Tag: into mischief

Keeneland November Closes With Gains in Gross and Average

With the Breeders' Cup returning to Lexington for the third time, headlined by the mighty Flightline (Tapit), the buzz in Lexington was electric from late October all the way through the nearly two weeks of breeding stock sales that followed the World Championships. Combine that with a deep and diverse buying bench and high demand and the result was gains in both gross and average for the 10-day Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, which ran from Nov. 7-16.

“With the close of the November Breeding Stock Sale, Keeneland is nearing the end of a remarkable fall season, and we send a sincere thank you to everyone who supported our September and November Sales, Fall Meet and Breeders' Cup,” Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin said. “Since September, we have been hard at work to showcase the best in Thoroughbred racing and sales, and we are privileged to have had the opportunity to share Keeneland with a global audience. Our November Sale benefitted from the excitement of the Breeders' Cup, the sale of the Flightline interest and the fireworks of Book 1, creating positive experiences from start to finish.”

With the Horses of Racing Age Sale being separated into its own one-day auction, to be held Nov. 17, this year, 2,245 horses went through the ring over the last 10 days for gross receipts of $210,027,700. The 2022 November sale eclipsed the gross 2,470 horses achieved during 2021 of $203,585,500 on its eighth day. The cumulative average of $93,554 was up 13.5% from last year's average of $82,423, but the median was down a tick (5.41%) from $37,000 to $35,000. The RNA percentage also rose from 17.36% last year to 21.75% for 2022.

The November Sale was topped by champion Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute), who summoned $5.5 million from Northern Farm's Katsumi Yoshida carrying her second foal by Tapit. She led a total of 12 seven-figure sellers, compared to seven in 2021, including three in Book 2, which previously had not seen a million-dollar horse since 2017.

“We really put an effort into building up the front end of the catalogue to make sure we have quality forward and the buyers were presented with the horses they expected to see and are here for,” said Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy. “I think everybody responded to that. We appreciate our consignors and breeders for supporting us in that endeavor. I think the buyers really responded. It allows us more confidence to do the things we feel are important to do and develop. We are only getting started. Without making major changes at any point, we want to make sure the tweaks we do make work. I think overall we are on the right track. We have a responsibility to the industry.”

 

 

 

Flying Into the Future

Keeneland kicked off the November Sale with a first-of-its-kind offering, a 2.5% interest in unbeaten superstar Flightline, who scored a breathtaking victory in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic two days before the auction and was retired to the Lane's End stallion barn about 16 hours later. Keeneland and Lane's End employed virtual reality and the metaverse for this unique offering and buyers responded enthusiastically. Auctioned 30 minutes prior to the start of Book 1 in a jam-packed pavilion, the Flightline share summoned $4.6 million from Brookdale's Freddy Seitz, acting on behalf of “an undisclosed Seattle-based owner and client with interests in the coffee business,” Sid Fernando reported in his Taking Stock column Nov. 9. Coolmore was the immediate underbidder.

“We are trying to push boundaries all of the time,” Lacy said. “This is a situation where the stars aligned. Bill Farish mentioned that it might be a possibility and we were looking at virtual reality and the metaverse to bring a new customer base or at least a new fan base in. When Flightline won the Pacific Classic, things got real. Coming into the Breeders' Cup, the whole industry was absolutely in awe of what he was and what his future would be as a stallion. To be able to pull something together like that was a mammoth effort on the legal side, as well as the logistics side. It was exciting for us all to be involved in.”

Lane's End's Allaire Ryan expressed similar sentiments, “It was a really unique way to start out the sale and the energy that it brought to the pavilion that afternoon was really fantastic. It had a domino effect on the subsequent purchases made in the sale, when you factor in the number of mares that were purchased specifically to be bred to Flightline. There were a few out of our consignment alone, like Shamrock Rose, Edgeway, Bayerness. Even though he is retired from racing, he is already impacting the industry from a commercial breeder standpoint. That has been an exciting wave to ride for sure.”

As Ryan stated, the retirement of Flightline made quite the impact on the November market. The partners on the no-doubt Horse of the Year were busy scooping up mares to breed to their once-in-a-lifetime horse, as were several other breeders. For example, Flightline's breeder and part-owner Jane Lyon of Summer Wind Farm was third-leading buyer for the sale, acquiring four mares for her new stallion for $4.625 million with an average of $1,156,250. Her purchases were topped by the aforementioned MGSW and GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint runner-up Edgeway (Competitive Edge) for $1.7 million.

Flightline wasn't the only new stallion impacting the November market, however. The partners on MGISW 'Rising Star' Life Is Good (Into Mischief), who gave Flightline all he had through swift fractions for the first mile of the Classic, were also actively acquiring mares for WinStar's new addition. For instance, the China Horse Club bought five mares for a total of $1.75 million for an average of $350,000.

Lane's End Leads All Consignors

Even without the $4.6-million boost provided by Flightline, Lane's End took the title of leading consignor for this year's November Sale. The Farish family's operation sold a total of 129 head, including Flightline's fractional interest, for $23,460,400 with an average of $181,864. Even excepting the share, Lane's End was still the November Sale's top seller. Their top-selling mare was champion female sprinter Shamrock Rose (First Dude), who brought $3 million from Japan's KI Farm carrying a foal by Curlin and is set to meet Flightline next year.

 

 

“It is super gratifying for us to be leading consignor even without the big sale of the Flightline share, which was a really fun way to start out the sale,” Ryan said. “We had some really quality offerings in Book 1 and Book 2, which set us out on the right foot. Where there is quality, there is plenty of depth in the market. People that did bring good horses were rewarded for it, which was great to see. We had some nice broodmare prospects. We had some lovely in-foal mare and a couple of standout weanlings. It had a trickle down effect from there.”

Bisou On Top Again

An Eclipse winner in 2019 and Fasig-Tipton November topper in 2020, MGISW Midnight Bisou was at the head of the class again at this year's Keeneland November Sale. Purchased by Chuck and Lori Allen for $5 million at the aforementioned Fasig sale, she is headed to Japan after bringing $5.5 million from Katsumi Yoshida with a Tapit filly in utero. Midnight Bisou was offered by John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, which also sold the $7-million Fasig-Tipton November topper, champion Gamine (Into Mischief), who went to Coolmore's M.V. Magnier in foal to Quality Road.

“It was a great thrill,” said Sikura. “We topped both the Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland sales. All the credit to our team and the people who supplied us with a great draft of horses. It is all about quality and we were fortunate enough to have had a fantastic sale at both sales companies. This is the second consecutive year we topped Fasig-Tipton and it was nice to do it at Keeneland as well. Credit to the horses. We had a good strong market. People can't get enough of quality.”

He continued, “Everyone is very specific about what they like. There are different categories of mares, but if you are going to sell a $100,000 mare, you want it to be an early cover and in foal to the right horse. If you want to sell sale toppers, you need to have pedigree and good race records with those early covers and the right sire. I thought everybody who brought quality was well rewarded. This trend has continued for the last many years and it looks like it is here to stay. ”

Weanlings In High Demand

John Sikura | Keeneland

After a record-setting Keeneland September Yearling Sale, the weanling market was very strong and competitive at the November Sale, producing North America's top-priced weanling for the fourth consecutive year. That youngster was a Medaglia d'Oro filly out of SW Serena's Cat (Storm Cat), dam of champion Honor Code (A.P. Indy), who was purchased for $1.5 million by Magnier.

“In Book 1, we grossed 45% more for weanlings than we did last year,” said Keeneland's Directory of Sales Operations Cormac Breathnach. “We really appreciate the support of the breeders and consignors. We depend on them heavily. Your sale is only as good as the catalogue. It's been a terrific collaboration. The market has been bullish. We are enjoying a good time in the industry.”

That trickled down into the later books, creating a stronger middle market for weanlings with varying pedigrees.

“It is quite hard to sell a mare that is 12-15 even if they had a stakes-placed horse and a few winners,” Sikura said. “If they are good foal, it doesn't matter who they are by, how old the mare is or what their up-close pedigree is. Obviously, the more you have of all of that criteria, the more they make of it. I've seen foals walk through and bring $180,000 and you look at the sire and think, who is this? The pendulum has swung now so much toward the physical horse. I think that is the determining factor at the yearling sales and also at the foal sales. They have to vet. They have to have the smooth physical and great walk. Those kinds, they chase them hard.”

“Where you have quality, you had plenty of people interested,” said Ryan. “If for some reason a mare or weanling didn't tick all the boxes, it felt thinner. It didn't take long for that feeling to set in. I think there was still plenty of good competition in the weanling market, especially for good physicals. People were rewarded at the yearling sales this year and they were looking to reinvest, but they weren't willing to take a lot of risk if it didn't have a top physical or had some vet issues.”

The leading sire of weanlings for the 10-day auction was MGISW 'TDN Rising Star' and new Gainesway sire McKinzie (Street Sense) with 23 members of his first crop bringing $3.162 million with an average of $137,478.

Tapit, Into Mischief Rule Keeneland

Buoyed by the sale of the 2.5% fractional interest in his star son Flightline, Tapit led all sires with a gross of $9,507,000 and average of $365,654. Taking the Flightline share out of the equation puts super sire Into Mischief on top with 31 head bringing $6,961,500 with an average of $224,565.

Hill 'n' Dale's new addition, MGISW 'Rising Star' Charlatan (Speightstown), was the sale's leading covering sire by gross with 27 mares carrying his first foals bringing $8.472 million and averaging $313,778. Lane's End stalwart Quality Road was second with 11 mares carrying his offspring summoning $7.675 million with an average of $697,727, easily tops among sires with five or more in-foal mares sold. Curlin and Tapit each averaged seven figures for their limited in-foal mares.

“Charlatan covered a great book of mares,” Sikura said. “The most elite mares did not go to public auction. I think the momentum is building and we are looking forward to his first foals. He bred outstanding mares.”

 

 

 

Foreign Buyers Boost November Market

A treasure trove of foreign buyers, led by Japan, gave the November market a significant boost, creating even more depth and diversity in the buying bench. Japan's Katsumi Yoshida led all buyers by gross at $9.7 million and average at $3,233,333. Each of the three mares purchased by his bloodstock agent Shingo Hashimoto fetched seven figures, highlighted by sale-topping Midnight Bisou.

“The international market was a critical part of the outcome of this sale,” Lacy said. “Japanese buyers were extremely active, especially at the top, despite the swing in the exchange rate, which is not in their favor. That was extremely gratifying to see. We had buyers from 29 countries participate at the sale. That is on the high end of what we would expect. With the dollar being so strong, it is great to get that international support. It's a global marketplace and we work on that very heavily. We've seen 60 or 70 Australians here, which we haven't seen in years. We've seen Europeans here that have not been in here in six or seven years and they were back and were active. They are energized by what they see. That is very encouraging for us.”

The top 20 horses, including the Flightline share, were purchased by 15 individual buyers, three of which were from Japan.

Domestic buyers also remained active at the November Sale. In addition to the aforementioned Coolmore and Summer Wind Farm, one of the most active American buyers was Pin Oak Stud, recently purchased by Jim and Dana Bernhard. They scooped up 15 mares for their new farm for a total of $4.354 million. Bloodstock agent Chad Schumer bought the most horses during the 10-day auction, taking home 51 head for $3,385,500 with an average of $66,382.

 

 

 

Final Session Stats

Wednesday's 10th and final session of the Keeneland November Sale, which was the third session of Book 5, was topped by a pair of $45,000 weanlings. Upper Mill Stable took home a filly from the first crop of Honor A.P. (Hip 3514) and J. T. Vill purchased a colt by Kantharos (Hip 3545).

A total of 154 horses sold Wednesday for $1,148,600 with an average of $7,458 and median of $3,600. Thirty-three horses failed to meet their reserves for an RNA rate of 17.65%.

Racehorses Moved To A Separate Sale

Horses of racing age have been a traditional part of the Keeneland November Sale, typically being sold in the middle of auction, except for last year when it they were offered during the final session. This year, Keeneland separated that popular section out and made it its own single-day sale to be held Thursday after the conclusion of Breeding Stock Sale.

“For the first year it is its own sale, for several reasons,” Breathnach said. “One is the later entry deadline. It is a more dynamic catalogue. We can give it a greater online presence with more Form, figures and data associated with each offering. That is something that is a little difficult to do when you have an Aug. 1 deadline like we do with the breeding stock sale. We are also confined by the number of horses in each session. Those horses were catalogued in the second half during Book 3 or Book 4, which took up spots breeders wanted their mares or foals to be in.”

He continued, “It is its own sale so it can have its own identity and own dynamic and build a stronger catalogue. It allows it to go forward. The horses in training market is very strong. Our position in the calendar year is when people are transitioning to new locations for the winter, so they got a chance to buy or sell stock that will fit where they are going or be better off elsewhere.”

The HORA sale, which begins at noon, has a catalogue of 356 racehorses of varying ages, including several promising juveniles and an array of black-type competitors. Last year's HORA portion, which was part of a mixed final of 10 sessions, was topped by the 2-year-old colt Strava (Into Mischief), who brought $825,000.

 

 

The post Keeneland November Closes With Gains in Gross and Average appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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‘Nobody Has a Crystal Ball’

Probably you know Carrie Brogden. The way her ideas, opinions, memories, emotions come tumbling out, one on top of the other. And how even after a few minutes she will have shared way too much of this torrent of vitality for the narrow channel of paragraphs that follows here.

Except you don't know Carrie Brogden. For instance, did you know that she's only here because of Einstein? Seriously. We'll come to that, and to the Beanie Babies, too, who have a more immediate role in her story.

But how are we truly supposed to know any human being, when even our collective obsession with an animal of largely simple needs still leaves us groping for answers?

Okay, so the latest Machmer Hall graduate to hit the big time, Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup winner Gina Romantica, is one of those that makes us feel that we might indeed be working to some coherent, viable principles. She's by Into Mischief, she cost a million bucks, so of course she's a Grade I filly.

But then she only cost that much because her mother Special Me (Unbridled's Song) had already produced millionaire Gift Box and graded stakes winners Stonetastic (Mizzen Mast) and Special Forces (Candy Ride {Arg})–and Brogden and her husband Craig found that mare, all 14.2 hands of her, for $6,000 at the Keeneland January Sale of 2009.

“Nobody has a crystal ball,” Brogden says. “We bred another Into Mischief, a colt we sold for $500,000, and he was a morning glory. He did not give a crap about running. The only Into Mischief I ever had that had no heart to run, it's such an unusual thing for him.”

Rather more characteristically, Brogden made it her business to salvage the horse from the wreckage of expectation.

“He was running in cheap claimers, and being claimed and claimed and claimed,” she says. “So I called the last trainer and bought him privately, and we placed him. And of course, he shipped in and, goddamn, he is breathtaking. But I'll tell you one thing, he's a lot happier being a show hunter, because he's happy going slow. And that's something I cannot predict. None of us can.”

But that cuts both ways. If all that glisters is not gold, then nor should we ignore diamonds in the rough.

“I've had so many great horses whose X-rays do not match,” Brogden says. “Just recently, I had a super-nice racehorse failed for a private sale, because 'issue' was found on an X-ray–from a cracked shin as a young horse, before his racing career, long healed. He's running, he's sound, he's working awesome, he's just won a couple of stakes. I mean, Flat Out (Flatter) had a big old defect in his front sesamoid. And he won, what, $6 million? And the people that bought him did so because they took the consignor's word [i.e. Meg Levy of Bluewater] that this was a nice, sound horse–which, obviously, he proved to be.”

She cites a maxim of Florida horseman Albert Davis: “Never forget that vets pass as many horses that can't run as they fail horses that can.”

Without that crystal ball, then, all we can do is try to breed and raise horses for a competitive outlook.

“Management makes you, management breaks you,” says Brogden. “I mean, ours don't come in. Sleet, rain, thunderstorms, they're out there learning how to face adversity. Now, if they're sick or injured, we take care of them. But if they're healthy, horses need to be outside. As Chris Baker once told me, 'Barns were created for people.'

“Year after year, it's the same breeders raising the racehorses. There's a big reason why those Ashview horses ran one-two in the Belmont. Because they keep them out in the fields, bumping around. We don't separate any of our colts until we go to prep. That's why I'm really proud of my horses a lot of times: in a crowded situation, coming up the rail, they won't be afraid.”

Brogden works from flesh and blood, not paper formulae. She comes from a family of mathematicians, took statistics in college herself, and is dismayed by the influence of flimsy data on mating strategies. All she wants is to breed a big, beautiful athlete, and that should be challenge enough. If you breed by numbers, and end up with a little rat, good luck.

Of course, she absolutely believes in pedigree; and why wouldn't you, when you have one like hers? Ever wondered where Machmer Hall gets its name? Step forward great-grandfather Dean William L. Machmer of the University of Massachusetts. Opposite him, on the maternal branch of her family tree, stands an equally distinguished figure: Guido Fubini, who fled Italy as Mussolini began to accelerate persecution of the Jews.

“If you ever saw the movie A Beautiful Mind, with Russell Crowe, the theorem on the blackboard, that he's trying to work through, is the Fubini Theorem,” Brogden explains. “Einstein, believe or not, helped my great-great-grandfather get a job in Princeton. They didn't tell their anyone, their housekeepers, nobody, they just went across the Swiss border on a day trip, and my grandmother had sewn the jewelry into her fur coat.”

One day Guido's son found a young woman in the lobby of their New York apartment block struggling to buckle a ski boot. He offered to assist her, and that's how Brogden's grandfather Eugene met her grandmother Betty. Eugene went on to become Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

Brogden has a vivid sense of her Italian ancestry. “Oh, definitely, those genes flow very freely through me,” she says with a laugh. “I love Italians because we wear our hearts on our sleeves, we put it all out there. We're flamboyant and ridiculous and over-the-top. I remember when my grandfather would blow his top, yelling and screaming. And then we'd sit down for dinner two minutes later, and he'd be like, 'Can you please pass the butter?' And that's kind of how I am, too. My poor kids! I have three great teenagers, all super-easy and responsible. Thank God they're not like I was!”

It would be wrong, however, to conflate this candid, demonstrative nature with her status as a relative pioneer, in a walk of life where women have long been underrepresented.

“Sometimes you do have to remember that you're dealing with a lot of men, and that often they're not so emotional,” she says with a shrug. “And that's okay. That's the yin and yang of it. My partner Andrew Cary always used to be like, 'Be careful, make sure what you're saying is what you mean–not the emotional, flippant Carrie!' And the closest men around me are all very smart, level-headed, even-keel: they do help to calm my over-the-top, passionate nature. But men are from Mars, women from Venus? I think that that is definitely changing. I don't think the young girls coming in will face the same stuff. I mean, women weren't even allowed in the breeding shed until the '80s. So, a lot of things have changed.”

Besides all her colorful antecedents, more immediately Brogden was also born to horses. Her parents were both veterinarians, ran an animal hospital in Virginia before taking on a farm in Ocala for a while. After they separated, Brogden's mother brought the kids back to Virginia to live with their Fubini grandparents. A traumatic experience, at an impressionable age, but the memory of her cherished grandmother would later be honored by Baby Betty (El Corredor) among Machmer Hall's foundation mares.

Brogden had been riding and showing through her girlhood, but parked the horses for psychology at college, and–ah yes, for the Beanie Babies. Her mom had launched a pet-themed gift store, and landed on a bewildering craze for these stuffed animals. Each cost only $2.50 wholesale but they were selling them online for $75 as fast as they could pack them up.

Their house was full of boxes, literally floor to ceiling. They rode the hectic wave, were glad when it finished, and Brogden's mom played up some of the winnings on a couple of mares, including an unraced daughter of Affirmed for just $7,700 deep in the Keeneland November Sale. And her half-brothers by His Majesty turned out to be GI Arlington Million winner Tight Spot and GI Hollywood Futurity winner Valiant Nature.

“So, she got really lucky there, and that was the start of it,” says Brogden, who now slipstreamed back to her first love, the horse; and met another one on the way, in the Australian chap she met one night in McCarthy's in Lexington.

But Brogden's debt to her mother Sandy Willwerth is not just a career path. All four siblings, growing up, were constantly challenged to raise the bar. And, sure enough, all graduated college to make an impact: one brother is a high-flying venture capitalist in California, another owns a construction company back in Virginia, their other sister has carved out a similar niche with show hunters to the one Machmer Hall has established with Thoroughbreds.

The program took root in Virginia but the superior land soon summoned them to Kentucky, where they started in 2001 with a parcel of 105 acres, cattle-grazed but auspiciously sited between Stone Farm and Claiborne. Craig had been working under the late Dr. Phil McCarthy, the pioneering reproductive veterinarian, at Watercress Farm.

“And a lot of our philosophy comes from Dr. McCarthy,” Brogden acknowledges. “Let horses be horses. Don't hothouse them. The only time they have to look spectacular is the day they walk onto the sales grounds.”

She says people give her grief over her support of HISA. It's not as though she won't give antibiotics to a horse with an infection; or apply shockwave to a hematoma.

“But I don't go through my stable and inject hocks and stifles on 15 different yearlings,” she says. “I think we've injected one yearling's ankle in two years. Any treatment we give is warranted and needed. I don't want to do blanket treatments, which I think is really what happened with Lasix. I know certain people won't like that I feel this way. But ultimately it's because I want our industry and everyone in it to be more successful.

“I'm not trying to talk down anyone else's product. I'm trying to raise the best horse I can. And I am not money-driven. I am success-motivated. The buyers know, if I know of a legitimate problem with a certain horse, I will absolutely tell them. I mean, we swim all our yearlings. I have a very good idea of who can and cannot breathe! The last thing in the world I want is somebody to buy a bad horse from me, especially for a lot of money.”

She would rather write off a sale and earn repeat business, just as she herself goes back to the same, trusted sources: whether Unbridled's Song mares, or Fox Hill mares, or mares bought by Ron Ellis for Spendthrift. Those have all added up, mind: Machmer Hall is now up to 560 acres, and 115 mares–the most they've ever had, and some will be traded out as they want no more than 85 foaling. Plus, don't forget 40 to 50 2-year-olds, spread among different consignors, and others retained for the track.

“I'm just a horse addict,” Brogden apologizes. “But they help you learn every year. I mean, one thing I've definitely learned through X-ray: don't start prep too early. They only need 60 days, otherwise you're going to create sesamoiditis. You watch that show, The Biggest Loser, where all these butterball people start a program of exercise and eating right, and all of a sudden most of them, wow, they look amazing. I think that prep is really our way of seeing the true nature of the athlete. When my parents had the farm down in Florida, you just kept them in the stall, kept their coats, and everything sold off pedigree. But all that's changing.”

The one constant, of course, remains the need for luck. Thirteen years ago this week Brogden and her partners were underbidders on the weanling colt that became Prime Cut (Bernstein), and instead settled for his dam for $4,500 from the back ring. If Life Happened (Stravinsky) could produce such a gorgeous son, then never mind if she was barren and reputed to be savage.

They tried to return her to Bernstein, but he had three mares confirmed that day so Brogden called round. Here was this big, stout, beautiful mare that needed to be bred today–and Spendthrift offered a new stallion called Into Mischief.

That mating produced Vyjack and next time, getting back in to Bernstein, they came up with Tepin herself. Brogden gratefully salvaged Prime Cut for $1,000 when he was discarded through a sale at the end of his racing days. Their dam, after all, couldn't have been better named. In a game of such uneven fortunes, in the end life just happens. No crystal ball.

“But that's the greatest thing about it,” Brogden says eagerly. “The fateful part that we can't control. I think that that's why so many men and women that are super-successful in other businesses come here–because they can't put a box around it. If they could, Sackatoga Stables would never have won the Derby with Funny Cide, you'd never have had the school bus and everything. I mean, that's what dreams are made of, right?

“You can have the best mare, the best stallion, and it's a beautiful physical mating. Everything works on paper. And then you have a nocardioform placentitis foal, 75lbs. And that's it, you're not going to have a racehorse. But ultimately, the fact that we can't really know is the greatest thing about it. Because the most valuable commodity of all is hope.”

The post ‘Nobody Has a Crystal Ball’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Saturday Insights: Loaded Field Of Maiden Fillies Headlines Del Mar’s Opening Weekend

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency               

4th-DMR, $70K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 5:00 p.m.

The third foal out of four-time champion Beholder (Henny Hughes), TEENA ELLA (War Front) debuts Saturday for the same connections as her dam, owner/breeder Spendthrift Farm and trainer Richard Mandella. Beholder, herself out of blue hen Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek), is a half-sister to the likes of GISW & top-10 freshman sire Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy) as well as GISW & perennial leading sire Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday). The first of her siblings to make the races as 2-year-old, Teena Ella enters off a pair of back-to-back six-furlong bullets, working from the gate in 1:12 4/5 (½) Oct. 27 and timed in 1:13 2/5 (1/4) Nov. 3.

A $940,000 yearling purchase by David Wilson out of last year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, Miss Monarch Bay (Into Mischief) is a half-sister to MGSP Sine Wave (Big Brown) and from the family of G1SW Menhoubah (Dixieland Band). She picks up jockey Victor Espinoza for trainer Mike McCarthy.

Following a workman-like breeze in :10, Wudi (Uncle Mo), originally a $117,000 yearling purchase, sold for $725,000 to Donato Lanni out of the OBS Spring Sale. The second foal out of a half-sister to MGSW His Race To Win (Stormy Atlantic) and the dam of GISW El Tormenta (Stormy Atlantic) and GSW Zero Tolerance (Mizzen Mast), this is the family of leading sire Smart Strike (Mr. Prospector), Canadian Horse of the Year Dance Smartly (Danzig) and Canadian champion 2-year-old filly Hello Seattle (Deputy Minister). Wudi races for trainer Bob Baffert in the silks of Baoma Corp.

The other half of the un-coupled Bob Baffert entry, Faiza (Girvin) also brought $725,000 as a 2-year-old out of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale following a breeze in :10.1. Second dam, MGSW & MGISP Pomeroys Pistol (Poneroy), also produced MGSW & Spendthrift stallion Thousand Words (Pioneerof the Nile). TJCIS PPS

3rd-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, f, 1m, 2:00 p.m.

A $525,000 Keeneland September yearling, MADLY DANCING (Curlin), for trainer John Ortiz, is a half-sister to GI Preakness third Creative Minister (Creative Cause), MGSP Battalion Runner (Unbridled's Song), MGSP Oceanwave (Harlan's Holiday), and GISP Dolder Grand (Candy Ride {Arg}). She is also out of a full-sister to GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner and late sire Tapizar.

Breaking to the outside is $500,000 KEESEP Juddmonte purchase Undoubtedly (Blame), a daughter of MGISP And Why Note (Street Cry {Ire}), who has also produced MGSW Fearless (Ghostzapper) and MGSP Just Whistle (Pioneerof the Nile). This is also the family of GSW & MGISP Lone Sailor (Majestic Warrior) and MGSW Timeline (Hard Spun). TJCIS PPS

10th-GP, $52K, AOC, 3yo/up, 1m, 5:09 p.m.

Making his first start since a distant eighth to Art Collector (Bernardini) in the 2021 Alydar S., JESUS' TEAM (Tapiture) returns to racing after a tumultuous layoff. After undergoing surgery for an ankle chip following his last race, MGISP Jesus' Team suffered both a bacterial infection that threatened his life and laminitis in both of his front feet. It has been a slow recovery back but, after runner-up efforts in both the 2020 GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and the 2021 GI Pegasus World Cup to Horse of the Year Knicks Go (Paynter), the Jose D'Angelo trainee returns Saturday off a steady Palm Meadows work tab. TJCIS PPS

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Life Is Good, The Newest Addition at WinStar Farm

They could have entered him in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile or the Sprint, where he would have been a top choice in either spot, but the connections of Life Is Good (Into Mischief – Beach Walk, by Distorted Humor) opted to send their versatile 4-year-old to the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic.

While there was no beating Flightline (Tapit) that day, Life Is Good threw it down with his undefeated competitor, forcing Flightline to chase him through blazing early fractions of :22.55 and :45.47. The Classic marked only his third defeat, but Life Is Good was far better than good in his final career start.

“It was a tough decision to decide which was the right race for Life is Good on Breeders' Cup Day,” said his trainer Todd Pletcher. “We felt like with his body of work and his success leading into it, he deserved a chance for champion older horse and Horse of the Year. We let him do his thing with his running style, which is a high cruising speed, and he took it to Flightline. I think he went out in style.”

Campaigned by China Horse Club and WinStar Farm, Life Is Good was the winner of nine races from 12 career starts. A 'TDN Rising Star' on debut at two, the eye-catching bay remained in graded stakes company from there, earning eight graded victories over his career. His resume includes four Grade I wins, starting with a definitive score in last year's edition of the Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and then this year adding the Pegasus World Cup Invitational S., Whitney S. and Woodward S.

“What made Life Is Good so special is that he had that unique ability to go fast and carry that speed over a distance of ground,” Pletcher reflected. “From a trainer's perspective, he was very healthy, very sound and just loved his job. Every day he came out, he trained exceptionally and had a great attitude.”

Last year's edition of the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S., where Life Is Good ran second by a neck to the season's eventual Champion Male Sprinter Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music), is a race that WinStar's Elliott Walden remembers as one of the colt's most impressive performances.

“That race, to me, was one of his best,” Walden said. “He was just beat coming off a 170-day layoff. I think when people remember Life Is Good as a racehorse, they will remember that he participated in all the big races. We were not afraid to run him at distances that maybe didn't suit him best, whether it was seven furlongs against Jackie's Warrior or a mile and a quarter against Flightline. He's one of the greats that we've had at WinStar.”

Life Is Good arrived at WinStar Farm the morning after the Breeders' Cup and received a warm welcome from his WinStar and China Horse Club connections. Todd Pletcher also stopped by to send off his pupil, who was known as 'Scooter' around the barn.

“He was such a huge part of our stable for almost the last two years that literally our schedule was built around his schedule,” Pletcher explained. “We're going to miss him a lot, but at the same time we're really pleased that he's able to retire to a farm like WinStar and get an opportunity to prove himself as a stallion. We look forward to seeing his babies.”

The son of Into Mischief was bred by Gary and Mary West Stable and sold for $525,000 as a yearling in 2019. His dam Beach Walk (Distorted Humor) is out of the multiple Grade I-placed Mineshaft mare Bonnie Blue Flag, whose family includes multiple Grade I winner Diamondrella (GB) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}), Group 3 victor Spectroscope (Medaglia d'Oro) and multiple graded stakes-placed runner Highest Honors (Tapit).

Life Is Good gets his fourth Grade I score in the Woodward S. | Sarah Andrew

“He's about 16'1, so he's a little bigger than Into Mischief,” Walden said. “He has a little bit more scope and range, but all the parts of a fast-looking horse. You can see when he moves how he just springs off with great, quick action that should translate to athletic foals. The Into Mischiefs have a real desire to run and Life Is Good showed that he wanted to compete at every level, every race and every work. Being by Into Mischief and also having Distorted Humor on the bottom, he gets a double dose of that competitiveness.”

Life Is Good's initial stud fee of $100,000 will be among the highest of this year's incoming crop, however Walden said that they have been conservative in their selection process as they begin filling the young sire's first book.

“We plan to breed him to about 160 mares,” Walden said. “We have a lot of requests each week, but we're not taking every mare. We're thinking about where each mare would fit into his whole group. We're making him worthy of a $100,000 stud fee, so we've turned down a lot of mares and are being very critical on that.”

He continued, “I think from a standpoint of what we've had here at Winstar, he would be at the very top as far as the great horses that we've had. Being by Into Mischief and with his physical presence and athleticism, we're super excited about his next career.”

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