Tag: Pinhooking

Hard Spun Colt ‘Rockets’ To Top At Workmanlike OBS June Opener

OCALA, FL – The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training duly marched through its opening session with a $450,000 son of Hard Spun one of three horses to top the $200,000 mark Tuesday in Ocala.

At the close of business Tuesday, 192 juveniles had sold for a gross of $7,110,400. The average of $37,033 was up from the 2022 session's final average of $34,431–which included post-sale transactions–but was down from the end-of-session figure of $38,628. The median of $20,000 dipped from the final figure of $22,000, as well as from the end-of-session figure of $25,500. With 74 horses reported not sold, the session's buy-back rate was 27.8%.

Before the inclusion of post-sale transactions, last year's opening session of the June sale saw 184 head sell for a gross of $7,107,500. The average was $38,628 and the median was $25,500. With 90 horses reported not sold at the fall of the day's last hammer, the 2022 opening-session buy-back rate was 33.1%. That figure improved to 20.7% as a further 33 horses sold post-sale, bringing the final gross to $7,756,400.

Midway through Tuesday's session, Frank Fletcher, bidding alongside agent Donato Lanni, went to $450,000 to acquire a son of Hard Spun from the de Meric Sales consignment. Late in the day, Fletcher returned to acquire the day's second-highest priced offering, going to $230,000 to acquire a colt by Malibu Moon from Gene Recio's consignment.

The session-topper led a day of mixed-bag results for de Meric Sales, which sold all 10 of its horses through the ring for $988,700 and was the session's leading consignor. The consignment had results everywhere from the session-topping $450,000 price tag down to $3,700.

“We saw a little bit of everything today,” admitted Tristan de Meric. “It's definitely a little spotty at best, but there is still some demand for the more quality horses. There is a bit of action in the lower-middle, but not as much as we'd all like to see for the number of horses here. I think it's basically typical of the June sale, but maybe a little more magnified this year.”

The Hard Spun colt was making his first sales appearance of the year, an angle which has worked well for the consignment in the past, according to de Meric.

“He was sent down to Florida and started in January and we always thought of him as a horse for this sale,” de Meric said. “We've found that a fresh horse in this sale can stand out. People always like to see one for the first time. And that horse stepped up and did everything right. We have done well with horses like him at this sale and, even this year in a spottier market, we are happy with this result and best of luck to Frank Fletcher and Donato.”

The OBS June sale continues through Thursday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

Fletcher Gets His Hard Spun Colt

Frank Fletcher flew down to Ocala Tuesday morning with the specific intention of purchasing a colt by Hard Spun and the Arkansas native did not go home disappointed, securing hip 130 for $450,000 from the de Meric Sales consignment midway through the first session of the June sale.

“I just flew down this morning and Donato Lanni showed him to me,” Fletcher said. “He liked his work, he likes the way he's built and he likes his speed.”

Bred by Reiley McDonald's Athens Woods, the chestnut colt is out of stakes-placed Mine All Mine (Belong to Me) and is a half-brother to stakes-winner Athens Queen (Majestic Warrior). The juvenile worked a furlong last week in a co-bullet :9 4/5.

 

 

 

“We are always looking for 2-year-old colts,” Fletcher said. “And it's exciting to get him. I always like coming down here. I love this city and I love this sale. I've been coming here for 25 years.”

Fletcher famously names all his horses with some form of Rocket or Rockette in their names. Does he have a name already picked out for this colt?

“He will be something rocket,” Fletcher said with a laugh. “I had a horse down here earlier this year in the sale and she worked so well, I withdrew her from the sale and I named her Almost Gone Rocket.”

Fletcher had to see off a determined internet bidder to secure the colt, but said he never had a doubt that he was going to come out on top.

“We were going to get him one way or another,” he said. “I flew down for him. So I'd be very sad if I was going home without him.”

Fletcher said no trainer had been picked out for the youngster.

Goodman Has High Hopes for First Pinhook

Billy Goodman, whose involvement in racing started almost by accident and evolved into a full-on passion, is hopeful his first foray into the juvenile pinhooking market proves just as successful when he and partner Caio Caramori send a colt by American Pharoah (hip 1030) through the OBS sales ring with the SBM Training and Sales consignment Thursday.

Goodman purchased the colt for $100,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale. He is out of Jeweliana (Smart Strike), a daughter of multiple graded winner Roshani (Fantastic Light) and the dam of $775,000 juvenile Nile River (American Pharoah).

“He just had all the right parts,” Goodman said of the colt's appeal last fall. “He was a May 5 foal and a little immature, but I kind of looked at him like, if he just expands exactly as he is right now, he's going to be an absolute beast of a horse. He had an incredible walk and an incredible mind on him. And all of those things came to fruition with him. He blossomed into this incredible specimen and he's got a mind on him like a 4-year-old stakes horse.”

Goodman had never even touched a horse when he decided to make a major pivot in his life some 12 years ago.

“Back in 2011, I was managing an Irish pub in Miami for a childhood friend,” he explained. “Things just weren't going well and I didn't enjoy it, so I decided to stop. I got a license at Gulfstream and went on the backside and asked for a job. I got a job walking hots.”

Goodman, who began working for trainer Peter Gulyas in Florida, eventually made his way to Kentucky and the barn of trainer Todd Pletcher.

“I worked for Todd for six years as a groom,” Goodman said. “I was a hotwalker and then a groom and within two months we had two horses in the Derby and My Miss Sophia was second in the Oaks.”

Of his experience with horses before that, Goodman admitted, “None. Zero. Never touched a horse. I always knew that I would at some point. Horses were in my system. I was 45 and I said, 'All right, it's time to do this.'”

Goodman purchased his first horse, Eternal Heart, for $50,000 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic October Sale. Now six, the West Virginia-bred mare is still in his care.

“I was just bathing her when you called,” Goodman said of Eternal Heart. “This is going to be her last year racing. I bought this filly and gave her to my friend Caio Caramori, who is a trainer. I went to the barn to help out and I wound up working for him. And I'm still working for him and still buying horses.”

Goodman purchased a few weanling-to-yearling pinhooks and enjoyed success on a small scale before deciding to put together a partnership to make his six-figure investment in an American Pharoah colt last year.

“This is the first decent horse that we put a little money together and bid $100,000 on him,” Goodman said.

The colt was originally targeted at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May sale, where he was to sell under the Goodman Caramori banner, but the partners decided to call an audible earlier this year.

“We broke him and trained him at the Classic Mile right there in Ocala,” Goodman said. “We spend the winters down there. We were going to consign himself ourselves at Timonium, but he just got shins. I was battling shins because we got a late start on him. I could have brought him there, but I didn't think it was right for the horse. So we backed off on him a little bit and sent him to Susan Montanye. She's got him now because I had to go back to Lexington. We have 45 horses here.”

The colt proved the extra time was worthwhile with a :10 flat work at last week's under-tack show.

“Susan took care of his shins and didn't do too much with him and he went over there and went :10 flat, :20 3/5 and :33 2/5,” Goodman said. “He's just a beast of a horse. He really didn't train all that much and did that. It was kind of freakish what he did.”

Goodman expects to be back in action at the upcoming yearling sales.

“I am going to be buying in July, hopefully, and go to New York and September,” he said. “We will probably have 40 horses down there in Ocala, total, but we will probably put together four or five [to pinhook] with this group, if this horse sells the way we think he will. And I'll try to build a little business from there, buy our own and do it like that.”

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Thormans Looking Forward To The Next Chapter At Trickledown Stud

The husband-and-wife team of Paul and Sara Thorman at Trickledown Stud, one of the most recognisable names in any sales catalogue, have revealed a change of emphasis that will see the operation concentrate more on pinhooking rather than breeding in the coming years. 

Trickledown consigned over 300 horses annually in its pomp but, after reducing the broodmare band to just four ahead of the breeding season, Paul explained how he and his wife Sara will bid to enjoy life a bit more whilst running a more streamlined version of the outfit. 

On the decision to scale back the broodmare band, he said, “We're only covering four mares this year. If you are paying 20 or 30 quid a day to keep them, that concentrates the mind.”

He added, “It all came down to whether I could breed each mare I had for profit and, most of the mares I had, they were there to keep stallion numbers up when I was involved with the stallions. 

“I'm no longer involved with any stallions so those mares became obsolete. It's all about making economic sense of it-you're better off with four or five good mares rather than 15 ordinary ones.”

Trickledown consigned over 100 horses last year at various sales, many of which were on behalf of or in partnership with long-standing clients and, while the aim is to maintain those relationships, Thorman expects that numbers to fall over the course of time. 

He said, “We thought we were cutting back last year but we've been terrifically well-supported by a number of people over the years and two or three of them have asked us to keep selling for them. 

“We sold well over 100 horses last year and, at our height, we would see about three times that number. Yes, we'll keep consigning but, by natural progression, in terms of younger people tending to go to younger consignors, I'd expect that number to keep declining.”

Thorman added, “But in deciding to scale back a little, it came down to a few things; we have always pinhooked but we didn't have our own farm and, when the farm that we were operating from got sold for building purposes, we decided we wanted to spend our time doing other things. 

“We have grandchildren we'd like to spend more time with. Without the farm, we spend a lot more time in the car going around and seeing horses but, seeing them every couple of months isn't the same as seeing them every day. We will still be consigning for people and look forward to doing that for as long as we can but there is a change of emphasis to the whole thing.”

That change of emphasis has been largely funneled into the pinhooking of foals to yearlings, of which, Thorman points to it being a more practical facet of the business to concentrate on compared to breeding a large number of mares. 

He explained, “We bought quite a lot of foals last year. You know that when you buy a foal, it will cost you somewhere between 10 and 15 grand to get them to a sale the following year. Win or lose, you can see how much you are in for and how long you are in for. If you do your dough, you've got a choice of either letting them go at a loss or racing them. It's finite. Whereas with mares, it's an open-ended book.”

Thorman added, “If you look at some of the sales results lately, with mares being led out without a bid, it shows that we all need to up our game. My way of trying to do that is by going from 20 mares to four mares and investing a bit more on the ones I'm paying daily keep on rather than having a farm full of soldiers and not generals.”

He may carry a reputation for being a man who knows what he is doing when it comes to purchasing young stock with a view to reoffering them at public auction in a bid to turn a profit but Thorman does not underplay the role luck plays in the transaction.

“Because the budget won't stretch to those expensive foals, we bought several foals between 10 and 30 grand knowing full well that, even at that level, something would have to happen with the individual or the pedigree for us to make it work. 

“We've been lucky over the years and were buying Royal Applauses and Acclamations before they were popular. I like to do a lot of research, not so much into the families, but more so into where the half-brother has gone into training and that sort of thing. If there's a foal who is a half to a yearling that we saw and liked and say it had gone into training with an Archie Watson or some trainer who does well with 2-year-olds, those are the types of horse we tend to like. 

“We bought a Mohaather (GB) filly at the Tattersalls February Sale because we knew there were two siblings to run for her. Now, we had outrageous luck because her half-sister won that night at 25-1 by about half an inch. There's a 90 grand colt to run for Richard Hannon in the pedigree so I feel we have a chance.”

He added, “One year, I decided that I was so crap at picking foals that would turn out to be improvers, that I just decided to buy brothers and sisters to yearlings who'd gone into training with Richard Hannon Snr. I bought five foals and four of the siblings won for the Hannons. Three of them made profit at the sales and I thought, why bother going around looking at foals and knocking this for turning out half an inch or that for being too big? Fresh news may not be everything but it's a big part of it, isn't it? Why not work with the most recent information you've got to work with? It's not a bad template.”

Thorman is backing Solder's Call (GB) to be the next Royal Applause (GB) or Acclamation (GB) but admitted that nobody would have tipped Havana Grey (GB) to scoop the champion first-season sire title this time 12 months ago. Therein lies the beauty of this game.

“You need luck. We picked a Ulysses (Ire) a couple of years ago, bought him out of our own draft for small money, but he turned into the most beautiful yearling and we got 140,000gns for him. We didn't get that because we were geniuses, but because the dice rolled our way and the horse came up, as did the stallion, who was hot at the time. When you do this for long enough, you realise the importance of luck. 

“Who would have picked Havana Grey this time last year? Tell me who this year's Havana Grey is going to be because that's the one we all hope we've bought one by. I'm a big fan of Soldier's Call and, while I only managed to buy one by him last year, I think he has a lot going for him. “The Clipper Logistics outfit have 24 to go into training by him and they've gone to Archie Watson and Karl Burke. I think he'd have to be a pretty moderate stallion not to make a big impact this year as he's been given a great chance. I'd be big on him. 

“But this is an extraordinary industry. I had clients who had breeding rights to Time Test (GB) and, when they were making 90,000 to 100,000, I told them to sell. Now the market has reacted too much the other way and I think he's a bit of value. We're great for putting horses up on pedestals and then throwing stones at them. I think we react too negatively or positively to fashion and it tends to even out to a level over time. But isn't this the best part of the season, those first-crop two-year-olds?”

Trickledown Stud has been a constant on the sales scene down through the years and, while Thorman is at pains to point out that he is not the retiring kind, he does admit to being as excited about spending more time with his grandkids as he is about seeing how Soldier's Call performs with his first runners this spring. 

“Mick Channon was interviewed the other day and, to paraphrase him, he said, 'I wish could meet the fella who said life begins at 40 because I'd give him a smack in the mouth.' How right he is. When you get the other side of 60, does it matter if you sell another 100 grand horse or another winner? I'm pleased to wake up every morning and, touch wood, we're both healthy. 

“Grandkids have provided us with that viewpoint. I mean, our own daughter, she spent the majority of her younger days hanging out in the hay net in the tack room whilst we were flat out on the farm. We're not retiring but we're going to try and enjoy life a little bit more.”

The post Thormans Looking Forward To The Next Chapter At Trickledown Stud appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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‘Trainers Are Finding It Tough But You Can’t Wave a Magic Wand’

One of the most respected racing and bloodstock journalists in Britain and Ireland for over 20 years, Ryan McElligott bid adieu to the press room at the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale as he embarked on his new role as Chief Executive of the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association.

Admitting there was some emotion surrounding the move, McElligott looks back on over 20 years reporting on the sport he loves and looks ahead to the challenges he faces in his new position as the IRTA chief. 

The 41-year-old wears many hats. As well as being a talented journalist, he knows the programme book better than most, a skill that David Wachman and more recently Gordon Elliott have utilised by securing his services in that department. 

McElligott has also been a jockey's agent for his close friend and multiple Group 1 and Classic-winning rider Wayne Lordan for the majority of his career and has enjoyed notable success in the pinhooking department with another good friend in Luke Barry of Manister House Stud. 

All that and more, including his thoughts on the National Hunt and Flat market, are discussed below in this week's Starfield Stud-sponsored Conversations Q&A.

Brian Sheerin: The Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale marked the end of your journalism career as you move on to pastures new. Did you feel any emotion in closing that chapter?

Ryan McElligott: There would have been. Sales have been an integral part of my life for well over 20 years so there was an eerie feeling at Goffs in knowing that it was going to be the last sale I was going to write about. 

BS: How did you get into racing journalism?

RM: I was very interested in racing from an early stage and, in my heart of hearts, knew that I wanted to do something in the sport. When I was in Transition Year in secondary school, I did three weeks work experience with The Irish Field back when it was based in D'Olier Street in Dublin, and I enjoyed that. I actually shared an office with Mark Costello [current deputy editor of the paper] during that time. The following summer, I did more work experience with The Irish Field and at that stage I had my heart set on doing racing journalism. I wasn't really thinking of doing journalism in any other sphere other than racing. Just as I began my journalism degree, I got some freelance work for The Irish Field and did my first ever sales report for the EBN-the Derby Sale at Tattersalls in 2000. When it came to graduation time, The Irish Field's chief racing reporter Cliff Noone retired so it was all a question of good timing and I ended up getting a lot of work very early on in my career. I was unbelievably fortunate that a lot of things happened to fall into place for me.

BS: Any particular highlights?

RM: As I look back on it now, it was a great time to be covering racing because you had so many powerful yards from Ireland competing on the big stage. On the Flat, you had Aidan O'Brien, Dermot Weld, Jim Bolger, Kevin Prendergast and John Oxx. They were all operating at the peak of their powers at that time. It was remarkable when you think back about it now. 

BS: Journalism can be a thankless job at times and invariably you might end up writing something that somebody doesn't agree with but you got through your career without any major bust-ups. How so?

RM: I don't know. There was one thing that I really didn't enjoy writing about and that was the sale period of autumn 2008 through to 2010. It was bad. It wasn't good for anybody. It wasn't good for the sales companies, breeders, pinhookers, nobody. You can't get away from the fact that the figures have gone through the floor but all you can do is try to handle it in a humane manner. I was at one sale in 2009, now it would have been a low-key sale, but after three hours one of the senior guys went into the office to check what the figures were and they were zero. The figures were zero after three hours. I was covering that sale for the Racing Post at the time and I can remember ringing the Bloodstock Editor at the time to tell them that there was nothing happening there. We decided to give it just 150 words. At that stage, an acceptance had formed that the world was in freefall and a bad thoroughbred sale in Ireland was just symptomatic of what was going on.

“That was pretty sobering stuff but, bit by bit, we managed to get ourselves back in the game.”

BS: Were you pinhooking at that time?

RM: We would have been and 2008 would have been pretty grim. By my recollection, we had a Hawk Wing filly who I think cost seven grand as a foal and we sold her for 30 grand as a yearling. Lolly For Dolly (Ire) (Oratorio {Ire}) was the other one to get sold. The rest of them, we either gave them away or put them into training. It wasn't good. As the market is contracting before your very eyes, even the slightest mistake is going to be punished severely. I'll never forget, the night before the Orby, the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihen addressed the nation to basically tell us that we were F****d. That was pretty sobering stuff but, bit by bit, we managed to get ourselves back in the game. We bought very little in 2009 but we gave small money for a Diamond Green (Fr) colt at Goffs who ended up making 60-odd grand at Book 2. We're talking small sums, relatively speaking, but that provided the little bounce that we needed to get back on our feet. Luke [Barry] and I will always recall selling that horse. We knew he was nice. It happens when you have a good one because you're standing there and, all of a sudden, the sales ring fills up around you and you know something is going to happen. Dwayne Woods outbid Sir Mark Prescott for the horse. 

BS: How did you get into pinhooking?

RM: Luke was a year ahead of me in primary and secondary school so we were always very friendly. He spent some time in America and when he came home was trying to get the whole pinhooking thing going. I was working at the time but had zero responsibilities and no family so had some cash to put in and that's how it started. The first horse we bought was a Danetime (Ire) foal who ended up being called Danish Express (Ire). He won a Bath maiden for a man called Peter Winkworth and was a grand little horse. We actually lost money on that horse. He cost €28,000 as a foal in 2003 and was sold for 22,000gns as a yearling. That was the first year of it. I think we'd two the following year and then two becomes three and then three becomes five and so on. I'm involved more on the National Hunt side of things now. That's just the way it has evolved. 

BS: That was a conscious decision of yours, to concentrate more on the National Hunt stock.

RM: The National Hunt horses come here to me for a couple of years and I like having them around the place. You could have questioned what way the market was going to go on the Flat and, as it happened, it way outperformed what I thought it would this year. Circumstances changed as well. I have other concerns now that I wouldn't have had when I was younger in terms of the fact I have a young family and I suppose, with work, I got a bit disconnected with the whole pinhooking thing. For example, going to a sale in Newmarket just didn't suit me. It's a lot easier to keep a handle on the National Hunt sales as it's all happening on your doorstep but the Flat is vast. The pinhooking is very much Luke's thing. 

BS: I know you say it's more Luke's thing than yours but it's something that has gone well for almost two decades now so what has been the approach.

RM: Well, you need to try and buy something that is going to be acceptable to the market. That's the first thing. Okay, proven sires are going to cost a premium but it's always good to have a sibling running for you the next year and a lot of great touches have come from that. It's great when horses we've pinhooked go on to success. We pinhooked Lolly For Dolly. Fozzy Stack bought her off us as a yearling and she won the Windsor Forest S. at Royal Ascot. We went back some years later and bought her Sir Percy (GB) half-sister for 27,000gns as a foal before selling her for €210,000 as a yearling so the family was good to us. In terms of Luke, his family had Starfish (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) who bred La Collina (Ire) (Strategic Prince {GB}), Astadash (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) and many more black-type horses. That was their family. Starfish was really good to them and they bought her as an unraced filly out of Stack's. At that time, Luke and I would have had many conversations about Starfish because Decado (Ire) was in the pedigree. He won a Tetrarch S. and was placed in an Irish Guineas for Kevin Prendergast. Luke's Dad Frank was very close with Kevin so there would have been an affinity with the family given Kevin had Decado. Starfish ended up being an incredible success story for them. That's something that stands out. I like seeing Luke do well. 

Lolly For Dolly winning at Royal Ascot under Wayne Lordan | Racingfotos.com

BS: Have you tried to buy many siblings to some of the younger horses who might be showing up well at home at Gordon Elliott's given you have an insight to the yard?

RM: You try and work every angle you can but it's very rare that it happens. If you know there's a good one, chances are that 10 more people know it as well. I remember a few years ago we tried to buy a half-brother to what Gordon thought was a smart horse in Pencilfulloflead (Ire) (Shantou). Half the sales complex knew about it as well, though. Kevin Ross bought the horse for €36,000. He was by Califet  (Fr) and we thought we'd be very clever buying a half-brother to the then unraced Pencilfulloflead but we didn't get him. You would have had a chance of doing something like that 20 years ago but not any more.

BS: Are there any stallions you've done particularly well with?

RM: Beat Hollow (GB) was very good to us. Choisir (Aus) and Danetime (Ire) on the Flat as well. 

BS: You were a Blue Bresil fan before it was cool to be one. 

RM: We had that Blue Bresil (Fr) horse who ended up making £340,000 after winning his point-to-point, Willmount (GB). He was out in a field with The Four Sixes (Ire) (Westerner {Ire}), who we put into training with Gordon before selling privately to the McNeill family after he placed in a Leopardstown bumper. We sold Willmount at the Land Rover Sale to Rob James for €46,000 and he won his point for Colin Bowe.

BS: And is there anything coming through on the Flat that you like?

RM: I am a big Cotai Glory (GB) fan. I think he's a really nice sire. If you bought a mare it would be a fair start if you sent her to Cotai Glory. I think he's a good idea. He got the Group 1 winner, The Platinum Queen, in his second crop. I only realised the other day that The Platinum Queen (Ire) was the first two-year-old to win the Abbaye in 40-odd years. That's a fair feat. I've never owned a Cotai Glory but he's a stallion I like.

BS: Tell me a bit about your new role as chief executive of the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association.

RM: I had been writing for over 20 years and just began to look at other avenues. This position came up and a number of aspects of the role interested me. You are representing a significant body in Irish racing. You are representing a body where some of its members are global names. It's a body with the capacity to drive change and positive change at that. I thought it was a role with potential. 

BS: It's a role that comes with its challenges. 

RM: Absolutely. It's an organisation that has gone through a difficult period. It has endured some very challenging times but a representative body for one of the most significant cohorts of people in Irish racing, that's got to have potential. 

BS: Have you had a chance to pick up the phone to many people who have maybe lost faith in the organisation down through the years or is that something that will happen a bit further down the line?

RM: That's going to be an ongoing thing. I started on Dec. 1 and am trying to feel my way around at the moment but the hope would be to, over the course of time, instill a newfound confidence in the organisation. 

BS: And you continue to do the race planning for Gordon Elliott who you work well with.

RM: He's very easy to work for. There's never been a cross word between us. He's a singular talent. Gordon actually rode a few point-to-pointers for my Dad back in the days when he was riding. I remember doing a pre-Cheltenham feature with him in 2007 when he had Silver Birch (Ire) (Clearly Bust {GB}) running in the cross-country. That was the year Silver Birch won the Grand National. We kept in contact after doing that feature and I would have recommended the odd horse to him here and there. We just became firm friends over the course of time. It was in 2015 that he asked me to do some race planning for him. Before that, I had been doing that role for David Wachman. David actually announced his retirement that season and, as it happened, Gordon had approached me about the role the week before. 

BS: In many ways, Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott have brought National Hunt racing to a new level. Could you give us an insight into how Gordon operates and how your relationship with him works?

RM: Gordon is always concentrating on getting the next winner or the next good horse. It's never a case of basking in the afterglow for a considerable period of time after any big win. He was at Cheltenham the other day and I think he bought seven horses. He's got serious drive. In terms of race planning, when a meeting is closing, I'd give him a ring and propose a list of entries. He's the one who is looking at the horses every day so he says yes or no. The list is refined and there are plans for different horses at every level. It's fairly collaborative. 

 

Apple's Jade fights off Vroum Vroum Mag to win the Hatton's Grace Hurdle | Racingfotos,com

BS: Is there any victory that you can look back on and say, 'that really cemented our relationship,' or is it something that has grown organically?

RM: It has grown organically and it's a great help that the yard is just a conveyor belt of winners. I remember we had a lot of discussions about Apple's Jade (Fr) (Saddler Maker {Ire}). Gordon obviously got her off Willie and she had been a brilliant juvenile hurdler the season before. She got beaten by Rashaan (Ire) (Manduro {Ger}) in the WKD Hurdle at Down Royal on debut for Gordon before running in the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle where she was beaten by Irving (GB) (Singspiel {Ire}). So that still wasn't great but it was a step in the right direction at least. The Hatton's Grace Hurdle was just a week after the Fighting Fifth and I can remember we'd a lot of back and forth as to whether she should go to Fairyhouse or not. She was taking on Vroum Vroum Mag (Fr) (Voix Du Nord {Fr}) and, eventually, we came to the conclusion that it was a good idea. It worked out and she won the first of many Grade 1s for Gordon. That was a good day. 

BS: It's fair to say you've been in Gordon's corner for the good days and the bad. You spent a lot of time at Cullentra just before he was suspended in 2021.

RM: I did spend an awful lot of time there. For him, it was obviously a very challenging week, extremely so. I think the phrase he uses at times to describe the whole thing is 'a moment of madness,' and yes it was, but he just found himself at the centre of a storm that I don't think anyone could have foreseen. 

BS: And it was a big season for your jockey Wayne Lordan, who scooped the prize for ride of the year at the HRI Awards last week for his heroics aboard Waterville (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) in the Irish Cesarewitch.

RM: Wayne has been there towards the head of the jockeys' standings for quite some time. He's a very modest and self-effacing character and is quite happy to just go out there and do his thing and let the horses do the talking for him. I was thrilled for him last week because that was a great ride. 

BS: Was there ever a temptation to take on more riders or was it always the intention to have just one top-tier jockey like Wayne on the books?

RM: I never really set out to be a jockey's agent. It was actually David Wachman and Fozzy Stack who were keen for me to take over Wayne back in the day because they felt it would be handier to pick up the phone to me. I ended up doing Wayne by default in a way. I wasn't the one who came up with the idea. That was in 2008 or 2009. I've been doing it since. A long time. 

BS: Sole Power was the first big one.

RM: He was the first Group 1 winner. He won the Nunthorpe at 100-1 and was the longest-priced Group 1 winner in Britain for 30-something years at the time. If you look back, the Nunthorpe took place on the same day of a really low-ley Killarney meeting, so there wasn't anything going on in Ireland that day. Sole Power (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}) was trained by Eddie Lynam, who was a big supporter of Wayne down through the years, and it's actually funny because Wayne was meant to go to York to ride another one of Eddie's, Notalossonya (Ire) (Cadeaux Genereaux {GB}), that day. Notalossonya had won the good 3-year-old handicap at Galway that season and was very much the one that Wayne was going over to ride. Anyway, Notalossonya got balloted so Wayne ended up going to York for this one ride, a 100-1 shot in a Group 1, and it happened. I don't think Wayne won another race on Sole Power after that but he got on Slade Power (Ire) for Eddie as well. Slade Power was a hell of a horse-winner of the Diamond Jubilee S. and the July Cup.

BS: And how did the move to Ballydoyle come about in 2017?

RM: Again, that was all around the same time when David Wachman announced his retirement. Wayne ended up in Ballydoyle and it has worked out well for him. He rode Winter (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) to win the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket in his first year at Ballydoyle. Winter had won her two-year-old maiden at Dundalk under Wayne when she was based with David. She transferred over to Ballydoyle and Wayne kept the ride for the Guineas. He actually won the Guineas on Winter and then beat her in the Matron S. later that season on Hydrangea (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).

BS: Iridessa was another important filly for Wayne. 

RM: To win a Breeders' Cup race was big. Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler Of The World) {Ire}) was a great filly for Wayne. He won four Group 1 races on her. She was an unbelievable filly and, when you think about it, Joseph O'Brien did an unbelievable job with her to bring her all the way from winning a median auction maiden at Killarney to landing a Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Luckily, Wayne happened to be on her for many of those good days and they built up quite the relationship. I was out for dinner the night she won the Breeders' Cup. I've only watched that race about a thousand times since! But there's Wayne's record, he's won Classics, Breeders' Cup races, big winners in Australia–he's a top jockey. 

BS: Getting back to the market, how do you see the next 12 months playing out? A lot of people have been driving on regardless at the sales but perhaps concentrating more on the high-end bracket. What way have you played it?

RM: You are looking at what is going on around the world and obviously we have this tech thing going on. Maybe that isn't too dissimilar to the horse business. Obviously you have the war in Ukraine and its many destabilising effects. The cost of living crisis has been the main news story in Ireland over the past number of months. People's gas and electricity bills have gone through the roof. We haven't seen that bite in the thoroughbred industry, which is obviously good, but there has to be a point where it manifests itself in some shape or form. I am wondering did we see a little bit of it creep into the National Hunt foal market towards the end of the year. Clearance rates were running at around 60% so you were dealing with sales where a third of the horses were not selling. That market is of course predominantly Irish with a bit of English thrown in there so I am just wondering did we see a little bit of tightening there. Obviously the Flat is much better insulated because it's an international market. Even the most low-key of Flat sales had an international element to it. Take the Open Yearling Sale at Goffs, there was a major international element to that with the Eastern Europeans and so on. 

BS: I know you are only two weeks in your new role but what sort of calls have you fielded from trainers? There must be serious concerns out there. 

RM: I have had a number of calls outlining how tough it is for trainers to make ends meet at the moment. Insurance premiums are a major concern as they have gone up again. Unfortunately, a lot of trainers are finding it very tough but you can't wave a magic wand and make it better. I hope over the course of time that the organisation can make a difference. Maybe we could look at staging races for trainers who do not have more than 40 horses in training or something similar. Would that be a better way to do it rather than races for trainers who have had 10 or less winners the previous season? Maybe races confined to a certain echelon could work well. It's something that could be refined over a period of time but that's certainly something we could look at. It was put to me years ago that we should have a premium 45-65 at something like a Galway festival and make it worth €22,000. I thought it was a great idea. You'd have a hell of a handicap in that you'd have 16 or 18 horses who've either won or come second on their previous start as that's what you'd need to do in order to guarantee a run with the balloting system. It would be a real thing to aim towards Galway with those hoses. It could just work and it would create a tremendous betting race. 

BS: I'd love to see more claimers in the programme.

RM: I don't think that would be a bad thing. There seems to be a good turnover of horses in claimers and the culture to these races has definitely changed. They are reasonably regular on the Flat but they remain somewhat infrequent over jumps. I'm not sure if claimers need to be worth more money but there could be more of them. The system as it is is functioning and growing.

The post ‘Trainers Are Finding It Tough But You Can’t Wave a Magic Wand’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Stony Point Bloodstock Brings New Investors to Racing

A group of 15 businesspeople from across the U.S. visited Lexington's horse country this past weekend to get their first taste of all the racing industry has to offer. The enthusiastic group represented Stony Point Bloodstock, which was launched last year by Chilly Bleak Farm's Jim Fitzgerald, Bill Baxter, a veterinarian from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and his son Matt Baxter, founder of a human resource technology startup called Wedge. The trio started the partnership with the goal of setting up a for-profit pinhooking group that would also create an experience for its partners by introducing them to the sport of horseracing.

Stony Point Bloodstock purchased six colts at last year's breeding stock sales that are now developing at Fitzgerald's Chilly Bleak Farm in Virginia. While this year's group of 20 partners await their yearlings' return to the auction ring, many embraced the fun of their investment by taking a trip to Kentucky to visit the sires of their pinhooks and learn more about the Thoroughbred industry. Their excursion included a day of racing at Keeneland and visits to WinStar Farm and Spendthrift Farm.

“The farms here are incredible,” said Ryan Millsap, an investor from Georgia. “Getting out and being connected to nature in this way with the horses is really refreshing. We had a great day at the track yesterday. Everyone really enjoyed the interactions with the horses, the jockeys and the owners.”

“It has been a whirlwind over the last 24 hours of learning so much,” added Nate Heyboer, a fellow investor from Michigan. “I had no idea all the things that the sport had to offer and how much of a community racing really is. It's been a lot of fun. There are so many different terminologies and there is so much education that goes into knowing the sport. It's a lot more than just a horse running around the track.”

During their visit to Spendthrift Farm, the partnership dropped in on an early-morning breeding session, saw the sires of three of their yearlings, inspected a Spendthrift yearling slated for the sales this year and had the privilege of visiting champion Beholder and her newborn Curlin colt.

Their steady stream of questions varied in topic, but all reflected the inner workings of business-oriented minds: How did Into Mischief's stud fee get to be so high? What is the career path of a stallion handler? How do you know this yearling is going to do well at the sale? And jokingly (maybe), how much would it cost for us to buy Beholder's foal?

“It's absolutely enjoyable for me to see people's first reaction to the Bluegrass and the inner workings of the industry,” Baxter said. “I think overall this partnership has been well-received in general, but this weekend has sort of piqued their enthusiasm a bit.”

Stony Point Bloodstock's current roster includes yearlings by Spendthrift first-crop stallions Vino Rosso, Omaha Beach, and Mitole, as well as red hot sires Constitution and Not This Time.

Baxter said that a bi-weekly newsletter is sent to the partners to keep them updated on the sextet.

“Jim will do conformation updates and we have had some exciting updates with some of the sires of our colts,” he said. “There are two Not This Times running in the Kentucky Derby and we have one colt by Not This Time. I think it's fun for the investors to know their sires are hot and it gets them connected to the rest of the industry.”

Fitzgerald explained that one or two of the yearlings may be sent to the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale, but most will likely end up at the Keeneland September Sale.

“The plan is to try to grow it from there,” he said. “Obviously we'd like to have a little success first, but these people are very enthusiastic. Hopefully we can grow the whole thing from there and maybe eventually evolve into having a couple racehorses and maybe a couple broodmares.”

The investors all seemed to have joined the partnership for different reasons. For Heyboer, it was an opportunity to try out a unique type of investment.

“People usually say that if you're going to invest in something, you should know everything about it before you invest, but this is the complete opposite,” he noted. “Most people would say that an investment like this is a little crazy. Maybe it is, but this is one of the greatest investments I've ever made not just because of the financial possibilities, but just the sheer coolness of it. It's something different. It's not just a piece of paper that says we own something. We feel like we're a part of what's going on here in Lexington.”

For Millsap, investing offered him a chance to reconnect with nature.

“It's easy for people that live in urban environments to get really disconnected from rural life,” he said. “I think we miss out on a lot when we don't have the connection that we had to horses for thousands of years as humans. I think there's a spiritual element to interacting with horses that people who are around horses all the time know and love and feel invigorated by, but for those of us that don't get to do that all the time, I think this is a great mini-substitute.”

Millsap was confident that the trip to Lexington and the up-close experiences he had on the farms sealed his desire to stay involved in racing.

“I think you have to get the hands-on experience to really find the delight in it,” he said. “Certainly we're investing in order to make money. The returns can be really good if you know what you're doing, and these guys know what they're doing, but when you couple that with the ability to get out here and have interactions in a way that you otherwise wouldn't have had, I think that's what makes it all worth it.”

He continued, “In order to do any of this stuff well with animals, you have to love the process. I love the horses in their natural element in the fields even more than I love the racing, but the racing is the essential piece because at the end of the day, it drives the capital. All these things have to be driven by capital and that doesn't mean there's not enjoyment, love or passion. It means something has to make money in order to be sustainable, and the racing industry is exactly the same way.”

Heyboer also confirmed that after the partnership's pinhooks sell this fall, he will be back for more next year with several new partners behind him who are eager to join in the fun.

“I don't know how I would ever be able to get out now,” he said with a laugh. “This is just so much fun. Even if the first year doesn't turn out great, we're definitely going to be back for year two and three. I've got a lot of people who are watching how this goes and I think we are going to have a lot more people for year two and three.”

The post Stony Point Bloodstock Brings New Investors to Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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