Headley Bell | Horse Racing Free Tips

Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Nicoma Bloodstock

Headley Bell has run Nicoma Bloodstock for 40 years, planning matings for clients at his Mill Ridge Farm and beyond. “It's like being an artist,” says Bell. “You're crafting, and planning matings is part of that whole creation.” Bell said he uses various tools for his matings, including TDN's statistics on percentages of black type to foals, mare produce records, five-cross pedigrees, and examines patterns of broodmare sires with certain families. Finally, he takes physical traits of mares into consideration to determine, he said, “who that mare really is.” He does the same with sires. Bell then grades his clients' mares into A,B, and C categories, values them, and tries to find a stud fee of around one-fifth the value of the mare.
He shared matings with six Nicoma clients in a conversation with the TDN, which we share here.

JAMM LIMITED
This is the Tolie Otto family, and we raced Keeper Hill together. Sadly, Tolie died this year, but her daughter Audie has been running it for several years now, and they have four mares with us.

Justaroundmidnight (Ire), 17, Danehill Dancer (Ire)—Strategy (GB), by Machiavellian. To be bred to Up To The Mark.This is a mare that we bought back in 2012, and we bred Duopoly from her, who was a Group 1 winner by Animal Kingdom. She had a lovely Omaha Beach yearling that we sold this year, and she's currently not in foal, but we've chosen Up to the Mark with this mare. I didn't know the horse until the end of the year like most people probably because that's when he really did his thing, but he really was brilliant. And I believe Not This Time and Liam's Map are going to have a lot of influence, and this is a good son of Not This Time. And obviously, he ran on the grass, and it's a good pedigree blend that blends well with this mare, a first-year stallion. She's a commercial breeder, this is a Group 1-producing mare and it's a good value point.

Smart Shopping, 10, Smart Strike—Shop Again, by Wild Again. To be bred to Life Is Good.
We bought her dam, Shop Again, some years ago, and she was a foundation mare for the Ottos. And this is her 2013 daughter by Smart Strike that Ms. Otto raced, who was trained by Brendan Walsh. She showed form and we thought she was an Oaks filly, but she ended up injuring herself. Her first two foals are stakes-caliber, and show some quality. This is a foundation-replacing mare for Audie, and she's currently in foal to Life is Good. Life is Good and Flightline are the best two horses I've seen for a long time.

She's in foal to Life is Good and we're going to repeat the mating, not just because it's Life is Good, but, it blends very well with this particular mare and we pick up a lot of features that we like in that combined pedigree blend. And that's really all you can do, is try to put enough good ingredients into the stew and get lucky. Because the reality is that you don't look like your brother or your sister, and the idea to think that you can replicate something is not realistic. So you try to put as many things as you can into the stew, and that's what Life is Good, for me, does. So we're sending her foundation mare back to Life is Good.

NANCY DILLMAN
Nancy Dillman is a dear friend a client for 40 years. She bred Diminuendo from the first crop of Diesis (GB), and we bred Havre de Grace together.

Mademoiselle Coco, 11, Medaglia d'Oro—Easter Brunette, by Carson City. To bred to Cody's Wish.

She's a half-sister to Havre de Grace, and this family has always bred a little small, and so we want to try to put a little size into her, if we can. She's currently in foal to Essential Quality and has an Essential Quality '23 foal as well. We had obviously great luck with Havre de Grace and Nancy likes first-year stallions whenever possible. She's a commercial breeder, and so we're breeding her back to Cody's Wish. Again, it's a pedigree blend with Medaglia d'Oro and the Mr. Prospector line works well with other things within that family, and Cody's Wish is a brilliant horse.

Seastone, 7, Cairo Prince—Church By The Sea, by Harlan's Holiday. To be bred to Epicenter.
She's a half-sister to Significant Form. She has a Maxfield 2023 foal and is in foal to Epicenter, who is a son of Not This Time. We like that blend. And so we're going to go back to Epicenter with Seastone.

JERRY AND JOHN AMERMAN
The Amermans breed to race, one of those rare items today. And they've really built their entire program, of which there are about 10 mares now, off of two foundation mares–a mare called Miss Chapin, who's a very good producing mare, and then Devine Actress, who's the Dam of Oscar Performance and Oscar Nominated, among others.

Dream Fuhrever, 14, Langfuhr—Society Dream (Fr), by Akarad (Fr). To be bred to Oscar Performance.
One of the mares that I'm suggesting for Oscar Performance is the dam of Endlessly (Oscar Performance), who is a granddaughter of Miss Chapin. She's by Langfuhr, so the Northern Dancer line. Endlessly was the top two-year-old by Oscar Performance who was three-for-three before running in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and ended up being beaten three lengths there after going off as one of the favorites in that race. But breeding back Dream Fuhrever to Oscar Performance is a natural thing to do. You had to get lucky the first time, and we did.

Catch the Eye, 8, Quality Road—Turns My Head (Ire), by Montjeu. To be bred to Oscar Performance.
Another is a 2016 Quality Road mare by the name of Catch the Eye, who's from a European family, a Montjeu mare from the family of Egyptian Queen. She has a '23 Caravaggio foal and is in foal to Oscar Performance. Quality Road has done well with Oscar Performance, it seems, and so we're breeding her back to Oscar Performance.

CLOVER HILL FARM
Sadly, we lost Lynn Schiff whom I'd been working with for 15 years or so, and her daughter, Maggie Gieseke, now runs the operation. Mom (Alice Chandler) was a magnet for women because she was such a strong woman herself, and so a lot of our clients are women, which is fantastic. Clover Hill bred the Breeders' Cup winner Ria Antonia and has about five mares. They're commercial breeders. And a few years ago, while Lynn was still with us in 2017, we bought three mares, and two of which have really worked out very well.

Wild Silk, 11, Street Sense—Spun Silk, by A.P. Indy. To be bred to Cody's Wish.
One of those three mares is Wild Silk. We paid $70,000 for her, and she is the dam of Red Carpet Ready, by Oscar Performance, who has earned nearly $600,000. She is a daughter of Street Sense, but also has a blend of Wild Again in the family and she provided a Hyperion-line blend of pedigree that crosses so beautifully with Oscar Performance and really crosses beautifully with Kitten's Joy through Lear Fan. We've gone back to Oscar Performance a couple of times. She is in foal to Liam's Map now, and Not This Time and Liam's Map are very strong sources that I'm using quite a bit. They're going to go to Cody's Wish with this mare. She can use some size and blend-wise, we're happy with that.

Maya Princess, 11, Street Sense—Hartfelt, by Kafwain. To be bred to Jack Christopher.
Here is another daughter of Street Sense and we bought her in foal to Ghostzapper in 2017. We were very fortunate that she produced a beautiful Ghostzapper that Phil Bauer and Richard Rigney bought and named Mariah's Princess, who earned $250,000 as her first foal. She has an Essential Quality filly foal and is in foal to Charlatan and is going to Jack Christopher. They are commercial breeders. Charlatan was a brilliant horse, and again, provides a pedigree blend, and Jack Christopher also is a brilliant horse. And we would just as soon not be in a sire's first book. I said that Nancy Dillman wants to be in the first year, but I don't mind being in another year, because if you believe in the horse, it's worth the gamble, really, because you're not up there against 200 other foals.

FRANK GARRISON
Frank Garrison is an old college friend who owns a couple of mares together with us, and is godfather to Price. These are ones we share.

Humor Me Dixie, 6, Distorted Humor—Dixie City, by Dixie Union. To be bred to Oscar Performance.
Humor Me Dixie is a mare that we bought in 2020 with an outstanding blend of family. Distorted Humor is a great broodmare sire with the El Prado/Medaglia d'Oro line in particular. She's in foal to Upstart, and we are going to breed her to Oscar Performance. The Hyperion line that you're picking up through Oscar Performance, I think will blend well and add some size to the mare.

Proximity Bias, 8, Flatter—Sidle, by Seeking the Gold. To be bred to Liam's Map.
We bought this mare in 2016 from a family I'm very fond of, the Stroll family, which I think is a very tough family. We bought her in foal to Practical Joke in '20 and sold that Practical Joke to Steve Asmussen, and he's made her a stakes winner of $150,000 for which we're most appreciative. And she has a '23 Oscar Performance and in foal to Oscar Performance and is going back to Liam's Map.

BYRON NIMOCKS
Byron Nimocks is from Rye, New York and is fairly new to the business. We share five mares together, and last year was the first time we bought any mares.

Patna, 5, Into Mischief—Barbadia, by Speightstown. To be bred to Blame.
Most importantly, she is from the Willstar family of Juddmonte's, which is one of their foundation families. And it has Nureyev in it, and I can't get enough of Nureyev. Theatrical is by Nureyev, which is Oscar Performance's broodmare sire. She was a maiden at the time we bought her, and we bred her to Twirling Candy. We're going to go to Blame this year. Chris McGrath described Blame so well in his Value Sires, and we believe he is a value sire also, and we're going to go to Blame and see if we can breed a race horse.

Tea Olive, 5, First Samurai—Conquest Superstar, by Super Saver. To be bred to Aloha West.
We bought this mare last year as a maiden. Gatewood (Bell) had bought her as a yearling. Gatewood's a second cousin and worked with me at Nicoma for a while. It was in the slop at Keeneland, but she beat Gunite in her first start, which I thought was pretty impressive. She earned about a $100,000. We had bred her to Speaker's Corner. Unfortunately, she aborted. And we're going to come back to Aloha West. For us, we believe that Aloha West resembles his broodmare sire, Speightstown, more than his sire Hard Spun. He gives you a great pedigree blend with the Hard Spun–some Danzig, some Gone West, and some A. P. Indy. He was a very fast horse, obviously. He won the Breeders' Cup Sprint. And we're excited about his future and we're going to send what we believe is an exciting mare to him in Tea Olive.

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What Was Your Favorite Moment Of 2023: Headley Bell

As 2023 draws to a close, the TDN is asking industry members to name their favorite moment of the year. Send yours to suefinley@thetdn.com

My favorite '23 moment was watching Jena Antonucci and her team, 'vigorously' rooting home Arcangelo in the Belmont and then becoming the 'spokesperson extraordinaire' on behalf of our industry!
–Headley Bell, Mill Ridge Farm

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‘How Lucky are We?’ Mill Ridge and the Breeders’ Cup

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup with Living Legends

It wasn't so long ago that the magnificent sire Gone West held court at Mill Ridge Farm near Lexington. From 22 crops, all while at Mill Ridge, he netted a mouth-watering 9% black-type winners from starters, including Breeders' Cup winners Da Hoss (twice), Johar, and Speightstown, all back in the days when the Breeders' Cup was still a single day and there were far fewer races.

The son of Mr. Prospector passed away in 2009, but his influence on the Breeders' Cup was not done and neither was Mill Ridge's. Among Gone West's sire sons are Speightstown, who has sired two Breeders' Cup winners, and Elusive Quality, who has sired three. His grandsons include Quality Road, sire of four Breeders' Cup winners. And among the major runners out of his daughters is another Breeders' Cup winner in Awesome Feather.

The Mill Ridge team hasn't stopped there. Eight Breeders' Cup winners have been bred, raised, and/or sold by the Central Kentucky farm. Additionally, Mill Ridge's involvement in Horse Country has created an extra ripple effect of the Breeders' Cup's impact on farms big and small, as well as on the fans who visit those farms. And now, the two young sires who are standing at Mill Ridge are both Breeders' Cup winners.

Oscar Performance on a Horse Country tour along with Mill Ridge's tour guide Ryn Harris and managing partner Headley Bell. Earl the Corgi is quite popular on the tours and on social media. | Sarah Andrew

Oscar Performance won the GI Juvenile Turf in 2016, while Aloha West won the GI Sprint in 2021.

“That's like starting two full teams for the University of Kentucky basketball team,” said Price Bell, Jr., general manager of Mill Ridge, with a laugh about the eight Breeders' Cup winners combined with the two additional championship day winners in the stud barn. “That's the beauty of the Breeders' Cup. How lucky are we to have been able to associate with this many horses on Breeders' Cup days?

“We'll often have visitors say, 'Well, don't you have an unfair advantage because you get to watch them in the field and then watch them win?' We know how special it is to get to do this.”

From the start, Oscar Performance had the Bell family's fingerprints all over him. Fittingly, he was raised on the farm and has now returned to the place of his birth to stand. He is also the sire of Sunday's GIII Zuma Beach S. winner Endlessly from his second crop of 2-year-olds. Endlessly is an unbeaten dual graded winner–for the same connections as his sire–who will try to emulate his sire in the Nov. 3 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.

“We raised Oscar Performance for the Amermans and helped with the mating. Now for a horse for the same connections to go on and keep that dream alive is very special.

“We feel so lucky and blessed to associate with so many incredible people and breeders and clients and horses,” said Bell. “The Breeders' Cup is what we're all striving for and dreaming about as soon as you do a mating. We feel so blessed to have gotten there and want to keep going.”

Sarah Andrew

Mill Ridge is a popular spot on the Horse Country tours and Oscar Performance has become a showman.

“To connect him with guests is so special,” said Bell. “People have just fallen in love with him. We've really enjoyed sharing him with people and seeing the way he's become a fan favorite. It has been very meaningful as we share that he was the best 2-year-old on the turf in his generation, the best 3-year-old on the turf, and that he set the world record at a mile. One of those three things often sticks with people. To be able to share him with fans is really special.”

As a racehorse, Oscar Performance had a devastating kick.

“What I found so brilliant in his Breeders' Cup is that he had broken from the 13 hole, yet was able to clear the field,” said Bell. “To break from the 13th post to get clear and over at Santa Anita is a big thing. I remember very vividly where I was when he broke his maiden [at Saratoga in August of 2016]. And then his Breeders' Cup, we sat and watched it at the office with my dad because my wife and I had a 15-month-old. It was our son's first Grade I and one we certainly remember as a family. It would be so memorable if Endlessly could do it, too. We're so blessed to have those relationships.”

Aloha West, whose first foals will be born in 2024, took a different route to Mill Ridge.

“He was raised by our friends at Nursery Place by John Mayer,” said Bell. “I think for his Breeders' Cup, what was so telling, is that was the ninth race he had had that year. He'd showed some ability at two, had some shins, hurt himself at three. They were really patient with him. [He debuted at four], broke his maiden in February culminating with a Breeders' Cup win. He danced every dance, had nine starts that year, no real break. He was sort of the clever horse on the backside; people had a lot of chatter about him going into the Breeders' Cup. And then he showed that will to win.”

Halter tag keychains, including one of Breeders' Cup winner Life Is Sweet, in Mill Ridge's Horse Country gift shop | Sarah Andrew

In addition to their two Breeders' Cup-winning stallions, one of whom they had also raised, Mill Ridge has been intimately involved with 2000 Distaff winner Spain, 2003 Turf dead-heater Johar (one of Gone West's winners), 2004 Juvenile Fillies winner Sweet Catomine, 2005 Mile winner Artie Schiller, 2006 Distaff winner Round Pond, 2009 Ladies' Classic winner Life Is Sweet, and 2013 Juvenile Fillies winner Ria Antonia. For those keeping score, that was four consecutive winners from 2003-06 and six in that decade alone.

Winning the Breeders' Cup doesn't get old though. On the contrary, it leaves one hungry for more.

“Once you've been there, you want to experience it again,” said Bell. “You want to do it again and again and again and again.”

Bell has distinct memories of every winner. Some stood out early.

“I often put Sweet Catomine as the one that everyone on the farm thought was very special. For her to culminate as champion and the way she had done it was wonderful. Sometimes you do see something when they're young and it's very gratifying.”

Some stand out because of the relationships with the breeders.

“Artie Schiller was awesome because Leroidesanimaux (Brz) was the overwhelming favorite and he beat him handily, squarely, no excuses. He ran by him like he was standing still. It was a great culmination of the relationship we had with the Moussacs [breeders of Artie Schiller]. A great celebration.”

But one of the Breeders' Cup wins that is most memorable to Bell is for an out-of-the-ordinary reason and ties in to the farm's involvement with Horse Country.

“I remember Spain was a classic [D. Wayne] Lukas move. Lukas put them to sleep. She got a phenomenal ride [from Victor Espinoza]. It was Lukas taking a shot and then he wins at 56-1.

“But what I really remember when I think of her now is on one of our tours there was a gentleman who was about my age. He loved Spain. He was in the hospital at the time she won, in a children's cancer ward, and he'd told all the nurses to bet her.

“Here's a horse that we both had great memories of for very different reasons. It was our first Breeders' Cup winner while he's a kid fighting cancer. It meant a lot to both of us, was an inspiration for both of us. Horses touch people in different ways and sometimes we don't even know it.”

A Horse Country tour sign at Mill Ridge | Sarah Andrew

Perhaps that is why Bell and Mill Ridge are so bullish on the non-profit Horse Country, which Bell was instrumental in co-founding and which also has Breeders' Cup roots. It's his way of giving back to the industry and connecting the wider public to our sport.

“We launched Horse Country tours the same year [2015] as the first Breeders' Cup at Keeneland. It coincided with American Pharoah and that was kind of what got us going. We had set a timeline of the Breeders' Cup date and it gave us a starting gate. We were committed. It has taken a lot of iterations between then and now, but we're big believers in it. We love doing it and sharing what we do.

“The tours have welcomed 200,000 people since then, 25,000 of those at Mill Ridge. We're the number two thing to do on Trip Advisor in Lexington. It feels like it's our part in trying to connect people to racing.

“We're all inspired by the horses and tours are people's best opportunity to meet a horse. Farms create a great opportunity for that. It's meaningful for people to share that, just like the gentleman who had a relationship with Spain from his hospital bed.”

One guest at a time, Mill Ridge and Horse Country are changing the wider public's perception of racing. If meeting a Breeders' Cup-winning stallion brings one more person over to the beauty of our sport, it's a win. If it shows another person how well we take care of our horses and how much they mean to us, it's a win. And if it gets one more person to watch the Breeders' Cup, feeling they have a connection because they've feed a carrot to the sire of one of the runners or have walked over the same land where one was raised, it's a win.

“The better we can show guests what we do, the better we all are,” said Bell. “It feels like the right thing to do. We get so much from the guests and the experience. It's a great reminder of how lucky we are.

“Mill Ridge is just one small piece in it, but we've jumped all the way in. It's very doable. And it's beautiful. At the end of the day, we get so much out of committing to it.

“I feel like we get more out of it than we give.”

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Successful Breeder Otto Passes Away After Lengthy Illness

Longtime Kentucky breeder Audrey “Tolie” Otto passed away on Apr. 18 after a lengthy illness, longtime friend Headley Bell of Mill Ridge Farm announced.

A native of St. Louis, Otto moved to Lexington in the late 1980s and bred and raced a number of top runners under the stable name Jamm Ltd., which stood for her four children–John, Audie, Michael and Matthew.

Among the more notable names Otto either owned, bred or raced were MGISW Keeper Hill (Deputy Minister); and MGSW producers Hamba (Easy Goer), the dam of GI Blue Grass S. winner Monba (Maria's Mon); and Shop Again (Wild Again), the dam of G1W Power Broker (Pulpit).

“Tolie, Mom [Alice Chandler], and Dr. Chandler were dear friends, and shared a love of the horse, animal, and the Mill Ridge family and its employees,” Bell said. “Remarkably, Tolie rarely owned more than six mares on her own, and had tremendous results with her commercial breeding program. Her daughter, Audie, has been involved with her since early 2000, and will continue with this love of breeding and the horse that began with her mom.”

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