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Dew Sweepers On Track For July Sale

When Jack Goldthorpe and Ciaran Dunne came up with the Dew Sweepers partnership, the plan was always to buy yearlings, try and get them to Royal Ascot, and then sell them all in the Fasig-Tipton July Horses of All Ages Sale. On Monday, the final step of their plan will go into action when seven juveniles go through the ring in a complete dispersal through the Grovendale Sales consignment.

“Ciaran went to Royal Ascot last year and said, 'Goldie, this was some sort of fun. We've got to do it.' I said, 'Sounds good. How are we gonna do it,” Goldthorpe said. “The plan was to buy yearlings and try our damnedest to get one to Royal Ascot and, at the end of Royal Ascot, take these horses to the sale. It was a different style pinhook. We were going to race them as opposed to blowing them down the lane [in a 2-year-old sale]. We were going to race them, show what we have and give them to a trainer that doesn't beat them up, Rusty Arnold. That way, there's a lot of meat left on the bones when somebody else wants to come by them.”

Dew Sweepers not only got one horse to Royal Ascot, they got two, Late September (Munnings) (Hip 550) and Grand Oak (Ire) (Speightstown) (Hip 521). A well-beaten fourth after hopping at the start of his main track debut at Keeneland Apr. 20, Late September earned his diploma next out on dirt at Churchill exactly one month later. Sent across the pond, the $60,000 KEESEP buy failed to fire when trying the grass at Royal Ascot, finishing 17th in the G2 Coventry S. June 14.

Grand Oak checked in second when unveiled on the dirt at Keeneland Apr. 21 and wired the field for a 4 1/4-length graduation when switched to the lawn at Churchill May 20, the same day Late September broke his maiden. Unfortunately, the $105,000 KEESEP purchase did not fair much better than her stablemate at the Royal meeting, checking in 18th in the G2 Queen Mary S. June 15.

Despite those poor finishes, the Dew Sweepers thoroughly enjoyed their Royal Ascot experience, according to Goldthorpe.

“It was awesome, even though the horses ran like shit,” the founder of Lexington Equine Insurance said. “We had a blast and we checked the box. The partners were like, 'Wow, what an experience.' We have to give a lot of credit to Royal Ascot. They treated us like we brought Secretariat over there. They rolled out to red carpet. They are so happy to have the Americans come over there and participate in their greatest show on Earth. It made us feel great.”

The Dew Sweepers is comprised of six partners and they made a total investment of around $700,000. They acquired seven yearlings, four fillies and three colts, shopping at both Keeneland and Tattersalls.

In addition to Late September and Grand Oak, their dispersal includes:

Tituba (Good Magic) (Hip 437), filly, $125,000 KEESEP yrl, unraced
Alcazaba (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}) (Hip 455), colt, 40,000 gns TATOCT yrl, a maiden of two starts
Buttons (Twirling Candy) (Hip 474), filly, $110,000 KEESEP yrl, won on debut on grass at Indiana June 28
Castle Rising (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) (Hip 480), colt, 58,000 gns TATOCT yrl, unraced
Just a Care (Ire) (Australia {GB}) (Hip 542), filly, 105,000 gns TATOCT yrl, fifth in lone start on turf at Belmont June 30

“These horse can take the new owner to Royal Ascot next year; to Kentucky Downs and run for all that money; or they can take them to the Breeders Cup,” Goldthorpe said. “That gives them an opportunity and I think they will bring a pretty good bunch of money because of that.”

As a complete dispersal, all seven juveniles will be there to sell, as per the partnership's contract.

“This was in a contract, that they will all disperse in July,” Goldthrope said. “This was the first time trying it. Some are regretting that we have the July end date and some are happy that we do and we completed the task as the contract set. Now will we adjust it for next year? We will probably tweak it a little bit. The success was giving us second thought. There are more races left in these horses and we knew there would be. I didn't know what kind of quality we would have, but we've got a quality bunch of horses going over there.”

Just because this first class of purchases is set to sell, does not mean the Dew Sweepers are done. They plan to be active at the yearling sales again this fall.

“We will be buying horses, absolutely,” said Goldthorpe. “Whether we buy them and point towards Ascot or something else. Maybe a few bottles of wine and a dinner will decide that. We're going to be invested in the game. The partners had so much fun. This not their last venture. There were some veterans in there that had to share, but for the most part, these were new people in an effort to get them excited about the game. And let me tell you, they are excited! We're not going to let them go. We're going to buy horses. We're going to sell horses. We're going to race horses, even may venture into a mare or two for the guys whose wives want to see babies being born. So it's just a very close-knit group of guys that are financially stable enough to play the game. We got lucky to put them all together and have success the first year. You won't see the end of the Dew Sweepers!”

The Fasig-Tipton Horses of All Ages Sale kicks off Monday at 3 p.m. and will include both racehorses and broodmares. It will be followed by the Fasig-Tipton July Yearling Sale Tuesday.

The post Dew Sweepers On Track For July Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The Funny Farm Comes to Fasig-Tipton

With over three decades of experience in the horse world, breeder Meg Dumaine will record a first when she brings her own consignment to the Fasig-Tipton July Sale of Selected Yearlings. Dumaine will offer three homebred yearlings under her The Funny Farm banner during the one-day auction.

“I have done all phases of this industry and I have run consignments for other people, but I've never sold my own horses,” Dumaine said. “It's just sort of coming full circle, from planning the mating, being there for the breeding, foaling the foal and raising it and prepping it. It's the last step in the cycle if you're not going to go any further and race them.”

Dumaine, who grew up just outside Boston, loved horses right from the start.

“My mother says my first words were, 'I want a horse,” Dumaine recalled. “That's the story I grew up being told. And I fought desperately to have a horse, against lots of parental opposition. As soon as I was old enough to buy one and support it myself, I did. I did U.S. Pony Club until I aged out of that and I am still active with the local Pony Clubs here working with younger kids. I just always wanted to do something with horses.”

Dumaine left New England for warmer climes in the late 1970s and has been living in the Bluegrass of Kentucky ever since.

“I didn't want to stay in New England where the winters were so long and the riding season was so short,” she said. “Especially for somebody who loves to ride outdoors. I moved here in 1979 when I attended UK. I never left.

“But I never finished UK, either,” she added with a chuckle.

Dumaine began breeding horses over 30 years ago, but determined to take a break from the pursuit until she could do it right.

“I was breeding years ago while I was galloping and breaking horses for a living and foaling mares,” Dumaine said. “They were cheap junk. And when I quit doing cheap junk, I swore I would never do it again until I could afford to do something that, at least on paper, looked like it might be worth something.

“I came into a little money when my parents died and stock certificates were really boring, so I decided to play with a little bit of it.”

She made her first move at the 2017 Keeneland November sale, where she acquired the dams of all three of her July offerings. She purchased the unraced Picardia (Stormy Atlantic), a half-sister to Grade I winners Lear's Princess (Lear Fan) and Pretty City Dancer (Tapit), for $350,000; stakes winner and multiple graded-placed You Bought Her (Graeme Hall) for $250,000; and stakes-placed Conquest Superstep (Super Saver), a full-sister to graded winner Inside Straight and half to graded winner Dance Daily (Five Star Day), for $150,000.

“I decided if I was going to do it, it had to be a team effort made up of people a lot smarter than me,” Dumaine said of that trip to Keeneland five years ago. “I reached out to an old friend, Dan Rosenberg, and he helped me with a long list coming down to a short list as we walked around at Keeneland. And these are the ones that the hammer fell on.”

The Uncle Mo colt Picardia was carrying in November 2017 sold for $410,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton October sale, while You Bought Her's colt by Distorted Humor sold for $270,000 at the 2020 October sale.

Dumaine currently has a broodmare band of five Thoroughbreds at her The Funny Farm in Bourbon County and while she sees the most potential for making money within Kentucky's Thoroughbred industry, she is by no means breed exclusive.

“My interest is in horses,” Dumaine said. “I've bred sports horses, I've done driving horses, I've done dressage horses, I like draft horses. I have a field full of American miniatures. It doesn't matter to me. I'm not a breed snob.

“I love the birth process with the mare,” she continued. “I love being there for the foaling. I love getting my hands on foals. And going through those phases of 'I'm scared, I'm scared. You're a predator' and then building that confidence with them. The shaping of that young mind, that process. That's not specific to the Thoroughbred, but in this part of the country, it's the thing to do. It is where there is an industry and the potential for making some money.”

The Funny Farm's July consignment kicks off with a filly by Munnings out of Picardia (hip 154) and continues with a colt by Street Sense out of You Bought Her (hip 228). The trio is rounded out by a filly by Ghostzapper out of Conquest Superstep (hip 280).

“I am confident in them,” Dumaine said of the group. “I don't think anybody knows which one is going to be a racehorse until they get head to head with another horse and you see if they are going to dig in and go. But I know these horses are sound. I know they are clean and their X-rays are good and their scopes are good. They've never had horrible mishaps and they have been handled well. They are straightforward horses with good, athletic walks. They are the kind of horses I would want to buy if I was going to buy a racehorse prospect.”

As for her first attempt at consigning her own horses, Dumaine said, “I know I can do it on a small scale in the right venue. I don't feel like I could take my horses to Keeneland in September and sell them myself and be successful. I feel like, unless you have that one horse who is the superstar that everyone is talking about, it's too easy to get lost among 3,000 horses. The buyers have to take horses off their lists somehow and not knowing who the consignor is could be enough.”

The Fasig-Tipton July sale will be held at the company's Newtown Paddocks next Tuesday with bidding beginning at 10 a.m. Next Monday, Fasig-Tipton will host its July Selected Horses of All Ages Sale. Bidding for that auction begins at 3 p.m.

The post The Funny Farm Comes to Fasig-Tipton appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Justify Represented By First Japanese Starter

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this weekend running at Fukushima and Kokura Racecourses:

Sunday, July 3, 2022
3rd-FKS, ¥9,900,000 ($73k), Maiden, 3yo, 1150m
THEURGIST (c, 3, Ghostzapper–Orphea, by Medaglia d'Oro) was the most expensive of this outstanding sire's weanlings to sell in 2019, hammering to Paca Paca Farm on behalf of Godolphin for $410K at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. A half-brother to Grade III-placed Born to Be Winner (Einstein {Brz}), the March foal is out of an unraced daughter of MGSW & MGISP Nasty Storm (Gulch), the dam of Irish MGSW/G1SP Actress (Ire) (Declaration of War). B-Ghostzapper Syndicate & Paul Tackett Revocable Trust (KY)

6th-KOK, ¥13,400,000 ($99k), Newcomers, 2yo, 1200mT
JASPER TIARA (f, 2, Justify–Sweetgrass, by Street Sense), a $150K Keeneland September graduate, is the first Japanese starter for her freshman sire (by Scat Daddy) and is the first to make the races from her dam, who was placed no fewer than five times at graded level–including the 2015 GII Indiana Oaks–and was purchased by Baccari Bloodstock for $250,000 at FTKNOV in 2017. The cross of Scat Daddy over Street Cry (Ire)-line dams is responsible for the outstanding multiple Australian Group 1 winner Con Te Partiro and Irish top-level scorer Skitter Scatter. B-Chris Baccari, Brad Stephens & Breeze Easy (KY)

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Letter to the Editor: Terence Collier

However the TDN looks upon itself introspectively, the daily readership of its North American content can probably deduce that without advertising revenues from the Thoroughbred breeding industry, it would be difficult for its publishers to put out such an excellent and comprehensive daily edition. The lead article in June 27th's issue by Bill Finley–“Do we really need so many stakes races?”–obviously comes from the writer's perspective more concerned with payoffs from exactas and trifectas than the majority of the TDN's readers.

Bill says, “The problem is obvious. There aren't enough horses and there are too many stakes.” He says, “the American Graded Stakes Committee hasn't done its job.”

His solution, all too glibly proffered by one with little skin in the breeding and owning game, is to throw out iconic races like the Mother Goose, the Hollywood Gold Cup and to take the knife to the NYRA stakes schedule. Simple answer, problem solved.

Hardly!

During my 43-year career with Fasig-Tipton, I attended many grading review meetings of the American Graded Stakes Committee (AGSC). Of all the alphabet committees that the Thoroughbred industry has spawned, I have never known a group of professionals more effective, more diligent or better-prepared than these unpaid guardians of our graded stakes system.

Let's take it step-by-step. It is a simple process to take the scalpel to the number of stakes races. There is currently a minimum purse requirement of $50,000 or $75,000 for a stake to earn the “black-type,” that will appear in a Thoroughbred's pedigree. The Thoroughbred breeding industry, with the assistance of TOBA, The Jockey Club and the Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers, monitors this system on a day-to-day basis to ensure black-type standards are correctly maintained. That minimum is reviewed annually and, with the dramatically improved purses everywhere at maiden and allowance levels, there is justification for a school of thought to raise the minimum. However, the consequence of, let's say, doubling the minimum, would eliminate a lot of stakes races from black-type, but would, at the same time, devastate the racing programs of second-tier racetracks, who rely on the “honor” of awarding black-type to encourage owners to stay or come into the game.

Anyway, that would be a meaningful debate. By tradition, the number of graded stakes should be an acceptable percentage of the total black-type races. The Graded Stakes Committee should be considering the “pyramid” created by total of all races on the bottom, to Grade I stakes on the top. The pyramid system is acknowledged by every recognized world-wide racing authority.

In my active years, the U.S. percentage was always far the lowest of any major international racing country, albeit, truthfully, because North America has an overwhelming number of total races. Each year I read in the TDN the annual report of the AGSC, which regularly features a consistent and regrettable number of downgraded or eliminated stakes races.

If those who currently sit on the AGSC are not maintaining the standards established by their predecessors, they should be open to question from anybody who cares about the quality and diversity of racing in North America, including Bill Finley. It is a simplification to say that, because our foal crop is well under 50% of its peak, we should slash the number of graded stakes.

Bill's example of short fields in such races as the 2022 GII Mother Goose is a fixable aberration, which, if seen repeated, will result in yet another downgrading of a race which was, until recently, an integral Grade I part of the Fillies' Triple Crown.

Bill's quoting the statistics of racehorses now running less than six times per year, half of what it was 20 years ago, is not caused by an excess of stakes-races. The blame for that, if blame is the right word, is squarely on the shoulders of trainers with divisions of high-class horses who feel that their win-to-runner percentage is inviolable. We have quality racing year-round in the U.S. We should incentivize trainers to run more frequently and penalize those whose runners fill a stall year-round and only show up at the racetrack every other month at most.

Don't do what we so frequently do in every walk of life–make a knee-jerk decision that wipes out decades or even centuries of racing history. Give Bill Finley back his full fields, his exactas and trifectas and the opportunity to experience an AGSC grading meeting. Perhaps he will appreciate the hard work this group undertakes to maintain the integrity and tradition of racing in North America.

Yours respectfully,

Terence Collier

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