Fred Bradley | Horse Racing Free Tips

Fan favorite and beloved Bradley family member Groupie Doll won two Eclipse Awards, two Breeders' Cup races, four Grade Is, and nine graded stakes; she set two track records, including at Churchill Downs in the GI Humana Distaff; and she sold to Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm for $3.1 million. But it's not the accolades that mean the most to co-breeder, co-owner, and trainer Buff Bradley, he said. It was the special ride she gave the Bradley family during a difficult time.

“Winning the Breeders' Cup was great and awesome and wonderful for myself, my family, and my career. Really, being able to see something that we bred and foaled and raised do that was very special.

“Everybody says, 'You did good with that filly [as her trainer],' but I had more pleasure from being a co-breeder and attending her foaling. That meant more to me than anything.

“My father and I got to share a lot of good racing over the years from maiden claimers all the way up to Grade Is with [Bradley family homebred] Brass Hat, but when the Breeders' Cup with Groupie Doll came about, it was very special for me because my dad had been diagnosed with dementia and I knew this might be his last hurrah with a horse.

“That was something that could keep my dad going and have him communicate with me, so it was really special to win that first one. The second year my father wasn't able to travel, but they had a party in Frankfort.

“My ex-wife, Kim, and I–we're still good friends–always go back and talk about her. I could tell you 100 stories about Groupie Doll since I was there since her first breath.

“We didn't really want to sell her ever, but we'd had several offers that kept coming. Right after her maiden win, I finally told my dad what we needed to do is sell 10% of her to our best partners and that was Carl Hurst and Brent Burns. We sold 10% to each of them so we could have some fun with them and that way we could say we already sold her and get people off our backs about selling her.

“Kim and I were talking just the other day about Groupie Doll. In between her Breeders' Cup wins, I had her turned out with Brass Hat. Once, from our house, we were watching them run in the paddock. As we watched them, Brass Hat would keep cutting the corner on her and make her run around him. In the end, she was blowing and he wasn't! We had to cool them out. I wanted to take him back to the track [he was retired], but Kim said it was time for her to go back. It was a lot of fun to see those two.

“When Groupie Doll was born, I told Kim, 'We're going to keep this filly, she'll be part of the broodmare band.' We kept moving forward and won the two Breeders' Cups, but before the second one, I told the family she would be worth more than we could afford. We were so happy to see Mandy purchase her. I was able to keep Groupie Doll in my barn after that and race her two more times for Mandy. Now she's at Gainesway and I haven't seen her in a while, but I used to visit her sometimes when she was at Timber Town. I'd go out in the field and she'd even talk to me a little bit when she walked toward me. She knows I have a peppermint for her.”

Groupie Doll (2008 chestnut mare, Bowman's Band–Deputy Doll, by Silver Deputy)

Lifetime record: Ch. female sprinter (twice), MGISW, 23-12-4-4, $2,648,850

Breeders' Cup connections: B-Fred Bradley & William Bradley (KY); O-Fred F. Bradley, William B. Bradley, Carl Hurst, and Brent Burns; T-William 'Buff' Bradley; J-Rajiv Maragh.

Current location: Gainesway, Lexington, Ky.

The post Catching Up with 2012-13 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint Winner Groupie Doll appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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On the same day it was announced trainer Todd Pletcher had so deservedly been chosen as a member of racing's Hall of Fame, another conditioner confirmed to Daily Racing Form's Marty McGee that he was retiring at the conclusion of the Churchill Downs meeting next month.

This was the first year Pletcher was eligible and the announcement certainly came as a surprise to no one.

Pletcher is one of the most successful trainers of all time, having won more than 5,000 races and holding the earnings record (increasing every day) of more than $405 million.

Last Friday, he sent out Malathaat to win the grade I Kentucky Oaks, his fourth victory in that race. He has won the grade I Kentucky Derby twice and saddled the winners of 11 Breeders' Cup races.

Pletcher has trained 11 champions, won 166 grade I races and been the leader at the conclusion of 60 race meetings at various racetracks.

The 53-year-old has been voted the Eclipse Award as the sport's leading trainer seven times: 2004-07, 2010, 2013 and 2014.

Buff Bradley, on the other hand, will never be nominated for the Hall of Fame, located in the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, NY. But if his hometown of Frankfort, Ky, of which I am a native and resident, had a Hall of Fame, his inclusion would be a no-brainer.

Located between Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky's capital city is full of racing fans and, like many of the state's towns, after horses and bourbon, well, what else really matters.

Buff Bradley and I both grew up in Frankfort the sons of prominent attorneys who also had a penchant for politics.

My father, Herb Liebman, was in law school at the University of Kentucky when he met Fred Bradley, then an undergraduate student. They became close friends and would remain so for more than half a century. Fred Bradley and I had something in common, both of us earning our degrees in journalism.

Bradley took a short detour before law school. Having graduated from UK with designation as a Distinguished Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corp graduate, he headed off for military service before returning to UK to attend law school. Following active duty, he would spend 30 years in the Air National Guard, retiring as Gen. Bradley.

My dad was a police court judge, served four terms on the county school board, and worked tirelessly in state and local political races.

Bradley served as Franklin County Judge and for 18 years was a Kentucky State Senator. We joked about how he owned a small trucking company named “Fred's Fast Freight.”

Above all else, however, Fred Bradley loved his farm and his Thoroughbred horses. He bred on a small scale, never spending much on stud fees and foaling the mares himself.

That is until he had children and they could help with the farm chores.

Some wondered if young Buff Bradley could really train horses or if his father simply wanted him to head in that direction when he took out his license in 1993. Those who knew the family were not surprised when Buff quickly silenced the naysayers.

Many winners came over the years but in June, 2004 the first “big” score occurred, when homebred Brass Hat (Prized) took the Grade II Ohio Derby.

Brass Hat would become the family's first grade I winner when he won the 2006 Donn H. The gelding retired to live out his days at the Bradley's Indian Ridge Farm near Frankfort with 10 wins (nine stakes) in 40 starts, two track records, and $2,713,561 in earnings.

One of the proudest moments of my life was during Derby week 2010, when the city of Frankfort asked me to serve as emcee for Brass Hat Day. Fred Bradley was beaming, as he should have been. Brass Hat was there, too.

The very next year, the Bradley's newest star hit the racetrack. Groupie Doll (Bowman's Band), bred by Buff and Fred, was the champion sprinter in 2012 and 2013, years in which she won the grade I Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. For the father/son and longtime partners Carl Hurst and Brent Burns, she retired with 12 wins in 23 starts, two track records, and earnings of $2,648,850.

With Fred in failing health but seated on a bench outside the Keeneland sale pavilion, Groupie Doll was sold at the 2013 November sale for $3.1 million.

Proving he could win at the top level with a horse not bred by his family and raised at their farm, Buff guided Gunpower Farm's Divisidero (Kitten's Joy) to wins on three Kentucky Derby undercards. He won the grade II American Turf in 2015 and the next two years scored in the grade I Woodford Reserve Turf Classic.

And who could forget possibly Buff's favorite horse, The Player (by Street Hero), who in 2018 won the GIII Mineshaft S. and subsequently broke both sesamoids in the New Orleans Handicap. The Player, bred by Fred and Buff Bradley and Hurst, had also destroyed his suspensory apparatus. But because of the love between Buff and The Player, the trainer went to extreme lengths to save the horse nicknamed “Angus.”

Fred Bradley was 85 when he died May 20, 2016. He was happiest spending a sultry summer day not at Saratoga but at the “Pea Patch”–Ellis Park. He had 60 years of The Blood-Horse stacked on shelves in the upstairs of his home.

Buff Bradley's world changed when his father died. But with 575 wins to his credit and the aforementioned stars in the stable, he achieved much on the racetrack.

Now, because of various reasons, he has decided to call it a career.

At only 57, Bradley plans to remain a small owner and breeder and perhaps find someone willing to give him a job at a racetrack or within an industry organization.

To those in Frankfort, Ky., he doesn't have to achieve anything else. He's a Hall of Famer.

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