Sergio De Sousa | Horse Racing Free Tips

Zenyatta’s Cozmic One Joins TAKE2 Thoroughbred League

Cozmic One (Bernardini), the first foal out of Horse of the Year Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}), has joined the TAKE2 Thoroughbred League and is slated to compete in the TAKE2 Thoroughbred Jumper Division at the Kentucky National Horse Show Sept. 22-26. The classes for his division will be held in the Walnut Ring at the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington. Cozmic One could earn a wild card berth in the $20,000 TAKE2 Hunter and Jumper Finals Sept. 26 if he finishes in the top five in the division.

Now a 9-year-old and with a huge fan following since his birth, Cozmic One made little impact on the racetrack and retired in 2017. He competed in the Retired Racehorse Project's 2018 Makeover and finished fifth for Isabela de Sousa. The college student owns Cozmic One in partnership with her father, Sergio, who now rides the horse, and Zenyatta's owners, Jerry Moss and Ann Holbrook.

“It's pretty amazing, a lot of people really enjoy seeing what he is up to,” said Sergio de Sousa. “People love the mare, and they love him, too. We post things about him on social media–from the horse shows, but also 'Coz' playing with his buddy, rolling in the mud, just being a horse. It makes people happy to see it, and it is simple for us to do that. We get letters, Christmas cards, cookies, birthday cards, you can go on and on. My daughter started it a couple of years ago, so people could follow him, make the connection with Coz, see how he was training. She got a lot of people to participate in his journey.”

De Sousa, the managing partner of Hidden Brook, competed with Cozmic One at the Split Rock Horse Show in June and the Robert Murphy Stable Horse Show in July.

“This is his second career, but he really is retired, he is just having fun,” said de Sousa. “He gets excited going to the shows, he loves to watch the other horses perform, he loves to watch the people go by. He's like a boxer, ready to go in the ring. But we're not looking to be in the Olympics, this is just for his enjoyment. He doesn't owe us anything.”

TDN won a 2018 Multi-Media Eclipse Award for a feature on Cozmic One in his second career.

The TAKE2 Thoroughbred League was launched in 2015 to promote second careers for retired racehorses and offers $10,000 in year-end high-score awards to Thoroughbreds competing in TAKE2-affiliated hunter and jumper divisions across the country, with the $20,000 TAKE2 Finals held every September.

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Kerin Joins Hidden Brook Farm As Sales Account Manager

Hidden Brook Farm announced on May 27 that Melbourne, Australia native Josh Kerin has joined the farm as a sales account manager.

Josh's initial experience with horses began on a family harness racing farm before venturing to nearby Caulfield Racecourse as a teenager to work under the tutelage of classic winning trainer Colin Little while completing his local education. Josh pursued his Equine Science degree at Colorado State University while punting for the football team and serving as a veterinary assistant at the prestigious Colorado State Equine Reproduction Lab.

Sergio de Sousa, part owner of Hidden Brook Farm, said, “We're very pleased to welcome Josh to our team. He gained valuable experience interning at Three Chimney's Farm and also making the rounds at the sales with several prominent agents. He'll assist in recruiting and bloodstock services and take an active role in our sales consignments. Josh brings great enthusiasm and passion to his position and we, as a group, are looking forward to working together to grow our enterprise.”

“I'm very excited to work with the Hidden Brook crew,” Kerin said. “It's a very unique opportunity considering they have both a full-service nursery in Kentucky and an active training center in Florida. I look forward to contributing to the success and growth of both facilities.”

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Kerin to Join Hidden Brook

Melbourne native Josh Kerin has joined the Hidden Brook as a sales account manager. Josh's initial experience with horses began on a family harness racing farm before venturing to nearby Caulfield Racecourse as a teenager to work under the tutelage of trainer Colin Little.

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Keeneland November Sale Starts Monday

LEXINGTON, KY – The action moves from the racetrack to the sales ring at Keeneland Monday with the first session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. The 10-day auction kicks off with a single select Book 1 section that begins at noon and continues through Nov. 18 with subsequent sessions beginning at 10 a.m.

“I think the sale will be good,” Marshall Taylor of Taylor Made Sales Agency said on an unseasonably warm November morning at the Keeneland sales grounds Sunday. “We have a lot of good horses and there are a lot of good horses on the sales grounds this year. I am hoping the momentum from the September sale and the yearling sales will carry over into November and things will keep getting better.”

Keeneland played host to the two-day Breeders’ Cup championships for the second time over the weekend and Taylor agreed the championship meet provided extra excitement heading into the sale.

“You can almost get that magical feeling where all of these stars are coming right across the road from the racehorse barns into the sales barn,” Taylor said. “It brings a whole vibe to it that you don’t get when the Breeders’ Cup is out of state.”

While the September yearling sales were conducted largely without on-site participation of foreign buyers due to the global pandemic, international shoppers were out in force at the sales grounds Sunday.

“I have seen a lot of foreign buyers,” Taylor said. “I’ve seen a lot of Europeans and a lot of Japanese. In September, I didn’t feel like there were as many Japanese buyers as there are here at the November sale. So it seems like there are a lot of foreign buyers here, which is great.”

In addition to the international buyers on the grounds, foreign interests are expected to continue to make their presence felt with on-line and phone bidding.

“I am very pleased with the traffic here so far,” James Keogh said in front of his Grovendale consignment Sunday morning. “There is a strong domestic influence right now, but we’ve been receiving overseas calls and people asking questions and for photos, especially from Japan. I expect they will very likely be bidding on-line.”

The Breeders’ Cup championships provided several updates to horses in the Keeneland catalogue and Keogh is hoping to take advantage of Into Mischief’s two wins at Keeneland Saturday.

“We are feeling very fortunate because we have a very nice mare in foal to Into Mischief (hip 10) with a real family behind her. So that was very exciting.”

Other Breeders’ Cup updates in Book 1 include a half-sister to GI Breeders’ Cup F/M Turf runner-up Rushing Fall (More Than Ready) in foal to Catholic Boy (hip 99); a full-sister to GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up C Z Rocket (City Zip), in foal to Distorted Humor (hip 244E); as well as the dam of GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), in foal to Into Mischief (hip 32). A weanling half-sister to GII Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint runner-up Cowan (Kantharos) will be offered as hip 146 and Veronique (Mizzen Mast), the dam of track-record setting Nashville (Speightstown) will be offered as hip 244D.

During the recently concluded yearling sales season, demand remained for the perceived quality offerings, but interest fell off markedly from there. Expectations are for that trend to continue at the November sale.

“If they were on your horse, you got good money, maybe even a little more than you thought you’d get,” said Hidden Brook’s Sergio de Sousa. “I don’t see anyone saying it was a healthy market. When the median was $15,000, that doesn’t pay your board bill for the most part.”

Expectations are for that polarization to continue into the November sale.

“You’ve got to be optimistic about it, especially for Book 1, but you also have to be realistic about the market,” said de Sousa. “The market has shown this year to be down between 20% and 30%. So you have to be aware of that. But as a breeder, we are dreamers and you always hope for the best in this business. So it will be interesting to see what happens. It was a fantastic two days with the Breeders’ Cup and a lot of excitement. People are starting to come and look at the mares and foals more now, so we have to see what the traffic is going to be.”

De Sousa thinks there will be bargains to be found by astute buyers.

“There will be a lot of mares sold who are bubble mares,” de Sousa said. “I think this time next year there will be a lot of mares who will have 3- or 4-year-olds running now who sold for not a lot of money at this sale and they will be producing nice horses. I think that creates opportunities. I think if you have cash, it is a buyer’s market.”

Last year’s November sale was topped by the $3.2-million Take Charge Brandi (Giant’s Causeway). The mare was one of 14 to sell for seven figures. Larry Best’s OXO Equine paid top price for a weanling, going to $775,000 for a daughter of Curlin.

In all, 2,671 head sold for $200,135,200 at the 2019 sale. The average was $74,929 and the median was $25,000.

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