Tag: Mocklershill

Gun Runner Colt Tops ‘Vibrant’ Goffs Dubai Breeze-Up Sale

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — A colt from the third crop of boom American stallion Gun Runner (lot 18) was hammered down to Stephen Hillen, agent for prominent owner Dr Jim Hay, for €543,210 to top Tuesday's second renewal of the Goffs Dubai Breeze-Up Sale, held in the parade ring at Meydan Racecourse. On behalf of the Scotsman, Hillen also acquired the second-dearest offering of the evening, a Justify half-brother to GISW Fog of War (War Front) (lot 2), for the equivalent of €518,519.

Following the withdrawal of 10 horses, 63 juveniles were presented to an enthusiastic group of bidders from a variety of jurisdictions and attended by Sheikh Mohammed and his advisors. Some 42 horses were reported as sold for AED25,814,178, a decrease of 18.2% from last year's AED31,580,000. The average of AED614,624 represented a 1% gain over the inaugural event, while the median of AED537,000 jumped by a whopping 37%. The clearance rate of 67% declined from 80% in 2022.

“The second renewal of the Dubai Breeze-Up in association with Goffs was another sale of vibrant sales ring action,” said Goffs' Henry Beeby. “Whilst the clearance rate was slightly down on last year, the average and particularly the median has grown considerably which demonstrated that the quality was selling extremely well.

“The old adage at these types of sales is 'breeze well, sell well', and those that caught the eye at the breeze were the most active in the sales ring. We built very solid foundations in years one and two and look forward to working with the Dubai Racing

Club to develop this sale into a truly world-class event, and the racetrack success of the first year certainly means that it has a bright future.

“Once again, I would like to extend thanks from all the team at Goffs to the Dubai Racing Club for the trust they have placed in us, and we salute the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed in adding the sale to this huge week of international racing at the Dubai World Cup.”

Hay Is For Horses

It was a busy evening for Stephen Hillen and Dr Jim Hay, who ended up securing not only the sale's top two sellers, but four of the top seven overall.

Lot 2 was bred in Kentucky by Orpendale, Chelston and Wynatt and was consigned to the sale by Willie Browne's Mocklershill on behalf of the breeder. Lead auctioneer Henry Beeby accepted an opening bid of a robust AED500,000 and bidding was steady up to and through the 2-million dirham level before Hay landed his first winning blow of the evening.

“We supported the sale last year,” said Hay, whose two purchases last year included a Gun Runner colt and a filly by Into Mischief. “We didn't do well with the purchases, but nevertheless, there are high-class pedigrees, the catalogue this year looks better. Stephen has had a good look at everything.”

Added Hillen: “He is by a top sire, Willie Browne thoroughly recommended him. I saw him at Willie's place about three weeks ago, big stride and by a good stallion. He'll probably stay here in Dubai to be trained by Bhupat Seemar.”

Hay has racing interests in all corners of the globe, but is encouraged about the trajectory of the local programme.

“The plan is to build up the stable in Dubai, this is where the prize money is and we need to race here,” he said.

“Very pleased with that,” said the consignor. “He was a beautiful horse by a stallion who is going places.”

A Justify colt also topped Monday's opening session of the OBS March Sale in Ocala, Florida, on a bid of $1.2 million.

A short time later, Hay and Hillen bought consecutive lots off Tom Whitehead's Powerstown Stud. Lot 17, a War Front own brother to the stakes-placed Stony Point, was acquired by Chad Schumer for $130,000 at last year's Keeneland September Sale and fetched €320,928 Tuesday, while Hay went back to the Gun Runner well once more when paying the sales-topping price.

“He was already a big horse when we got him, but he got broader and wider since,” Whitehead said of the Gun Runner son of Brazilian Group 1 winner Baby Go Far (Brz) (Elusive Quality), who was purchased for $160,000 at Keeneland last fall.

He, too, will be trained by Seemar, who said the colt reminded him a lot of his G1 Dubai World Cup hopeful Bendoog (Gun Runner), who was most recently runner-up in the G1 Al Maktoum Challenge R3.

Hay's fourth purchase was a colt from the first crop of Mitole–Warm Breeze (Street Sense) (lot 14) for €246,914. The May 3 foal was consigned by Bushypark Stables, who bought him for $60,000 at Keeneland.

 

 

 

Schumer Happy, Surprised By Results

American agent Chad Schumer does plenty of business in the Gulf region and is responsible for having sold last-out Listed Al Bastakiya S. winner Go Soldier Go (Tapiture) at last year's Dubai Sale. He was more than satisfied with the sale of the War Front colt through Powerstown, but was generally perplexed at the end results

“It's a very good pedigree and we expected that colt to do well,” he said, taking time out from his work down at the OBS sale. “He was a beautiful yearling and vetted well. You never know until you get there so we are delighted.”

He continued, “Tom generally just tries to buy the right kind of horse. This horse was well below what we were willing to spend, so it was a nice surprise we were able to pick him up for that.”

Given the success of last year's event, he was a bit taken aback at the level of engagement this time around.

“It was a real surprise to me,” he said. “Last year it felt a bit spotty to me. If you didn't have the right type, there was no money at all and Goffs did an exceptional job in pushing to get those horses sold. This year, based on the fact that so many of the horses had won and there was the Group 1-placed horse in Japan, I would have thought there would have been voracious demand, but there wasn't. Maybe OBS going on at the same time causes a pull from this sale, I don't know.”

 

 

 

Mitole A Hot Commodity in Dubai As Well

The first-crop offerings by Mitole (Eskendereya) proved popular Monday at OBS, with three lots fetching six-figure prices, and those that went through Tuesday in Dubai made a favourable impression as well. In addition to Hay's aforementioned purchase early in the session, Oliver St Lawrence and trainer Fawzi Nass went to €222,222 for a half-brother to the multiple Canadian stakes winners Dene Court (City Zip) and Jacally (Bold Executive). Lot 66 was purchased by Roderic Kavanagh's Glending Stables for $60,000 at Keeneland in September.

“I liked this colt very much and it seems like the sire is making some good horses,” St Lawrence said. “They have good substance and are good doers.”

The Name's Stroud

Buyers at Tuesday's sale were identifiable by paddles bearing a three-digit number, and lot 42, a colt by Darley America's Street Sense was knocked down to agent Anthony Stroud–holding paddle 007–for €370,370, the joint-fourth highest price of the sale.

Bred in Kentucky by Lewis Thoroughbred Breeding, the bay colt is out of Gold Serenade (Medaglia d'Oro), whose superstar 11-times Grade I-winning dam Serena's Song (Rahy) was responsible for G1 Coronation S. heroine Sophisticat (Storm Cat) and graded-stakes winners Grand Reward (Storm Cat) and Harlington (Unbridled). This is also the family of US champion Honor Code (A.P. Indy).

 

 

 

No Nay Never Colt Leads Euro-Breds

Of the 18 2-year-olds offered during Tuesday's session by European-based stallions, lot 71 proved the most coveted, selling to the burgeoning Najd Stud for €209,877.

A son of 2012 G1 Irish 1000 Guineas third Princess Sinead (Ire) (Jeremy), the May-foaled bay was led out unsold on a bid of 40,000gns during Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Sale last fall.

“We are delighted with that,” said Colm Kennedy, whose Drumphea Stables consigned the colt as the property of a partnership. “We were very pleased with the way the horse presented and his breeze [Monday] was very nice. Certainly the sire helped him, but that was a very good result.”

Najd Stud, the operation of Saudi Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Abdulaziz, bought four lots Tuesday topped by a Constitution colt (lot 25) out of a half-sister to multiple graded winner and Grade I-placed Independence Hall (Constitution) for just over €395,000 off Brendan Holland's Grove Stud.

Click here for the full results.

 

 

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Breeze-Up Goliath Back At Keeneland As David

LEXINGTON, KY–You may have seen in the news last week how they've just realised that a Mondrian masterpiece has been hanging the wrong way round for 77 years. That's just a year longer than Willie Browne has been accumulating his own perspectives on life and, when he looks at the filly he has brought to the Breeders' Cup, he pretty much knows that same, upside-down feeling. Because his long quest for the secrets of equine potential–which has so often brought him to this same town, wearing a very different hat–has now produced perhaps its deepest puzzle yet.

Browne, who processes as many as 90 breeze-up pinhooks through his Mocklershill nursery every year, seldom finds himself with more than two or three left over to send onto the racetrack himself. Among all the young horses to have passed through his hands, however, including many who went on to prove elite performers, none has shown him more talent than Spirit Gal (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). So where does it come from?

“I trained this filly's mother,” he mused, after supervising her jaunt round the Keeneland training track on Tuesday morning. “And it wouldn't be doing a disservice to say she was as bad a racemare as I've ever had. She hadn't the mind for the job: she was a box-walker, she travelled bad to the races. So I said to Chuck, 'Listen, there's no future in this one.'”

“Chuck” is Charles E. Fipke, the Canadian geologist who had diamond strikes at the Breeders' Cup with Forever Unbridled (Unbridled's Song) in the 2017 Distaff and Perfect Shirl (Perfect Soul {Ire}) in the 2011 Filly and Mare Turf. Browne can't remember quite how or when they met. But it was at least 20 years ago, and in this same town, while Browne was engaged his own brand of prospecting–as a pioneer in a trade he had more or less patented in Europe. And for a long time now Fipke has been sending Browne young stock, typically out of his mares over the water, to be broken and then prepared either for sale or training.

“Chuck being Chuck, he said, 'Okay, I'll send her to Sir Mark Prescott,'” Browne remembers of Awesome Gal (Ire). “Which he duly did. But Sir Mark ran her up to two miles with the same result, nothing. So I kind of lost contact with the filly then. But not alone did Chuck keep her, he put a 120 grand cover on her. Then I got a phone call in January this year, asking me would I take two fillies up from France. When they arrived, I looked at their breeding and thought: 'Here we go again!'”

Browne pauses and shakes his head. “But right from the get-go this filly was special,” he says. “All those years trying to figure things out, looking at pedigrees, how does it all work. And it's a filly out of that mare has turned out quicker than any breeze-up horse I've ever had. Now, listen, she goes back well. The mare has a good pedigree, she's by Galileo (Ire). But it's strange, all the same.”

It's true: Awesome Gal (Ire) has a striking shape to her pedigree, replicating Urban Sea's dam Allegretta (GB) (Lombard {Ger}) as close as 3 x 3. Full credit to Fipke, then, for rolling the dice on such a purposeful cover for this dismal runner.

Soon after their arrival, even so, Browne received an email instructing him to prepare both Awesome Gal's daughter and the No Nay Never filly who had accompanied her from France for the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale at Doncaster.

“Well, the way Spirit Gal was training at home, I knew what was going to happen,” Browne recalls. “Sure enough, she was third-fastest in the breeze and everyone was all over her. She'd have topped the sale by a mile.”

As it was, she had to be scratched. Seldom has a touch of sore shins proved such a blessing.

“I was disappointed of course,” Browne says. “I wasn't going to get my commission. But to keep me happy Chuck said, 'Listen, you can train this if you want.' He'd often have said that before, without me taking up the offer. Joseph [O'Brien] trains most of them [in Europe] now, and he had John Oxx before, plus a few with Sir Mark. But I said, 'Yes, this filly I will keep!'”

As a rule, the only horses that keep things ticking over at Browne's Co. Tipperary base through the summer will be mediocre types that have for one reason or another missed their sales slot.

“I'd have maybe two or three winners every year but they'd be rated 65 or so,” Browne explains. “You do well to win one of those low-grade handicaps every year, it's so competitive in Ireland. But while it might sound contradictory, I wouldn't want to be seen doing too well at this. People would say this fella's keeping the best and selling the worst. I hope people know me well enough to know that would never be the case, but human nature being what it is, there would be a bit of that.”

But the exception has, in any case, arrived in another's service.

“We knew she was good after the breeze-up, so after her little break we started to train her and it has all just continued on from there,” Browne says. “I used to get Seamie Heffernan in to sit on her. He's such a good judge, if he likes something you can sit up and take notice. She was fourth on her first run and then has just improved and improved. It was a good class of race she won in Dundalk [7f Listed] last time. Fillies don't normally beat the colts and she hammered the one that went on to win the [G3] Killavullan S.”

That was none other than Ballydoyle's one-time GI Juvenile Turf contender Cairo (Quality Road). There's no denying that Secret Gal matches her dashing style with plenty of substance, then, and those who assume that trainers need tiers of “punchbags” to work a horse up the grades must accept that this one has thrived for her solitary regime.

“She trains on her own,” Browne confirms. “I've become a bit American, train her on the clock. But she's very forward-going. People might normally train in pairs, but you'd never do that for the breeze. Yes, you do your initial preparation in groups, but once they start breezing, they all do it on their own. And she's so forward-going that doesn't need help. She'd use herself too much, with other horses. But not alone is she quick, she stays to a good level.”

There are, admittedly, new factors this time. For one thing she must gel with her local jockey, Ricardo Santana, Jr., and the hectic style of racing round the sharp inner track may demand versatility.

“There are a lot of ifs and buts,” Browne acknowledges. “We're in a bit of a quandary, in that she has a reputation as frontrunner back home. But it's a different ball game here. Going to the bend as quick as they will, you'd be using a lot of petrol to lead them there. So ideally you'd maybe look to break well and then just tuck in. But she should travel. And, you know, if she does everything right, she could hang around.”

While the many trainers who shop annually from Mocklershill are grateful that Browne has never deployed his mastery in meaningful competition, he does claim more satisfaction in winning a small race with a moderate horse than in the celebrated pinhooks that have made him the doyen of the sector. (First consignor to sell a seven-figure breezer in Europe? Willie Browne. Second consignor to sell a seven-figure breezer in Europe? Willie Browne.)

So you can imagine how he feels to be bringing Spirit Gal, last month his first ever starter in a stakes race, to a challenge as momentous as the GI Juvenile Fillies' Turf on Friday.

“I was here for the September Sale, not having a clue this was going to happen,” he says. “And I walked out there [out of the sales barns to view the track] and thought to myself, 'Damn, this side will always be different.'”

His tone is poignantly laced with the implication that “different” might equally read “better”. But then he can comfort himself that few trainers in Europe have saddled as many good horses in their time. And the system continues to function smoothly: subsequent 'TDN Rising Star' Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), picked up right here last year after failing to meet his September reserve at $65,000, was sold on to Oliver St Lawrence for €550,000 at Arqana in May and has since proved himself among the best of the crop with his G2 Mill Reef S. success for KHK Racing and Roger Varian. From the previous cycle, Light Infantry (Fr) (Fast Company {Ire}) has earned his passage to Australia after consecutive runner-up finishes in Group 1 company this summer. He was found for just €25,000 as an Arqana October yearling, and sold to Blandford for £82,000 at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up.

Browne is proud of the expertise of those fellow horsemen who have helped the breeze-up sector in Europe achieve spectacular maturity. And he should be assured of a reciprocal goodwill, among the countless trainers indebted to his academy, now that he has a belated opportunity to slay a giant or two with his tiny residue of part-time ammunition. He is too immune to self-indulgence, however, to dwell pointlessly on what might have been.

“The problem we had, in '77, was there were three families at home: my father, myself and my brother Michael,” he says with a shrug. “My father did moderately okay, always had his few winners. But we weren't making any kind of money to sustain three families. We had to do something different, and that's why we started what we started. But listen, at this stage of my life, it is kind of a fairy story. I got the full-sister up from France last week. She's not as pretty. But who knows? That's the thing. You never know. I hope I don't let anyone down on Friday. Where we fit in here, I don't know. But she has brought us here, at least, and we'll take that.”

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Zoffany’s Sakheer Oozes Class In Mill Reef Power Display

KHK Racing's 2-year-old twice-raced colt Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}–Shortmile Lady {Ire}, by Arcano {Ire}), a promising debut second at Windsor in August, attained 'TDN Rising Stardom' with a wide-margin demolition at Haydock on the first of this month and repeated the dose with another imperious performance in Saturday's G2 Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef S. at Newbury. The 4-5 favourite was alert from the stalls and found a smooth rhythm in a handy third through the early fractions of this black-type bow. Tanking forward to loom large on the bridle passing the quarter-mile marker, he settled the contest in an instant when quickening for control soon after and powered further clear under minimal coaxing in the latter stages to easily outclass Rousing Encore (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) by 3 1/2 lengths. The winner's Roger Varian stablemate Charyn (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) fared best of the remainder and finished 3/4-of-a-length further adrift in third.

“His work has always been very good at home and we thought he would win first time, but he ran into a smart filly at Windsor [Magical Sunset],” said Varian. “He then won well at Haydock and he looks good. How good, I don't know, but he is possibly the best of my 2-year-olds. He has size and scope, he's very exciting and I think he'll stay seven furlongs or a mile. You can never really expect things to go as well for us as it has today, but everything is clicking. He is in the [G1] Middle Park, but it's next week. It's very soon, so we'll have to see.”

Sakheer, who was the highest-priced lot when knocked down for €550,000 at this year's Arqana Breeze-Up sale, is the fifth of seven foals and one of three scorers produced by a half-sister to G3 Prix de Meautry winner Indian Maiden (Ire) (Indian Ridge {Ire}), herself the dam of G3 World Trophy victrix Maid In India (Ire) (Bated Breath {GB}) and the dual stakes-winning G3 Prix de Ris-Orangis second Love Spirit (GB) (Elusive City). The February-foaled bay, who hails from the family of Winning Colors (Caro {Ire}) and Chief's Crown (Danzig), is a half-brother to multiple Group-winning GI Beverly D. S. third Lemista (Ire) (Raven's Pass), a yearling colt by Exceed And Excel (Aus) and a weanling filly by Sea The Stars (Ire).

Saturday, Newbury, Britain
DUBAI DUTY FREE MILL REEF S.-G2, £84,250, Newbury, 9-17, 2yo, 6fT, 1:13.53, gd.
1–SAKHEER (IRE), 129, c, 2, by Zoffany (Ire)
1st Dam: Shortmile Lady (Ire), by Arcano (Ire)
2nd Dam: Jinsiyah, by Housebuster
3rd Dam: Minifah, by Nureyev
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN; 1ST GROUP WIN. (80,000gns Wlg '20 TATFOA; $65,000 RNA Ylg '21 KEESEP; €550,000 2yo '22 ARQMAY). O-KHK Racing; B-Drumlin Bloodstock (IRE); T-Roger Varian; J-David Egan. £47,778. Lifetime Record: 3-2-1-0, $63,902. *1/2 to Lemista (Ire) (Raven's Pass), MGSW-Ire, GSW & GISP-USA, $386,350. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Rousing Encore (Ire), 129, c, 2, Acclamation (GB)–Jolie Chanson (Fr), by Mount Nelson (GB). 1ST BLACK TYPE; 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. (57,000gns Wlg '20 TATFOA; 32,000gns Ylg '21 TATOCT). O-Paul K Spencer; B-Hunting Hill Stud (IRE); T-Richard Fahey. £18,114.
3–Charyn (Ire), 129, c, 2, Dark Angel (Ire)–Futoon (Ire), by Kodiac (GB). 1ST BLACK TYPE; 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. (250,000gns Ylg '21 TATOCT). O-Nurlan Bizakov; B-Grangemore Stud (IRE); T-Roger Varian. £9,065.
Margins: 3HF, 3/4, NK. Odds: 0.80, 20.00, 12.00.
Also Ran: Shouldvebeenaring (GB), Wallop (Ire), Mustajaab (GB), Heroism (Ire).

 

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‘The Dream Is Alive’ – Willie Browne on TDN Rising Star Sakheer

Breeze-up king Willie Browne, who sold G1 1000 Guineas heroine Speciosa (Ire), G1 Ascot Gold Cup winner Trip To Paris (Ire) and many more top-notchers, is allowing himself to believe that recent graduate Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) could be the real deal after he coasted to an effortless victory at Haydock on Thursday.

The 76-year-old bought Sakheer for $65,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sales in 2021 before producing the colt to top the Arqana Breeze-up Sale in May of this year.

Sakheer was bought by Oliver St Lawrence for €550,000 on behalf of KHK Racing Ltd. and went some way in justifying that price tag when bolting up by six lengths second time out at Haydock under David Egan for Roger Varian.

It was a performance that left tongues wagging, with the G1 Middle Park S. entrant earning himself a 'TDN Rising Star'  badge in victory, and Browne hopes that Haydock triumph can prove a launchpad for Sakheer's career.

He said, “Visually, it looked very good and we'd like to think he's smart. The third horse was a winner and the time looked good considering he could have gone faster if he [Egan] pressed a button.”

Browne added, “He was always a nice horse and he breezed very well for us. I think he breezed in the top four or five at Arqana and obviously we got well paid for him. He looked a special horse and hopefully he will go on and be that for his connections.”

Operating under the Mocklershill banner, Browne has been breezing horses since 1978 and described the current landscape of the profession as the best it's ever been.

 

“We're getting old but sure we'll try to keep going for as long as we can. It's hard to stop,” – Willie Browne

Thursday represented a good day for his renowned Tipperary-based operation, not only because Sakheer lived up to the high opinion he had always been held in by Brown, but because fellow Arqana graduate Ensued (Lemon Drop Kid) posted an encouraging debut at Salisbury.

He said, “We get it right a fair bit but we have also had quite a lot of horses through our hands so we need to produce a few good ones. Sakheer is one of them.

“I went out and bought him by chance at Keeneland last year. He was an expensive foal [80,000gns] in Europe and then the vendors brought him to America to re-sell him for whatever reason.

“He did have a sibling [half-sister Lemista (Ire) (Raven's Pass)] who did well out there so maybe that was part of the thinking in bringing him to America but he didn't make his reserve in the ring and we got him outside it [for $65,000].”

Browne added, “He was a beautifully put together horse and it wasn't rocket science. The fact that he could gallop, though, there was a certain amount of good fortune in that. Sometimes you can buy beautiful-looking horses and they might not be able to gallop. He could.

“The plus about Arqana is, even though this horse breezed very well and we got well paid, we'd another horse there, a Lemon Drop Kid, and we got well-paid for him even though he didn't break the clock.

“He [Ensued] actually ran yesterday, was a very good third on debut at Salisbury for James Fanshawe, and he's a good middle-distance horse going forward. He breezed like a middle-distance horse but the people who buy in Arqana can see beyond speed and that's a plus for us.”

 

Browne has been breezing horses ever since it was a thing and Mocklershill is recognised as one of the premier consignors of 2-year-olds in Europe. He has overseen a kaleidoscope of change in the industry and admits that, in order to get well paid, you don't always need to break the clock anymore.

He explained, “A fast horse will always get you money, no matter where you go, but the Lemon Drop Kid was a good example of a middle-distance horse making good money at the breeze-ups, as we got €260,000 for him.

“If yesterday's run is anything to go by, he's also an exciting horse in his own right, so there's two horses at the opposite end of the stick. The fast horse, Sakheer, who showed up well, and the middle-distance horse, Ensued, who may not have been as fast, but showed different qualities and made a good price.

“It's a great thrill opening the paper every morning and seeing the percentage of 2-year-old winners who are graduates from the breeze-ups. It's just off the charts. It's unbelievable what's going on in the breeze-ups at the moment. There's a lot of good people breezing horses and they know what they're doing.”

Asked where Sakheer may rank in the pantheon of top-notchers to have graduated from Mocklershill, he replied, “When he wins a group race, come back to me. He needed to do what he did yesterday. It gives you great satisfaction when you produce a good horse, it's as much relief as anything else, but when they cost what Al Sakheer did, you like to see them go on and be good.

“Sometimes it happens and other times it doesn't but the dream looks well and truly alive right now. If he goes and wins a group race, maybe we'll be able to put our chest out a little bit more.”

Browne has already been making his presence felt at the yearling sales and has been busy re-stocking for next year's breeze-ups.

He said, “I didn't go to the August Sale at Arqana this year. Maybe I should have, but I didn't. We went to Doncaster and bought a few there alright.

“We gave a good few quid for a Showcasing (GB) horse, we gave 140,000gns for him, which is plenty of money for a breeze-up horse, but he looks a fast horse to me. I'm hoping the money is well spent.

“We bought a Ten Sovereigns (Ire) for 50 grand as well, so that's the start of it all. We're getting old but sure we'll try to keep going for as long as we can. It's hard to stop.”

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