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Baby Yoda is the Sport’s Most Unlikely Star

This is the story of Baby Yoda (Prospective): Bought shortly after he broke his maiden for $10,000 at Pimlico, he ran a 114 Beyer figure in a Saratoga allowance race, tying him for the fastest number on the year, and will now be sent into a graded prep for the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. It sounds impossible. But it's not.

“It's crazy,” said Baby Yoda's co-owner Adam Wachtel. “It's hard to rationalize or accept. It's highly unusual to see something like this. He ran for $10,000 nine weeks ago and for him to go out an accomplish what he did in such a short period of time is just not something that you see. It makes you shake your head.”

Wachtel admits he wasn't paying any attention to Baby Yoda when the 3-year-old gelding made his debut May 30 at Pimlico for trainer Charles Frock and owner Gerald Burns. Baby Yoda won by eight lengths that day, but posted a moderate Beyer number of 69.

He came back in a first-level allowance race at Pimlico and ran third, but this was the race that got Wachtel to take notice. He is always on the lookout for horses that are off the radar but running fast numbers. Baby Yoda ran a 10 1/2 on the Ragozin Sheets, which, Wachtel felt, was good enough to compete against all 3-year-old sprinters not named Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music).

“We look at numbers with Len Friedman of Ragozin data,” Wachtel explained. “We go over horses each week. Forget about the race where he broke his maiden for $10,000. I didn't even look at that. When he finished third in the 'a other than' in Maryland he ran a great race. A friend of mine says that I buy a lot of Rocky Balboas. This guy fit into that category. The sire was a darn good race horse. I know he hasn't been an exciting stallion. But there was enough there and I really liked the replay.”

Wachtel had his vet go over the horse and had his agent reach out to the Maryland connections. Within a few days he had acquired Baby Yoda for an undisclosed price. Whatever it was, it is no doubt among the most anyone ever paid for a son of Prospective. Now standing in Korea after beginning his stud career at Ocala Stud, Prospective's biggest win came in the 2012 GII Tampa Bay Derby.

The new ownership group, which also includes Pantofel Stable and Jerold Zaro, sent Baby Yoda to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott and kept its fingers crossed. Ironically, they had the Florida-bred pegged as a future turf horse and entered him in a starter allowance at Saratoga on the grass, but the race did not fill. Plan B was a dirt starter allowance July 17 and the result was a 1 1/4-length win.

Baby Yoda fans | Sarah Andrew

At that point, Wachtel's expectations were still not sky high. Winning a starter allowance only proves so much. But, after talking to Mott, he started to look at things differently.

“After Mott had had him for about 10 days, two weeks, I asked him, 'Bill, what do you think about this horse?' He said, 'I love him.' I said, 'Come on, really?'” Wachtel said. “Bill said it again. He told me that the horse was really neat, had a lot of talent and was a runner. Bill doesn't usually make statements like that, so for him to say what he did made me think this horse might really be alright.”

The Sept. 4 allowance brought together a deep field of 10 and several among the group seemed to have potential. Ridden by Jose Ortiz, Baby Yoda won by 4 1/4 lengths and completed the 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.33. The time of the race took on a whole new level of significance when the Beyer number came out. The only other horse to run a 114 Beyer this year is Flightline (Tapit). His big figure, ironically, also came in a first-level allowance race, a sprint at Del Mar the day after Baby Yoda's race. Among 3-year-olds, Essential Quality (Tapit) is next on the Beyer list, with a 109 from his victory in the GI Belmont S. Knicks Go (Paynter) ran a 113 Beyer in the GIII Prairie Meadows Cornhusker H.

Baby Yoda's Ragozin number in the Saratoga allowance was a 4 3/4.

“I've been doing this a long time and have had a lot of good horses but that, what he did, kind of blew me away,” Wachtel said. “I was unbelievably impressed and thrilled.”

Wachtel is reasonable enough to know that there's every chance this fairy tale will go off in another direction.

“Is he a freak or will he regress from that race? I don't know,” he said.

Nonetheless, the plan is to give Baby Yoda the type of test that a 114 Beyer seems to deserve. Wachtel said the next race will be in a stakes and said the GI Vosburgh S. and the GII Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix S. at Keeneland are among the possibilities.

“I've always been a guy who looks at data and how fast they have run,” Wachtel said. “Every race he has run over his last three races have been really fast and, the other day, he did it easily. I will rely on my Hall of Fame trainer to tell me how well he is doing. If he continues to train well, why not take a shot with him in a stakes?”

Why not? It's not logical that a $10,000 maiden claimer could win a graded stakes race, but what about this story is?

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Bolt d’Oro Continues to Reward Ruis

Three years ago, Mick Ruis purchased the 330-acre former Woodford Thoroughbreds outside Lexington and revamped his entire broodmare band with the sole focus on supporting his recently retired multiple Grade I winner Bolt d'Oro. With the stallion's first yearlings hitting the sales ring this summer to wide appeal, the decision is paying off in spades. Ruis was rewarded by two yearlings at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale and will offer a filly by Bolt d'Oro during the first session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale Monday.

“I would say 100% of my decision to sell the smaller farm, Chestnut Hill in Versailles, and to get Woodford Thoroughbreds had to do with Bolt,” Ruis said. “We have six barns, 90 stalls, 330 acres, 11 miles of fences and three miles of paved roads. It was so that, when I started breeding, we could raise a good horse. I bred 20 mares to Bolt myself.”

Ruis and his wife Wendy purchased Bolt d'Oro, a son of Medaglia d'Oro out of Globe Trot (A.P. Indy), for $630,000 at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. The handsome bay opened his career with three straight wins, sweeping both the GI Del Mar Futurity and GI FrontRunner S. before finishing third in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He inherited the win via disqualification in the 2018 GII San Felipe S. and was second behind subsequent Triple Crown winner Justify in a controversial edition of the GI Santa Anita Derby.

“Everything he did was natural and I knew he was going to pass his genes on,” Ruis said of his confidence in the young stallion, who is a half-brother to Grade I winner Global Campaign (Curlin) and stakes winner and multiple graded placed Sonic Mule (Distorted Humor). “He was so wonderful with all his natural speed, and the bloodlines–by Medaglia d'Oro out of a female family that was incredible.”

Bolt d'Oro retired to Spendthrift Farm in 2019 and began his stud career at a fee of $25,000. Ruis retained a 50% interest in the stallion and began planning his new breeding program.

“I think I had five mares [before Bolt d'Oro retired],” Ruis said. “Now we have 40 broodmares. I spent over $5.5 million in two years upgrading my broodmare band. That's just for broodmares. And then I got some younger, 2 and 3-year-old fillies that I spent good money on at auction for the bloodlines when they got done racing to go to Bolt.”

Ruis plans on sending his entire foal crop through the sales ring.

“I am going to sell because I don't want people to say we only keep the good ones and sell the other ones,” he explained.

Ruis sent two yearlings by Bolt d'Oro through the ring at Saratoga last month with the South Point Sales Agency consignment.

A filly by the stallion (hip 186) sold for $500,000. She is out of Scenic Road (Quality Road), who was purchased by Ruis while carrying the filly for $240,000 at the 2019 Keeneland November sale. A colt (hip 144) sold for $250,000. That yearling is out of the unraced Mary Edna (Pioneerof the Nile), who was purchased by Ruis for $825,000 as a yearling at the 2017 Keeneland September sale.

“They got a lot of looks and people loved them,” Ruis said of his Saratoga offerings. “And I thought, 'Wow, they should come see the ones that I have at the farm. I have 18 Bolts. I took two to Saratoga and I have 16 left. The people were teasing me, they were calling me Pappa Bolt. But me breeding 20 and I think there were 198 registered foals in his first crop, so it's not like I'm the only guy who bred to Bolt.”

Indeed, Bolt d'Oro's biggest success at Saratoga came from a colt bred by Dede McGehee's Heaven Trees Farm. The half-brother to champion Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d'Oro) was purchased by Larry Best's OXO Equine for $1.4 million.

“I spent about half an hour just looking at him and saying, 'What a gorgeous creature,'” Ruis said of the seven-figure yearling.

Of the colt's headline-garnering result, Ruis added, “It was very gratifying to know that we went in the right direction. I feel like I got the right partners when I went with Spendthrift and Mr. [B. Wayne] Hughes. Over the last four years, I had, not only a business partnership, but a friendship with Mr. Hughes and I learned a lot of business values and integrity from him. That man did things his way. I remember when I was being courted by every farm to try to buy Bolt as a stallion and someone said, 'Why are you going to Walmart?' And now I'm saying, 'Walmart is kicking everybody's butt.' I know I picked the right partners, they are like family, it's easy.”

Ruis will offer his third yearling by Bolt d'Oro when South Point Sales Agency sends a daughter of Teroda (Limehouse) (hip 194) through the ring at Keeneland Monday.

“She is an absolute standout,” Ruis said of the filly. “She is an absolutely beautiful filly.”

Ruis purchased Teroda, with the filly in utero, for $275,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton November sale. The 13-year-old mare is the dam of multiple graded stakes winner Sombeyay (Into Mischief) and graded stakes winner Domain Expertise (Kitten's Joy). Her 4-year-old daughter Bruja Escarlata (Street Boss) opened her career with three straight wins for Hronis Racing and trainer John Sadler before suffering her first loss when sixth in the Daisycutter S. at Del Mar in July.

“That mare has two stakes winners out of three babies and John Sadler thinks Bruja Escarlata will be a stakes winner after her next race,” Ruis said. “If you look at what I paid for her, what a steal that ended up being. Sometimes you get those good stories.”

Of similarities he sees in Bolt d'Oro's first crop of yearlings, Ruis said, “He is really stamping them with that big square front end and nice-boned babies with big shoulders. I am not a professional in breeding, but everyone said, 'Wow, Bolt is just stamping his babies.' They all look alike and all look good.”

After the Bolt d'Oro hype builds through the yearling sales, Ruis said he plans on offering weanlings by the sire this fall.

“I have some drop-dead gorgeous weanlings by him,” Ruis said. “So I'll probably put a few weanlings in the [November] sale also. People can get an idea now that this is what they look like as a yearling, so when they are buying these weanlings, it isn't so much of a guessing game. I'll probably sell five or six weanlings in November.”

The Keeneland September sale begins Monday with the first of two Book 1 sessions commencing at 1 p.m. Book 2 sessions Wednesday and Thursday begin at 11 a.m. Following a dark day Friday, the auction continues through Sept. 24 with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

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Notable US-Breds in Japan: Sept. 11 & 12, 2021

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this weekend running at Chukyo Racecourse:

Saturday, September 11, 2021
9th-CKO, ¥28,600,000 ($261k), Allowance, 3yo/up, 1800m
SEREIN (f, 4, Uncle Mo–Tiz Miz Sue, by Tiznow), third in the 2020 G3 UAE Oaks, most recently returned from a January layoff to finish a respectable fifth going this distance at Niigata July 25. The dam of the dark bay, who defeated Charlatan (Speightstown)'s dam Authenticity (Quiet American) in the 2013 GI Ogden Phipps H., is a daughter of GSW Sue's Good News (Woodman), whose yearling Runhappy colt is cataloged as hip 1693 at Keeneland September. Yutaka Take has a return call. B-CresRan LLC (KY)

Sunday, September 12, 2021
11th-CKO, Centaur S.-G2, ¥112.8k ($1.03m), 3yo/up, 1200mT
GENDARME (h, 6, Kitten's Joy–Believe {Jpn}, by Sunday Silence), a Group 3 winner as a juvenile over a mile and Group 1-placed at 10 furlongs, has been reinvented as a turf sprinter and has adapted well to it, finishing third in the 1400-meter G3 Hankyu Hai this past February before earning a fourth career black-type success in a listed event over six panels in April. Koji Maeda's homebred is a son of champion Believe, the dam of SW & MGSP Faridat (Kingmambo) and of SW/GSP Fiducia (Medaglia d'Oro), whose son Gran Aplauso (Gun Runner) was a debut winner in June but is now sidelined via injury. The Centaur S. serves as a prep for the G1 Sprinters' S. B-North Hills Co Ltd (KY)

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Taking Stock: Gun Runner Flexes Candy Ride/Storm Cat Nick

Two sons of Candy Ride (Arg)–Gun Runner and Twirling Candy–were represented by three 2-year-old Grade l winners over the weekend, and do you know one thing they had in common? Each was produced by a Storm Cat-line mare. This affinity for the Storm Cat line was also an important feature of Candy Ride's own success, and breeders appear to be copying that formula with his sons. It's not surprising; it's something that usually happens when a stallion is successful with the females of another sire line, and this type of repetition of a successful pattern is what's known as a nick–something that's been around as long as people have been breeding racehorses.

Three Chimneys's Gun Runner, whose first crop is two, was represented by two of the top-level winners: Gl Hopeful winner Gunite, from black-type winner Simple Surprise, a daughter of Cowboy Cal (by Giant's Causeway, a son of Storm Cat); and Gl Spinaway winner Echo Zulu, out of Gll winner Letgomyecho, by Menifee (by Harlan, a son of Storm Cat).

Lane's End's Twirling Candy, the best and most proven son of Candy Ride to date, is the sire of Gl Del Mar Futurity winner Pinehurst, who's from unplaced Giant Win, by Giant's Causeway. Note that Twirling Candy's current Gl Preakness winner Rombauer is bred similarly. Rombauer's dam is by Cowboy Cal, who as noted above is by Giant's Causeway.

Giant's Causeway is also the broodmare sire of Gun Runner, making Gun Runner a product of the same Candy Ride/Storm Cat nick as his Grade l winners. However, when Gun Runner is bred to mares with either Giant's Causeway or Storm Cat in their pedigrees, a duplication to one or the other takes place. Essentially, breeders who send Storm Cat-line mares to Gun Runner are copying the pattern that produced him and are consciously inbreeding as well to Storm Cat, one of the great modern stallions, or to his best racing and sire son Giant's Causeway, if a mare by the latter or one of his sons is used.

Gunite is inbred 3×3 to Giant's Causeway, and Echo Zulu is 4×4 to Storm Cat.

Gun Runner's wins included the Breeders' Cup Classic during his 2017 Horse of the Year campaign | Breeders' Cup/Eclipse Sportswire

For Gun Runner, getting two Grade l-winning 2-year-olds in the first crop is a big deal, and this achievement marks the Horse of the Year, who was best at four and five, as something special. It's natural to expect that his offspring should continue to get better with age, giving him a high ceiling to anticipate.

But there's more to Gun Runner already. He also has two Grade ll winners, and their dam's pedigrees also contain Storm Cat. Pappacap, winner of the Gll Best Pal, is from a Glll-placed daughter of Scat Daddy (Johannesburg/Hennessy/Storm Cat), making him 4×5 to Storm Cat; and Wicked Halo, who won the Gll Adirondack, is out of the Tapit mare Just Wicked, who also won the Adirondack. Just Wicked's dam, black-type winner Wicked Deed, is by Harlan's Holiday (Harlan), and Wicked Halo, therefore, is 4×5 to Storm Cat.

Three of these four–Gunite, Echo Zulu, and Wicked Halo–are raced by Winchell Thoroughbreds, which raced Gun Runner in partnership with Three Chimneys. Winchell also raced Tapit, and it's no surprise that Wicked Halo is a homebred from a mare by their standout Gainesway sire. Winchell bred Gunite and bought Echo Zulu, a half-sister to Gl winner Echo Town (Speightstown) and Glll winner J Boys Echo (Mineshaft), for $300,000 as a Keeneland September yearling.

Steve Asmussen trained Gun Runner, and he trains the Winchell trio.

Sire Clusters

First off, let me say that by speaking of the stallions in a pedigree, I'm not diminishing the importance of physical attributes nor the contributions of the female family, which is as important. The dam of Echo Zulu, for example, was already an accomplished black-type producer before her Gun Runner filly won at the highest level.

And Gun Runner, an attractive and refined 16.2-hand specimen, himself is a product of a great female line that stretches back for generations full of high-class runners. Closer up, Gun Runner is from Grade ll winner Quiet Giant–a half-sister to Horse of the Year Saint Liam and fellow Three Chimneys stallion and Grade l winner Funtastic.

However, stallions have exponentially more foals than mares, and sire patterns–not just nicks, or sire-line crosses, as they are also known, but also clusters of favorable sires–are more easily discernible in pedigrees.

Lane's End stalwart Candy Ride | Lane's End

Candy Ride is a Fappiano-line stallion from an unusual path (Ride the Rails/ Cryptoclearance/ Fappiano), and he's had success with other lines aside from Storm Cat, such as with A.P. Indy and Fappiano himself through other, more familiar branches.

Gun Runner, for example, is bred on the Candy Ride/Storm Cat sire-line cross, but his dam also has Fappiano in her pedigree, making Gun Runner 4×4 to Fappiano. Therefore, in his case, the cluster of Storm Cat and Fappiano form a favorable basis.

Current 3-year-old Candy Ride Grade l winner Rock Your World is from an Empire Maker (Unbridled/Fappiano) mare whose dam is by Giant's Causeway; therefore, he's also 4×4 to Fappiano with Storm Cat present in the pedigree though Giant's Causeway.

Grade l winner Mastery, a son of Candy Ride at Claiborne with first-crop 2-year-olds, is from a mare by Old Trieste (A.P. Indy) whose dam is by Storm Cat.

The aforementioned Gun Runner 2-year-old Grade l winner Gunite is from a Cowboy Cal (Giant's Causeway) mare and the next dam is by Pulpit (A.P. Indy).

And the Gun Runner filly Wicked Halo, noted earlier from the Tapit (Pulpit/A.P. Indy) mare, not only has Storm Cat in the pedigree but also Fappiano through Tapit's broodmare sire Unbridled, making her 5x5x5 to Fappiano in addition to 4×5 Storm Cat. She's got a three-strong sire cluster of Storm Cat, Fappiano, and A.P. Indy girding her pedigree.

Candy Ride Stallions

Earlier this summer, I wrote about the investment in Candy Ride stallions that stud farms in Kentucky and in regional areas have made. One of the stallions mentioned is Unified, who has his first 2-year-olds racing this year. The Lane's End-based sire is represented so far by two black-type winners, Roger McQueen and Behave Virginia. The former is out of a Storm Cat-line mare and has Fappiano in the dam's pedigree (5×4 Fappiano); the latter is from a Mineshaft (A.P. Indy) mare and also has Fappiano in the dam's pedigree (5×4 Fappiano).

I also wrote about the once-raced Candy Ride stallion Valiant Minister at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala. Valiant Minister is the sire of Outfoxed, a filly who won the restricted $200,000 FTBOA Florida Sire Susan's Girl S. at the end of last month and looks like a future open company stakes winner. Though her sire stands for $3,000, she was a $360,000 OBS April 2-year-old. Her broodmare sire? It's former Florida stallion Kantharos (Lion Heart/Tale of the Cat/Storm Cat), who is a Storm Cat-line horse.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

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