Results from the graded stakes for juveniles at Aqueduct on Saturday, Dec. 4, proved a double success for the breeding partnership of the Lyster family's Ashview Farm and the Colts Neck Stables of Rich Santulli.
In the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes, Mo Donegal, a son of champion juvenile and leading sire Uncle Mo (by Indian Charlie), was the victor by a nose from Zandon (Upstart), and in the G2 Demoiselle, Nest (Curlin) won by a neck from the Firing Line filly Venti Valentine.
Both of the Kentucky-bred juveniles were foaled and raised at Ashview, which markets is yearlings as organically grown athletes. The marketplace gave a warm reception to those farm-fresh yearlings: Mo Donegal sold to Jerry Crawford of Donegal Racing Stables for $250,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September sale; Nest brought $300,000 at the same sale and races for Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, and Michael House.
As financially and professionally rewarding as those young horses have proven for the farm, Bryan Lyster said that “having bred these two with Mr. Santulli is one of the best things imaginable. He's been right by our side from the mid-1980s, and it's very satisfying that we had a day like that together.
“He's been a longtime client and my dad's best friend. In the last seven to eight years, we have bought a number of mares together.”
The partners own 12 to 15 mares, and breeding a pair of graded stakes winners from a small group of mares is an exceptional accomplishment. Then again, the mares who produced these young athletes are rather special too.
Nest is the fifth foal out of her dam, the A.P. Indy stakes winner Marion Ravenwood, and the Demoiselle winner is a full sister to Idol, who won the G1 Santa Anita Handicap earlier this year, as well as a half-sister to Dr Jack, who also earned black type this season.
In the space of nine months, Marion Ravenwood has become the dam of a pair of graded winners, both by the 2007 and 2008 Horse of the Year, and a multiple stakes-placed racer by Pioneerof the Nile. The three siblings have made their dam a very valuable producer, and the 4-year-old Idol also played a role in Ashview's acquisition of Marion Ravenwood.
Bryan Lyster said, “We bought Marion Ravenwood carrying the Pioneerof the Nile, and we were impressed with her Curlin foal, which is now Idol. At the time we planned the mating that produced Nest, we were hoping for a yearling who had the look of Idol.”
The partners bought Marion Ravenwood for $400,000 from My Meadowview Farm LLC. The following spring, the mare produced a colt by Pioneerof the Nile, and Ashview sold the resulting foal for $250,000 as a November weanling. Named Dr Jack, the colt has placed third in the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth and the Bourbon Trail Stakes at Churchill, earning $125,857 from seven races in the last eight months.
Lyster noted that neither Marion Ravenwood nor Callingmissbrown, the dam of Mo Donegal, will have a yearling for next year. That's rotten luck, but the breeders have been on the receiving end of the good luck, especially this year, and Marion Ravenwood “will be going back to Curlin. We're hoping to get her in foal early and have been big supporters of Curlin, going back to his first year.”
In fact, Callingmissbrown, the dam of Mo Donegal, is in foal to Curlin for next year, and Lyster said, “Since Mo Donegal is only the mare's second foal, I'd say the win on Saturday would tilt the scales toward a certain sire” for her mating next year.
A Pulpit mare that the Lysters acquired privately for their breeding partnership, Callingmissbrown “is built like a tank. I wouldn't call her big in height, 16 hands or so, but she has a tremendous hip.”
Those qualities no doubt helped when Ashview brought the mare's 2021 yearling, a filly by leading sire Into Mischief, to the Keeneland sales a couple months ago.
By the hot sire but out of a mare who hadn't produced a black-type winner till last Saturday, Callingmissbrown's September yearling brought $500,000 from Frankie Brothers, agent, and Litt/Solis. To bring twice what Crawford paid for the mare's Uncle Mo colt a year before, this filly was quite nice.
Bryan said, “The half to Mo Donegal was so smooth and so athletic in every other way that buyers really wanted her.” Being by Into Mischief put a bull's eye on the filly among discerning horsemen, and she brought a premium for it.
The good work and careful planning that produced a bonus success for Ashview and Colts Neck on the weekend is set to pay off with long-term dividends over the coming seasons from the siblings to these major winners.
The post Bloodlines Presented By Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders And Owners Association: A Weekend Bonanza For Ashview Farm, Colts Neck Stables appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
