to promote from within,” said Elliott Walden, president, CEO, and racing manager of WinStar Farm. “Our team is deep with talent and we pride ourselves on hiring people that our clients enjoy working with. Liam has been an integral part of our team for the last four years and I have complete confidence in him.”

Originally from Toronto, Ontario, O'Rourke joined the WinStar bloodstock team in 2016.

“Since joining WinStar I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from some of the most talented people in the industry,” O'Rourke said. “While my main focus will remain on our stallion roster, I will now have the flexibility to expand into more bloodstock opportunities. I look forward to the new challenge and achieving shared success with the WinStar team and our shareholders.”

Desch, born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, has been with WinStar since 2019 when she was hired as a bloodstock assistant. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a BS in Equine Science and Management and prepped yearlings for Lane's End prior to interning with WinStar in 2017.

“I am confident that our dedicated breeders will continue to have the best possible customer experience when they work with Chris Knehr and Olivia,” O'Rourke said. “Chris is a seasoned, knowledgeable team member and makes the breeding process easy for our customers. Olivia, through her hard work and dedication, has grown from an intern into a bloodstock and marketing assistant and now into a full-time bloodstock and sales role while gaining experience across a number of our divisions. Dedication to our clients will be the hallmark of this team.”

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Baffert: Saratoga Gate Crew Gets An Assist In Improbable’s Whitney

Winning a prestigious race takes the work of a team. After Improbable's victory in Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said the assistant starter and the entire NYRA gate crew were his Most Valuable Players for settling his horse in the gate, allowing him to run his race and post a two-length score in the 1 1/8 mile contest for some of the top older horses in the country.

After rearing up once in the gate and acting fractious a second time, Improbable still managed to break sharp from post 2 in the five-horse field, which put him in a better position than even-money favorite Tom's d'Etat, who stumbled leaving the outermost post.

Improbable stayed off Mr. Buff's early fractions before taking command out of the final turn and repelling By My Standards' late bid to win his second consecutive Grade 1.

“You have to thank the gate crew, the guys they had in there with him. It's like being in the gate with a bull sometimes,” Baffert said with a laugh. “He could have easily turned over, but they did a tremendous job, so I give them a big assist there because they did a great job.”

Once away, Improbable showed top-class form under jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., who captured his second Whitney in three years after also winning aboard Diversify in 2018.

“As much as he acts up in the gate, he always breaks really well,” Baffert added. “He breaks like a shot. After that, Irad got him in a nice rhythm. He followed Mr. Buff on the lead and tightened him along there and turned for home. Improbable had been working so well down here at Del Mar. It was a big effort there.”

Improbable won his third career Grade 1, joining the Los Alamitos Futurity in December 2018 as a juvenile. The son of City Zip competed in the Triple Crown trail last year but finished out of the money in four Grade 1s, placing fourth in the Kentucky Derby, running sixth in the Preakness and finishing fourth in the Pennsylvania Derby and fifth in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

In his 4-year-old campaign, he ran second in the Oaklawn Mile in his seasonal bow in April before capturing the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup on June 6 going 1 1/4-miles at Santa Anita before earning a personal-best 106 Beyer Speed Figure for his Whitney win.

Owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and SF Racing, Improbable improved to 6-3-0 in 13 career starts. Baffert said Elliott Walden, WinStar's CEO, said he had the Hollywood Gold Cup and then the Whitney route picked out for him.

“Elliott Walden does all my scouting and said this is where we need to run,” Baffert said. “We were going to run at Oaklawn but decided to scratch him there and wait for the Gold Cup. It's a team effort.”

The Whitney was just the second time Improbable won outside of California, with his second-start victory in the 2018 Street Sense at Churchill Downs marking the other.

“This is one of the few times he's won on the road, so that was a big effort,” Baffert said. “It was nice that the WinStar group was there. I didn't know they had never won the Whitney before; they had won everything else, so it was exciting for them.”

Baffert, who has won two Triple Crowns [American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018], has conditioned winners in almost every major race in the country. But until 2019, he had never trained a Whitney winner. After McKinzie won it last year and Improbable followed suit, Baffert became the first trainer to repeat in the Whitney since fellow Hall of Famer Scotty Schulhofer in 1994-95.

While Baffert has famously trained 3-year-olds, his stock of older horses this year continues to be strong, with Improbable part of a roster that also includes a still-racing McKinzie as well as Maximum Security.

“It's such a prestigious race, and to win it, it means a lot,” Baffert said. “I'm lucky enough to train for some big outfits, and when you train for them, you get a lot more chances at it. I'm excited to train older horses, because they usually go to stallion duty because they've done so well so they aren't around for the extra year. Unfortunately, the COVID situation has taken away some opportunities to run them, but I just feel blessed and fortunate that I do have these horses.”

But Baffert still has talented sophomores, including Uncle Chuck, who registered his final breeze yesterday before the Grade 1, $1 million Runhappy Travers on August 8.

The lightly raced Uncle Chuck is 2-for-2, with a seven-length score in his debut on June 12 going one mile and a four-length victory last out in his first stakes appearance in the Los Alamitos Derby at 1 1/8 miles on July 4.

Owned by Karl Watson, Michael Pegram and Paul Weitman, Uncle Chuck breezed a bullet five furlongs in 1:00.20 over Del Mar's main track, the fastest of 71 clocked at the distance.

“He worked really nice and I was really happy with the way he did it,” Baffert said. “He came out of his last race really well. We still have to ship and hopefully he doesn't get too stirred up. Hopefully, we get a good post and a good break.”

Unraced as a juvenile, Uncle Chuck has benefitted from starting his career later. A $250,000 purchase at the 2018 Keeneland September Sale, he was bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings.

“He wasn't ready and I remember buying him as a yearling, and Barry Eisaman, who broke him, said 'take your time with him. Don't break him right away,'” Baffert said. “We took our time with him. I didn't want to run him as a 2-year-old. [Eisaman] just took his time with him and sent him to me when he's ready. He then showed up and said he's ready. I can see he's just starting to mature now and figure it out. His work yesterday was probably one of his better works. He was focused the whole way around there. We've been tempted to put blinkers on him but I was afraid it might get him a little too rank, but we'll see how he does in the Travers.”

Baffert is a three-time Travers winner with Point Given in 2001, Arrogate,who set the 1 1/4-mile track record of 1:59.36 in 2016 and West Coast in 2017.

Another talented Baffert 3-year-old looking to make a mark on Travers Day is Michael Petersen's Gamine, who enters the Grade 1, $300,000 Longines Test for sophomore fillies off a dominating 18 ¾-length win in the Grade 1 Acorn on Belmont Stakes Day June 20.

Gamine earned a 110 Beyer for her win in the one-mile Acorn and will now cut back to seven furlongs. The $1.8 million purchase at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds-In-Training Sale breezed six furlongs in 1:12.80 at Del Mar on Sunday.

“She just breezed today and looked great,” Baffert said. “It looked nice. She's coming into the race really well.”

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This Side Up: Whitmore Seeks Fresh Honors For Class of 2013

The seven-year itch, in the current racing herd, represents the best kind of mid-life crisis: reinventing yourself as a champion.

An Eclipse Award would certainly be a credible aspiration for Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) should he derail the Volatile (Violence) express in the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. at Saratoga Saturday. Next weekend, another flourishing 7-year-old, Tom’s d’Etat (Smart Strike), will seek to consolidate his ascent to the top of his own division in the GI Whitney S. Over the past two weeks, meanwhile, their contemporaries Zulu Alpha (Street Cry {Ire}) and Aquaphobia (Giant’s Causeway) have won the GII Elkhorn S. and the GI United Nations S., respectively.

All four, remember, belong to the same 2013 crop as Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) and the lamented Arrogate (Unbridled’s Song). Whitmore, with his feasible pedigree, actually rolled the dice in the GI Kentucky Derby won by Nyquist (Uncle Mo). All praise, then, to the patient horsemanship of their connections, in coaxing off a chrysalis that many others might long ago have mistaken as confining, not the wings of a butterfly, but simply a limited talent.

Mike Maker, Ron Moquett and Al Stall Jr. would have the breed’s lasting gratitude if their endeavors help us think afresh about the proper span of a Thoroughbred’s development. A decade ago, researchers analysed 274 American racehorses and concluded that the typical age for peak performance was 4.45 years. Moreover they found that the rate of improvement to that point exceeded the rate of decline thereafter.

The fact is that even the Classic racehorse remains an adolescent. And we have ample evidence, whenever we are prepared to seek it, of the continued progress available through maturity. Without the same commercial prospects at stud, turf horses are often permitted to keep strengthening for years after their dirt cousins. The ultimate evergreen was John Henry, as a 9-year-old Horse of the Year; and, since the turn of the century, the only division to award championships to horses as old as seven is the one that features Miesque’s Approval (With Approval), Big Blue Kitten (Kitten’s Joy) and Flintshire (GB) (Dansili {GB}).

A healthy breeding industry should surely prefer the foundations laid after the manner of Whitmore–a gelding, unfortunately, but averaging $92,540 for the 34 occasions he has left the gate–instead of pretending that every colt that can add a narrow success in one of the Derby trials to a juvenile Grade III is going to end up like Tapit.

Albeit Tom’s d’Etat was held up by one or two issues earlier in his career, as a rule perseverance is about proving soundness as well as class. Some farms, no doubt, would worry about starting a stallion at eight. Well, they might have a point if only they didn’t banish so many horses of that kind of age to Oklahoma or Turkey. If they’re only going to get a narrow window to establish themselves, then what’s the rush? Why not let them build up a resume that genuinely substantiates the kind of genetic assets a breeder should be looking to replicate?

Hats off to WinStar, then, for landing Tom’s d’Etat for their roster. As Elliott Walden remarked, they welcomed Speightstown at seven and Distorted Humor at six. And there won’t be many sires starting out next spring who can match his pedigree: his graded stakes-placed dam is by Giant’s Causeway out of a full-sister to none other than Candy Ride (Arg). And the way he is thriving promises that he can contribute to the legacy of their sire in much the same way as Curlin, Lookin At Lucky and English Channel, all notable for stock that progresses with maturity.

As for Whitmore, his ineligibility for a stud career at least means that fans can continue to enjoy his terrific speed and character. In the process, his trainer is maximizing what remains too rare an opportunity for those barns, across the nation, where skill, industry and honesty are somehow inadequate to tempt enough patrons from either the super-trainers or the pharmacists.

Never mind the small field, this is a wonderfully poised showdown with a much less seasoned but terribly charismatic rival in Volatile. Not that Firenze Fire (Poseidon’s Warrior) can be taken lightly. The way he bounced back for his new barn last time, incidentally, is an encouraging template for the most celebrated refugee from the care of their former trainer. But it’s hard to know where to start with Maximum Security (New Year’s Day), the day he makes his debut for Bob Baffert at Del Mar. So we won’t.

Returning to Whitmore, at least we know he’s at home on the track. Though last seen sealing his status as an Oaklawn legend, his only previous start at Saratoga brought his only Grade I success to date–at the expense of the wonderful City Of Light (Quality Road)–in the Forego two years ago. Forego! At seven, he won the GI Woodward for a fourth year running; and, though finally surrendering his Horse of the Year trophy to Seattle Slew, was named champion older male for the fourth time running. He was another gelding, of course, but the fact is that his sheer bulk warranted plenty of time.

“Prematurity” means exactly what it says. Among our brethren in the steeplechasing world, the foals of 2013 are still viewed as relative youngsters. Yet in Europe a number of precocious juveniles have in recent years been retired, completely sound, to cut to the chase at stud. What is flattered, over there, as “commercial speed and precocity” is storing up a terrible harvest for that particular gene pool. In contrast, as I’m always trying to tell them, North American breeders generally want a chance of carrying speed through a second turn.

One of the things that should aid that process is maturity, both physical and mental. So, however Whitmore fares against the prodigy in this one-turn spectacular, let’s celebrate the whole class of 2013. Let’s remind ourselves that there is no inherent virtue in always trying to get ahead of time.

Remember the psychiatrist in The Seven-Year Itch? “My three o’clock patient jumped out of the window in the middle of his session,” he said. “I have been running 15 minutes ahead of schedule ever since.”

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