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Saturday Insights: Karen With an I Flies Beholder’s Colors on Debut

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

8th-SA, $67k, Msw, 3yo/up, f, 6f, 8:00 p.m. ET
Four-time Eclipse Award winner Beholder (Henny Hughes) will be represented by another firster at the races, this time via Karin With an I (Curlin). The daughter of the supermare debuts a few days after her 4-year-old half-brother Q B One (Uncle Mo)'s third-place effort at second asking here Mar. 27 for their shared connections of Spendthrift Farm and trainer Richard Mandella. Karin With an I worked the day before that race, posting a six-furlong move over the main track in 1:14.20 (4/7). My Kentucky Girl (American Pharoah), a $475,000 Keeneland September grad, also takes to the track for the first time for Tommy Town Thoroughbreds and Jonathan Wong. She is a half-sister to $700,000 KEESEP '19 grad Big City Momma (Quality Road) and stakes-placed Life On the Road (Street Sense). TJCIS PPs

8th-GP, $60k, Msw, 3yo, f, 7f, 3:01 p.m. ET
Gainesway Stable homebred Easy to Love (Empire Maker) debuts on a packed Saturday undercard at Gulfstream, and the half to Grade I winner Lukes Alley (Flower Alley) will be facing a field made up of mostly fellow firsters. Given half-siblings' successes on both surfaces–'TDN Rising Star' Arrifana (Curlin) was GSP and a stakes winner on dirt; Lukes Alley had graded wins on both turf and all-weather–plus a swift series of morning drills, the dirt shouldn't be a hindering factor. Todd Pletcher sends out $390,000 KEESEP buy Inventing (Union Rags) for the partnership of Repole Stables and Woodford Racing. She hails from the female family of good two-turn dirt females in GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Secret Status (A.P. Indy), GISW and last year's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff runner-up Dunbar Road (Quality Road), and Private Mission (Into Mischief), who took last year's GIII Torrey Pines S. and GII Zenyatta S. Wish You Well (American Freedom) will try to justify her connection's $550,000 FTFMAR (:10) faith in her at first asking. The half to GSW Chanteline (Majesticperfection) and SW Kell Paso (Divine Park) goes to post for George Weaver. TJCIS PPs

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A Successful Hootenanny at Ward Ranch

Wesley Ward is busy gearing up for the upcoming race meet at Keeneland, but in recent years the seven-time leading trainer at the historic track keeps himself further occupied in the springtime with his side gig as a stallion owner and manager.

GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Hootenanny resides at Ward Ranch just across from the Keeneland grounds. The son of Quality Road was Ward's first Breeders' Cup winner in 2014. When the bay needed a new home in 2019, his former trainer didn't hesitate to take him in. Ward initially planned to breed only his own mares to the stallion, but now that Hootenanny's first crop is succeeding on the racetrack, Ward has a new goal in mind.

In his first year at stud, which he spent at Buck Pond Farm before relocating to Ward Ranch, Hootenanny produced 16 named foals. Now that his first crop of horses are 3-year-olds, eight progeny have seen the starting gate and six are winners including one stakes winner. It's a stat that has Ward believing there is more to come for his stallion.

“With the first couple of crops, I wanted to try to limit him to where I could control the raising and breeding and training,” Ward explained. “Now I'm looking to get him out there to some outside breeders and see what he can do. He's a nice horse and he's certainly well-accomplished as a racehorse in his own right. Hopefully in these first few years, he'll be able to show what he can do.”

Bred by Barronstown and out of a half-sister to GISW Cat Moves (Tale of the Cat), Hootenanny was a $75,000 yearling purchase in 2013. He won on debut by over four lengths the following spring at Keeneland for partners Ward, Ken Donworth and Ben McElroy. After placing in a stake at Pimlico, he was purchased by the Coolmore partnership and pointed toward the Royal Ascot meet, where he claimed the Windsor Castle S. In his next start, he ran a close second in the G1 Darley Prix Morny.

“We were just narrowly beaten,” Ward recalled. “Frankie Dettori beat me. After the race Frankie said, 'If I had been on your horse, I would have won.' So we brought Hootenanny back and trained him up to the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita. Frankie told me that he would win if I put him on the horse, and he did. Hootenanny won my first Breeders' Cup for me. He was a very intelligent horse and with the speed he had, running a mile on the grass was no problem at all.”

After the win in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf–a victory that earned Hootenanny a finalist spot for champion 2-year-old male– the colt returned to the races for three more seasons. He was an allowance winner at Keeneland as a sophomore, placed in a stake at Woodbine at four and ran second in the GII King Edward S. at five. He retired with five wins to his credit and earned $876,698.

Hootenanny gave Ward his first Breeders' Cup win in 2014 | Horsephotos

While Ward acknowledged that Hootenanny was not what commercial breeders were looking for upon his retirement, he added that the sire has rewarded those who did breed to him in his first season.

“He does have a sway back so for breeding purposes, it was something the commercial breeders didn't really like,” Ward admitted. “But so far with all of his progeny, he hasn't put that trait into his babies and they're all nice runners. They all have great minds like him, they're all kind of docile horses and they're all fast.”

Hootenanny's leading performer to date is Hicksy, a colt trained by Kevin Attard that won second time out by six lengths last October, earning an 80 Beyer Speed Figure, and then claimed the Display S. at Woodbine. His other winners include My Nanny's a Hoot, a filly that broke her maiden early this year and has since claimed an allowance at Fair Grounds, as well as Strange Arrange, a Ward trainee that broke his maiden by six lengths at Turfway Park in March.

Only two of Hootenanny's winners to date are trained by Ward, as the stallion stood at Buck Pond for his first season, but this year's crop of 2-year-olds will represent Ward's broodmare band as well as his own breaking and training process that is highly-regarded for its tremendous success with young maidens.

“He's got some very quick ones that will be coming in probably by late spring, so I'm looking forward to those,” the trainer reported.

Ward knows it's a longshot to believe that his pride and joy, Hootenanny, will ever be recognized on a commercial level, especially because for now, he is relying solely on his own broodmare band to get numbers to the stallion, but he does hope that other breeders looking to race stone cold runners will take note of the sire's early success.

“Being my first Breeders' Cup winner, he's very special,” Ward said. “That's why I wanted to make sure he had a good home and was able to have a few mares to breed. He's been coming through on everything since we first acquired him, from being a racehorse to now as a stallion. He hasn't thrown any champions, but from the limited opportunities that he has had, he has thrown winners. Right now he's kind of a home-based stallion, but hopefully he'll have some interest to where he'll go to a commercial farm.”

And even if that dream doesn't come to fruition, Hootenanny will always have a home at Ward Ranch.

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Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Bonne Chance Farm

With the 2022 breeding season underway, we continue to feature a series of breeders' mating plans. Today we have Leah Alessandroni, Bloodstock and Office Manager of Bonne Chance Farm.

GLORY AND POWER (m, 8, Medaglia d'Oro – Dance Quietly, by A. P. Indy) to be bred to Essential Quality

We bought this mare as a weanling and she went on to become a winner for us. Her first foal was Momentous (Speightstown), who was an debut impressive winner at Fair Grounds on Feb. 19. This mare is out of a half-sister to MGISW Saint Liam (Saint Ballado) and Quiet Giant (Giant's Causeway), who of course is the dam of Gun Runner, so it's a really big and active family. We bred her to Tapit in 2019 and that colt was really well-received as a yearling. She has a Street Sense yearling that is also really nice.

Knowing that Glory and Power might not yet have a runner when we were looking at matings for 2022, we really thought hard about this mare. We were getting good reports from WinStar on Momentous, we liked all the other foals she'd had, and she was actually one of the last mares we settled on. We decided to send her to Essential Quality. She can be a bit of a tricky mare to mate physically and he is such a good physical. He's a strong horse and his race record speaks for itself. He was one of the more exciting first-year stallions this year. With this mating we also liked that she had already been to Tapit and it's a similar cross, but with Elusive Quality on the bottom it really offers us access to a different line. I think it's a really interesting mating in terms of the pieces coming together and it's one we're very excited about.

Bonne Chance Farm welcomed their first second-generation foal this year, an Uncle Mo filly out of SW Iva | Bonne Chance Twitter

IVA (m, 6, Scat Daddy – Sushi Empire, by Empire Maker) to be bred to Quality Road

This is a really special mare for us. She was one of the first foals that was born here at our farm in Kentucky in 2016. We actually bought her dam, Sushi Empire, when she was in foal with Iva. Iva herself became a stakes winner for us, winning the 2019 Cincinnati Trophy S. That was our first blacktype win as breeders. This year Iva had her first foal, an Uncle Mo filly, and it was kind of a full-circle moment for us with her giving us our first second-generation foal as breeders.

This mare is from a really nice family that includes MGSW Marchfield (A. P. Indy) and her dam, Sushi Empire, was also a stakes winner.

Iva is exactly what you would expect a Scat Daddy mare out of an Empire Maker dam to look like. When we were thinking of matings, we wanted a bigger, rangier stallion that offered some stretch. Quality Road had such an incredible 2021 with the champion 2-year-old and he had huge sales. This year he has already had Emblem Road win the G1 Saudi Cup. He's definitely a stallion that when you're looking to breed a quality, proven sire to a young mare, it's a no-brainer. In contrast to Glory and Power, this was probably the first mating that we decided on this year.

GOIABA (m, 8, Speightstown – Christies Treasure, by Belong To Me) to be bred to Curlin

Goiaba is a full-sister to the Japanese Group 1 winner Mozu Superflare (Speightstown). She is another mare that we bought early on as a yearling and she was a winner for us. She is from one of the most active families that we have on the farm right now. Mozu Superflare is doing great things in Japan and she has two half-sisters who have produce Grade I winners or Grade I-placed horses. It's the family of GIIISW Sacristy (Pulpit) and GISP Flor de La Mar (Tiznow).

Goiaba herself is a really nice, honest mare. She's a strong physical and is what we would consider a pretty typical Speightstown mare. She had her first foal last year. It's an Into Mischief filly that is without a doubt the nicest yearling we have this year. This year she is in foal to Medaglia d'Oro.

When we were looking to find a stallion for her this year, we thought long and hard about it. Any time you have a horse with a pedigree like this, you have to look at the big guns and so we settled on Curlin. We actually haven't bred to him yet, and so when we came to the table this year to talk about matings we all agreed that if we didn't use Curlin, we were missing a big opportunity this year. This mating will be offering a different branch of Mr. Prospector and it's maybe not super conventional, but it's another one we're excited about in sending Curlin a mare of this caliber with such an up-and-coming family that is actively producing all over the world. It's one of our biggest star power matings of the year.

LUCAS STREET (m, 18, Silver Deputy – Ruby Park, by Bold Ruckus) to be bred to Maxfield

Lucas Street is one of our more veteran mares here and she is the dam of 2015 GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Wavell Avenue (Harlington). We bought this mare privately a few years ago. She had a colt by Improbable this year.

Because she's a proven producer, when we purchased her it was an opportunity to get into some of the more commercial, popular stallion lines. Considering that she's a highly-desirable mare, we really wanted to breed her to a first-year stallion this year. The stud fee price point is usually appealing for those guys and you can see a return at the sales.

The stallion that we settled on for her this year was Maxfield. We are very conscious about who we breed this mare to physically and as soon as he walked out, it was a no-brainer for us. I think he's one of the strongest physicals of the group of stallions this year and he was such an honest, hard-knocking racehorse. With him being a Street Sense out of a Bernardini mare, those are two individual sires that we had considered for her in the past and for whatever reasons we never landed on them, so now we have the opportunity to get to both of those sires here.

From a breeding standpoint, this is going to be a very commercial pedigree and it still gives us a lot of options. If it's a colt, maybe we're a little more commercial. If it's a filly, she will have a strong pedigree under her and we've set ourselves up nicely to have a future broodmare. There was really no downside to this one.

ELEMENTAR (m, 10, More Than Ready – Val Marie, by Coronado's Quest) to be bred to American Pharoah

This is a bit of a younger mare whose pedigree is developing. She is a half-sister to MGSW Grand Adventure (Grand Slam), a champion Grass Horse in Canada. Elementar has had several foals for us including Ready To Purrform (Kitten's Joy), who won the Laurel Futurity last year. Her 2020 foal is a filly by Bernardini and not long after she foaled, we had pretty much decided to keep her to race ourselves. She also has a yearling colt by Runhappy.

The stallion we settled on for her this year is American Pharoah. Every year he has been in the conversation for her, but in the past we weren't sure if she warranted the stud fee. When Ready to Purrform won the Laurel Futurity, the mare earned her way to that level. I think at $80,000 this year for American Pharoah, that has to be a gift with what he's already done this year. This is probably my favorite mating physically. She's a beautiful, balanced mare and all of her foals have been really good movers and I think the same can be said of American Pharoah. This direct cross has already been extremely successful with G1SW Café Pharaoh and MGSW Four Wheel Drive, so all that gave us confidence to send her to him.

MAY BE NOW (m, 14, Smart Strike — Dans La Ville (Chi), by Winning) to be bred to Uncle Mo

May Be Now is a three-quarters sister to GISW Al's Gal (English Channel) and she is the dam of champion and MG1SW Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}). This mare was in our operation in South America and she was brought here to our American operation with the intention to sell. We sold her in 2017 in foal to Hard Spun and shortly after, Ivar hit the track and set the world on fire in Argentina. We quickly set to buy this mare back and when we did, she was again in foal to Hard Spun. That filly, foaled in 2020, is now in our racing stable. May Be Now also has a lovely yearling by Yoshida.

She is not in foal this year but we are sending her to Uncle Mo. He's a stallion that we all love. I think we've used him almost every year. This mare has not always been sent to super commercial stallions in the past, so this can generate a commercial mating but at the same time if it's a filly, we have the option of having a really strong broodmare. The mare is a very typical Smart Strike and I think Uncle Mo offers some size that she will benefit from.

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Bleecker ‘Streets’ Rivals in Hillsborough

Peter Brant's Bleecker Street (Quality Road) continued her rapid ascent through the turf distaff division with a thoroughly dominating performance in the GII Hillsborough S. at Tampa, easily accounting for her commonly owned stablemate Rocky Sky (Ire) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}) to remain unblemished from five starts.

While 'TDN Rising Star' Lady Speightspeare (Speightstown) held the early call as the Hillsborough field galloped past the stands for the first time, it was Gladys (Medaglia d'Oro), the own-sister to Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra, who took up the running into the clubhouse turn, as Rocky Sky fell into the box seat. The weak-in-the-market Bleecker Street–who eased from 9-5 out to 12-5 at the off–was comfortable in seventh. Switched off beautifully through the middle stages beneath Hector Diaz, Jr. Bleecker Street raced in hand on the second turn and was angled out sharply at the quarter pole. Briefly following the move of Rocky Sky in upper stretch, Bleecker Street was switched off heels and into the clear and was off and gone despite racing on her incorrect lead through the final eighth of a mile. Rocky Sky was clearly second ahead of Gladys, who picked up some valuable graded black-type in third.

Given a comparatively soft introduction to the races last year, Bleecker Street won starts at Monmouth and the Meadowlands before resuming with a fast-finishing half-length allowance tally at this venue Jan. 8. An overlaid 7-1 when testing stakes waters for the first time in the GIII Endeavour S. Feb. 5, the $400,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga grad was the recipient of a similarly patient ride from Diaz, Jr. and whooshed home with what has become a devastating finish to best Lady Speighspeare by a firm 1 1/2 lengths.

Pedigree Notes:

One of 57 stakes winners and 31 graded winners for Lane's End's Quality Road, Bleecker Street is bred on the cross over Danzig-line mares responsible for Illuminant, winner on the grass of the GI Gamely S. Bleecker Street is the first foal for her stakes-placed dam, who was purchased by Branch Equine for $75,000 in foal to Honor Code at the 2016 Keeneland November Sale. The filly's dual stakes-placed second dam is a half-sister to Nan (High Yield), dam of GIII Selene S. winner Power Gal (Jpn) (Empire Maker). Lemon Liqueur, who was RNAd for $19,000 when offered not in foal at KEENOV in 2018, is the dam of a 2-year-old filly by Always Dreaming, a yearling filly by Flatter and is due to the in-demand Not This Time this season.

Saturday, Tampa Bay Downs
HILLSBOROUGH S.-GII, $200,000, Tampa Bay Downs, 3-12, 4yo/up, f/m, 1 1/8mT, 1:48.21, gd.
1–BLEECKER STREET, 118, f, 4, by Quality Road
1st Dam: Lemon Liqueur (SP), by Exchange Rate
2nd Dam: Limoncella, by Lemon Drop Kid
3rd Dam: Trip Around Heaven, by Halo
($400,000 Ylg '19 FTSAUG). O-Peter M Brant; B-Branch Equine
LLC (KY); T-Chad C Brown; J-Hector Rafael Diaz Jr. $120,000.
Lifetime Record: 5-5-0-0, $285,900. Werk Nick Rating: C.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Rocky Sky (Ire), 118, f, 4, Rock of Gibraltar (Ire)–Road Tosky
(Ire), by Elusive City. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. O-Peter M
Brant; B-Eadling Farm Ltd (IRE); T-Chad C Brown. $40,000.
3–Gladys, 118, f, 4, Medaglia d'Oro–Lotta Kim, by Roar.
1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. O-Dede
McGehee; B-Heaven Trees Farm (KY); T-Kelsey Danner.
$20,000.
Margins: 3 3/4, 3/4, 3/4. Odds: 2.40, 4.70, 11.50.
Also Ran: Lady Speightspeare, Lovely Lucky, Runaway Rumour, Jezebel's Kitten, Take Charge Ro, Nantucket Red. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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