Flightline Share Fetches $4.6 Million

LEXINGTON, KY–Keeneland kicked off its November Breeding Stock Sale Monday afternoon with the highly anticipated auctioning off of a 2.5% interest in unbeaten all-time great, GI Breeders' Cup Classic hero and new Lane's End stallion Flightline (Tapit). The show, partially conducted in the Metaverse, certainly did not disappoint.

The pavilion was lined wall-to-wall with industry participants squeezing in anywhere they could to witness the one-of-a-kind event. When the dust had settled after a very spirited round of bidding, Brookdale's Freddy Seitz saw off all challengers–which included the Coolmore partners as direct underbidders–to land the share for $4.6 million on behalf of an undisclosed farm client. The price paid imputes a valuation for the 'TDN Rising Star' of $184 million.

“They have been good clients of ours for a few years now,” Seitz said to the throng of media waiting for him outside the pavilion. “He is very excited about this horse and wanted to make a huge splash. He has dealt with some good horses in the past, but nothing like this. I'm not sure any of us have dealt with a horse like this. He wanted to get involved a little more in the business.”

While Seitz would not name the client, he did say that the client already has a small broodmare band.

“I think he is going to have a nicer broodmare band now,” Seitz said. “He has some nice mares, but his band isn't very big, about six or eight mares. He is going to be shopping now from what I understand.”

Being a first-of-its-kind sale, the question the entire industry has been asking is, how much the share could sell for? Seitz said he did not expect the final price of $4.6 million.

“I did not expect it to go that high,” the horseman said. “You can only imagine what people are going to do when they are really after something like that. It was very exciting. I wish we could have gotten him a little better deal, but when you are dealing with top quality, you have to pay.”

As for the fact the fractional interest price indicates a total valuation of $184 million, Seitz said, “It is probably the highest ever. With a special horse like that, all you can do is get involved and hope for the best. There has never been a horse that has done what he has done, probably since Secretariat. You just have to pay up and get involved in stuff like this is what he's thinking.”

Lane's End Bill Farish was overcome with emotion during the post-sale interview.

“I am in awe of that,” he said. “It was very exciting. It was an amazing tribute to Flightline. He is an incredible horse.”

Despite what Farish called “a tremendous amount of interest,” he also was unsure what to expect Monday.

“It is just so hard to know where something like that will go,” Farish said. “It is the first time anything like that has ever been done on a horse of that magnitude.”

He continued, “We don't really have a valuation. It is a unique situation because the syndicate is already in place. The syndicate was the racing ownership group. Not that it would be hard with Flightline, but luckily I don't have to go out and determine shares value if I had to sell 40 shares. We had no clue where this would go for that reason.”

Keeneland's Shannon Arvin indicated there were over 20 registered bidders for this event, which required a separate registration process from the traditional Keeneland sales registration

“We had to make sure the people who purchased were pre-approved, accredited purchasers and had the opportunity to review the syndicate agreement and documentation and were comfortable with the stallion deal,” Arvin said. “It was a Keeneland/Lane's End joint effort.”

Farish, who indicated this would not effect Flightline's yet-to-be-determined stud fee, added, “This is a share in the horse. Now that he is retired, it can be called a share in the horse. It had to be called a fraction until he was actually retired. It is 1/40 of everything he does from now on.”

Arvin compared this unique auction to the introduction of the digital sales market.

“I think it is just like what we found with the digital market, you have to have the right product for it to be successful,” said the Keeneland President and CEO. “The stars completely aligned for Flightline. We couldn't have hoped for a better superstar to sell an interest in than Flightline.”

She added, “When Bill and I talked about this for the first time, we were thrilled with the opportunity. The stars all had to align for it to work out, but we appreciate Lane's End for giving us the chance.”

Flightline capped his career off at Keeneland some 36 hours prior to the auction with a jaw-dropping victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

“His race in the Breeders' Cup was even better than you hoped it could be,” said Arvin. “It was unbelievable. We were all watching in awe, like I think the world was. Every sport likes to have a hero and Flightline is definitely our hero right now.”

Click here to watch Flightline's Metaverse sale video.

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HFWEAF Awards 13 Scholarships for ’22-’23

Thirteen children of full-time horse farm workers are pursuing higher education this year with assistance from the Horse Farm Workers' Educational Assistance Fund, according to a release from the organization Monday. To date, 735 annual scholarships totaling $1,631,623 have been awarded since the Fund's inception in 1996.

Scholarships are awarded for education or skill training after high school and are based upon financial need, merit, biographical essays and personal interviews. Grants are also available for full-time horse farm workers in central Kentucky for equine-related courses or training to help them become more knowledgeable and effective while working with Thoroughbred horses.

One current recipient, Jesus Perez, has also distinguished himself as a Pollard Scholar at the University of Kentucky.

The scholars and schools are listed below:
Olivia Bryant – U. of Kentucky
Jacob Compton – U. of Kentucky
Tania Godina – BCTC*
Jayden Hamilton – Midway U.
Alexis Laytart – BCTC*
Anna Martinez – Transylvania U.
Flora Martinez – Northern Kentucky U
Karina Meza – U. of Kentucky
Richard Osborn – Bellarmine U.
Jesus Perez – U. of Kentucky
Kathryn Reams – Eastern Kentucky U.
Katie Thurman – Bellarmine U.
Reagan Toothaker – Thomas More U.
*Bluegrass Community and Technical College

Qualifying parents of scholars are employed full-time by one of the following central Kentucky Thoroughbred farms:bAshview Farm, Betz Thoroughbreds, Godolphin (5), Hermitage, Rose Hill Farm, Spendthrift Farm (2), and Westbrook Stables.

The Fund was founded in 1996 by Rob Whiteley of Liberation Farm, Tom Evans of Trackside Farm, and Fred Seitz of Brookdale. Farm.

“In pursuit of their dreams, many of our scholars work 20 or more hours per week at one or two jobs while carrying a full course load,” said Evans. “Our main goal is to award enough money so that they can focus on their studies and make school their number one priority without incurring a huge burden of long-term student loan debt.

“Investing in these young people is also an investment in the industry. Many of our scholars after successfully completing their studies have returned to pursue careers in the Thoroughbred industry. Several have already distinguished themselves (including a Director of Racing at a major North American track). Many who have chosen careers outside the industry have made their mark as professionals in nursing, education, social work, theology, and business.”

Evans said that the Fund was run on a volunteer basis, allowing over 95% of donor monies to go directly to scholarship recipients.

“We are grateful for all contributors who have so generously supported and valued this remarkable group of young scholars,” said Evans. “Over the years, we have received significant contributions from the Carl Pollard Foundation, Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers Club, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, Hilary Boone Foundation, KTA, Fasig-Tipton, Keeneland, Darley and Godolphin, Thoroughbred Charities of America, W.T. Young, William Marquard, Race for Education, Hill 'n' Dale Farm, the Crafty Prospector syndicate, donors in memory of Gus Koch, and many other individual donors.”

Said Whiteley, “These scholars and parents are an industry treasure. Farm workers are the backbone of the breeding industry and therefore the foundation of the entire Thoroughbred industry. The parents of these scholars have instilled an incredible work ethic in their children. Year after year, these outstanding young people impress the Board with their ability, motivation, energy, enthusiasm, and accomplishments. In many instances, our scholars are the first in their families to pursue secondary education; and some could not pursue education without our financial assistance.”

Board members include Evans, Dan Pride of Godolphin, Judge Wilson of Berea College, Mary Ryan, Whiteley, Stu Pollard, and Chet Blackey, DVM. Carl Pollard serves as advisor to the Board. Muffy Stuart coordinates the Fund and provides personal communication, guidance, and support to scholars throughout the year.

The Fund is a 501c3 organization. Tax deductible contributions may be made through the website: www.horsefarmworkerseducationfund.com. Checks made be sent to HFWEAF, 2938 Four Pines Drive, Lexington, KY 40502.

Applications are available in March with a July 1 deadline, followed by personal interviews with the Board. Inquiries may be made to 859-269-1719. Additional information and a brief video are available on the website.

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How Brookdale Farm’s Fred Seitz Made a Name For Himself

It felt like everything was up in the air; but actually everything was falling into place. Even as a kid, from nowhere obvious, Fred Seitz had discovered an affinity for horses. And the young man stepping onto the tarmac at Lexington airport had meanwhile learned resilience and adaptability with the Marine Corps. Sure enough, all the perplexity Seitz felt about his future was about to evaporate.

“I was wondering what I was going to do when I grew up!” Seitz recalls in his gentle, humorous tones. (He was, by this stage, a Vietnam veteran and closer to 30 than 20.) “So seeing how I had loved the horses when I was younger, I took a trip out here. I'd never been to Kentucky before. They didn't have jetways back then, so as I went down those steps from the plane, it was a very odd sensation. I just said to myself, 'This is it. This is where I'm going to live for the rest of my life.' And I was right. I went down, I stopped, and I knew.”

And here he is, very nearly half a century later, reflecting in his office at Brookdale Farm on a career best measured not just by the scale or diversity of his achievements (raised and sold a Derby winner; pinhooked an Oaks winner; stood a champion stallion; raised a champion stallion) but by the respect of a whole community. In an industry often dominated by dynastic operations, he has literally made his name—to the point that the next generation, in sharing and enhancing its prestige, are themselves evolving into one of those Bluegrass clans whose nurture is a guarantee of trust. Seitz the outsider has become Seitz the patriarch.

“People use the term 'self-made man',” he remarks. “I don't believe in that. When I think of all the people that have helped me along the way—people who taught me, helped me understand, gave me a push, gave me knowledge, encouragement… That's not self-made. That's made by a lot of kind people. So I've been very fortunate.”

One way or another, it has been quite a journey to Versailles from his native Bronx. But he always had the right stuff in his own pedigree: his father had also been a Marine, serving on Iwo Jima; likewise an uncle, lost in a B-25. And when Seitz was five, he was blessed by a transformative change of environment—the family of six having previously squeezed into a one-bedroom apartment in the city—after his father joined the maintenance crew on a New Jersey farm belonging to the social reformer Geraldine Morgan Thompson. It was called Brookdale and, though since swamped by suburban development (for Brookdale University and a county park), Seitz would eventually preserve the name in tribute to the life-changing opportunity he found there. Because the farm, crucially, was divided between agriculture and a training track.

“All of a sudden, we'd left the streets of New York for this little hamlet in the country,” he recalls. “A wonderful place to grow up. And I became fascinated by those horses. There were all these different trainers in there, renting stalls, and the place had a great history going back. Regret had trained there—a Whitney farm was right across the road—and Colin was another that came off the place in the old days. And I was walking hots by the time I was 10. Of course, they gave me the easy horses, but I couldn't believe they were paying me: I thought it should be the other way round. A dollar per horse! It was a wonderful opportunity to learn, and I was so lucky to be able to find out, so early in life, what I wanted to do with all my ensuing years.”

Through high school, Seitz worked vacations as a groom and exercise rider at Monmouth Park. To this day he treasures a photograph of a filly named Triple Brook, in the winner's circle at Atlantic City in 1964. He's holding the halter, 17 years old, and couldn't conceive that life might contain any greater satisfaction: he'd helped to break the filly at her owner's farm.

The trainer is not in the picture. Seitz says that was pretty common at the time, to cede the limelight to the owner, though on this occasion Ralph McIlvain might just have been busy at the windows.

“Mr. McIlvain was a gambler,” Seitz recalls. “And he'd tried to hide this filly in the mornings. He knew she was really nice, and he didn't even run her in a maiden special weight, but in a claimer. She won by six. Obviously the word had gotten out, she only paid $2.70. He'd wanted to make a real killing. I didn't know anything that was going on, I was just a kid. But the owner found out that he was gambling with her, and that he could have lost her for $5,000, so he sent her to New York to Ridgely White. After that, she won the Vagrancy, she ran second in the Beldame, third in the Regret—all graded races today. Obviously she was a very good filly.”

Whether in the Brookdale barns or at the track, Seitz was acquiring a diploma in old school horsemanship: not just from veteran Irish trainers like Tom Harraway and Mike Fogarty, but also from other grooms. Seitz was avid to learn, and his vocation seemed plain. But then came two intrusions: college in Western Pennsylvania and then, with his country at war, aviation with the Marine Corps. In Vietnam, they were shooting down pilots as fast as they could be trained. With corresponding urgency, two days out of Officer Candidate School, Seitz married his sweetheart Peppe who had attended a sister school to his own.

Leaving Peppe with her family, Seitz became a bus driver in the sky, flying 50 men at a time in giant H53 Sea Stallion helicopters, first from Okinawa and then off the Vietnam coast with the fleet they called Yankee Station.

“I spent my last two months flying in, flying out,” he says. “I have to be honest, I was very fortunate. I did see some of the results, and I transported some unfortunates, but I never spent a night 'in country', as they called it. I never had those situations to deal with, that were so hard on many people.”

On his return, he became an instructor at the Navy Flight School. It was a traumatic time for the nation, and no less so for a young serviceman who had seen friends maimed or killed. There was much hurt and confusion over the hostility of so many compatriots when his peers had shown such courage and sacrifice.

“It was difficult,” Seitz says. “The country was fed up, and rightfully so by '73, '74. But it was difficult to understand the reaction of some people, it felt like they were shooting the messengers. I grew my hair long as quickly as I could. Aviators have those leather jackets, just like you see in the movies, with the squadron patches and identification. Nowadays I realize how beautiful those are, really it's your history. But I took them off, gave away my uniforms to my children. So I was actually disrespectful myself, because it all just felt so wrong—the way we were treated. Eventually you get over something like that, but I do still remember it very keenly.”

But if Vietnam had proved a white-hot furnace, then immersion in the cooling waters of the Marine ethos had forged a character that would serve Seitz no less well in his civilian career. He never lost his sense of pride, fidelity and resolute humility. “You find out who you are,” he says. “It's a separate culture that very few Marines don't honor. Once a Marine, always a Marine. So many aspects are valuable: fortitude, discipline, camaraderie, excellence. They have a saying: adapt, improvise and overcome. Simple, but very true.”

All the same Seitz was decidedly at a crossroads, back in 1973, when he took that fateful flight to Kentucky. But while he had just one door to knock, that was enough. Peppe's father had encountered a Standardbred man, Francis McKinsey who had managed Walnut Hall and Almahurst, and asked him to look out for a chance for a hardworking ex-Marine.

“He was a very kind, generous man and along with Joe Taylor, who had a Standardbred background also, helped me find this job on a small farm belonging to Tom Collins,” Seitz recalls. “On The Rocks Farm, it was called. Doesn't exist anymore. I was very early to be a farm manager. To put it bluntly, I wasn't qualified. My experience had been with horses in training. But if I didn't know something, which was often, I'd call Francis in the evening and he'd tell me what to do. So if I was often learning by my mistakes, he helped me to learn quickly.”

After a couple of years Seitz extended his education to the rapidly evolving sales scene. First came a stint under Ted Bates at a new subsidiary to the New York firm of Fasig-Tipton, testing out Keeneland's local monopoly. (Today, of course, Seitz's daughter Anna is bringing things full circle as Fasig-Tipton's much esteemed Client Development and Public Relations Manager.)

“It was just Ted, and a secretary, and I was his assistant,” Seitz says. “I did everything from putting on the hip numbers to setting out the chairs, whatever it took. Ted was not just a wonderful horseman but a wonderful man, very open with his experience. The [1976] Derby winner Bold Forbes and Preakness winner Elocutionist had both just come out of their tent sale, for about $15,000 each. Soon after came Genuine Risk, Seattle Slew, and, bang bang bang, they just kept coming.”

Then came a turning point, Seitz stepping into the slipstream of agency pioneer Lee Eaton.

“In my opinion, Lee invented that business,” he says. “He was very good at it, he was selling lots of horses and back then you got five percent for everything, whether you sold or not, so that was very lucrative. I did a few sales for Lee, and then he gave me some of his overflow. And it was amazing, the quality even of his overflow.”

With the help of his former patron Collins, who introduced him to his banker and the concept of debt, Seitz leased a plot and experimented with half a dozen weanlings in a nascent pinhook market.

“I wanted to play the game, more than just board horses,” he remembers. “The weanling trade was fairly new. There was Stanley Petter, there was Lee, a few others. So the timing was very fortunate. We spent about $60,000 total on those six and they sold for almost double, November to July, which was outrageous good fortune. Two became New York stakes winners, in races that would now be graded; and a third was stakes-placed in California. So we couldn't have been any luckier, starting out.”

Steadily Seitz expanded his portfolio, while acquiring parcels of land piecemeal: just 10 acres, at first; then another 10, 32, 165. Today Brookdale encompasses over 400 acres on different tracts.

“Which I could never have imagined in a million years,” he says. “When I got off that plane, I'd thought to myself, 'If I work hard here, in a couple of years I might be able to manage a small farm.' But fortune has been amazing for me, especially with my help. Victor Espinoza has been here 35 years. People like him have just been a godsend.”

Another market that then remained usefully immature was the one for stallions. “There wasn't the competition then,” Seitz says. “So I took a shot on a horse called Greinton. Beautiful, beautiful horse. Correct. Mile speed. Good pedigree.” He pauses wryly. “And he was an abject failure, just a dud. But I was in the business.”

In 1988, therefore, his friends Ric Waldman and John Perotta, who managed Deputy Minister, approached Seitz to stand the horse when Windfields closed its Maryland division.

“I believe he had 3-year-olds coming,” Seitz recalls. “And the rest of the story everyone knows. He took off, immediately he came here, and the arrangement worked extremely well. He was a big strong horse, very virile. He was a handful, a strong personality. In fact, one of the first times Victor went in the stall with him, the horse grabbed him by the pectoral muscles, lifted him in the air and threw him down. From that day on, we treated him differently. But he became leading sire in North America twice. He was here until he died [aged 25, in 2004], and is buried up in our cemetery. So, another big strike of fortune.”

Seitz has presided over many changes in the business. He remembers Paul Mellon, as a shareholder in Greinton, ringing to caution against the reckless expansion of his book to 60-odd mares. But he has always moved with the times, always adapted like a good Marine.

By the early 2000s, when stallion recruitment had become prohibitive, Brookdale streamlined back to sales prep and boarding only. Sons Freddy Jr. and Joe, also Marines, were meanwhile progressively given responsibility, in management of the farm and sales divisions respectively. The one constant, throughout, has been results.

Brookdale graduates remarkably include not just I'll Have Another (Flower Alley), the result of a mating recommended by Freddy Jr. to long-time client Harvey Clarke, but also the horse he beat in the Derby, Bodemeister (Empire Maker). Tapit was foaled and raised here before being presented for sale as a $625,000 yearling; Serengeti Empress (Alternation) was pinhooked as a weanling; while the latest champion through this nursery is Vequist (Nyquist), raised for breeders Tom and Sue McGrath of Swilcan Stable.

Yet for all these moments of fulfilment, Seitz admits that nothing has ever gratified him, day to day, more than his six or seven years with a trainer's licence.

“By that stage I had this place running smoothly, with the right people, and my background as a teenager had primarily been with horses in training,” he explains. “I had five stakes winners, never from more than eight to a dozen horses. Keeping horses in training truly is a sport of kings but I loved every minute of it. If the fairy came up with a magic wand, that would be very easy for me. Other than a healthy family, the thing I'd most want is a really good horse.”

One way or another, at 75, Seitz has left very few stones unturned with Thoroughbreds. But his own versatility is matched by the object of his obsession: he sees no golden seam to separate the best from the rest.

“They come in all shapes and sizes,” he says with a shrug. “I like correct individuals, with size and some quality. But I used to go to the spit box at Keeneland to look at the winners cooling out, trying to figure out what makes a good one. And I never accomplished much that way at all!”

Seitz credits David Lambert as a mentor who gets closer than any to finding that elusive formula, and Sally Lockhart among many others for their contributions over the years. Above all, of course, there is the immense satisfaction of having three of his children follow him into the world of Thoroughbreds.

When he first came here, the Bluegrass establishment could still resent perceived interlopers. Seitz feels this to be no longer the case; that commercial breeding has made for a wholesome meritocracy. In the meantime, of course, he has himself created a family brand. Typically, this observation elicits a modest chuckle.

“That's right,” he says drily. “And I think about that. There's an old saying, 'shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations'! I could worry about that, but it's too far down the road. I have 16 grandchildren, no doubt some will stay in the business.

“I've done this so many years now. I'm still here just about every day, but I'm learning to slow down. I try to stay in my own lane. I'm having trouble figuring out where I belong. But I'll get there, because I still love it just like that 10-year-old kid.”

The post How Brookdale Farm’s Fred Seitz Made a Name For Himself appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Art of Almost Takes Ontario Matron At Woodbine

In a short field of six, Art of Almost and jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson went from back of the pack to the front of the line to win the Grade 3 Ontario Matron Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario.

Breaking from the first post, the 5-year-old daughter of Dansili was taken back early, setting in sixth a half-mile into the 1 1/16-mile stakes behind front runners Crystal Glacier and Juxtapose. On the far turn, Wilson angled the Casse trainee out, going three-wide as the field entered the stretch.

Down the center of the Woodbine straight, Art of Almost made her bid for the lead in the race's final furlong, hitting the wire a length and a quarter in front. Skygaze passed Juxtapose to grab second. Crystal Glacier, Saratoga Vision, and Afleet Katherine rounded out the order of finish.

The final time for the G3 Ontario Matron was 1:43.99. Find this race's chart here.

Art of Almost paid $19.80, $4.90, and $3.40. Skygaze paid $2.40 and $2.10. Juxtapose paid $4.90.

Bred in Kentucky by Fred Seitz, Dr. Ted Folkerth, J.R. Ward Stables, and Jon Kelly, Art of Almost is out of the First Defence mare Reimpose. Consigned by Brookdale Sales, the 5-year-old mare was purchased by owner D.J. Stables for $290,000 at the 2021 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale. With her win in the Ontario Matron, Art of Almost has two wins in six starts in 2021, for a lifetime record of five wins in 25 starts and career earnings of $357,434.

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