Last seen rolling to a 6 1/4-length win in gate-to-wire fashion in the Heavenly Prize Invitational at Aqueduct Feb. 23 and racing in the royal blue of owner/breeder Godolphin, the bay daughter of another prolific homebred was away a step off and patiently handled by Flavien Prat at the rear of the field as Interstatedaydream (Classic Empire) and Hidden Connection (Connect) squared off up front. Last of the octet into the first turn, Frost Point saved ground up the backstretch through an opening quarter in :24.03 set by a now solo Hidden Connection. Always in touch with the tightly-bunched group, she began to make up ground around the far bend, coming inside of a fading Traverse (Street Sense) before tipping up past the quarter pole to take dead aim on the leading pair of Hidden Connection and Green Up (Upstart). While she needed the length of the short Keeneland stretch to get by, Frost Point rallied up the outside and dove past Hidden Connection in the final strides, winning as the 9-2 second choice.

“Over the summer, she put on weight and started looking better,” said winning trainer Bill Mott. “She's come back very well. She's three-for-three now (beginning Dec. 30 at Aqueduct in her first start since May). This was a very good race, and she beat a really solid field.”

Pedigree Notes:

Out of GI Frizette S. heroine Balletto (UAE) (Timber Country), Frost Point traces back to champion 2-year-old filly Althea (Alydar), champion 2-year-old filly in Japan Yamamin Paradise (Danzig), GI Juddmonte Spinster winner Acoma (Empire Maker), and GISW and late sire Arch (Kris S.). Frost Point is the fifth graded-stakes winner for sire Frosted. She has a winning 3-year-old full-brother, Ski Country, a 2-year-old full-brother, and a yearling half-sister by Maclean's Music.

Friday, Keeneland
BAIRD DOUBLEDOGDARE S.-GIII, $292,594, Keeneland, 4-21, 4yo/up, f/m, 1 1/16m, 1:43.95, ft.
1–FROST POINT, 118, m, 5, by Frosted
            1st Dam: Balletto (UAE) (GISW, $1,151,850), by Timber Country
            2nd Dam: Destiny Dance, by Nijinsky II
            3rd Dam: Althea, by Alydar
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. O/B-Godolphin LLC (KY); T-William I
Mott; J-Flavien Prat. $183,675. Lifetime Record: 11-5-3-2,
$446,235. *1/2 to Villanesca (Distorted Humor), SW & GISP,
$237,500. Werk Nick Rating: C+.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the
free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Hidden Connection, 118, f, 4, Connect–C J's Gal, by Awesome
Again. ($49,000 RNA Wlg '19 KEENOV; $40,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP;
$55,000 RNA 2yo '21 OBSAPR; $85,000 2yo '21 OBSOPN).
O-Hidden Brook Farm & Black Type Thoroughbreds; B-St
Simon Place (KY); T-W Bret Calhoun. $59,250.
3–Green Up, 118, f, 4, Upstart–Green Punch, by Two Punch.
'TDN Rising Star' 1ST GRADED BLACK-TYPE. ($10,000 Ylg '20
EASOCT). O-Team Valor International, LLC; B-Althea Richards
(VA); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $24,688.
Margins: 3/4, 1HF, HF. Odds: 4.53, 11.02, 2.57.
Also Ran: Interstatedaydream, Shotgun Hottie, Traverse. Scratched: Moon Swag, Music Street.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

The post Frost Point Closes For Doubledogdare Score appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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“I can't go in there and buy those mares for $200,000 or $300,000,” Wente says. “They're just not going to work out for me. You'd be so heavily invested, at that point, it would be no fun. And that's what keeps me going every day, the fun of it. Trying to find young mares with blank dams, and just sitting on them for a couple of years, and seeing if their families can go to work for you. Because when they do, it's so much more of a thrill if you took a shot on something nobody wanted.”

And who knows, maybe there's something in this temperate response to his recent success that explains why his program is functioning so effectively in the first place. Maybe the kind of person who would become giddily convinced of his or her genius would never have had the clarity required to spot the same bargains.

Wente first demanded our attention last fall, thanks to the very first crop bred from a handful of mares acquired, some five years previously, after he had moved his program from Indiana to St. Simon Place in Kentucky. Four of these juveniles had contested “Win and You're In” races for the Breeders' Cup. Three won; the other ran second. Their dams had cost Wente and his partners a total $32,400.

Everyone was asking him what his secret was. He shrugged. “Am I just really, really lucky?” he asked his buddy Tommy Eastham of Legacy Bloodstock. “Or is something going on here?”

“Well, I guess anybody can be lucky once or even twice,” Eastham replied. “But man, you're just doing it over and over again. You've got to be doing something right.”

Rattle N Roll won Keeneland's Breeders' Futurity | Coady

The right thing to do, next, was to close out the cycle by cashing in a couple of those mares. Wente had bred GI Breeders' Futurity winner Rattle N Roll (Connect) from Jazz Tune (Johannesburg), found for just $20,000 at the Keeneland November Sale of 2016. Back at the same auction last fall, Hunter Valley Farm bought her for $585,000. C J's Gal (Awesome Again) had been even cheaper, picked out for $9,500 in the same ring in January 2016. Her daughter Hidden Connection (Connect) having won the GIII Pocahontas S. by nine lengths, Woodford Thoroughbreds gave $450,000 for the mare.

Time, you would have thought, to let the dust settle awhile. But Wente was only just getting started. Since then, a couple of other mares to have caught his eye have also made a name for themselves.

Just about the least surprising thing to emerge from the GI Kentucky Derby success of Rich Strike (Keen Ice) was that his dam Gold Strike (Smart Strike) had been sold to Wente deep in the 2019 Keeneland November Sale, for just $1,700. Admittedly this was a rather different case: an older mare, picked out for a friend. But then last weekend Tawny Port (Pioneerof the Nile), who had finished seventh at Churchill, confirmed himself one of the crop's most progressive colts in the GIII Ohio Derby. And it turned out that his dam Livi Makenzie (Macho Uno) had likewise been sold since his foaling, to Wente and partner Scott Stephens, for $30,000 at Keeneland November 2020.

Wente happily credits this latest coup to Carrie Brogden of Machmer Hall, a trusted mentor ever since his Bluegrass transfer.

“When I'm at a sale, I never go to the barns to look at mares,” Wente says. “I never look at a book and say, 'Okay, let's go see these 10 today.' I buy them coming into the ring, and I'm trying to get a deal on. And Carrie was sitting there, and said, 'Hey, this mare coming up, you need to take a look at her: we sold the Pioneerof the Nile yearling out of her for WinStar in September for $430,000.' We're kind of suckers for chestnuts anyway, and I liked the way she looked, and I figured that a real good Pioneerof the Nile colt could be anything. I just thought the mare might be too expensive. Because she could run, she was a stakes winner [and graded stakes-placed]. I thought she'd make $75,000 to $100,000. But I thought, 'Hell, we'll give it a shot.' And we got her.”

Tawny Port followed up a Stonestreet Lexington win at Keeneland with last weekend's Ohio Derby | JJ Zamaiko Photography

She came with a bonus, as she was carrying a filly by Always Dreaming–who has meanwhile obtained a residual value as half-sister to Tawny Port. And while “a really nice colt” by Global Campaign followed this spring, his Apr. 25 delivery left his mother only a short window and she missed on a single covering.

“But that's fine, she's in her prime [13] and the year off will do her good,” Wente remarks. “She can get back on an early cycle next time. But we do like her baby, and if Tawny Port can go on and win a Grade I, then it's all good. She's a really laid-back mare, a real sweetheart.”

As for the dam of Rich Strike, she was being culled so cheaply that Wente reckoned her ideal for Indiana horseman Merrill Roberts.

“When I'm buying these mares, a lot of the time I'm thinking in the back of my head about people who have asked me to look out for one,” Wente says. “That particular mare I bought strictly for my buddy Merrill, because they'd just got a stallion [Candy Ride (Arg)'s son Looking Cool] going and I thought she's be perfect for him, with her race record and pedigree, if they could get her in foal.”

Unfortunately that final part of the equation proved difficult, and Roberts turned her over to Austin Nicks the very week that her son came out of nowhere to land the Derby. (Nicks, unsurprisingly, wasted no time in sending the mare to Munnings!)

As already indicated, however, Wente has a properly seasoned perspective on all this success. In fact, he has an unhappy bond with Eric Reed, trainer of Rich Strike, whose career was likewise nearly unraveled by a barn fire.

Wente had become captivated by horses when visiting the barn of his stepfather, former Hoosier Park trainer Tom Hickman. Before long, even though money was tight, Wente found himself buying one of the babies.

“I way overpaid, though!” Wente recalls. “He charged me $5,000 and, looking back, the horse probably wasn't worth $200. It was for me, though, at the time. I wanted it so bad. I was driving a truck in those days, and giving him like $500 a month for this horse. And I'd just got it all paid off, and the horse had just had his first run. They were stabled down there at the old Quarter Horse track in Henderson, Kentucky, and one night I got a call, 2 a.m., to say he'd lost all these horses burned up in a fire.

“He had always told me, 'You know, if you're not willing to put $1,000 in an ashtray and burn it, don't get into this business.' To this day I always try to remember that. Only in my case it wasn't bills in an ashtray. It was that poor horse in a burning barn. But I was hooked, even so. Next day I was back on it, looking for a new one.”

Wente picked out the Derby winner's dam at Keeneland November in 2019 for a friend | Coady

Looking back, in fact, Wente wonders whether the early difficulties he has had to overcome–both in his own life, and then in his journey of Thoroughbreds–have condensed into a foundation stone essential to his better fortunes now.

“We were raised poor,” he stresses. “And I had my struggles, trying to find my way. I couldn't save money. I owed everybody. I robbed Peter to pay Paul. But I straightened up. I figured I wanted more from life. And I think it was the horses that did that for me.

“I don't know if you need that; whether you need to know the bottom to appreciate everything more. But now, when I look back to when I was new to the game, and thinking of those really poor horses as the best thing in the whole world, and my stepdad teaching me all those things, him being so back in the old ways, I think that really helped me towards where I am today. Having all that under my feet gave me a different perspective.”

Wente is candidly disparaging about the animals he raised in Indiana, but they sharpened his judgement and taught him to respect every horse as a potential opportunity. Coming to Kentucky just elevated the caliber of the disrespected, the rejects.

Conceivably, moreover, perhaps the resilience Wente had himself acquired can be shared with the young stock on St. Simon Place?

“It's so true,” Wente replies. “If you baby them, pamper them, to me they're not going to make racehorses. They need to get out there, need to knock heads, knock bodies. They need to get cuts, to get sore. They need to be in the snow, in the rain, in the heat. They need a struggle. Because when I struggled, I got tough. And I think it's the same with horses.”

MSW One Timer, another bred by Wente and St. Simon Place | Coady

Maybe, then, that's at least part of the answer. Not that many of those asking Wente for his “secret” will find that very helpful. It was only as an outsider, making a journey few would choose by design, that Wente found redemption in horses. Maybe that couldn't have happened if, like so many competitors, he had been born to this way of life, and not in suburban poverty near St. Louis.

“Everybody's just shaking their head and they're like, 'How in the world are you doing this!?'” says Wente with a chuckle. “And like I said, I don't know whether I'm just really, really lucky, or I'm doing something right. But I think the people that have the wealth to back themselves up would still rather buy mares with more page, mares with some produce under them, mares that are already proven out. But they've got the money. Me, I do the opposite. Because I have to buy cheaper mares, I'd rather buy one that has no page but might get some runners. Because things can change so fast. I bought Spanish Star (Blame) for $1,500 off the track [Keeneland November 2017], and then, bam, her brother [Sir Winston (Awesome Again)] wins the Belmont. And now she's had One Timer (Trappe Shot).”

That colt is currently four-for-five, his sole defeat at the Breeders' Cup. But while a lot of things have been falling into place, Wente emphasizes that he has not done it all on his own. On the farm Calvin and Shane Crain run a parallel sod-growing business, and he has partners in a broodmare band now extending to 40 or so, as well. And whatever inspiration Wente may bring to the equation himself, he will only take credit for perspiration.

“You've got to be dedicated,” he says. “You have to live and sleep this business. I'm hands on. I like to get out there and mow my own grass. I don't know if that helps me do what I'm doing, but I do know that I love it. And since I came over here, and Carrie took me under her wing, everything's been going great. I just feel blessed.”

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Working on his own at 7:30 a.m. over a fast track with regular morning partner Kriss Bon aboard, the Chad Brown pupil completed the five furlongs in 1:00.40 (7/43). Churchill Downs clockers caught Zandon in fractions of :12.80, :25, :36.80, 1:00.40 and out in 1:12.80 and 1:26.40.

“I just didn't want to take any chances with the weather forecast, even though it looks better for tomorrow,” Brown said. “The track is in fabulous shape. You're not going to get a better track to train over than we got this morning.

Zandon 5F 1:00.40. Splits: 12.80 25 36.80/112.80 126.40. #KyDerby pic.twitter.com/clPc8ClW7X

— Kevin Kerstein (@HorseRacingKK) April 29, 2022

Working about the same time at Gulfstream Park was GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth winner Simplification (Not This Time), who worked five furlongs in 1:00.44 (1/10) for trainer Antonio Sano over a muddy track. Junior Alvarado was aboard for the work.

“I'm very happy with the work,” Sano said. “He went very easy and handled everything. The jockey said he was better than last week. It was a really, really good work for the horse…I am 100% confident in my horse. I know the race is very strong, but I'm confident in the horse. I think this is a better horse than Gunnevera (Dialed In).”

A few hours later at Santa Anita, Messier (Empire Maker), the runner-up in the GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby, worked six furlongs in 1:11.60 for trainer Tim Yakteen.

Six GI Longines Kentucky Oaks contenders had their final works Friday morning, including the Todd Pletcher-trained trip of Nest (Curlin) (4f :48.60), Shahama (Munnings) (5f 1:01.2) and Goddess of Fire (Mineshaft) (5f 1:01) for next Friday's $1.25 million race over a fast track.

Working first during the 7:30-7:45 a.m. training window for Kentucky Derby and Oaks runners was GI Central Bank Ashland S. victress Nest with Irad Ortiz in the irons. Working in company, Nest produced fractions of :24.20 and :48.60 and galloped out in 1:01 and 1:14.

“It's 21 days after the Ashland and it was a solid work,” Pletcher said. “She finished good and galloped out strong.”

Nest (@iradortiz) inside Inventing (@Ameliajgreen) 4F 48.60 #KyOaks pic.twitter.com/mEzpPaecES

— Kevin Kerstein (@HorseRacingKK) April 29, 2022

Working together were GII Gulfstream Park Oaks runner-up Goodess of Fire with Humberto Zamora aboard and G3 UAE Oaks winner Shahama with Oaks rider Flavien Prat aboard.

Shahama was on the inside with fractions of :25.40, :37.20, :49.20, 1:01.20 and out in 1:13.60, 1:26.20 and 1:40.40. Goddess of Fire had fractions of :25.20, :37, :49, 1:01 and out in 1:13.40, 1:26 and 1:40.20.

“I wanted them to do a little more than Nest,” Pletcher said. “They both finished well and galloped out strong.”

GII Fair Grounds Oaks runner-up Hidden Connection (Connect) breezed a half-mile in :50.20 for trainer Bret Calhoun Friday at Churchill under jockey Reylu Gutierrez.

“Her work last week was great and today, even though it was easier, it was just as impressive,” Gutierrez said.

GII Rachel Alexandra S. heroine Turnerloose (Nyquist) covered five panels in 1:01.20 under exercise rider Edvin Vargas.

“She's fit and ready to go,” trainer Brad Cox simply stated.

Also on the Churchill worktab was GIII Gazelle S. runner-up Venti Valentine (Firing Line). She worked five furlongs in 1:00.80, with splits of :13, :24.80 and :36.80, galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.

“That's the way she gallops,” said Francisco Abreu, brother to trainer Jorge Abreu, who supervised the filly's workout. “The first part, she's a little anxious, then she calms down a little. It was just a maintenance work for her; she had a strong final work was a week ago.”

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“We are excited to get started with her,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “She is doing extremely well. She has put in some impressive moves over the race track and she just trains beautifully like she always has.”

He added, “She drew the rail so we have to get away from there cleanly and Joel will have a good ways to the first turn to get her in good position. She has handled everything extremely well that we have thrown at her up to this point. We are giving the Fair Grounds Oaks its fair due. I don't want to talk about the next one until she runs in the Oaks here but certainly we have high hopes this year for her.”

Turnerloose (Nyquist) enters off a win in the local GII Rachel Alexandra S. Feb. 19 at odds of 17-1. Opening her account with a pair of wins on grass, including the Aristocrat Juvenile Fillies S. at Kentucky Downs in September, the dark bay was third in Keeneland's GII Jessamine S. Oct. 13, but faded to 14th in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf S. Nov. 5. She was making her first start on dirt last out in the Rachel Alexandra.

Hidden Connection (Connect) graduated by 7 1/2 lengths on debut at Colonial Downs in August and ran off to a 9 1/4-length score in the GIII Pocahontas S. at Churchill Sept. 18. Fourth to Echo Zulu in the Breeders' Cup, she filled the same spot behind Turnerloose in the Rachel Alexandra.

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Hidden Connection (Connect) has been made the 3-1 morning-line favorite, a starting price likely inflated by her draw nearest the stands. Not that she hasn't dealt with that type of adversity before–she overcame the eight hole in a field of eight to graduate by 7 1/2 lengths on her 5 1/2-furlong debut at Colonial Aug. 17 and validated that performance with a 9 1/4-length thrashing of her rivals in the GIII Pocahotas S. Sept. 18 at Churchill, where she had gate nine of 10. While she left there running those first two starts, she bobbled at the break of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and never reached contention, finishing a distant fourth. The dark bay will look to give trainer Bret Calhoun a fourth winner of the race and first since Summer Applause (Harlan's Holiday) scored in 2012.

Trainer Doug O'Neill is always to be taken seriously when shipping horses into the Big Easy and is represented here by Reddam Racing's Awake At Midnyte (Nyquist). A debut winner sprinting at Santa Anita on Halloween, the $320,000 Fasig-Tipton Florida grad missed by a nose in the GIII Jimmy Durante S. going a grassy mile at Del Mar Nov. 27, but atoned with a sharp runner-up effort in the seven-furlong GII Santa Ynez S. Jan. 8. Mario Gutierrez is likely to ask for some speed from the 7-2 morning-line second pick.

Divine Huntress (Divining Rod) easily accounted for a field of Parx maidens going seven panels Dec. 13 following which Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners bought into the Maryland-bred filly. Prohibitively favored for a first-level allowance going an extended mile at the Bensalem oval Jan. 19, she took over at will with about 2 1/2 furlongs to race and shot away to score by nearly 13 lengths while never being asked to run. Jose Ortiz sees fit to take the call for trainer Graham Motion.

North County (Not This Time) is perfect in three starts to date, including a neck success in the Dec. 26 Untapable S., while the rail-drawn La Crete (Medaglia d'Oro–Cavorting) looks to add to her latest score in the Jan. 22 Silverbulletday S.

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Hidden Connection, trained by W. Bret Calhoun, will be pointing towards the Kentucky Oaks prep races at either Fair Grounds or Oaklawn Park. Owned by Hidden Brook Farm and Black Type Thoroughbreds, the filly recently returned to Calhoun's stable after a break in Ocala, Fla.

“She looks like she's doing well. We just tried to give her an easy breeze today, we weren't wanting to go quite that quick,” Calhoun said to The Blood-Horse. “She's very willing, and obviously, she has a pretty high cruising speed. It was pretty easy for her today what she did. We had her under a pretty snug hold, that's what she did, and things went very well.”

Hidden Connection made her career debut a winning one by 7 ½ lengths at Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va., on Aug. 17. The filly returned to the winner's circle on Sept.18 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., finishing 9 ¼ lengths ahead of her competition in the Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes. After winning at Churchill, Hidden Connection shipped to Del Mar for the Breeders' Cup where she finished fourth after stumbling at the start.

Read more at bloodhorse.com

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Incredibly, however, the farm that bred both still retains, not one, but two unbeaten contenders for Friday's 2-year-old card at Del Mar. Hidden Connection (Connect), nine-length winner of the GIII Pocahontas S., looks formidable in the GI Netjets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, while One Timer (Trappe Shot) heads for the GII Juvenile Turf Sprint off a 12-length maiden win and two stakes scores. A banner achievement for any breeder. Impossible, then, to give adequate credit to St. Simon Place, whose scale of operation can be judged from the aggregate cost of the mares responsible for these four youngsters.

Tommy Wente, the man responsible, quickly does the math.

“Out of the four mares, you know, I think it's less than $34,000 I got tied up in them altogether,” he says.

Actually, it's $32,400.

Wente telephoned his friend Tommy Eastham of Legacy Bloodstock after One Timer won at Santa Anita and Electric Ride ran second in the Chandelier on the same card.

“I just want to know, Tommy,” Wente said to his namesake. “Is this luck, or am I doing something right?”

“Well, when Hidden Connection won the other day, I guess I might have said a little luck,” replied Eastham. “But after these two here? You've got be doing something right.”

Then, when Rattle N Roll won his Grade I a few days later, Eastham called again. “Man, whatever you're doing–just keep doing it!”

So what's the secret? When you think about the fortunes being spent by others, it feels like a pretty big question.

“Everybody asks me that!” says Wente, who runs the breeding division of St. Simon while partners Calvin and Shane Crain concentrate on a parallel sod-growing business. “I'm known for going in there and buying cheap horses. But they're not really cheap horses, in my eyes. For me, they're very well-bred horses that come from very good farms. Okay, so they've been culled: this one's got a bad knee, this one's a little sore, this one needs more leg. But that's what I look for, because I can't buy mares that are perfect.

“So I look for the kind I can breed to something that can fix them. I see whether I can breed [any issues] out of them, and can get me something on the ground that I can sell. But that's what makes it even more amazing to us, everything that's been happening. Because often you can get by with those kinds of mares if you're racing their babies. But we sell [nearly] everything.”

One observable trait, consistent with accepting perceived flaws to meet the budget, is that all four of these mares were very lightly raced. But the real key is to find a filly out of a young mare who has been given a chance with good covers and, ideally, has already achieved prices suggestive of good physicals.

“That way I can just sit back on them,” Wente reasons. “I can let the family grow for a few years.”

A perfect example of the modus operandi is One Timer's dam Spanish Star (Blame), picked up for just $1,500 at Keeneland November four years ago.

“I knew where she was raised, I knew the owner Tracy Farmer, I knew they did it right,” Wente recalls. “Okay, she didn't work out on the racetrack, but she was the first foal of a mare that had some stuff going, she had a son by Awesome Again in work. And that turned out to be Sir Winston. A year later he wins the Belmont and, bam, I can sell the half-sister [privately] for $150,000.”

Now Wente is hoping to close out the exploding value of a couple of other diamonds found in the rough, with the dams of Hidden Connection and Rattle N Roll both scheduled to enter the ring next week.

C J's Gal (Awesome Again) was discovered at the Keeneland January Sale of 2016, having derailed after a single start. Wente knew that the big spenders would literally overlook her, being on the small side, and landed her for $9,500. Her first foal, a Tourist filly, made $70,000.

“So from there,” Wente says, “we're free-riding.”

Okay, so her second foal was a $49,000 RNA weanling who was ultimately let go for $40,000 the following September. But at least that meant Hidden Connection could benefit from the farm regime for another few months–and that, to be fair, could be as important as any other ingredient in St. Simon's success.

“I try to raise a great product,” Wente says. “I love my feeding program, I love how we wean them. And I don't put horses in a barn. Our horses are outside 24/7, raised in herds of, like, 10. And if they get kicked, they get kicked. If they get snotty noses, they get snotty noses. You know, to me, that's what makes them tough. You have to let them go through all that stuff. In my opinion, we give them too much medicine; we baby them too much. I think we get caught up, with so much money tied up in them, wanting to protect them. 'He's limping today, he doesn't feel too good, better get him inside.' No. Let that horse be a horse, let him figure it out.”

C J's Gal is offered as hip 148 (with a Frosted cover) at Fasig-Tipton; while Jazz Tune (Johannesburg) is catalogued as hip 222, in foal to Liam's Map, at Keeneland. Wente picked her up, a $20,000 apple from the tree cultivated by the late Edward P. Evans, at the same sale five years ago. She had won a Parx maiden (though in another light career) in the silks of William S. Farish. Jazz Tune has some wonderful old-school seeding to her family, out of a Pleasant Tap half-sister to two Grade I winners (plus another at Grade II level) out of the Northern Dancer blue hen Dance Review.

Mind you, no matter how much you get right, you always need a bit of luck. How fortunate, for instance, that Jazz Tune did not meet her reserve at $55,000 when Wente returned her to Keeneland, with Rattle N Roll in utero, in 2018. But sometimes it just takes a little time to develop value. One Timer, for instance, made no more than $21,000 as a yearling, his sire having meanwhile been exiled to Turkey. While we've already noted how Hidden Connection struggled for traction.

But the yearling Electric Ride brought $130,000 from Quarter Pole Enterprises at Fasig-Tipton October, some yield for an Indiana-bred daughter of a mare, Why Oh You (Yes It's True), bought for $1,400 deep in the same Keeneland November Sale that produced Jazz Tune. Electric Ride advanced her value to $250,000 through Eddie Woods at OBS the following April, while Rattle N Roll proved a still more profitable exercise for his pinhookers. A $55,000 Keeneland November weanling for Rexy Bloodstock, he made $210,000 from Kenny McPeek in the same ring the following September.

No doubt about it, then, a grounding at St. Simon Place is becoming ever more trusted; and its graduates are punching ever more above weight. Wente has now expanded its broodmare band past 40, some owned with another partner in Scott Stevens, and raised around $750,000 from eight yearlings at Keeneland in September, selling as usual through Machmer Hall.

“You've got to surround yourself with good people, people willing to help,” Wente stresses. “Because I have to reach out every day. I couldn't do what I'm doing without Carrie Brogden. She's opened a lot of doors for me, and she's always No 1 about the horses. People like her and [husband] Craig have been there and done it all. If she's says, 'Tommy, you want to pull that horse from the sale,' I'm pulling the horse from the sale. I'm going to take criticism and use it.”

That said, the driving principle remains the sweat of his own brow.

“At the end of the day, I truly believe that it's the time you put in raising them,” he says. “It's the cutting the grass, fixing the fenceboards, fixing the water. It's everything together. If you want to be the person who just sits in the house watching TV, letting everybody else do your work, fine. But I do my books, I do my matings, I do my contracts, I do my registrations. I'm as hands-on as I can be.”

They say that necessity is the mother of invention and maybe those big farms that find themselves mere bystanders at the Breeders' Cup can learn something from the strategies Wente has adapted to work his budget. Maybe insisting on perfection, on the very best that money can buy, invites its own fragilities. Maybe it's more important to concentrate on connecting with horses, and connecting them with their environment. Nothing, that way, gets in the way of the passion.

Wente first had his imagination captured when visiting the barn of his stepfather, former Hoosier Park trainer Tom Hickman, some 20 years ago. He was captivated. He simply had to have one of these beautiful animals. The one he bought, an Indiana-bred, ran once and showed nothing. Then one night the phone rang.

“We had them boarded over there at the old Quarter Horse track, Riverside Downs, in Henderson, Kentucky,” Wente recalls. “About two o'clock in the morning I had a call from the trainer. They'd had a barn fire, lost all these horses. Of course, my stepdad's horses were in there, my horse was in there. It was the low of the low. My very first horse, lost in a barn fire. But I knew I was hooked–because the very next day I was looking for another one to buy. And I've been hooked ever since. The highs are high, the lows are low, and there's no in-between. It's the guys that can take those lows, and keep on going, that are going to make it.”

So here's one such, who boards the plane for California on Thursday not just flying the flag for a 400-acre parcel of Kentucky, but for every small breeder striving against the perceived odds.

“I'm for the little guy,” Wente says. “I am a little guy. I started out in Indiana, okay. I raised so much crap over there that nobody wanted. And then I've come over here to Kentucky, but I kept the same mindset. I never changed what I did. I just started buying Kentucky stuff, and dealing with Kentucky stuff, the way I did the Indiana stuff. You don't need to have Justify or Tapit. The highest stallion we've used would be $30,000, tops.

“So I want the little breeder to know, keep your head down, keep doing what you're doing. People know me as that crazy guy going in there buying horses for $1,000, $2,000. But you know what, there is some kind of method in my madness. I haven't figured it out yet. But there's something going on, right? I've proved you can do it. You can do it, man. If I can do it, anybody can do it.”

The post Method in the ‘Madness’ Connecting Star Juveniles appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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When Hidden Connection (Connect)–the co-second choice at 5-2 on the morning line for Friday's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies–ran away to a daylight score carrying the colors of Hidden Brook Farm with Ocean Size back in second, the frontman for the fledgling partnership Black Type Thoroughbreds quickly switched gears.

“When she drew off at the eighth pole, I looked down at the Form again and I saw that Hidden Brook owned her. As soon as she crossed the wire, I sent [Hidden Brook's Bloodstock Services & Client Relations] Bryan Cross a text and said, 'If she's for sale, please let me know,'” Ballis said.

She was. But with the filly not even back to the winner's circle yet, the folks at Hidden Brook, quite understandably, needed a little bit more time to digest.

“I spoke to him again the next day and they wanted to wait for the numbers to come out,” the 41-year-old native of Houston, Texas said. “I made them an offer–I didn't care about any of the numbers–and they waited until Friday when the Rags came out and [Hidden Brook partner] Dan [Hall] called me and told me the figure. I told him that my offer stood. He came back with one other number and I just said, 'OK.'”

After working out a deal for a 40% minority interest for an undisclosed sum, the new partners and trainer Bret Calhoun began to set their sights on the first Friday in November at Del Mar via the 'Win and You're In' GIII Pocahontas S. Sept. 18.

“We were running back in four weeks off a really big effort going 5 1/2 furlongs and stretching to 1 1/16 miles and there were other options,” Ballis said. “I talked to Bret [Calhoun] and he told me, 'I've been training this filly for the Pocahontas before she broke her maiden. I'm not gonna get off that plan.' That's how high he was on her.”

You can certainly see why now.

Off as the 9-5 favorite while making her two-turn debut beneath the lights at Churchill Downs, Hidden Connection stalked and pounced her way to a second straight runaway decision, this time by 9 1/4 lengths, while establishing a new stakes record. She went two points higher on the Beyer Speed Figure scale as well, earning a very strong 87 rating.

Hidden Connection became the first of two graded black-type winners for Lane's End freshman sire Connect. The other, impressive GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity winner Rattle N Roll, will miss the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile due to a foot abscess.

Hidden Connection went through the ring four times-RNA'ing for $49,000 as a KEENOV weanling, selling for $40,000 as a KEESEP yearling, RNA'ing for $55,000 as an OBSAPR 2-year-old and selling for $85,000 to Hidden Brook after breezing a quarter in :21 2/5 at OBS June.

Breeder St. Simon Place purchased Hidden Connection's dam C J's Gal (Awesome Again), a maiden of one career start from the family of GI King's Bishop S. winner Capo Bastone (Street Boss), for just $9,500 at the 2016 KEEJAN sale.

“It's hard to be right in this game, so when you are, it's a lot of fun,” Ballis said. “We brought 40-something people to the race, too. She was very impressive.”

From just five horses to race, the early results for Black Type Thoroughbreds–launched in 2019–have been awfully impressive as well.

Pass the Champagne (Flatter), purchased privately along with R. A. Hill Stable, Rock Ridge Racing LLC, BlackRidge Stables LLC and James Brown following a debut second at Gulfstream in January, earned a trip to the GI Kentucky Oaks following a painful second to the brilliant MGISW and GI Breeders' Cup Distaff major player 'TDN Rising Star' Malathaat (Curlin) in the GI Central Bank Ashland S. at Keeneland.

Up in Smoke (The Big Beast), a $230,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old purchase by Black Type and R. A. Hill Stable, hit the ground running with three straight victories at Gulfstream before adding a win in the Game Face S. in Hallandale and a third-place finish in Saratoga's GI Longines Test S.

Black Type, R. A. Hill Stable, et al, joined Fergus Galvin on the ownership line to repatriate Breaker of Chains (Bernardini) to these shores after a pair of placings in Ireland and were immediately rewarded with a visually impressive maiden tally at Kentucky Downs. She gave herself a bit too much to do after a slow start in a paceless race and had to settle for sixth, beaten only 3 3/4 lengths, in Keeneland's GIII Rubicon Valley View S. over yielding ground Oct. 29.

Black Type Thoroughbreds also has eight head in the pipeline from this year's yearling and 2-year-old sales. The current roster of offerings includes unraced 2-year-old graduates Wish You Well (f, 2, American Freedom), a $550,000 Fasig-Tipton Florida buy (Hip 154; :10) for Black Type and R. A. Hill; and the New York-bred Jackson Square (c, 2, Union Jackson), a $140,000 OBS Spring acquisition (Hip 1140; :9 4/5*).

With Ballis's wife Maddie Mattmiller–the couple reside on a five-acre farm in Lexington, Kentucky–handling bloodstock duties at this fall's yearling sales, Black-Type acquired a trio at Keeneland September: Hip 1014, a $255,000 Mo Town filly; Hip 3182, a $120,000 Bolt d'Oro filly; and Hip 3677, a $32,000 Shaman Ghost colt. She also signed for Hip 3158, a $250,000 Army Mule filly on behalf of a George Weaver client to top the Book 5 opener. Black Type Thoroughbreds and Mattmiller stayed active at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky as well, bringing home: Hip 825, a $170,000 Uncle Mo filly; Hip 816, a $150,000 Goldencents colt; and Hip 658, a $43,000 Connect filly.

“Originally, it was just me, a couple of buddies and my family, and we kept it in house, then two years ago, I finally decided that I needed to get more people involved like Eclipse and West Point and all those groups that I want to emulate,” Ballis said.

“We've had five horses that have run–and two of them are Grade I-placed–and Hidden Connection won a Grade III and will be second or third choice in the Breeders' Cup. It's really been a heck of a ride. Maddie helps me with private purchases and also at the sales. She previously worked with Josh Stevens Bloodstock and gives me another perspective. She is a huge part of Black Type Thoroughbreds's success and future growth.

He continued, “To get a lot of friends involved from Houston as well as new partners–we only had six people put up money on our very first horse, which was Up in Smoke, and now I think I have close to 30–it means everything for me to be able to grow quick and have success for these guys. They trusted me and this year alone we've been able to take a lot of partners to the Kentucky Oaks and the Breeders' Cup. [Longtime friend and former NBA All-Star] Rashard Lewis owned horses with me back in the day and he got in on Hidden Connection. He's pumped up and hopefully he'll make it out for the Breeders' Cup.”

Ballis, a former standout college basketball player and the son of John Ballis of champion sprinter and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint runner-up Groovy fame, decided it was time to get his family back into the game after graduating from University of Houston with a degree in business management in 2003. Enter Groovy's former Hall of Fame rider Angel Cordero, Jr.

“I grew up flying with my dad to New York to watch his horses run,” Ballis said. “I was six or seven years old, so I don't remember a ton. But Cordero used to ride for my dad and he was the one that I reconnected with when I got out of college. He's been a mentor and has really helped us. Every horse that we buy I send him either replays, breezes, walking videos, etc. I value his opinion and he's still a big part of what we're doing. He was the guy that bought [2009 GII Pennsylvania Derby and GIII Tampa Bay Derby second and GI Kentucky Derby seventh] Join in the Dance (Sky Mesa) for us. That got the bug going for me.”

In addition to Join in the Dance, other previous success stories for Ballis include GSWs Cigar Street (Street Sense) and White Rose (Tapit) as well as three-time graded winner Race Day (Tapit), a $285,000 KEENOV horse of racing age purchase on behalf of owner Matthew Schera.

“Join in the Dance was our first horse and we went to the Derby and I figured it was easy,” Ballis said with a laugh.

With the imposing unbeaten 'TDN Rising Star' and MGISW Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) the clear-cut horse to beat, the task ahead will be anything but easy in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Still, Ballis remains confident as ever in Hidden Connection and the team behind him, which will be rolling 70-plus deep at Del Mar this weekend.

“I feel really good about Hidden Connection and all the partners involved,” Ballis concluded. “We have every bit as good a shot to win that race as any filly in the country.”

The post New Racing Partnership Living Up to Its Name appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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“He (Hickman) was a trainer for years and he had a house in Indiana so when my mom moved to Indiana with him, I would go visit,” he said. “He kept all his racehorses in his barn and when I saw the first one, I was hooked. I just knew, 'I have to have one of these.' And the rest is history.”

More than 20 years later and Wente is on the precipice of one of the best seasons of his life as a breeder. His farm, St. Simon Place, recently produced stakes winner Hidden Connection (by Connect), who took the Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes on Sept. 18 at Churchill Downs. The filly, along with several others already making an impression on the track, could send Wente and his partners to the Breeders' Cup World Championships with a roster that many Thoroughbred breeders never achieve.

But back in 1999 when Wente made his first foray into racing, the idea of the World Championships — or any graded stakes race for that matter — seemed a world away from his reality.

“My stepdad was a trainer and he got me my first horse,” said Wente. “I actually ended up losing that horse in a fire at a Quarter Horse track in Henderson, Ky. So that didn't go very well. But I stayed in the business, and I started off in the Indiana-bred program because that's where I'm from. I started at the bottom with no money, and we were foaling a lot of junk, but I thought it was the best thing in the world.”

Working and breeding in Indiana, Wente spent several years in the Hoosier State building up his program and his contacts. When the day-to-day operations began to stagnate, and with the allure of bigger prizes just over the state line, he decided it was time to make a change and shift the center of his operations south of the Mason-Dixon.

“It got to the point where I wasn't getting anywhere. I felt like I was in a rut,” said Wente. “So, I had a buddy of mine in Kentucky that had a farm, and I had a chance to move in on that deal. I just made the switch and came down. I have two partners now, they're sod famers — Calvin Crain and Shane Crain — So they do sod and I do horses.”

The trio now owns and operates St. Simon Place, a nearly 400-acre farm in Lexington, Ky. While the Crains focus on their sod business, the Kentucky Turf Company, Wente keeps his priority on the horses. In addition to breeding and foaling, the farm also offers yearling prep, lay-up, and boarding.

With the move to Kentucky came the opportunity for more frequent visits to the sales grounds and Wente wasted little time in buying. His strategy from the start was to suss out the diamonds in the rough: mares with minimal price tags that hold the prospect of future returns.

Hidden Connection wins the G3 Pocahontas Stakes at Churchill Downs.

“I bought a few mares and one of those that I bought was C J's Gal, who is the dam of Hidden Connection,” he said. “She was only about $9,500. Then the other mare we bought was Jazz Tune, she was $20,000. Actually, she just had a winner the other day by Connect, a maiden special weight winner.

“Our 2-year-old crop this year is unbelievable. I sold and Indiana-bred for $130,000 in October last year. Donato Lanni bought her for Quarter Pole, and she (Electric Ride) ended up getting a TDN Rising Star mention on his first time out. I also bought a mare out of a sale named Spanish Star for $1,500 and I bred her to Trappe Shot. After that baby was born, Sir Winston won the Belmont Stakes (G1) and he is Spanish Star's half-brother, so I ended up selling her for $150,000 privately. That baby, One Timer, is entered in the Speakeasy Stakes at Santa Anita.

“Then we have the 2-year-old out of Jazz Tune, Rattle N Roll, broke his maiden at Churchill and he's nominated for the Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1) at Keeneland. I don't know if it will work out, but it's just so exciting because that's a “Win and You're In” race for the Breeders' Cup. And of course, Hidden Connection looks like the real deal and we're all so excited to see what she does.

“I think I spent like $300,000 at Keeneland last year in November and I got a lot of babies out of those mares. All of those will go straight into the sale this November. I thought last year was a buyer's market so that's why I bought, and it really looks like it'll pay off because I got some fantastic foals.”

Today, Wente's broodmare band is comprised of close to 45 mares, several of which he owns with another partner, Scott Stevens. That being said, he does have plans to pare down in the coming months. Both C J's Gal and Why Oh You — the dam of Electric Ride — are entered in The November Sale, Fasig-Tipton's premier breeding stock sale, with the understanding that if their foals don't jump up to hit the board in their next races, they could remain with Wente on the farm.

“I'm getting to the point though where I don't want to get much bigger,” said Wente. “I'm working on trying to get some numbers down because I get more happiness out of buying cheap mares, watching them hit, and then reselling them for more money. I love that part of the game. We're getting hefty offers on C J's Gal, but I was informed to shut that down. If hers or one of the foals hit, then I'll probably sell. I know those mares are hard to find, but I can't always afford to keep them.”

While he now breeds largely in Kentucky, Wente continues to foal out a handful of mares in Indiana and shares part ownership of the stallion Speightsong, who stands at Swifty Farm in Seymore, Ind. Wente does race some of his stock with trainer Mark Casse, but his priorities lay heavily with breeding and selling. With so much upside in the pipeline — from Hidden Connection to Elective Ride, to One Timer, to Rattle N Roll — Wente finally feels that he, and his horses, have found their stride.

“We had an incredible yearling sale this year,” said Wente. “I think we sold eight horses for $756,000. None were spectacular but they were all good horses, and it was a great sale for everyone. I think I have a pretty good program going and I've gotten to work with some great people like Carrie and Craig Brogden of Machmer Hall, who consign my yearlings. I owe a lot to them, they steered me the right way. I also have friends I count on like Tim and Nancy Hamlin at Wynnstay. They've taught me a lot, too. I'm just blessed that I've met so many people who really help me.

“I'm not afraid to listen and learn things. I don't know it all, I just take it all in. With this game, the highs are the highs, and the lows are the lows. There is not in between. You will have more lows than highs, but you have to keep pushing through. It just seems like everything we did and the money we spent is coming full circle. I don't know the method to my madness, but it seems to work. I'm just very blessed.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Wente’s Patience, Vision As A Breeder Is Paying Off appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Calhoun was asked about how Hidden Connection's 9 1/4-length tour de force beneath the Twin Spires compared to his expectations for the filly.

“Trainers have got a million excuses, we're always nervous. We don't have quite what we want. Nothing rarely goes perfect,” Calhoun said. “But this filly showed a lot of talent early on. She breaks her maiden impressively, very easily. But we've got basically 30 days from a 5 1/2[-furlong] maiden race at Colonial to come to the Pocahontas at a mile and a 16th. So there wasn't a lot of time to prepare like I wanted. She always looked like she wanted to go two turns in the morning, but until you do it, it's a

lot to ask. With that being said, I did have a lot of confidence in her going in and I really felt like she would run really, really well that night. I thought she would get a good position on the first turn,and we really thought she wanted to go on. But like I said, until they prove it, you're not for sure.”

Calhoun has accomplished a lot since taking out his trainer's license in 1994, and currently has 3,308 wins to go along with over $92 million in earnings. He expressed gratitude and said he's far from done when asked to reflect on those numbers.

“It's been an unbelievable run. I'm hoping to reach 4,000 wins and $100 million in earnings. I love the sport. I love the horses. And it's provided a good living for me. I can't say enough about the business and what it's done for me. A lot of people have to go to job every day that they can't stand. I go to a job every day that I love.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Spendthrift Farm, West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers returned to the studio to discuss trainer Charlie Appleby's dominance in America, Tomas Mejia's 10-year suspension for using a buzzer, Bob Baffert's scratch of Medina Spirit (Protonico) from the GI Pennsylvania Derby and more. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The post Bret Calhoun Joins Writers’ Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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