Briland Farm's Secret Oath (Arrogate), who soundly defeated fillies to win the Feb. 26 GIII Honeybee S., will take on the boys in the Apr. 2 $1.25-million GI Arkansas Derby, trainer D. Wayne Lukas confirmed Sunday.
“We don't make these decisions, meaning the owners and myself, we don't make these decisions easily,” Lukas said. “We consider all the things. First of all, you want to absolutely think that you are as good as any of the other 3-year-olds that might show up and you don't really know who is going to show up. And then second, you consider that she's here at home. If you're going to step out of the box, that's probably a good spot to do it. She's been successful on this racetrack. The third thing is a $1.25 million is probably the most attractive purse she'll ever run for. I was thinking the other day that it will be hard to imagine she's going to run for a bigger one, expect in the Breeders' Cup. So, we factored that in.”
Owner Robert Mitchell added, “Wayne and I talked about it before the Honeybee. We wanted to see what her performance looked like in the Honeybee and we wanted to see what the Rebel looked like and then we wanted to see kind of how she did in her first workout after the Honeybee. We feel like we ought to give her a chance to run against the boys and see how that goes. That's kind of how we thought about it.”
Secret Oath worked four furlongs in :48.40 (2/22) Mar. 8 at Oaklawn.
Following the Arkansas Derby, the plan for Secret Oath would still likely be a start back against her own sex in the GI Kentucky Oaks May 6 at Churchill Downs.
“I've got the Oaks, anyhow,” Lukas said. “That's where I'm going. We have no plan to run in the Derby now. That's not chiseled in stone, either, but that's the way the Mitchells feel. They don't want to run in a 20-horse field. They feel like the Oaks is every bit as prestigious.”
With Secret Oath heading for the Arkansas Derby, stablemate Ethereal Road (Quality Road), second in the Feb. 26 GII Rebel S., will be rerouted to the Apr. 9 GI Toyota Blue Grass S.
In other news from the sophomore division at Oaklawn Park, We The People (Constitution), tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' following his allowance win in Arkansas Saturday, will now be aimed at a Kentucky Derby prep race, according to trainer Rodolphe Brisset.
“That was the whole plan, be able to gain some seasoning, some experience,” Brisset said. “He broke maybe a step slower than last time and then he didn't make the lead. But Flo [Geroux] got him into the race pretty good and let him do his thing. He didn't use the whip, got him to work through the wire and even an extra sixteenth. Now, we're going to see how he came out of it this morning and the next couple of days we'll have to make some plans, I guess.”
Among the possible targets for We The People are the Arkansas Derby and Blue Grass, but Brisset didn't rule out the Apr. 9 GI Santa Anita Derby or GII Wood Memorial.
All four 1 1/8-mile races will offer 170 points (100-40-20-10) to their top four finishers toward starting eligibility for the May 7 Kentucky Derby. We the People likely would need a top two finish to secure a spot in the Kentucky Derby, which is limited to 20 starters.
“Oaklawn's right in the middle, so we can go left or we can go right,” Brisset said. “But I think we're going to let the horse tell us. Three weeks to the Arkansas Derby can be a little tricky, but after that we've got five weeks for the big one if he does run 1-2. The four weeks, four weeks is not a bad thing, either, for the Blue Grass. Now, we have to ship him back home. He knows the track there.”
On Jan. 29, Briland Farm's Robert and Stacy Mitchell came to the stark realization that their public profile in the Thoroughbred racing world was about to be raised in a big way.
Crossing the finish line first by 7 1/4 lengths that day in Oaklawn's Martha Washington Stakes was their homebred filly, Secret Oath. As part of the Road to the Kentucky Oaks points series of races, the victory awarded the filly 10 qualifying points toward the classic race, and stamped the sophomore as one to watch ahead of the Run for the Lillies.
“It's a little bit overwhelming and I don't want to get ahead of myself,” said Stacy Mitchell. “We're just going to have fun each day.”
The journey of Briland Farm actually began more than two decades before. As a young couple with a growing family and with the Millennium approaching, the Mitchells were struck by the impulse that so many before them have felt: it was time to escape the city.
“We didn't just want to buy a house in a subdivision,” said Rob Mitchell, who, like his wife Stacy, is a Kentucky native. “I wanted land. My grandparents had land and so we found a farm with an old wooden farm house in Fayette County. We wanted to get outside of downtown so we went for it and we ended up getting a 90-acre farm.”
With their new farm in Lexington, Ky., in hand, the Mitchells were gifted an older Quarter Horse by a friend. It was their realtor who pointed out that as social herd creatures, the horse would likely do better with a companion in the field.
“When our friend told us to get a companion horse, he basically said to get a broodmare and if we get a broodmare, find one in foal,” said Stacy. “Our kids were young at the time and he said, 'Your kids would love growing up seeing horses being born.'”
“So we found someone who wanted to sell a young mare with a pretty good pedigree that had never raced,” said Rob. “They wanted to just give her to us but I said, 'Let's buy her for $1.00 and make it official.'”
Named Chao Praya, the mare was a daughter of Gold Legend out of the Pancho Villa mare Casting a Spell. While she was not in foal at the time of sale, the Mitchells decided to breed to the mare to Level Sands, a son of Storm Cat, for $1,500.
“That foal, Level Playingfield, became a graded stakes winner, multiple stakes winner, and a track record-setter. Then we bred the mare back to Empire Maker just as he was starting his stallion career and we got another grade 3 winner (Imposing Grace).”
Suffice it to say, the Mitchells had been bitten by the breeding bug. In order to add to their numbers, the couple went shopping at the now defunct Fasig-Tipton Adena Springs Broodmare Sales. There they purchased a Great Above mare named Rockford Peach, who was in foal to Running Stag, for $36,000.
Rockford Peach would go on to produce the Quiet American mare Absinthe Minded, a multiple stakes winner who earned over $600,000 on the track. Now a broodmare in the Briland Band, Absinthe Minded has continued to reward the Mitchells as the dam of Secret Oath.
With success coming early on the track and in the breeding shed for the Mitchells, it would have been natural for them to return to public auction. But as it would happen, Rockford Peach would be the last Thoroughbred ever purchased in the name of Briland Farm.
“The bottom line is we've never bought a race horse,” said Rob. “Every horse we've ever raced was born on our farm. We haven't bought any Thoroughbred for over 20 years. We have a few families, we have three or four foals a year, and we race our foals. We sell about 75 percent and keep about 25 percent and we've just been very blessed and lucky.
“I think it's a good thing that there are partnerships and syndicates that buy horses off the track after they win a few races and they keep those horses in training and go on racing to more success. That's great for the business, but we have never bought a race horse. They're all born here on the farm.”
From this small, insular operation, the Mitchells have been able to generate a strong strike rate on the track. Between 2002 and 2018, Briland Farm campaigned 44 homebred horses. Of those, 6.8 percent were graded stakes winners, 13.6 percent were graded stakes-placed, 25 percent were stakes placed, and 11.3 percent were stakes winners.
Self-taught when it comes to matings, the Mitchells—while they do sell a handful of foals—consciously stray from what's commercially popular.
“When we first got into it, we went to a few TOBA meetings but mostly it was reading and studying how to make it work,” said Rob. “But even then you don't know if your matings will be right.
“I try to never go for what is popular. That is the last thing in the back of my mind. I want to win the best horse that will win races because I own the broodmare. I want those horses to win to increase the value of the subsequent foals. It doesn't make sense for me to do what is popular because when you look back, you'll see stallions that start off super-hot and two years later you can't give those horses away. I want to breed the best horse I can with the stock I have.
“We've made bad decisions along the way, but we're getting better at it. In about 20 years maybe we will have it down. We don't really need to buy anymore because we have a few families that are genotypically different, but in some ways similar, so I think we're good at figuring them out and what they need.”
But while the Mitchell's strategy has proved more than reliable in getting horses to the winner's circle, it hasn't always translated to the sales ring where the pressure to tick all the boxes of buyers. Among those that didn't initially pass muster with buyers was Secret Oath, who failed to make an impression during her brief stint in the Bluewater Sales consignment at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
“I really liked Secret Oath when she was born,” said Rob. “We sent her to Keeneland, and I think they're pretty knowledgeable, but they put her in session 5. Her dam had won three stakes races and placed in five graded stakes, the filly was from Arrogate's first crop, but she was put in session 5. Not a lot of people looked at her so I took her out of the sale the day before she was supposed to go. I thought, 'If no one wants her, she looks just like her mom and sister so I will race her myself.'”
“She had that tall, narrow, Quiet American look like he had when he was young but that wasn't the look they wanted at that sale,” said Stacy. “They wanted to see big engines on the back and different body types. She wasn't what the commercial market wanted.”
With Secret Oath having taken her first steps toward the Kentucky Oaks, it's clear that the Mitchells have cracked the code to personal success. While she may have been overlooked at the sales, the filly's explosion onto the racing scene has garnered plenty of attention; the fear of missing out running strong with owners hoping to get in on the ground floor as the Classic season ramps up.
But just like they weren't selling in 2020, the Mitchells plan to hang on to their filly.
“We will try to hold (trainer) Wayne (Lukas) back,” joked Rob. “He's excited about her and people want to buy her. But we're going to take it one day at a time. Wayne calls about every few days saying, 'I have someone else who wants to buy her.' And I've said 'Wayne, if I was a wealthy man I would take the money, but I'm used to being poor so I don't need it'”.
“We got lucky with Secret Oath but you don't always get that lucky. We know we may never win another race. We've done this long enough to know that a horse can kick it's stall and chip an ankle or get a fever the night before the race. Nothing is ever sure.”
“We're just taking it one race at a time,” said Stacy. “I told someone that after all the work we've put in for 20 years I'm happy to take the ride with her as short as it may be. Anyone who has done this knows that the happier times are fewer than the hard times. You have to hold on to the good.”
Secret Oath breaks her maiden at Oaklawn on Dec. 31
What began as a $1 investment continues to pay big dividends, particularly at Oaklawn, for hands-on Kentucky breeders Robert and Stacy Mitchell.
Secret Oath upheld the family tradition in Hot Springs with an eye-catching one-mile allowance victory for 2-year-old fillies on Dec. 31 for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. The Mitchells (Briland Farm) bred and own Secret Oath, who is by deceased champion Arrogate out of their prized broodmare and multiple Oaklawn stakes winner, Absinthe Minded.
Secret Oath's 8 ¼-length margin of victory was the largest in Oaklawn history in a 2-year-old route race and propelled her into the lineup for the $200,000 Martha Washington Stakes Jan. 29. The 1 1/16-mile Martha Washington is Oaklawn's first of three points races for the Kentucky Oaks, the country's biggest event for 3-year-old fillies.
“I would just say we're keeping our expectations in check,” Robert Mitchell said on New Year's Day. “I mean, this was an allowance race. She ran a good race. She had a great acceleration at the end. But a lot of things happen in the horse business.”
Secret Oath's victory came a little more than 20 years after the Mitchells (husband and wife) began building their small breeding operation by paying $1 to acquire Chao Praya, an unraced daughter of Gold Legend. Owing to a light pedigree and bad foot, Robert Mitchell said Chao Praya's owners wanted to give her away, but he settled on $1 as “sort of a proof of purchase.”
Bred to Level Sands, Chao Praya produced Level Playingfield, a Grade 3 winner of $664,822 for Bob Holthus, Oaklawn's all-time leading trainer, and Arkansas owner Lorene Jones (Fly Racing). Level Playingfield was a four-time allowance winner at Oaklawn (2004, 2005 and 2006).
Chao Praya also produced Imposing Grace, a daughter of Empire Maker who won the $150,000 Arlington Matron Stakes (G3) in 2013 at Arlington Park for trainer Wayne Catalano and owner Coffeepot Stables. The Mitchells bred both Level Playingfield and Imposing Grace, who sold for $75,000 as a yearling.
“So, our $1 first broodmare we ever bought produced two Grade 3 winners,” Mitchell said. “That's just kind of how we got started.”
The Mitchells now board approximately a half-dozen broodmares on their 90-acre Briland Farm in Lexington. Among them is Absinthe Minded, a homebred daughter of Quiet American who compiled a 6-6-3 race record from 35 lifetime starts and earned $607,747.
Absinthe Minded, also trained by Lukas, did her best work at Oaklawn, winning the $100,000 Bayakoa Stakes for older fillies and mares in 2011, $75,000 Pippin Stakes for older fillies and mares in 2012, and the $100,000 Bayakoa again in 2012.
The first two foals out of Absinthe Minded to reach the races, full sisters La Fee Verte and Sara Sea, also were winners at Oaklawn for Briland and Lukas in 2019 and 2020, respectively. La Fee Verte and the robust Sara Sea are daughters of 2000 Horse of the Year Tiznow. Secret Oath is from Arrogate's first crop.
“Some horses like certain tracks,” Robert Mitchell said. “She looks a lot like her mother. They're both kind of tall, thin, long-striding horses. I kind of think sometimes the Oaklawn track's a little tiring on some horses, and they have a long stride to them and that may give them an advantage. I don't know. I've had horses do bad at Oaklawn. They have done fairly well there.”
Secret Oath was coming off a fifth-place finish in the $400,000 Golden Rod Stakes (G2) at 1 1/16 miles Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs. She had broken her maiden by 5 ¼ lengths at 1 1/16 miles Oct. 31 at Churchill Downs.
Paired for the first time with jockey Luis Contreras in the allowance event, Secret Oath raced well off the early pace and waited briefly in traffic reeling in the leaders on the second turn. Secret Oath moved three-wide turning for home and drew off in the final furlong. Her winning time of 1:37.38 over a fast track generated a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 93, among the highest in the country for a 2-year-old in 2021.
“That's the filly we've been waiting on all along,” Lukas said after training hours Wednesday morning. “She put it all together that day. That's the filly that we've been training and we see every day. She's pretty special.”
Lukas was using the allowance race, which had no conditions, as a prep for the Martha Washington, a race he won in 2010 with Decelerator and 2015 with juvenile filly champion Take Charge Brandi.
Lukas has trained approximately 13 years for the Mitchells, who normally have no more than three horses in training. Lukas also has another horse for the couple at Oaklawn, Double Speak, an unstarted 3-year-old filly by multiple Grade 1 winner and 2003 Oaklawn Handicap champion Medaglia d'Oro.
Double Speak is out of multiple stakes winner Tempus Fugit, a Briland homebred who finished 11th in the 2003 Kentucky Oaks. Another daughter of Tempus Fugit, Impasse, broke her maiden by seven lengths in allowance company for Lukas and Briland at the 2017 Oaklawn meeting.
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Briland's first foals to race were born in 2000. Normally, Robert Mitchell said, no more than five foals are born each year at Briland, which emphasizes quality over quantity.
“My wife, basically, does most of it (foaling), but we foal every horse on our farm,” Mitchell said. “We've never put a horse on the track that wasn't born on our farm. We've never bought one. In other words, we've never bought a race horse. We've just bred exclusively. I know there's syndicates of people that like to buy horses after they win and that's probably good. That's a good thing for them. But for us, we just want to take pride in we're only going to race the horses that we breed.”
Mitchell said recently retired Sara Sea has joined Briland's broodmare band and is to be bred this year to multiple Grade 1 winner Liam's Map. Absinthe Minded also is booked back to Liam's Map, he said.
“We tend to keep the fillies so we can have more broodmares, and obviously there's an economic consideration and how they look,” Robert Mitchell said. “And all those play into it, but we tend to keep the fillies, generally, and tend to sell the colts. But we also sell fillies, too. Our philosophy is flexibility.”
The Mitchells plan to race an unnamed 2-year-old filly out of Absinthe Minded. By Medaglia d'Oro, the filly is about to be sent to Florida to be started by Randy Bradshaw, a former Lukas assistant. Bradshaw also broke Secret Oath.
“This is the fruit of our work,” Stacy Mitchell said. “This is my full-time job. Stay out there with the mares and foal the babies and meet the vets. I'm just going all the time.”
The Dec. 31 allowance race was the last for 2-year-olds in 2021 at Oaklawn. Because of its December opening, Oaklawn was able to card 2-year-old races for the first time since 1975 at the expanded 2021-2022 meeting. The handful of route races for 2-year-olds were the first since 1945, when Oaklawn ran a fall meet because of World War II.
