Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Nicoma Bloodstock

Headley Bell has run Nicoma Bloodstock for 40 years, planning matings for clients at his Mill Ridge Farm and beyond. “It's like being an artist,” says Bell. “You're crafting, and planning matings is part of that whole creation.” Bell said he uses various tools for his matings, including TDN's statistics on percentages of black type to foals, mare produce records, five-cross pedigrees, and examines patterns of broodmare sires with certain families. Finally, he takes physical traits of mares into consideration to determine, he said, “who that mare really is.” He does the same with sires. Bell then grades his clients' mares into A,B, and C categories, values them, and tries to find a stud fee of around one-fifth the value of the mare.
He shared matings with six Nicoma clients in a conversation with the TDN, which we share here.

JAMM LIMITED
This is the Tolie Otto family, and we raced Keeper Hill together. Sadly, Tolie died this year, but her daughter Audie has been running it for several years now, and they have four mares with us.

Justaroundmidnight (Ire), 17, Danehill Dancer (Ire)—Strategy (GB), by Machiavellian. To be bred to Up To The Mark.This is a mare that we bought back in 2012, and we bred Duopoly from her, who was a Group 1 winner by Animal Kingdom. She had a lovely Omaha Beach yearling that we sold this year, and she's currently not in foal, but we've chosen Up to the Mark with this mare. I didn't know the horse until the end of the year like most people probably because that's when he really did his thing, but he really was brilliant. And I believe Not This Time and Liam's Map are going to have a lot of influence, and this is a good son of Not This Time. And obviously, he ran on the grass, and it's a good pedigree blend that blends well with this mare, a first-year stallion. She's a commercial breeder, this is a Group 1-producing mare and it's a good value point.

Smart Shopping, 10, Smart Strike—Shop Again, by Wild Again. To be bred to Life Is Good.
We bought her dam, Shop Again, some years ago, and she was a foundation mare for the Ottos. And this is her 2013 daughter by Smart Strike that Ms. Otto raced, who was trained by Brendan Walsh. She showed form and we thought she was an Oaks filly, but she ended up injuring herself. Her first two foals are stakes-caliber, and show some quality. This is a foundation-replacing mare for Audie, and she's currently in foal to Life is Good. Life is Good and Flightline are the best two horses I've seen for a long time.

She's in foal to Life is Good and we're going to repeat the mating, not just because it's Life is Good, but, it blends very well with this particular mare and we pick up a lot of features that we like in that combined pedigree blend. And that's really all you can do, is try to put enough good ingredients into the stew and get lucky. Because the reality is that you don't look like your brother or your sister, and the idea to think that you can replicate something is not realistic. So you try to put as many things as you can into the stew, and that's what Life is Good, for me, does. So we're sending her foundation mare back to Life is Good.

NANCY DILLMAN
Nancy Dillman is a dear friend a client for 40 years. She bred Diminuendo from the first crop of Diesis (GB), and we bred Havre de Grace together.

Mademoiselle Coco, 11, Medaglia d'Oro—Easter Brunette, by Carson City. To bred to Cody's Wish.

She's a half-sister to Havre de Grace, and this family has always bred a little small, and so we want to try to put a little size into her, if we can. She's currently in foal to Essential Quality and has an Essential Quality '23 foal as well. We had obviously great luck with Havre de Grace and Nancy likes first-year stallions whenever possible. She's a commercial breeder, and so we're breeding her back to Cody's Wish. Again, it's a pedigree blend with Medaglia d'Oro and the Mr. Prospector line works well with other things within that family, and Cody's Wish is a brilliant horse.

Seastone, 7, Cairo Prince—Church By The Sea, by Harlan's Holiday. To be bred to Epicenter.
She's a half-sister to Significant Form. She has a Maxfield 2023 foal and is in foal to Epicenter, who is a son of Not This Time. We like that blend. And so we're going to go back to Epicenter with Seastone.

JERRY AND JOHN AMERMAN
The Amermans breed to race, one of those rare items today. And they've really built their entire program, of which there are about 10 mares now, off of two foundation mares–a mare called Miss Chapin, who's a very good producing mare, and then Devine Actress, who's the Dam of Oscar Performance and Oscar Nominated, among others.

Dream Fuhrever, 14, Langfuhr—Society Dream (Fr), by Akarad (Fr). To be bred to Oscar Performance.
One of the mares that I'm suggesting for Oscar Performance is the dam of Endlessly (Oscar Performance), who is a granddaughter of Miss Chapin. She's by Langfuhr, so the Northern Dancer line. Endlessly was the top two-year-old by Oscar Performance who was three-for-three before running in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and ended up being beaten three lengths there after going off as one of the favorites in that race. But breeding back Dream Fuhrever to Oscar Performance is a natural thing to do. You had to get lucky the first time, and we did.

Catch the Eye, 8, Quality Road—Turns My Head (Ire), by Montjeu. To be bred to Oscar Performance.
Another is a 2016 Quality Road mare by the name of Catch the Eye, who's from a European family, a Montjeu mare from the family of Egyptian Queen.  She has a '23 Caravaggio foal and is in foal to Oscar Performance. Quality Road has done well with Oscar Performance, it seems, and so we're breeding her back to Oscar Performance.

CLOVER HILL FARM
Sadly, we lost Lynn Schiff whom I'd been working with for 15 years or so, and her daughter, Maggie Gieseke, now runs the operation. Mom (Alice Chandler) was a magnet for women because she was such a strong woman herself, and so a lot of our clients are women, which is fantastic. Clover Hill bred the Breeders' Cup winner Ria Antonia and has about five mares. They're commercial breeders. And a few years ago, while Lynn was still with us in 2017, we bought three mares, and two of which have really worked out very well.

Wild Silk, 11, Street Sense—Spun Silk, by A.P. Indy. To be bred to Cody's Wish.
One of those three mares is Wild Silk. We paid $70,000 for her, and she is the dam of Red Carpet Ready, by Oscar Performance, who has earned nearly $600,000. She is a daughter of Street Sense, but also has a blend of Wild Again in the family and she provided a Hyperion-line blend of pedigree that crosses so beautifully with Oscar Performance and really crosses beautifully with Kitten's Joy through Lear Fan. We've gone back to Oscar Performance a couple of times. She is in foal to Liam's Map now, and Not This Time and Liam's Map are very strong sources that I'm using quite a bit. They're going to go to Cody's Wish with this mare. She can use some size and blend-wise, we're happy with that.

Maya Princess, 11, Street Sense—Hartfelt, by Kafwain. To be bred to Jack Christopher.
Here is another daughter of Street Sense and we bought her in foal to Ghostzapper in 2017. We were very fortunate that she produced a beautiful Ghostzapper that Phil Bauer and Richard Rigney bought and named Mariah's Princess, who earned $250,000 as her first foal. She has an Essential Quality filly foal and is in foal to Charlatan and is going to Jack Christopher. They are commercial breeders. Charlatan was a brilliant horse, and again, provides a pedigree blend, and Jack Christopher also is a brilliant horse. And we would just as soon not be in a sire's first book. I said that Nancy Dillman wants to be in the first year, but I don't mind being in another year, because if you believe in the horse, it's worth the gamble, really, because you're not up there against 200 other foals.

FRANK GARRISON
Frank Garrison is an old college friend who owns a couple of mares together with us, and is godfather to Price. These are ones we share.

Humor Me Dixie, 6, Distorted Humor—Dixie City, by Dixie Union. To be bred to Oscar Performance.
Humor Me Dixie is a mare that we bought in 2020 with an outstanding blend of family. Distorted Humor is a great broodmare sire with the El Prado/Medaglia d'Oro line in particular. She's in foal to Upstart, and we are going to breed her to Oscar Performance. The Hyperion line that you're picking up through Oscar Performance, I think will blend well and add some size to the mare.

Proximity Bias, 8, Flatter—Sidle, by Seeking the Gold. To be bred to Liam's Map.
We bought this mare in 2016 from a family I'm very fond of, the Stroll family, which I think is a very tough family. We bought her in foal to Practical Joke in '20 and sold that Practical Joke to Steve Asmussen, and he's made her a stakes winner of $150,000 for which we're most appreciative. And she has a '23 Oscar Performance and in foal to Oscar Performance and is going back to Liam's Map.

BYRON NIMOCKS
Byron Nimocks is from Rye, New York and is fairly new to the business. We share five mares together, and last year was the first time we bought any mares.

Patna, 5, Into Mischief—Barbadia, by Speightstown. To be bred to Blame.
Most importantly, she is from the Willstar family of Juddmonte's, which is one of their foundation families. And it has Nureyev in it, and I can't get enough of Nureyev. Theatrical is by Nureyev, which is Oscar Performance's broodmare sire. She was a maiden at the time we bought her, and we bred her to Twirling Candy. We're going to go to Blame this year. Chris McGrath described Blame so well in his Value Sires, and we believe he is a value sire also, and we're going to go to Blame and see if we can breed a race horse.

Tea Olive, 5, First Samurai—Conquest Superstar, by Super Saver. To be bred to Aloha West.
We bought this mare last year as a maiden. Gatewood (Bell) had bought her as a yearling. Gatewood's a second cousin and worked with me at Nicoma for a while. It was in the slop at Keeneland, but she beat Gunite in her first start, which I thought was pretty impressive. She earned about a $100,000. We had bred her to Speaker's Corner. Unfortunately, she aborted. And we're going to come back to Aloha West. For us, we believe that Aloha West resembles his broodmare sire, Speightstown, more than his sire Hard Spun. He gives you a great pedigree blend with the Hard Spun–some Danzig, some Gone West, and some A. P. Indy. He was a very fast horse, obviously. He won the Breeders' Cup Sprint. And we're excited about his future and we're going to send what we believe is an exciting mare to him in Tea Olive.

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

Source of original post

Pastures New Maintain Old Standards at Mill Ridge

For a farm so steeped in heritage, and so properly respectful of it, there's no mistaking the vitality, the aversion to complacency, animating Mill Ridge with a sixth generation now at the reins.

Back in April the Bell family grieved farm founder Alice Headley Chandler, a revered matriarch not just around their own hearth but among the whole Bluegrass community. But their loss, while poignantly refreshing their gratitude and sense of privilege, could only reinforce an engrained determination that her legacy be honored by all the ambition that had characterised her own, pioneering tenure.

Her son Headley Bell, managing partner since 2008, had already promoted her grandson Price as general manager in August 2020. The previous year, meanwhile, they had welcomed Oscar Performance to revive a stallion station that had gathered dust since Gone West and Diesis gave it such international significance. And now, in a confident invitation to traffic from the impending breeding stock sales, they have just extended capacity with the acquisition–or retrieval, rather–of 288 acres from Calumet.

Retrieval, because this parcel of land was once part of the Beaumont Farm where Mrs. Chandler's father Hal Price Headley raised the likes of Menow and Alcibiades. On his death, in 1962, she inherited just a nook of the farm, around 1/16th of its extent; while this portion was left to her sister. Later on, it was actually leased by Mill Ridge for a few decades until the farm shared in the shocks absorbed by the industry after 2008, and it was sold to Calumet in 2015. Its return to the fold, then, is expressive of a striving for regeneration by the heirs to the breeder of the game-changing Sir Ivor.

“It's the type of land we all covet,” says Price. “Big, open spaces for horses to develop, 40-acre pastures with big slopes and big trees. But this is also about our team, our human capital. Our infrastructure was developed to handle 130, 140 mares. As our numbers declined with the foal crop, we didn't adjust our team. So we have talented people, blessed by incredible horsemanship and experience. To utilize that to the full, we need more volume; and to accommodate that, we needed more land. So that's how we hope to make this thing go. We're lucky to have people who are so passionate about the horse, and about the farm. Now we just need to make sure they have the stock to do what they do so well.”

This kind of calculation is as educated as you could find in our community, Price having returned to Mill Ridge not only bearing the laurels of an MBA from Vanderbilt's Owen School, but having already cut his teeth in the wider business world. Straight out of college–and it's easy to imagine his livewire interview–he was appointed CEO of a $40 million commercial real estate asset in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“That was a very service-minded framework, which I really enjoyed and have carried with me since,” he says. “Charlotte was booming, but after things went well there the company decided to move me to Nashville–at a time when there were then less than 1,000 people living downtown. Still in my mid-20s, I found myself with nearly half a million square feet of 30-year-old office space with a significant leasing problem.”

The point of this recollection, however, is not that the precocious salesman filled the vacant premises–though he duly did. What really told in Nashville was learning the organic connection between the commercial interests he happened to be serving, on the one hand, and improved viability for the city as a whole, on the other. Invited onto the board of a non-profit organisation devoted to downtown development, he embraced their agenda with a zeal that entitles him to a modest share of pride in Nashville's “meteoric” progress since.

That experience was not lost on Price after he accepted his father's offer to return to a world in which he had, naturally, been given a thorough grounding in his youth–initially by joining the Nicoma Bloodstock agency that can count Street Sense (Street Cry {Ire}), Barbaro (Dynaformer), Havre de Grace (Saint Liam) and Bricks and Mortar (Giant's Causeway) among counselled matings. In the 10 years since, Price and his father have been pivotal to the evolution of Horse Country, the open-our-gates tours that have transformed public engagement with Bluegrass farms. And Horse Country, of course, obeyed much the same principles that Price had seen validated in Nashville: namely, that businesses will always thrive if embracing and enhancing their social and cultural setting.

A few days ago, Mill Ridge hosted a six-term congressman from Georgia on a Horse Country tour. He was entranced, stuck around for a coffee, chatted. At one point he looked Price in the eye. “Don't you ever sell this place,” he said. The next day Price found himself driving another septuagenarian visitor round the farm: a woman from upstate Ohio who had been drawn to the sport by Zenyatta–not a fanbase, it must be granted, always received with patience by busy professionals.

“This woman had become our biggest 'virtual tour' fan,” Price explains, referring to the enterprising solution adopted when lockdown broadsided Horse Country. “As we drove around she kept stopping me to take in the view, kept saying, 'I just can't believe where I am right now…' It made me feel as close to John Lennon as I'm ever likely to feel! So here we had a woman who's been around the sun 75 times, speechless, within 24 hours of our visitor from Georgia. Two such different people, both entering our orbit for a very brief time–and it was interesting to me that not only did we have that impact on both of them, but they each had an impact on us, too.

“Because it's that kind of experience that reminds us how special this all is, how very lucky we are to do what we do–and the responsibility we all have, to share the horse, to share the land, to share Lexington. At the end of the day, this business is about humans and horses. And that is not something we can assign to associations, to NTRA or TOBA or the Jockey Club. It's the responsibility of all of us, as individuals.”

Happily, Price feels that horse evangelism is a little easier now than has previously been the case. Behind Mill Ridge's roll of the dice, in expanding capacity, is a conviction that the whole sport has a new spring in its step: that people are eager to go out and enjoy life, to put the economic and social trauma of the pandemic behind them.

“I feel there's a lot of good momentum,” he says. “In taking on this risk, this big investment, we feel there are great opportunities going forward for the industry, and for Mill Ridge as well. Finally it feels like we're rowing together a little more than we have been. We see great hope for our sport, for our community, and we're investing in ourselves and welcoming new clients. I guess it feels like the first time, really since the '08 crash, that everything is really growing again.

“Back then we all felt like we were battening hatches down, constantly baling out water: the foal crop adjustment, PETA, Santa Anita, aftercare. With no fan engagement, that could have knocked us out. Quite frankly, if we'd continued being complacent in our racetracks, our horses, our fans, we'd be shrivelling and wilting away. We still have some big issues, obviously. But the key tenets of what we do, and how we share those, have been restructured. And I'd say the foundation is now stronger than it has been in my lifetime. We're excited by that.”

Horse Country had an incidental benefit, too. With such a delicate margin between family and professional life, Price and Headley treated the enterprise as a useful “test drive” for how they might work together in their own business.

“In working so closely on a passion project, on something that wasn't our core business, Dad and I could develop a confidence in each other that has ultimately allowed this transition to take place,” Price says. “We saw that we could work as team-mates, as opposed to me coming in and saying, 'This is how you should be doing everything,' or him looking at me saying, 'You haven't proven you can do anything.' Mill Ridge is here today, and successful, because of my dad and my grandmother, because of my uncles, and because of our clients. And Mill Ridge tomorrow will be successful for the same reason.”

At this point Headley joins the call. A man of such courtesy and dignity was never going to cling resentfully to the authority of a parent, and he discusses the situation with candour and quiet pride.

“We're fortunate that in Price, and the team he's building, we have a lot of talent,” he says. “He happens to be our son, but he's always been visionary, always been willing to take a position and back it up, always been a team player. When he was president of his class in high school, that wasn't because he was some super jock. It was because he was inclusive of others, and elevated those around him. And he brings in people with similar strengths. So not only is Mill Ridge better off, but the industry will be, too.”

Headley likes the way the transition evolved almost of its own volition. There was no turning point, no formal deadline. It gradually became clear, during lockdown, that the time was right; but that realization had been reached by lifelong increments. They fortified the arrangements by involving Price's mother, sister and wife; and there was so much counsel and support at hand: from “Doc” Chandler, from Headley's brothers, from Duncan Macdonald who worked here for 38 years.

“Remember, there had never been any pressure for me to go on with this, and nor was there any pressure on Price,” Headley says. “It did not have to go on. What I've done with Nicoma for 45 years has been very fulfilling. Mill Ridge, I'd long been part of the team parallel to Nicoma but stepped in only in '07, when Mom was 82.

“And out of that evolution, when Gatewood [Bell, nephew] was going out on his own, I approached Price and said: 'If you're interested, here's where we're are.' And do you know what he said? 'Let me get back to you, Dad.' He's going to get back to me! But about three months later, he did come back. And he said: 'Three things, Dad. Number one: I would never want to do anything to jeopardize our relationship.' So that was, like, wow. 'Number two: I'm bringing what I believe to be my future wife into this environment. Is that fair to her? And number three: am I qualified to do it?'”

But just to ask those questions, in effect, was to answer them. It's not just the equine graduates of this regime that you can judge by the results.

“I've been very fortunate through my time, to be successful enough to have the liquidity to navigate the water,” reflected Headley. “That's positioned us to build for the next generation, without, say, needing someone to come in and partner. There's nothing more enriching than being able to include your children in whatever you're doing, especially something like this. And that's something we feel every day, with these Horse Country tours. People say, first off: 'Thank you very much for sharing.' But then also: 'Wow, do you know how lucky you are to do what you do?!' So all we ever have to do is step out the door and look. We don't take anything for granted.”

That can seldom have been so true as when the family shared its memories of Headley's mother this spring.

“Really, she stays alive through this effort,” remarks Headley. “I say that to people often. We feel her presence here, in our efforts. Dr. Chandler has always been such a great team-mate. It's been difficult for him, of course, but he really embraces Price and his energy.”

Price, for his part, will always view his grandmother as a model of how to be a good citizen of the Turf. “Reflecting on her life, I think the great inspiration is that she didn't ever back down from any challenge,” he says. “Not just at the farm, but in the industry too. KTA, KTOB, Gluck Center, dozens of causes. She was a very thoughtful person and passionate too: when she had a conviction, she worked tirelessly with many like-minded people to make things better.”

And, with that inherited sense of the bigger picture, Price is adamant that connecting fans with the horse is not just good public relations, but good business.

“Our personal experience is that the magic we really need to push comes from bringing people to the farm, bringing them to the races, introducing people to horses,” he says. “That's not to diminish everything else that's being done: the TAA, the improved screenings and accountability at the racetrack. But that's where we felt we could contribute: connecting people to horses. There's great curiosity out there as to how you breed a horse, raise a horse, choose a horse to get to the finish line first. That's the elixir we have, and I guess sharing that with more people has always inspired me.”

Of course, you can only engage people with horses if you know how to engage with people. And that's what really augurs so well for the new era at Mill Ridge–though that MBA presumably won't do any harm, either.

“In the end I guess I'm curious by nature,” Price says. “Maybe that additional schooling gave me the confidence to be inquisitive, and to learn from the type of people who are now our customers. But more importantly it also gave me even greater confidence that what we have is very special; and that we're very lucky. It's just that sometimes we don't recognize that, or don't package it quite right.”

Its pastures new contain an apt analogy for what is happening at Mill Ridge. Because if the horse-lore handed down between generations represents deep soil, dense roots, then you don't just leave turf to grow rank or parched. It's by keeping active, by mowing or grazing, that you foster its healthy renewal.

“While we're in transition, the industry is also in transition,” notes Headley. “You see it on the racetrack, you see it in these partnerships, you see it with NYRA. There's an evolution. All you had to do is look at Keeneland recently, when Gatewood filled up the winner's circle with family and friends, maybe 60 strong–and probably 30 of them under the age of eight! It's certainly not just Price, there's a lot of talent in his generation. So this feels very natural, fitting well with what's happening in the industry as a whole. This is a really exciting time.”

The post Pastures New Maintain Old Standards at Mill Ridge appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Saturday Insights: Mill Ridge Firster Appeals In Split Maiden

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency
6th-KEE, $84K, Msw, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, post time: 3:40 p.m. ET
MOMS MOON (Kitten's Joy) is a son of Sweet Assay (Consolidator), acquired as a 5-year-old by Nicoma Bloodstock for $14,000 at the 2014 Keeneland January Sale and covered by Point of Entry in her maiden trip to the breeding shed. The resulting foal became 'TDN Rising Star' Analyze It, a 6 1/4-length debut winner who became a three-time winner at the graded level and was placed in the GI Belmont Derby, GI Secretariat S. and GI Breeders' Cup Mile. The Chad Brown-trainee snapped a four-race skid dating back to last year's GIII Red Bank S. in Belmont allowance company Oct. 8. Moms Moon's Grade II-winning third dam A. P. Assay (A.P. Indy) was a half-sister to the late Came Home (Gone West). TJCIS PPs

Juddmonte Unveils Arrogate Homebred…
3rd-KEE, $84K, Msw, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, post time: 2:04 p.m. ET
VERBIER (Arrogate) is the first foal out of Bernadiva (Bernardini), a longshot third in the grassy Riskaverse S. for Jake Ballis and Bill Mott and later acquired privately with an eye on becoming a future mate for the late Arrogate. Bernadiva is a daughter of the versatile Evening Jewel (Northern Afleet), winner of a synthetic-track renewal of this track's GI Central Bank Ashland S. and that year's GI Del Mar Oaks on the turf either side of a heartbreaking defeat at the hooves of Blind Luck (Pollard's Vision) in the GI Kentucky Oaks. Among the competition is Whitham Thoroughbreds' Hatch (E Dubai), a son of turf GSW Linda (Scat Daddy), herself a daughter of GSW/GISP Beautiful Noise (Sunny's Halo). TJCIS PPs

The post Saturday Insights: Mill Ridge Firster Appeals In Split Maiden appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Brisk Trade as Book 4 Concludes at Keeneland

The two-session Book 4 portion of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale concluded Monday in Lexington with spirited action at the top of the market. Bloodstock agent Donato Lanni, the most prolific buyer of the auction, made the day’s highest bid when going to $320,000 to acquire a colt by hot freshman sire Not This Time (hip 2739) for an undisclosed client. For the session, 255 yearlings sold for $11,832,500 for an average of $46,402 and a median of $25,000. The buy-back rate, which was as high as 40% during sessions last week, was 23.88% Monday.

For the two-day Book 4 section, 492 yearlings sold for an aggregate of $23,349,000. The average was $47,457 and the median was $32,000. The book’s $320,000 top price was one of 11 to sell for $200,000 or over for the two days.

During last year’s two-session Book 4 section, 562 yearlings sold for $28,329,200 for an average of $50,408 and a median of $37,000. The top Book 4 price in 2019 was $310,000 and 10 horses sold for $200,000 or over.

“The good ones are tough to buy, they are really tough,” Lanni said. “You just have to bid extra and push a little bit more and hopefully you get them.”

Hip 2739 was one of two yearlings to bring over $300,000 Monday. The chestnut colt, bred by Stelly Stables and consigned by Stuart Morris, is out of Ready at Nine (More Than Ready) and is a half-brother to stakes-placed Drummer Boy (Parading).

“He is a neat horse, a cool dude,” Lanni said of the yearling, who will be trained by Bob Baffert. “He was one of the standouts today. Every day there are good horses coming through, you just have to find them. He was easy to find. He’s a nice horse. And the sire helped. The sire has been on a roll and people believe in the sire. They are willing to pay extra for them. Not This Time is a horse that came under the radar. You never know who is going to make it, but it looks like he’s going to do well.”

Also topping the $300,000 mark Monday was a filly by Nyquist (hip 2419), who sold for $305,000 to Nicoma Bloodstock. Consigned by Candy Meadows Sales, the yearling was one of five by the GI Kentucky Derby-winning freshman sire to bring six figures during the session.

“I think yesterday was a little light, but the quality of horses is a bit better today in day two of Book 4 and there certainly seems to be a little more high-end trade today,” said Nicoma’s Ben Gowans.

Oracle Bloodstock, bidding on behalf of Zilla Racing Stables, struck late in the day to acquire one of three fillies by Nyquist to sell for $200,000 Monday. Hip 2772 is out of Soarwiththebirds (Giant’s Causeway), a half-sister to Canadian champion Up With the Birds (Stormy Atlantic), who was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency.

“I loved her,” said Oracle’s Conor Foley. “She had a coltish body, but a feminine way about her. I don’t think she’s done improving. I thought she fit the mold of the nice Nyquists. I’m excited that Zilla Racing was able to get her. This was their first time to Keeneland and they were the underbidder several times over the last several days and we just decided this filly ticked all the boxes. We were lucky to get her.”

Of Nyquist, who was represented by his second Grade I winner when Gretzky the Great won the GI Summer S. at Woodine Sunday, Foley said, “I’m really impressed with them. Obviously they are showing themselves to be the real deal on the track. The Grade I win maybe cost my client a little bit more money than I would have liked, but I am happy for Darley that they stand the horse. I used to work there and I’m a big fan of the stallion.”

Oracle Bloodstock has been active at all levels of the market during the first week of the Keeneland September sale, purchasing horses from $1.1 million to $15,000. In all, the operation has signed for 19 yearlings for $3,534,000.

“I am shocked at how strong the market is with everything that is going on in the world,” Foley admitted. “It’s been punishing because I’ve been outbid a lot. There is still a strong desire for people to get really nice horses to compete all over the world. I still have barely even bought for my foreign clients. I am nervous–I would be shocked if I was going to be able to fill all their needs at this sale. But that’s great for everybody in the business. It’s been a weird year, but I’m relieved for the breeders. They need to do well, they are the synergy and the strength of our industry.”

The Keeneland September sale continues through Friday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

Nicoma Strikes Early for Nyquist Filly

A day after earning his second Grade I winner from his first crop to race, Nyquist was responsible for the top-priced filly of Monday’s eighth session of the Keeneland September sale when Nicoma Bloodstock’s Ben Gowans made a final bid of $305,000 to secure a daughter of the GI Kentucky Derby winner (hip 2419) on behalf of an undisclosed client. Out of multiple stakes winner and multiple graded stakes placed Unforgotten (Northern Afleet), the bay filly is a half-sister to Grade I placed Silverpocketsfull (Indian Charlie).

“We thought coming in to today that this filly would be around $200,000 to $250,000 range, but Nyquist had a big weekend,” Gowans said.

Nyquist’s son Gretzky the Great captured Sunday’s GI Summer S. at Woodbine, adding to Vequist’s win in the GI Spinaway S. earlier this month.

“Seeing what Nyquist has done so far obviously gave us the confidence in the filly, but we loved her physically,” Gowans said. “She is a beautiful filly with good size, plenty of leg, really well balanced, and she moves really well.”

Of his client, Gowans said, “He is in it to race. We’ve really enjoyed working for him and he was delighted even though we went a little over [budget on the filly]. So that’s always a good thing.”

The yearling was consigned by Candy Meadows Sales and was bred by Matt Lyons’s Three Lyons Racing and Dennis Farkas. Farkas purchased Unforgotten, with this filly in utero, for $75,000 at the 2018 Keeneland November sale.

“Matt [Lyons] was the one who got me going on the mare a couple of years ago,” Farkas said from his home in Indiana. “I really liked her, but she was out of my price range and when she RNA’d in November, Matt asked me if I wanted to go partners on her. I said, ‘Sure.’ After that, it’s been all Matt.”

Of Monday’s results in the sales ring, Farkas said, “Matt was really happy with the way the filly had grown and thought we would do ok with her. He had high expectations, I don’t know if he thought we’d be the sale topper today, but he was very happy and I am, too.”

Unforgotten, who produced a filly by West Coast this year, is Farkas’s only Kentucky-based mare, but he has a band of some 10 mares in Indiana.

“Ian Wilkes trained [2012 GII Indiana Derby winner] Neck ‘n Neck and we ended up getting him back and we brought him up here to Indiana to stand stud,” Farkas said. “I bought five or six mares to breed to him, but toward the end of the breeding season, he got off a mare and kicked the wall and shattered his leg. So my dream of standing a stallion in Indiana ended. It’s pretty costly to take as many mares as I have right now, which is 10, to take them all to Kentucky and get them in foal and bring them back. So I have four I am going to sell in November. But we have some really nice Indiana-bred foals born this year. I have a Maclean’s Music, a Good Magic and a Practical Joke and I ended up getting five Neck ‘n Neck babies, all fillies. And they are good looking, so we’re really happy with that.

He continued, “They have the Indiana-sired program here. They can run against only Indiana-sired horses, which is a big advantage. It’s a great program and I’m leaning towards just staying with that for a little bit.”

Filly a First for Hernon Bloodstock

Michael Hernon, longtime director of sales at Gainesway, made the first purchase for his new bloodstock agency Monday at Keeneland, going to $42,000 to acquire a filly by Speightster (hip 2541) on behalf of Steve and Cynthia Sansone.

“This filly jumped out at me with her motion and she had a very good stride to her,” said Hernon, who partnered with trainer Mark Casse to purchase unbeaten stakes winner Spanish Loveaffair (Karakontie {Jpn}) for $35,000 out of last year’s September sale. “I looked at her three times and she’s a very positive type who moves forward willingly.”

The yearling is out of Diamondsandcaviar (Street Cry {Ire}), a half-sister to Grade I winner Haynesfield (Speightstown).

Hernon made his first purchase under the Michael Hernon Bloodstock banner on a single bid.

“I could have seen her bringing $50,000 and change,” Hernon said. “But we are happy with the price and we’re happy with the horse. She was the first one on our list to come up, I have a couple of other fillies to go through today and we have a short list for tomorrow, so we’ll see how it plays out.”

The post Brisk Trade as Book 4 Concludes at Keeneland appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights