Nick Cosato, who has made a habit of hitting the winner’s circle with graded stakes victors from his Slam Dunk Racing partnership, will aim for big-time success in the sales ring when he offers a colt from the first crop of champion Arrogate during the second session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale Sept. 14. Consigned by War Horse Place, the gray yearling (hip 280) is a half-brother to Grade I winner Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect).
The hard-trying speedster Whitmore has become a fan favorite with six graded stakes wins over the last four years and he continues to have success into his 7-year-old season, most recently finishing second in the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. But it was the venerable gelding’s very first start back in November of 2015 that first attracted Cosato’s attention.
“When Whitmore ran in his debut race, I loved the way he ran,” Cosato said. “I reached out to [trainer] Ron Moquett and tried to buy him. This was early on in Slam Dunk’s existence. It kind of sounded like they were going to sell, but then they got an internal partner to buy in, so he wasn’t for sale. I thought the next best thing would be his dam.”
Whitmore’s dam Melody’s Spirit (Scat Daddy) had failed to sell at that year’s Keeneland January Sale when offered by his breeder, John Liviakis.
“I reached out to John Liviakis, who at the time was racing in California,” Cosato said. “I asked John if he would be interested in selling the mare and he initially said no. But two weeks later, he called me back and he said, ‘You know what, I am interested in selling her.’ So I bought her.”
Cosato’s first foal out of the unraced mare was Kid Sis (Atriedes), who sold for $135,000 at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton July Yearling Sale and eventually joined Moquett’s barn after selling for $130,000 at the OBS June sale the following year.
The mare’s colt by Liam’s Map sold to Alex and JoAnn Lieblong for $190,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale. Now named Skip Intro, the bay colt is training with Moquett at Churchill Downs and most recently worked five furlongs in 1:01.20 (12/19) Aug. 23.
“The Liam’s Map, from what I’ve been told, has had three or four and they are pretty high on that one,” Cosato said.
Of the decision to send Melody’s Spirit to Arrogate, Cosato said, “He was a phenomenal racehorse. I would say, in my lifetime, Secretariat’s GI Belmont S. win, Arazi’s win in the Breeders’ Cup, and you’d have to put Arrogate’s win in the G1 Dubai World Cup right up with those two. There was a lot of buzz and I thought it would be great to go to a stallion like that. Here we are a couple of years later and hopefully he represents us well at the sale.”
Now 11, Melody’s Spirit is in foal to Constitution.
“She throws an absolutely beautiful foal and she has been an absolute treat to have. We are looking forward to the Constitution–knock on wood that it comes out safe and healthy,” Cosato said.
A California native, Cosato was a jockey’s agent for two decades, handling the books of leading riders like Pat Valenzuela, Victor Espinoza, Corey Nakatani, Garrett Gomez and Michael Baze. After a hiatus from the game to raise his son Ryan, he started his Slam Dunk Racing in 2013. The partnership’s silks have been carried to victory by graded stakes winners Beau Recall (Sir Prancelot {Ire}), Madame Dancealot (Ire) (Sir Prancelot {Ire}), Maxim Rate (Exchange Rate) and Axelrod (Warrior’s Reward). In partnerships, Slam Dunk enjoyed graded success last year with GII Triple Bend S. winner Air Strike (Street Sense) and this year with GII Davona Dale S. winner Tonalist’s Shape (Tonalist), who goes postward in Friday’s Charles Town Oaks.
While Slam Dunk is a racing partnership, the breeding operation is all Cosato’s.
“Melody’s Spirit is my best broodmare,” Cosato said. “I play at a lower level on a lot of the others, based on pedigree. I try to race most of them, but the higher-end ones, I can’t afford not to sell them. We have 80 horses, total, broodmares, weanlings, yearlings and horses in training. We probably have 35 to 40 in training. When you race a lot, you have to generate some revenue, so some of them, even though I would love to keep them and race them, they just get too expensive to keep and race.”
Melody’s Spirit was acquired from Liviakis, but she’s not the only one and Cosato credits the California breeder with the creation of his own broodmare band.
“We started talking pedigrees,” Cosato recalled of his introduction to the breeding side of the industry. “John is a big out-cross guy and he taught me a decent amount about the whole out-cross breeding. Before I knew it, I had a lot of his mares. John is a pretty excitable guy when things are going good. When things go south, he lets go of a lot of things. So if you catch him at the right time, you can get a pretty decent deal. He is a fair man. Things were going really well for me and I grabbed a few of his broodmares.”
He continued, “It’s a crap shoot, it’s an expensive part of the game. The game is expensive generally, but the breeding-like they say, if you want to make a billionaire a millionaire, tell them to get a farm.”
Cosato will be hoping to make the breeding industry work for him when he sends his lone yearling offering of the year through the ring at Keeneland.
“Hopefully there are many more to follow, but this will be our first Book 1 offering,” he said. “Obviously, if this colt doesn’t bring what I think he should, then I would consider racing him. But I think he’s going to. He’s a really good-looking individual.”
The Keeneland September Yearling Sale begins Sunday, Sept. 13 and continues through Sept. 25. The two Book 1 sessions which open the auction begin at noon. Following a dark day Tuesday, the sale resumes with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.
The post Cosato Hoping Sales Are a Slam Dunk, Too appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
The Kentucky Derby is a handicapping challenge unlike any other. It’s the only race in North America where bettors must choose between 20 lightly-raced 3-year-olds traveling a testing 1 1/4-mile distance. It’s a recipe for surprising outcomes, as was the case in 2019, when 65.20-1 longshot Country House was elevated to victory via disqualification.
The past two weeks has proven a veritable roller coaster ride for Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas. After opting to keep his operation in Kentucky for the summer rather than shift to upstate New York as he has done for over the past four decades, Lukas admitted that earlier this month, he began to feel less that ‘perfect,’ although he didn’t present any of the classic symptoms that went with COVID-19. At least not initially.
“I was being checked at the gate every day and I didn’t have a temperature and I didn’t really have any of the other symptoms, but [wife] Laurie and I decided I should get a test with [Kentucky] Derby week coming up,” recalled Lukas. “My granddaughter, who is a PA [physcian assistant] told me not to mess with getting in line to have a test and said I should come straight to the hospital and we’d have it done quickly.”
He continued, “While I was at the hospital, they found I had some fluid around my heart, which was probably a result of the broken ribs [sustained during a fall from his pony at Churchill Downs last month] that hadn’t fully healed. At that point, they concentrated on the heart and didn’t think it was [coronavirus]. They did all these tests for my heart and treated me for that, and since they didn’t think I had the virus, they sent me home. Later that night, all hell broke loose.”
And things quickly went from bad to worse.
“They later called me and told me I tested positive for the virus. And believe me, they didn’t have to call me to tell me that. I felt it. The first two nights were so critical, and I couldn’t get my air. I would have done anything to have access to a ventilator at that point. You feel like you’re drowning. But once I got through those two nights, I just needed to rest and get my strength back. Once you get through that critical period, even something like putting on your tennis shoes is a major task.”
“The doctors had recommended that I didn’t go back to the track for 14 days and I was in complete agreement,” he said with a laugh. “I have now spoken to several people who have had the virus and it seems to affect people in such different ways. For some it’s severe and others it’s not. For me, it was severe. If it had hit me any harder, we wouldn’t be talking right now.”
Following over two weeks on the sidelines, Lukas, armed with a follow-up ‘negative’ COVID test result, returned to the barn this week.
“I felt much better and was ready to go back, so I just saddled up and got back in the saddle,” said Lukas, who will be celebrating his 85th birthday Sept. 2. “I am not walking around too much and still taking it easy, but I am getting better every day on that count.”
This summer, Lukas campaigned his horses at Ellis Park, where he currently stands in third behind Brad Cox and Ken McPeek in earnings. He is also two wins away from McPeek, who has accounted for nine wins [as of Aug. 25] at the summer meeting.
“I’m back training and the horses are running well,” he said. “We’ve had a good meet so far and I think we have some live horses for this weekend. We also have a good lineup [Kentucky] Derby week, so we’re looking forward to that.”
In regards to the change in plans for the team this summer, he explained, “Aside from [the illness], I think staying in Kentucky this summer was the right decision. Our help was very concerned about shipping into New York, not so much the racetrack but more the community itself. We obviously have a lot of our equipment still in Saratoga, and we’ll be back next summer, but I think we really did the right thing in staying in Kentucky. Ellis has been good to us.”
Based at Churchill Downs since his return to Kentucky earlier this spring, Lukas indicated the team’s runners would continue the familiar protocol of shipping in to Keeneland to race this fall and closing out Churchill’s fall meet before returning to his winter base at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas in December.
With the worst of it in the rearview mirror, Lukas reflected on some of the struggles stemming from his recent health scare, admitting that the main component that has kept barn operations running smoothly while he convalesced was his team.
“You have to have a key person in your operation,” he said. “Over the years I had many of those people, and now I have Bas [Nicholl]. When the virus hit, I absolutely depended on him. I think we’re going to have to bronze him and put him in the infield or something like that.”
And while the barn had been observing the strict protocols in place throughout the pandemic, Lukas said he recognized that the virus was a formidable foe and not one to be taken for granted.
“The folks at Churchill have a force back there to make sure that everybody is following the rules, and our barn was really good on the front,” he said. “We were very adamant on everybody wearing their mask and have hand sanitizer available on all four corners of the barn. But once it gets you, it’s got you.”
He was asked if he has any advice for those who might be tempted to cut corners or ignore the pandemic protocols.
“The one thing I would tell everyone is to seriously not under estimate the COVID-19 virus. Whatever you do, don’t take it lightly. It gets on top of you quick and you might not be able to get out from under it.”
The post Lukas Back in the Saddle appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
