They had a book there with the check-in instructions and the history of the horse farm. I was reading the history of it, and I just wanted to share what to them is insignificant as just facts, but to me, it just hit me on the head as the truths we all need to face.

The show hunter world my daughter is riding in is absolutely booming… I mean it is much more popular now than when I was a kid growing up and showing my ponies. All of the stalls here are full and there are tons and tons of horse-loving people spending gazillion dollars to get zero return on their investments, other than their daughter or son's happiness.

It is going to be through the leadership in the horse racing world to change the trajectory that has been the same for us since I was a child at my parents Thoroughbred farm in Ocala in the 1980s. Funny as I remember the mixed sale catalogs there literally being three books and six days long in Florida.

I am no longer encouraging my daughter who wants to be a Grand Prix rider to eventually shift over to the Thoroughbreds.

Sadly, I have come to the realization that barring major change and intervention, there will be nothing left of our industry. By the time she is my age. (I am 51 she is 17)

Do you know the funny thing is about it all… We both have the most amazing draw and special thing to our industry… the HORSE!!!

But as one industry thrives the other dies.

Until it is about the sport and the horse like it is here in the show jumping world, my life, and the majority of people that I deal with in the Thoroughbred world will continue to contract in their businesses and farms…. As it is now, it is very hard for anything but the professionals to stand and be successful.

I mean, I know the expenses are all rising, as for labor, feed, hay, etc., all of the essentials, but this is the same here in the show world, so what have we done so horribly wrong? That they have done so horribly right?

To figure that out, and to move forward away from the horrendous go baby go campaigns and thought process that no longer appeals to our modern-day society… Then we might have a chance.

There is no person on the planet that wants the  Thoroughbreds and our industry to thrive and succeed more in their heart than me. I know that there are many of us, but historically most of us have not had any voice and no seat at the table where it really counts.

The table settings just keep getting smaller and smaller and instead of baking more pies, we're all just fighting over the existing slices.

I don't have all the answers, but I certainly know that there are answers out there. There has to be the willingness to implement them in a unified voice in the current “leadership,” which is not easy in anything we do. I am certainly optimistic that maybe things will change with the new program of light up racing.

The first meeting is this Monday afternoon and I certainly hope that anyone that cares like I do will be there. I want there to be something left for my children to be proud of.

Sincerely,

                Carrie Brogden, Machmer Hall

The post Letter to the Editor: Carrie Brogden appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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8th-GP, $89K, Msw, 3yo, 6f, 3:37 p.m. ET.
On the main track in Hallandale, Secret Crush (Candy Ride {Arg}) makes the races for the MyRacehorse contingent.

Purchased for $300,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September Sale, the Todd Pletcher trainee is out Elarose (Storm Cat), who went to Chiyoda's Dr. Masatake Iida in 2018 at Keeneland November for $450,000 while in foal to Quality Road.

Elarose is part of a deep family anchored by her dam, Take Charge Lady (Dehere). Her half-siblings include GI Florida Derby champ Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy), GI Travers S. victor Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song), GI Beholder Mile winner As Time Goes By (American Pharoah) and the dam of champion of 2-year-old filly Take Charge Brandi (Giant's Causeway) and 2023 top five first-crop sire Omaha Beach (War Front). TJCIS PPS

9th-TAM, $53K, Msw, 3yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 4:45 p.m. ET.
Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables bought Oversubscribed (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}) at the 2022 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale for 400,000gns. Trained by Chad Brown, the filly's extended female family includes French Group 3 winner In Clover (GB) (Inchinor {GB}), the dam of G1 Prix de l'Opera Longines S. heroine We Are (Ire) (Dansili {GB}), G1 Prix du Cadran S. hero Call The Wind (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and G1 Prix Rothschild S. victress With You (GB) (Dansili {GB}). TJCIS PPS

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Becca's Rocket, 6, (Orb-Idoitmyway, by Unbridled's Song). To be bred to Elite Power.
Becca's Rocket is currently in foal to Jackie's Warrior. We bred this Orb filly and after the untimely death of her Unbridled's Song dam in a paddock accident, I vowed to buy this beautiful stakes mare back after her racing career. When she was born, I had such high hopes for her because she was just a super model from day one. Even though Orb tanked as a stallion, I was thrilled that she ran to her looks to become a four-time stakes placed mare of over $250,000. I drove the people who owned her so crazy for over a year to buy her upon her retirement. I saw Jackie's Warrior and thought he was beyond stunning so she went to him the first year, figuring the horse version of Angelina Jolie to Brad Pitt certainly has the chance to make a beautiful baby! So, who to breed her to this year? When I was at the Breeders' Cup this year after losing my butt all day since I refused to bet the chalk, and about six drinks in, Elite Power's race was up. I was watching the post parade and all of a sudden Elite Power gallops away from the pony horse like a machine, giving me goose bumps (which I just got again thinking about it!) I turned to my husband and said, `whatever cash or betting funds we have I am putting on Elite Power.' I literally was putting in a dozen single dollar bills into the auto teller at the Little Red Feather suite with two minutes to post. Ha! He wins and happy, happy! How could one of my favorite homebred yearlings not go to one of my favorite racehorses? Becca's Rocket is booked to Elite Power.

Life Well Lived, 17, Tiznow-Well Dressed, b Notebook. To be bred to Constitution.
She is in foal to Constitution and my thoughts are, `if it ain't broke, don't fix it.' We were so lucky to buy this fabulous older multiple stakes producer the morning before her son, Parchment Party (Constitution), became a TDN Rising Star. I'm a huge, huge fan of Stone Farm who had her and raised all her runners, so I knew he had a great chance of being raised big and sound. Valerie de Meric, whose family broke and trained him, had texted me the morning she sold about his incredible talent. My mom and I were in the back ring with a tentative budget of $250,000 to purchase her. As her price climbed, I said to my mom that I did not think our original budget was going to cut it at all. We bid $340,0000 and the bid was returned slowly at $350,000 from whom I found out was her breeder, WinStar Farm. I looked at my mom as Stan the bid spotter is asking me with his gestures from his back ring post, `What do you want to do?' Mom looked at me and I asked her, `What do you want to do?' She said, `I am 76 and I can't take it with me, and I want to buy this mare.' The reference to her being 76 was not lost on me as my mind instantaneously was flooded with the memories of my beloved grandmother (my second mom) and her mother, Betty Machmer, who died in perfect health at 76 asleep on the sofa. Her loss 30 years ago still hurts. Her love, her personality, her life of supreme kindness inspired the name and spirit of what is Machmer Hall.
So we bid again. That afternoon at Keeneland, when his allowance race went off at Churchill Downs, I am sure they heard me cheering him in Louisville. The grand old gal is happily living at Machmer Hall now, a stone's throw from her former home of Stone Farm and, to top it off, I got the most wonderful and amazing congratulatory text from my favorite chef on Beat Bobby Flay after her purchase. Lynn Hancock asked me what I was going to do if he won the Derby and I told her I was going to get drunk. What a life we lead. Hope is the most valuable commodity. She is booked back to the next super stallion in Kentucky, Constitution.

Bunskie, 4, (Speightstown-Layreebelle, by Tale of the Cat). To be bred to Into Mischief.
Many years ago, we bought a top-class older mare when she was 19 years old. She was carrying a Tale of the Cat filly at the time. That mare was Voodoo Lily, who became the granddam of Justify. The resultant Tale of the Cat filly unfortunately injured her shoulder in a field accident so we kept her as a broodmare and named her Layreebelle (after my kids Layne, Reece, and Isabelle). Layreebelle has gone onto be a triple-graded-stakes producer with her most recent filly, Three Witches (Into Mischief) running third in the Breeders' Cup Sprint and selling for $1.7 million at Keeneland November.
We retained the now four-year-old Speightstown daughter out of Layreebelle named Bunskie, my youngest brother's childhood nickname. She foaled a fancy Bolt d'Oro filly just last night! In deciding where to go next, we looked to our favorite super sire, Into Mischief. His live-foal stud fee is out of our comfort zone, so we did a package of no-guarantee seasons in him with Spendthrift and she is booked on one of those seasons. We cannot wait to have a handful of Into Mischiefs back on the farm next year!

Stonetonic, 6, (Candy Ride {Arg}-Stonetastic, by Mizzen Mast.) To be bred to Flightline.
We were lucky enough to breed Grade II winner Stonetastic out of our super mare, Special Me. We were anxious to have a filly from that family, so when her first daughter Stonetonic came to auction in foal to Yaupon, we paid an outrageous $400,000 for her. Well, we looked pretty damn crazy until I was in Keeneland November seeing all of these fancy Yaupon babies with incredible physiques selling for big bucks! She has a lovely filly foal and when it came to make a choice of who to breed her to last year it was not lost on me that Flightline's purchaser, David Ingordo, bought Stonetonic's half-sister by Gun Runner for $925,000. David also bought Special Me's Grade I winner, Gift Box, off of us as a weanling so we're thinking it might be a lucky mating to send her to the stellar racehorse Flightline for her second baby, which she is expecting. Figuring that it was a no-brainer to send her first year mating, why not repeat it for $50,000 less for second year? Stonetonic is booked back to Flightline for 2024.

Hailey's Melody, 6, (Can the Man-Miki's Melody, by Aptitude). To be bred to Two Phil's.
Since we have a ridiculous number of mares due to yours truly having a major horse addiction, we have really tried to limit our new acquisitions to stakes mares. I first saw this mare on a Fasig-Tipton digital sale and even though Can the Man fizzled out at stud, she was a gorgeous, stakes-placed mare who failed to meet her reserve at $48,000 as a breeding or racing prospect. I messaged her owner that when she was done racing we would be interested in buying her as a broodmare only. Fast forward five months, and I got a text that her owner would sell her for a price so reasonable I think I choked on the Diet Coke I was drinking. She shipped in and this stunning 16.3 Adonis gets off the van. So, who to breed her to first year for good value but a great physical and price? Two Phil's: what a great price at $12,500! His speed figures were off the charts and he is by such a great, underrated stallion in Hard Spun. She has the big stretchy frame to lengthen out his Quarter Horse type physique and they are both correct with plenty of bone.

Rumandice, 8, (Congrats-Chasethegold, by Touch Gold). To be bred to Practical Joke.
I was walking in the back ring in Keeneland January, 2020 and happened to glance over and see this statuesque Congrats filly literally in the chute to go into the ring to be sold. We had actually had great luck in past with her family both in the sale ring and on the racetrack (which is the holy grail for any Thoroughbred commercial breeder). I decided to watch her sell and see where she went. She waltzes into the ring and I hear music to my bargain-shopping ears: `this mare is a cribber.' `OH!' my brain says. `There might be a chance here!' I bought her for $65,000 as a broodmare prospect and happy! Her second foal turns out to be a magnificent son of Practical Joke we sold to Winstar farm for $500,000 at this year's Saratoga sale. We bred her back to Authentic in 2023. Elliott Walden was kind enough to send me a video last month of said Practical Joke colt training, now named Social Hour, and so far so good! Seemed like a no brainer to us to repeat that mating and hope for maybe a happy hour next time! Her 2024 mating is back to the proven and great value sire in Practical Joke.

Line of Vision, 9, Court Vision-Gold Lined, by Numerous). To be bred to Maximus Mischief.
Line of Vision is a small mare but was a multiple stakes-winning two-year-old with 20 starts under her belt and earnings of almost $250,000. We used to have a rule in our band that all mares had to be at least 16hh but as the years passed we realized that rule needed to be changed with so many big stallions in Kentucky. We bought this mare on the Wanamaker's digital sale platform and bred her in 2023 to Mo Donegal, who is a big, strong horse. She was actually booked to Bolt D'Oro, but that day he was chock a block so we had to call an audible and change stallions last minute. Hopefully it works out like it did when the same thing happened with Vyjack's mating. In deciding where to send her for 2024, we turned to a former Machmer Hall pinhook, Maximus Mischief. What a magnificent foal he was and we have supported him since he went to stud including purchasing multiple breeding rights in him. He seems to throw leg and stretch no matter what mare he goes to. I think that he has had literally three maiden special weight winners in the past two days alone. We are hoping this sound young mare will be a great match with him physically and on the track! 2024: booking Maximus Mischief

Warm Sunshine, 10, (Unbridled's Song-Carolina Sunrise, by Awesome Again). To be bred to Cody's Wish.
We bought Warm Sunshine as a yearling on my never ending quest for Unbridled's Song mares. We already had claimed her full-sister, who became the dam of Grade III winner Fore Left and her other half-sister, Little Miss Macho, who was a Keeneland September session topper. We raced her and even though she is small, Bart Hone told me she “had a heart the size of Texas.” When we were looking who to breed her for a first foal, Constitution was in the middle of the dreaded bubble year as a stallion. I was challenged by Winstar to book five mares to him and get a bonus season. I actually found eight mares for him and we decided to send Warm Sunshine to him. Fast-forward from that 2018 mating; a case of sesamoiditis derailed our vision of a yearling sale. On to the two-year-old sale, where he promptly bucked his shins. So now, we race him. Steal Sunshine (named after the Len song) has now won two stakes and over $350,000 for us and is running in the GIII Hooper on Pegasus day this weekend! His mother is in foal to two-year-old champion Essential Quality on a 2023 breeding and booked to a horse that more happy tears have been shed over then I can remember in my lifetime, Cody's Wish, for 2024.

Vino Rosso is booked for Breakfastatbonnies | Sarah Andrew

Breakfastatbonnies, 6, (Laoban-Right Prevails, by Successful Appeal). To be bred to Vino Rosso.
Breakfastatbonnies is another one of my infamous walking in the back ring and `what on earth is that?' buys. (Better to ask forgiveness than permission from the hubby and mom.) This stakes-placed Laoban mare is the sh$t. I mean big and beautiful in every way of the word. A little flat in her knees if you want to be critical but I think that was found in a lot of the Laoban progeny. Full-sister to a stakes-winner of over half a million, I bought her as a broodmare prospect for $90,000. For a first year foal, we bred her to Cyber Knife. I try to call the people that know those horses best when they were yearlings or two year olds and Susan Montayne had broken and trained him for Al Gold. After speaking to her, I felt this would be a great physical match, but, truth be told , this mare is so good-looking she could probably get bred to a Welsh Pony and have a Pony Finals champion. When looking to breed her for 2024, my eyebrows have been raised at the incredible accomplishments so far of Vino Rosso. We booked three mares to him for the 2024 season and Breakfastatbonnies is one of those mares going to him.

Fancy Kitten, 10, (Kitten's Joy-Endless Fancy, by Ghostzapper). To be bred to Justify.
Fancy Kitten was originally claimed by James Keogh to resell as a broodmare prospect. He called me for a reference on someone who could claim this stakes-placed daughter of Kitten's Joy for him. I told him I knew the perfect person-a 4H conformation judge in a former lifetime and now a hard-working trainer. James calls her and the claim is dropped on `the correct and good-sized filly.' `Grand, grand,' you can imagine James saying in his best Irish brogue. Wait a minute, the phone rings again and the trainer says, `I was so busy making sure she was correct that I might have missed that she is a wee weak in the topline.' James is like, `how weak are we talking?' Too late, claim dropped. I am dying of laughter typing this because to hear James tell the story is side-splitting. James calls me after the mare gets to his farm and he is like, `so much for your former 4H judge!' Fancy Kitten goes to the Fasig-Tipton February sale and if you ever had the Breyer horse as a kid like I did , Fancy Kitten was the chestnut version of the old grey mare Glossy.
She is at the sale and as everyone knows it is impossible to sell a swayback (even though I have never seen a swayback throw a swayback) and she fails to meet her modest reserve. My mother, of course, has heard the entire story of the claim and James is desperately wanting to get her off the books as one of the rare times he does not make a fabulous claim, so we buy her for $10,000. Her first foal is the graded-stakes winning Jasper Krone (Frosted) who ran in this year's Breeders' Cup and her second foal, Ngannou (Mendelssohn) was a graded-stakes-placed two year old of last year. She has never thrown a swayback and throws a lovely baby that can run! She is currently in foal to the beautiful Jackie's Warrior and is booked back to the rising-star stallion Justify. You just cannot make this stuff up and that is why you never know where they are going to come from!

The post Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Machmer Hall appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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“Very pretty boy born of a maiden mare. Good bone and such a sweet expression!” said breeders Carrie and Craig Brogden.

A debut winner at Gulfstream at two, Drain the Clock returned the following season to add wins in the GIII Swale S., GIII Bay Shore S. and GI Woody Stephens S., where he defeated subsequent champion sprinter Jackie's Warrior.

Drain the Clock retired with seven wins in 15 career starts, including three victories in graded stakes races, for earnings of $698,000.

The post First Foal of GISW Drain the Clock Arrives appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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As usual, we've sieved out the new sires, having given them a separate treatment at the outset. Instructively, however, it's a tier dominated by stallions still in the early stages of their careers. And there is an auspicious flux here. One or two, if building on a promising start on the track, could conceivably prove to be on their way to stardom.

Inevitably, there are also plenty of sires only trading at this kind of fee because they have not yet been exposed on the track. The reality is that few of these will ultimately hold out. And while we've cheerfully highlighted value about a couple of sires at a similarly untested stage, earlier in this series, that's harder to do at this money.

But what these horses do generally have behind them, having started with the sort of profile that merits a strong opening fee, is numbers.

Handsome as he is, for instance, and fast as he ran, it seemed staggering that YAUPON should have covered as many as 242 mares for his debut in 2022, behind only Gun Runner. But next time round, we saw another farm go to a dizzier level yet, allowing rookie turf sprinter GOLDEN PAL to entertain no fewer than 293.

Yauppon | Sarah Andrew

Now we all understand how this model works and breeders embrace it with open eyes. Some will hit a home run, but they're going to have to stand out from a crowd. You all know what the stakes are, and whether it can work in your program, and you don't need me preaching one way or the other. For the record, Yaupon duly processed 36 of 40 weanlings at an average $130,888/median $100,000.

He had to settle for 202 mares last time, some of his 2022 supporters having doubtless flitted straight to Golden Pal; but others yet will have switched to his new studmate CYBERKNIFE, who mustered 223. Gun Runner has risen so fast that more affordable sons are finding themselves quickly in the game, and this was one of his breakout stars who beat a 37-year track record in the GI Haskell S.

The sophomore frustrations of CORNICHE cannot have helped his cause, so a book of 180 pays tribute to the brilliance of his championship campaign. As much as the way he dominated the crop as a juvenile, the pinhookers will be dwelling on his $1.5-million breeze as a 2-year-old (and 98 Beyer on debut). Some arcane names seed his family, but the genes were all functioning in his dam, six-time graded stakes scorer Wasted Tears (Najran).

Standing on a couple of farms that know how to keep a young stallion in the game, Golden Pal, Yaupon, Cyberknife and Corniche all take a trim in 2024 from $30,000 to $25,000.

The industrial approach is long familiar at Spendthrift and Ashford, but Juddmonte also played a candidly commercial game with MANDALOUN, who opened with as many as 211 partners. So he has certainly been given every chance of riding the luck he enjoyed when promoted from second for both his Grade Is. He actually paid somewhat for that rather freakish fortune, in that it distracted people from his inherent merit. Meanwhile he's another taking a clip, in his case from $25,000 to $20,000.

These horses are slipstreaming a handful on the brink of launching their first runners. One who excelled at the sales was WAR OF WILL, whose $117,202 average (for 61 of 77 sold) placed him third in the debutants' table (sales up to $650,000, $85,000 median). He duly retains his opening fee at $25,000. War of Will appeals as a stallion for our times, as a Grade I scorer on both dirt and turf, but the clincher is a Niarchos family saturated with quality. A full subscription of 143 mares in his debut book has predictably tapered a little since (112 and 84), but the enthusiasm of the market is a huge plus for a horse who must contend with its crass reservations about anything–even a Preakness winner!–bearing a taint of turf.

Two others from his intake not only started out with very similar books (157 and 159), but achieved an identical median of $53,500 with their first yearlings. That was better news for GAME WINNER than TIZ THE LAW, in that they opened at $30,000 and $40,000, respectively. Their averages were very similar too: the former sold 66 of 84 at $95,772, just behind the latter with 64 sold of 70 at $99,835. They remain in step now, both down to $20,000 for 2024.

It was Tiz the Law who rallied in his second book, to 218 mares against 131 for Game Winner, and maintained an advantage of 131 against 96 last spring. He collected a series of stallion-making Grade Is–Champagne/Florida Derby/Belmont/ Travers–and might well have added the Derby if only it had been run at the normal date in 2020. That makes him look a lot of horse at this money.

As for Game Winner, he obviously offers commercial precocity as an unbeaten champion juvenile, and very few of the crop managed to close the gap on him at three.

Maximus Mischief | Louise Reinagel

How those behind this trio would love to see them emulate MAXIMUS MISCHIEF, VINO ROSSO and FLAMEAWAY, who have all just completed their freshman season in a way that has earned an elevation in fee for 2024.

Spendthrift buddies Maximus Mischief and Vino Rosso contested second in the first-season sires' table all the way to the wire. The former–repeatedly advised as a commercial no-brainer at $7,500–is hiked to $25,000 and Vino Rosso, having been kept in the game in familiar fashion by halving to $15,000 from an opening $30,000, now inches back up to $20,000.

Inevitably their farm has succeeded in maintaining volume behind both horses. In their fourth books, Vino Rosso covered 171 mares and Maximus Mischief 159. Pretty impressive, given how many of their original supporters must have been the type that annually jumps from one new sire to the next.

Vino Rosso, having himself thrived with maturity, has surprised people with the precocity of some stock, but then you're going to get many different flavors with no fewer than 155 named foals in your debut crop! His 23 winners actually represent an unremarkable percentage, then, but where Vino Rosso does deserve credit is in mustering four to make the frame at Grade I level. Overall this has been an unproductive class, in graded stakes terms, but at least Vino Rosso has been coming up with the right caliber.

Maximus Mischief has mustered a solitary graded stakes placing, though of course he was dealing with relatively modest materials when starting at a quarter of Vino Rosso's opening fee. This is a big moment for him, in that he needs to capitalize on his platform of 31 winners with an upgrade in mares at his new fee. (Predictably enough, he has already launched the highest percentage of named foals among all the freshman sires, at just about two-in-three). His yearling average held up well, with 57 of 67 sold at a $38,000 median (average $47,312) compared with $40,000 (average $57,019, as much as anyone could have asked off a $7,500 conception) for 77 sold last year.

Vino Rosso's 75 sales from 98 yearlings offered from his second crop achieved a $45,000 median ($55,558 average), down from $61,000 ($94,287 average) for 112 sold on debut. But his own template (and that of his own sire Curlin) is encouraging for his stock to keep progressing now, and interestingly both Vino Rosso and Maximus Mischief moved their weanling prices back up compared with 2022.

Hats off to Flameaway, meanwhile, for getting closest to breaking up the Spendthrift freshman monopoly. None of the quartet above him can match his four stakes winners, while he joins only champion Mitole and Solomini in relieving the overall embarrassment of the class in at least managing one graded stakes scorer.

It must be said that he had decent numbers behind him, with 109 named foals, but by the same token the pipeline will be maintained by three-figure books annually since. Like Maximus Mischief, he needs to seize the moment after making precisely the same leap in fee, to $25,000 from $7,500. His second crop of yearlings didn't really reflect the fine start made by their predecessors, 41 of 54 changing hands at an unchanged median of $30,000 (average $44,950, down from $49,340). But there should be plenty of action to come from such a versatile horse, who won at various trips on three different surfaces. Auspiciously, his flagship Dreamfyre divided her two graded stakes wins between six furlongs of dirt and a mile of turf. Flameaway's third dam is a true matriarch in Europe and he offers all the flexibility we should be seeking in a changing landscape.

 VALUE PODIUM

Bronze: BLAME
(Arch–Liable, by Seeking the Gold)
Claiborne, $25,000

How many of the aspiring youngsters who dominate this tier will end up achieving anything like as much as Blame? Entering his 13th season at stud, he has settled into the middle of this bracket as by far its most established operator. In fact, he's become a rather unique horse at this level. Everyone else is passing through, in one direction or the other. Blame is the only one trading at this kind of money where you know definitively where you stand. Others could yet turn out to have flattered to deceive, whereas he has found a fairly uncontested place among proven sires, between the blue-collar strivers and the unaffordable elite.

He's actually had a modest year by his standards, with only three stakes winners, albeit these did include a sixth Grade I scorer in Wet Paint. But his lifetime rations are extremely solid: 6.5% stakes winners from named foals, 3% at graded stakes level. His ratios are a match for the likes of Munnings, Street Sense and Twirling Candy, to name just three sires too good to be embarrassed by the comparison. And the big news with him over the past couple of years is his precocious emergence as a broodmare sire.

His breakout moment in this role was the GI Breeders' Futurity S. at Keeneland in 2022, aptly sponsored by Claiborne, when the pair that dueled clear of a strong field–champion Forte (Violence) and the luckless Loggins (Ghostzapper)–were both out of Blame mares. This is hardly a surprising development in a stallion whose third dam is none other than Special (Forli {Arg}). So for many programs–one that would like to keep a filly, for instance, or just to prove a young mare–Blame will offer better value than most horses in higher tiers. For the record, the niche he has carved out for himself could be measured in 2023 by a book of 129 mares, plus a yearling average of $94,442 (up from $82,075)–both really solid for a horse at this level of the market, at this stage of his career.

Oscar Performance | Sarah Andrew

Silver: OSCAR PERFORMANCE
(Kitten's Joy–Devine Actress, by Theatrical {Ire})
Mill Ridge, $25,000

Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Here's a horse that faced only one problem when retiring to stud, but one as significant as it was tiresome: the notorious myopia of the domestic market regarding even high-class grass stallions. We all know how brutally difficult it is to stand a turf horse in the Bluegrass. Even English Channel and Kitten's Joy never quite cracked ringside prejudice sufficiently to obtain adequate reward for their outstanding records. But the consecutive loss of both those horses, even as he started out, nonetheless represented a big opportunity for Oscar Performance. And while it's still early days, he's making a strong case to step up as heir to his sire.

Oscar Performance covered 160 mares last spring, much his biggest book in his fifth season at stud. He had covered just 63 the previous year, but started out with a couple of three-figure books, so there will be plenty of talent coming through–especially when you recall how he kept thriving as a runner–to keep his name in lights, pending the arrival of the better stock he should be producing now.

And here's something else he did this year, that would be no less exceptional in a commercial dirt stallion. Offering his third crop of yearlings, he achieved an average of $79,959 (23 sold from 30; admittedly a $35,000 median was more in line with the $15,000 conception fee) up from $57,474 ($32,500) for his second; and $43,149 ($26,000) for his first. In other words, he's reversing the usual trend: his stock is gaining in value by the year.

Why is this happening? Well, as we said, it's still early in the piece. None of his stock is yet at the same age as Oscar Performance when he won his fourth Grade I in the Woodbine Mile. But he's now had two crops to borrow the precocity he also required to win the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, and they have together produced eight graded stakes horses at a ratio (5% of named foals) exceeded, in what looks a very strong intake, only by Justify; and matched only by Bolt d'Oro.

Interestingly his principal earner to date is Red Carpet Ready, whose two graded stakes wins actually came on the main track–on which surface he's also had Tumbarumba win the Ellis Park Derby and Deer District win a Churchill allowance by 10 lengths before placing in the GII Amsterdam S. So second and third dams by Mr. Prospector and Slew o' Gold are obviously having a say while, purely in terms of quality, his own mother has also produced two additional graded stakes-winning siblings.

His second crop has produced dual graded stakes scorer Endlessly, who looks aptly named for how far his sire may advance from here. After returning to his opening fee of $20,000 last year, back up from $12,500, Oscar Performance has now edged up to $25,000. If he can keep building from here, he may reach a much higher level as breeders belatedly service an expanding turf program.

Gold: ARMY MULE
(Friesan Fire–Crafty Toast, by Crafty Prospector)
Hill 'n' Dale, $25,000

This was a racetrack meteor–brief but bright–and now we're immediately seeing persuasive evidence that he may be replicating the freakish talent that we only glimpsed. It's not the most conventional profile, nor pedigree, but the functionality cannot be in question. If Army Mule carries on the way he has started, enough people are going to accept that reality for him to break into the elite. If so, doubling his fee from $12,500 last year is only going to be a start.

Remember he had to muscle his way into an exceptionally strong class of freshmen. Justify is soaring to stardom, either side of the water, and Good Magic came up with a Derby winner at the first attempt. In his first two crops, sired at $10,000 and $7,500, Army Mule produced only 138 named foals. Of the five above him in the cumulative earnings table, Mendelssohn has 323; Justify 309; Bolt d'Oro 238; Good Magic 226; City of Light 191. So guess what, some (but only some) of those have more stakes winners. But in what ratios?

Start with his individual winners: 68 from 108 starters, 49% of named foals. Justify is getting his at 28%; Good Magic 38%; Bolt d'Oro 39%; Mendelssohn 36%; City of Light 30%.

Of these, 10 have won at black-type level: 7.3% of named foals. Justify is operating at 6.5%; Good Magic matches Army Mule at 7.5%; Bolt d'Oro is on 4.2%; and Mendelssohn 1.9%; City of Light 3.7%. In terms of stakes performers overall, Army Mule's 11.6% is only matched in the class by Bolt d'Oro.

Understandably, given the relative caliber of mares they will have received, Army Mule can't quite see that performance through at graded stakes level. He only has two such winners, among five placed. Moreover his farm was not even able to promote his Grade I breakout with One In Vermillion, the Allen Jerkens S. having fallen into his lap in ghastly circumstances. But someone needs to say that One In Vermillion has proved a legitimate graded stakes performer as a $26,000 yearling from the Arizona TBA Fall Mixed Sale. Army Mule also has Danse Macabre, an $11,000 short yearling, close to millionaire status after winning five of her first 10. (Incidentally, another nod to our bronze medalist here: she's out of a Blame mare.)

His debut crop had already done enough by last spring for Army Mule to entertain 199 mares in his fifth season at stud, up from 115 in 2022 and 83 the previous year. His 2024 sophomores emerge from a crop of just 37 live foals, so he may have to tread water briefly. But surely Army Mule is one of those rare stallions who do enough, early enough, to lock in the medium-term momentum required. Sure enough, he sold 28 (from 38) of his latest crop of yearlings for a median $67,500 and average $96,650, up from $51,000 and $69,272: stellar returns for those who kept the faith for a $7,500 conception.

As a rule, I prefer a horse that has left no doubt as to his resilience and Army Mule's entire career comprised barely four minutes. But the talent that made him a six-length Grade I winner (114 Beyer) in that time was already luminous when he turned himself from $35,000 yearling to $825,000 2-year-old. This farm has a great record with these flashbulb talents, and there's a rapidly rising tide to catch with Army Mule.

The breeders have their say…

We asked breeders to weigh in on who their top picks were.

Carrie Brogden of Machmer Hall

GOLD: Army Mule
Gold would have to be Army Mule. He has had so much success from such modest mares that you have to pay attention. If he can simply maintain what he has done so far until the big gun crops come down the pipeline, he has the potential to be a breakout stallion. For example, we sold the dam of Grade I winner One In a Vermillion carrying him in utero for a paltry $4,500, bred on our share that I am probably going to completely regret selling earlier this year. He seems to offer speed, soundness, heart and his good looks.

Vino Rosso | Sarah Andrew

SILVER: Vino Rosso
(Curlin–Mythical Bride, by Street Cry {Ire})
Spendthrift Farm, $20,000
Silver for me would have to be Vino Rosso. We have booked three mares to him based on what he did with his first crop of 2-year-olds. Considering his own race record and breeding, I would expect that they will excel with added distance. He seems to throw a particular type and I know that he is booked full for 2024, so clearly I am not the only one who sees his future potential. When I was at the Keeneland September sale this year, we had a nice colt out of Queenie's Pride (Special Rate) and the positive feedback I got from trainers and 2-year-old consignors was surprising to me since it was so early in the year for a son of Curlin that won the GI Breeders' Cup Classic as a 4-year-old. Speaking of Curlin, what an emerging superstar sire of sires he is! That coupled with Spendthrift's eye-popping accomplishment of a stallion farm leading home all top four freshman sires for 2023 in North America, the future looks very bright!

BRONZE:
TIZ THE LAW
(Constitution–Tizfiz, by Tiznow)
Coolmore, $20,000

GAME WINNER
(Candy Ride {Arg}–Indyan Giving, by A.P. Indy)
Lane's End Farm, $20,000

Bronze would be a tie between Tiz the Law and Game Winner. Talk about racehorses! Tiz the Law won FOUR Grade Is as a 2-year-old and 3-year-old! He is by a rising top-tier stallion in Constitution and the reception and physical attributes of his babies reminded me of the early crops of Constitution.

Game Winner, a 2-year-old champion, won THREE Grade Is as a 2-year-old and is by the incredible sire of sires Candy Ride. With the ones we had at Machmer Hall and that I saw at the sales, I personally felt that there was a lot of Candy Ride in them.  I was the underbidder on two really nice weanlings by him and am still having non-buyer's remorse there. No crystal balls of course, as I am constantly reminded of playing Geoffery Russell's freshman sire contest every year, but both of these young stallions have the race record and stock to step into the very big shoes of both of their fathers.

John Greathouse of Glencrest Farm

GOLD: Blame
Blame was a gutsy racehorse and I think that's what he gets you. He's sired six Grade I winners and has been consistent year after year at the sales and at the races. He produces solid individuals that are sound and can go two turns. Blame is also starting to prove to be an excellent broodmare sire. Forte and Wet Paint are prime examples of that. If you are looking to start a young mare, there aren't many horses you can pick from that stand for less than 30k and are as proven as Blame.

Blame | Claiborne Farm

SILVER: Vino Rosso
Vino Rosso is great value at 20k. He's third on the first-crop sire list, but I think he's far ahead of where most people expected him to be at this point. He was a horse that was better going two turns and I expected his progeny would be the same. His offspring are smooth and athletic. He comes from a serious family of runners. If his progeny improve going longer, we could be talking about him like we were talking about Good Magic in 2023. There is real upside at 20k.

BRONZE: Maximus Mischief
(Into Mischief–Reina Maria, by Songandaprayer)
Spendthrift Farm, $25,000
Maximus Mischief was one of the fastest 2-year-old sons of Into Mischief, which is no easy feat. That precocity is showing up with his 2-year-olds. He's off to a terrific start with 30 winners and sits second on the first-crop sire rankings. He has bred a big book of mares every year, so I don't expect him to slow down anytime soon. I like that he gets a big, strong horse with plenty of bone which suits smaller mares. We have bred to him in the past and will continue to support him this year.

The post Value Sires for 2024, Part 5: The 20-Somethings appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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During the one-session auction, 148 horses sold for $1,518,100. The average was $10,257 and the median was $5,000. With 39 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 20.9%.

A year ago, 172 horses grossed $3,233,600 for an average of $18,800 and a median of $10,000. The buy-back rate was 24.6%.

The post Ghostzapper Weanling Tops Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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How big of a problem is this. Why is it happening? What can be done to reverse the trend? The TDN posed those questions to some of the foremost experts in the breeding industry.

Ned Toffey (Spendthrift Farm): It is certainly concerning and it's certainly more than a minor blip. When it got to 20,000, that was essentially half of what it was when I first went to work on a Thoroughbred farm. We have to do a better job as an industry of marketing both the sport and the breeding industry. We have to do a better job of attracting new people. We are up against it.

As a society, we've become more removed from agriculture and horses in particular. It's a venture that requires a lot of wealth and a lot of patience. As an industry, we have not done a good job putting this out there. Spendthrift is among the many farms that has embraced the tourism aspect and even that is a long play that you hope down the road yields fruit. By opening up farms, people can get more familiar with what we do here and it won't be such a strange thing for them. Then again, that's not going to change the foal crop any time soon. It was nice to see a handful of new people coming in and buying yearlings during this last sales season. We sure needed that because so many others have gotten out.

I don't know how it is that purses keep getting bigger but the foal crop keeps declining. You are seeing fewer and fewer of these breed-to-race operations. It's become almost strictly commercial. That doesn't necessarily mean that there should be fewer foals. In Australia, a year or two ago they passed us with their foal crop and a much higher percentage of their foals go through the sales ring than ours. They are more commercial than we are and are in a position where they are thriving.

As Australia has shown, where they are primarily commercial, we can still have larger foal crops. The horse is still a bigger part of their culture than it is in ours. It's more of a cultural shift than anything else and that's not an easy thing to reverse. We have to find the right people to figure out the best way to market this industry to people.

We need to get our house in order, clean up, change the perception our industry has. We need to do a better job policing ourselves. There are some things going in the right direction and we need to get out there and change the perception of the industry the public has.

Carrie Brogden, | Keeneland

Carrie Brogden (Machmer Hall): Everything is so expensive now. If you look at the stud fees, the costs of the labor, the board, the hay, the feed. All it takes is for a horse to have a couple problems and you've gone from having a horse worth $300,000 to $3,000. We sold two with two weak scopes in the September sale. One brought $4,000 and the other $3,000. Both would have been $75,000 horses if they had what the market deemed were normal scopes. There are so many factors. What it comes down to is it's a lot easier to buy a great horse than to breed one.

What can be done to fix it? The sport would need to come back to being in demand. People ask how come the sales are so strong even through the sport is obviously under tremendous pressure. The answer is that the supply is not keeping up with the demand. It's going to continue to contract. I went to the sale with an Indiana-bred filly by Upstart that I really, really liked. People told me they're not interested in Indiana-breds. They're only interested in Kentucky and New York-breds because of the purses. The state-breds are getting hammered way more than they used to be because the purses are so good in so many other states. Going forward, I'll be very wary of buying state-breds to pinhook because of the feedback I have gotten.

I can only see it continuing to contract because the target is so small. Everyone wants an above-average horse. Everyone is always going to have a bell curve when it comes to their foals. You hope the top foals pay for the rest of them. It's not easy when you have 10 foals and you are hoping the two best ones will pay for the rest of them.

Until we get our sport straightened out and unless HISA can turn out to be the positive thing so many of us hope it will be, I don't think the trends are going to turn around. At least until we turn around the popularity of our sport.

Craig Bandoroff (Denali Stud): The reason this is happening is because, as breeders, its very hard to make money. Like everything in this business, the percentages of being economically successful are low. The reason it is happening is because there are fewer people who are in it for the love of the game and the pursuit of the challenge. You have more and more people who are doing this because they are looking for an economic return. That's my opinion and has been my experience. In the past, the breeders developed families and did it as a pursuit. We have very few of those sorts of breeders anymore.

Racing is the engine that pulls the train. Everything is interconnected. More and more there will be fewer horses for racing and that means racetracks will have to run fewer days, have fewer races and have smaller fields. How do we reverse the trend? I'd like to think we're going to hit a number where it levels out and the economics get better. Don't ask me where I came up with this number, but in my mind I've always felt that 14,000, 15,000 is where you might level out. That's what my gut tells me. But when I see it declining every year, that doesn't surprise me at all.

We have to make the economics better. Why is this happening when purses are going up? That's a good question. What percentages of the horses win a race or even make it to the races? Those numbers aren't good. That's how I explain our business. We drill oil wells and we get a lot of dry wells and hope we get a couple of other ones that will pay for the failures. That's the economics in every part of this game, whether you're breeding, racing, standing stallions. Purses are going up but not because people are betting on horses. I hope we don't lull ourselves into a false sense of security because we all know what the government giveth the government can take away.

Craig Bernick | Keeneland

Craig Bernick (Glen Hill Farm): It's a commercial market now. The foal crop has been going down for a long time but the amount of horses being sold as yearlings hasn't gone down by nearly the same percentage. The syndicates are fantastic because it gives people a chance to compete at a top level. A lot of these owners were putting up $500,000 or so a year buying three or four horses they would send to their local trainer. Now they're using the same amount of money to take 10% of 15 horses. That's got everyone focusing on the top of the market, the best horses.

Racetracks are closing and the foal crop is going down and there are more $500,000 and up horses sold every year. Everybody is focusing on the top and ignoring all the other horses.

We should have had a mare cap but we don't. That would have helped diversify the stallions that people breed to and everything else that goes along with it. The big stallion farms want more, more, more all the time. We have a foal crop going down yet we have stallions being bred to more mares than ever before. That can't be good for business long term.

I don't know what can be done to reverse the trend. We have the Breeders' Cup, the Triple Crown and four or five big Saturdays spread across the rest of the year and those are the only races anyone wants to run in anymore. We've made Grade II and Grade III races not run on those days insignificant from an owners' perspective. The only thing that really matters any more is if you win on Whitney Day, Travers Day, Breeders' Cup, Triple Crown, Pegasus. Those are the days that matter. We've lost a lot when people don't care anymore about winning a Grade III race somewhere on a Saturday. Everybody's aiming for the same top of the pyramid and as a result, there will be fewer and fewer horses born. Until there is a demand from people who want to have nice horses, are happy to win nice races and enjoy being an owner, we're going to be in trouble. All everybody wants anymore is to have Derby and Breeders' Cup horses.

Fred Hertrich (Watercress Farm): The market is not accepting less-expensive horses. The day of the $1,000 stallion breeding to the $1,000 mare is a thing of the past. The cost of raising that horse, the cost of breaking that horses, the cost of training that horse is the same whether it is the highest-priced yearling in the world or the least expensive. Like with everything else in the economy, the costs are great so the price of the asset has to be greater. We used to have thoroughbred buyers who would buy 10 yearlings at $5,000 apiece. They'd hope to hit the lottery with one of them and they might give away the rest. But that was when expenses were manageable. Now with the price of feed, help, blacksmiths, on and on, the game has changed. People can't afford to do that any more. You have to believe that when you start with that product you're going to have something that will have value and has an opportunity to be a top racehorse.

I'm not sure anything can be done about this because I don't see the costs of raising an animal going down. Look at labor. What we used to have to pay for labor on a farm or in a training barn has gone up 30 to 40% in the last 24 months. It won't be reversed, in my opinion.

If the foal crop were to get down to 13,000 or 14,000, the caliber of everything would be better. Racing will be better, the product will be better. No one will be breeding an ill-conformed stallion to an ill-conformed mare. The dynamic will change but it will be an improved product for the public to wager on. There are going to be tracks where if the purses are too low they won't continue to race because people will not be able to afford to race for those purses. Some of the jurisdictions that have no way to generate serious purse money may not be able to stay competitive. I hate to say it, but like with anything, the bottom of the food chain is not going to do well. Horse racing and horse breeding is no different than any other entity in the country.

The post Another Year, Another Declining Foal Crop; Experts Chime In appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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After she broke her maiden at first asking at Del Mar over the Jimmy Durante Turf Course Aug. 19, the chestnut filly returned here as the 3-1 third choice. From the first jumps she was taken back along the rail towards the rear of the field as a longshot set a brisk pace. The Peter Eurton trainee continued to wait her turn until the far turn when she tipped to the outside and under a drive, Flattery rolled home over Loterie (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}).

“I didn't know if she was going to get out of it because they were kind of trapped a little inside,” said Eurton. “But once he got her settled it was just a matter of time. He had so much horse. She's kind of jumped up a level since her last. She's more precocious and her last works were more on the bridle. She picked things up pretty quick.”

The winner's dam is responsible for a yearling filly by Echo Town. Out of an extended female family which includes NYRA stakes stalwart Fourstardave (Compliance), second dam Mystic Lady (Thunder Gulch) won four graded stakes during her career including the GII Cotillion H.

DEL MAR JUVENILE FILLIES TURF S., $101,500, Del Mar, 9-9, 2yo, f, 1mT, 1:36.86, fm.
1–FLATTERY, 122, f, 2, by Flatter
                1st Dam: Mystic Miracle, by Unbridled's Song
                2nd Dam: Mystic Lady, by Thunder Gulch
                3rd Dam: Diane Suzanne, by Compliance
($180,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). 1ST BLACK TYPE WIN. O-Exline-Border Racing LLC, Burns Racing LLC, Aaron Kennedy, Aaron and Richard Hausman; B-Machmer Hall, Carrie Brogden & Craig Brogden (KY); T-Peter Eurton; J-Juan J. Hernandez. $60,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $109,200. *1/2 to Wegetsdamunnys (D' Funnybone), MSP, $305,620.
2–Loterie (Ire), 120, f, 2, Ten Sovereigns (Ire)–All To Do With It (Ire), by Canford Cliffs (Ire). (€30,000 Ylg '22 TATIRY). 1ST BLACK TYPE. O-Living The Dream LLC, Medallion Racing and Barry Fowler; B-Lynch Bages LTD (IRE); T-Philip D'Amato. $20,000.
3–Angiolleta (Ire), 122, f, 2, Calyx (GB)–Angelic Guest (Ire), by Dark Angel (Ire). (20,000gns Ylg '22 TADEY). 1ST BLACK TYPE. O-Great Friends Stables, LLC, James F. Cahill, Mark Davis and Ty Leatherman; B-Wardley bloodstock (IRE); T-Doug F. O'Neill. $12,000.
Margins: 1, 1 1/4, 2 1/4. Odds: 3.30, 1.80, 2.50.
Also Ran: Tambo, Cailin Dana, Auratium, Double Bay (Ire), Bossy Bruin Gal. Scratched: Arctic Breeze, Into Yellowstone, Poppy's Joy.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

FLATTERY ($8.60) got a perfect trip under @JJHernandezS19 to hold off the late run of Loterie (IRE) in the $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf at @DelMarRacing. This 2-year-old filly is trained by @EurtonRacing. Congrats to the connections! pic.twitter.com/sqJWGUMIrM

— TVG (@TVG) September 9, 2023

The post Flatter Filly Ratchets Up With First Stakes Win At Del Mar appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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We mate by physical mostly–negative traits to positive traits and vice versa. We try to add speed where there is none and we do not believe in like-to-like matings. We do not use nicks, but we do like successful crosses like Twirling Candy with Unbridled's Song. This is a sample of our matings planned for our 82 foaling mares and 32 maiden and barren mares.

ASTRAY (m, 9, Bernardini – Away, by Dixieland Band) to be bred to Life Is Good

This young stakes producer's Into Mischief filly sold for $720,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale. She is about the prettiest Bernardini mare you will ever see. I am a big fan of her pedigree and we currently own her niece, too!

She is currently in foal to Hard Spun and we figured that now that we have bred her to several proven stallions, we could revert back to a first-year. She is booked to Life Is Good for 2023.  Life Is Good is an absolute stunner and has a heart the size of Texas.

BECCA'S ROCKET (m, 5, Orb – Idoitmyway, by Unbridled's Song) to be bred to Jackie's Warrior

Becca's Rocket was one of the prettiest and fanciest yearlings we had the year we sold her even though her sire was fast falling out of favor. I watched her hit the board in 13 of her 20 starts, including multiple stakes, and she won over $250,000. We bought her back privately as a broodmare prospect to rejoin Machmer Hall as a broodmare.

For her first foal she is booked to the super good-looking, super talented horse Jackie's Warrior. As Mark Toothaker said to me when I sent her over, “Well, this is a no brainer.” And that is exactly how I felt!

CAMPAIGNING (m, 4, Nyquist – Azalea Belle, Dixie Union) to be bred to Upstart

We bought this Nyquist filly carrying her first foal by Classic Empire at the 2022 Keeneland November Sale. She was a $500,000 yearling herself, so her looks match her sales price.

Since she is only a half-sister to a stakes-placed filly [GIII Iowa Oaks runner-up Aurelia Garland (Constitution)], but she has a nice family, we wanted to be mindful of the stud fee we put in her. She is booked back to Upstart, who only had 19 named 2-year-olds for 2022 and STILL held his own big time. We are thinking that with his bigger and better crops coming down the pipeline, he seems like great value to start a young mare off right.

Heidi Maria, the dam of last year's GII Sorrento S. winner Vegas Magic, will go back to Good Magic in 2023 | Benoit

CLAIRE'S SONG (m, 15, Unbridled's Song – Chimichurri, by Elusive Quality) to be bred to Medaglia d'Oro

Claire's Song is currently in foal to Essential Quality and we have booked her back to Medaglia d'Oro for 2023. We sold her Medaglia d'Oro colt in Saratoga for $625,000 last year and the yearling full-sister is just as nice of a physical as he was. It's hard to not go back to him with this three-time stakes-producing Unbridled's Song mare considering her half-sister produced Canadian Horse of the Year Wonder Gadot and Grade II-placed Solemn Tribute, both by Medaglia d'Oro.

DISTURBINGLY HOT (m, 17, Unbridled's Song – Diablo's Blend, by Diablo) to be bred to Sharp Azteca

Disturbingly Hot is currently in foal to Kantharos and is booked back to Sharp Azteca. We were lucky enough to be his yearling consignor, so I knew what a gorgeous horse he was at that point in his life. We took a breeding right from that faith and honestly I think he has shocked everyone. He was a very fast horse and his progeny seem to be good minded and sound, much like him!

FISCAL LITERACY (m, 4, Uncle Mo – City Sister, by Carson City) to be bred to Twirling Candy

Fiscal Literacy is currently in foal to Maxfield, who is just a ten physical. With a first dam that fills an entire page of horses that run and sell great, we bought this mare as a yearling with some significant vetting issues eyeing to keep her as a broodmare.

If there are two sires that have made Machmer Hall, one would be Twirling Candy (the other is Into Mischief), so we booked this big, fancy girl back to Twirling Candy. She has strong hocks like he needs and we love the idea of alternating between proven and unproven stallions in these types of mares. We hope it will turn out for the long run.

HEIDI MARIA (m, 15, Rockport Harbor – Third Street, by Salt Lake) to be bred to Good Magic

Heidi Maria is a stakes winner that we bred and sold as a yearling only to buy her back privately as a broodmare prospect. She is currently in foal to Collected, who just had a lovely first-time starter [Cuvier] of Pletcher's win at Gulfstream Park that we bred, so fingers crossed! She is the dam of Good Magic's Grade II-winning filly Vegas Magic, so it only made sense to book her back to this exciting son of Curlin.

LADY BELLAMY (m, 9, Bellamy Road – Hot Spell, by Salt Lake) to be bred to Aloha West

We bought this mare in foal to Good Magic along with her West Coast colt at foot in 2020. She is currently in foal to Tiz the Law, who I am a HUGE fan of and am taking a punt on him throwing the talent he had by his brilliant sire Constitution.

This mare has a Gift Box yearling (we have 5 yearlings by our homebred stallion) and we have booked her back to GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Aloha West. Aloha West is a very pretty, mid-sized horse. He's light on his feet and correct. Lady Bellamy is a massive mare with bone like tree trunks.

I am hearing great reports about her Good Magic colt with Boomer Bloodstock, so hopefully by the time he runs we will have a lovely Aloha West! This is the first mare owned in partnership with some of our best friends who have never had a Thoroughbred. So far she has had great luck!

LAID BACK LADY (m, 11, Hold Me Back – Sheena's Gold, by Fast Gold) to be bred to Early Voting

Laid Back Lady is currently in foal to Twirling Candy. The only reason we own this mare is because I bought her from a client who had to liquidate his entire broodmare band due to a family illness. and we took her over. We did the mating on her first foal who she was in foal to when we acquired her and that Twirling Candy filly, Always At Ease, just became stakes placed in California–just missing the stakes win!

She is booked back to Early Voting, a first-year stallion and the Grade I-winning son of emerging supersire Gun Runner.

LADY FALCON (m, 5, Super Saver – Sluice, by Seeking the Gold) to be bred to Epicenter

We just purchased this mare in November in foal to her second baby by Practical Joke. I am a huge fan of her family. I have drooled over the progeny of her dam, Sluice, and her half-sister, Mushka (Empire Maker), over the years. She's a big, coarse, plain mare with a lot of substance and she has my favorite thing from her female family–that walk!

We booked her to first-year sire Epicenter, a Grade I-winning son of Not this Time. She will have two proven-sire foals ahead, so we like to change it up with a new sire.

LAYREEBELLE (m, 17, Tale of the Cat – Voodoo Lily, by Baldski) to be bred to Jack Christopher

Layreebelle is currently in foal to one of the greatest values of our time in my mind, Candy Ride (Arg). She is the dam of two graded stakes winners and her daughter is also a graded stakes producer. She is a Machmer Hall homebred and was named after my children (Layne- Reece- Isabelle). She has been so good to us since she injured her shoulder in a paddock accident as a yearling.

Her dam, Voodoo Lily, died of old age after being a retired baby sitter on our farm for many years. She was the grandmother of up-and-coming sire Justify. I am hearing great reports of Layreebelle's Into Mischief 2-year-old colt who is down in Ocala after selling at the Saratoga Sale to Bradley Thoroughbreds.

We have exclusively bred this mare to proven sires her entire life and since we have now retained one of her daughters, who is booked to Tapit for her first foal, we decided to take a shot on a first-year stallion with Jack Christopher, who was bought by one of my favorite people in the industry and a great judge, Liz Crow.

Special Me's daughter and future Grade I winner Gina Romantica practicing her conformation pose as a yearling | courtesy Carrie Brogden

LINE OF VISION (m, 8, Court Vision – Gold Lined, by Numerous) to be bred to Bolt d'Oro

Line of Vision is a small-but-mighty stakes winner by Court Vision. We ended up having so many big mares with our Unbridled's Song crew that we added a few of the 15'1 to 15'2 types this year. We got them for good value because they could really run but did not have the height a lot of buyers want.

We bought this mare in foal to Tiz the Law and while that might not be the physical mating I would have chosen, we were very happy with the price and both parents' racetrack accomplishments.

We have booked her back to champion freshman sire Bolt d'Oro, who seems to throw size and stretch no matter what mare he is bred to. His 2-year-olds were impressive at all the sales I attended in 2022 and they came through in their performances. I would certainly think with how they are built that they would stretch out and it also bodes very well for his half-brother Global Campaign, who we were lucky enough to sell as a yearling for WinStar!

MISS SHOP (m, 20, Deputy Minister – Shopping, by Private Account) to be bred to Authentic

Miss Shop was a grand old Grade I-winning, graded stakes-producing girl when we bought her. Her Into Mischief filly we sold last year at Keeneland September was one of my most favorite yearling fillies of the year, so we decided to repeat that breeding. Miss Shop is currently in foal to Into Mischief, but with his stud fee going out of our farm's comfort zone and us still being his biggest fan, we figured to book her back to the next-best thing: his gorgeous, well-priced son Authentic.

I tell you, those Authentic babies I saw at the sales were just beautiful! We have four yearlings by him and I am delighted with every single one. Miss Shop is one of three mares we have booked back to Authentic.

SPECIAL ME (m, 17, Unbridled's Song – Delta Danielle, by Lord Avie)

Special Me is currently in foal to Twirling Candy and is due in March. This little lady is the foundation of Machmer Hall. She has produced Grade I winners Gift Box (Twirling Candy) and Gina Romantica (Into Mischief), plus Grade II winners Special Forces (Candy Ride {Arg}) and Stonetastic (Mizzen Mast). She was our first mare to produce a homebred million-dollar yearling. She has a yearling full-brother to Gina Romantica this year. She is 17 years old now and this is one mating that is TBD. She has proven that she can go to a plethora of sire lines and have success. We figure that we will wait until she foals safely to make the decision for her next mating. It is a big choice!

Interested in sharing your own mating plans? Email garyking@thetdn.com.

The post 2023 Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Machmer Hall appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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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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