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Ahead of Fasig November, Amy Moore Bids Queen Caroline a Heartfelt Farewell

The chances might be one in a million.

The odds of campaigning a multiple stakes winner from the first yearling you ever purchase are certainly pretty long. But to have that horse go on and produce a champion as her first foal, what are the chances?

Amy Moore, the owner of South Gate Farm in Millwood, Virginia, knows better than to take this experience for granted. Besides her childhood family pony, the first horse she ever owned was Queen Caroline. Purchased by Moore for $170,000 as a yearling in 2014, the daughter of Blame out of Queens Plaza (Forestry) was cleverly named after the episode in British history when the wife of King George IV was “blamed” for adultery and put on trial in the House of Lords. Queen Caroline would go on to earn over $400,000, claiming five stakes victories for Michael Matz.

After she retired to Moore's small Virginia farm, the mare's first foal–and the first horse that Moore ever bred–was Forte. The son of Violence went on to be a Breeders' Cup and Eclipse Award-winning juvenile and one of the top sophomores of 2023.

“It has really been a thrill,” Moore reflected. “My sister, niece and I all came to Lexington for the Breeders' Cup last year, so we were there to see him win the Juvenile. Forte definitely has the mare's personality. Queen Caroline is a mare that knows who she is and she's number one in any field that she's ever been in. I think he has that too and it shows in these incredible victories where it looks like he's beaten at the top of the stretch and he gets up to win.”

Soon, the final chapter of Moore's fairytale story with Queen Caroline will come to a close when the Grade I-producing mare goes through the ring on Nov. 7 at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. The sale of Moore's once-in-a-lifetime mare will make it possible for the breeder to further her boutique broodmare band for many years to come.

Sara Gordon

“It's definitely bittersweet,” Moore admitted. “She's done as much for me as any horse could possibly do. I'm running a business so I have to make decisions with those considerations in mind and she's really become too valuable to keep her in Virginia on my little farm.”

Offered in foal to Flightline, Queen Caroline will sell as Hip 171 with Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services. The mare has spent the last year with consignor John Stuart at his Chanteclair Farm in Versailles. Stuart reiterated that the mare has the attitude of racing royalty.

“She's definitely the queen,” he said. “She was really competitive on the racetrack and now she bosses everybody around in the pasture. She's a really pretty mare–16'1 ½ inches, a strong body, correct. She's got a really nice eye and head to her and just a lot of class.”

Stuart said that Queen Caroline's second foal shares the same confident air as his dam and half brother. A son of Uncle Mo, the colt now named Dr. Park sold for $850,000 last year to Mayberry Farm. Now in training with John Shirreffs, the juvenile is putting in regular works at Santa Anita ahead of his debut.

Meanwhile Queen Caroline had a stretch of bad luck when her third foal was born dead last year and she then ended up losing her foal this year due to the effects of the setback in 2022. Stuart attested to the 10-year-old mare's capability as a broodmare going forward.

“I'm confident that she's good to go and is going to have a lot of foals in a row because she's young and she's fertile,” he said. “Every year that she's been bred, she's been bred one time except for the second year when she had the Uncle Mo, when she was bred twice.”

Bred on an early Feb. 24 cover date, Queen Caroline will be one of the first mares at public auction to be offered in foal to undefeated Flightline. Last year's Horse of the Year, the new Lane's End stallion holds an esteemed place at Fasig-Tipton as a $1 million graduate of their Saratoga Sale.

Queen Caroline and her paddock mate First Passage (Giant's Causeway) | Sara Gordon

“Flightline is a very special horse to everybody in the industry,” said Fasig-Tipton's president and CEO Boyd Browning. “He captivated our imagination like no other horse has in my 35 years of being involved in the Thoroughbred industry. I think everybody around the world is excited to see the potential that Flightline possesses as a stallion.”

Another important component of Queen Caroline's resume, Browning said, is her pedigree. The mare's family includes Essential Quality and Contrail (Jpn), both champions at two and three in their native countries who are now embarking on their stud careers.

“The sky is the limit in terms of what could be happening within this pedigree,” Browning said. “It's already an exceptional pedigree. She's by Blame, who is emerging as one of the best broodmare sires in the world, and you've got Seattle Slew in the pedigree. But we could look up in 10 years and say the pedigree has exploded. Forte has become a great stallion or Contrail has become a great stallion. And who knows what else is going to happen with her own produce with the potential she possesses. It's a power-packed pedigree and the future is very bright for Queen Caroline.”

“I think anybody in the world could buy Queen Caroline,” he continued. “I would be hesitant to predict who the buyer would be or where they'll be from. She has truly international appeal. Her first foal is one of the best horses of the 3-year-old crop and a champion 2-year-old last year and her second foal brought $850,000, so she's the complete package of what you're looking for in terms of a commercial broodmare. She's going to be coveted by virtually every major breeder in the world.”

In the days leading up to Queen Caroline's sale, Moore will be watching from Virginia as Forte looks to make his bid in the Breeders' Cup Classic. The breeder will make the trip to Lexington to watch her star mare go through the ring and hopefully from there, come home with one or two new additions to her small broodmare band.

“I'm sure Queen Caroline will go to a very good home,” Moore said. “That will be a comfort to me, to know she's well taken care of and she's getting the best in terms of breeding opportunities. I think her future buyer will have a very nice mare and will get some really nice foals from her.”

Even when she no longer owns the mare, Moore said she will always be proud to be listed as the breeder of Forte as he furthers his career on the racetrack and hopefully someday, the stud barn.

“It's been a roller coaster,” she said of Forte's campaign. “I'm sure Forte's owners can say the same. There have been a lot of ups and downs, as there always are in the horse business, but it's been a lot of fun to watch a really good horse compete and to own his dam. I will miss that, but I hope to produce another one and go around again someday. As soon as I have a chance, my mares will be going to Forte.”

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Kentucky Derby 149 Early Impressions: Ocala Stud’s David O’Farrell on Forte

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – TDN Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack catches up with the connections of leading GI Kentucky Derby contenders to get their 'Early Impressions.'

Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable's champion 2-year-old colt and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence) will look to join Street Sense and Nyquist as GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winners to capture the roses the following spring.

The dark bay heads to the Kentucky Derby as the one to beat following impressive victories in this term's GII Fountain of Youth S. and GI Curlin Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. A runaway debut winner going five furlongs at Belmont Park late last May, he concluded his juvenile campaign with three straight wins at the top level.

Forte learned his early lessons at Ocala Stud in Florida before heading to two-time Kentucky Derby winning-trainer Todd Pletcher last spring.

“He's the one that we identified early on as being the cream of the crop,” Ocala Stud's David O'Farrell said.

“He was very forward. He was a horse that from day one was super athletic. We felt like he could be a really good 2-year-old and he had enough stretch that maybe he could be a two-turn horse. You just never really envisioned him as being the Derby favorite a year later, but anything is possible. He was a horse that never had a bad day. He was one of the first two that we sent in to Pletcher in March of last year to get ready for Saratoga. We felt like he was going to be really precocious and a horse that would be a lot of fun in the summertime for the partnership of Repole and St. Elias. He's one of those that not only did he perform as a 2-year-old, he just kept getting better and better and better.”

O'Farrell concluded, “It's been really exciting to watch. He's just an awfully nice horse that we're fortunate enough to be a part of.”

Bred in Kentucky by Amy Moore's South Gate Farm, the $80,000 Keeneland November weanling turned $110,000 Keeneland September yearling is one of 15 graded winners worldwide for Violence and is the first foal out of four-time stakes winner Queen Caroline (Blame). Forte's half-brother by Uncle Mo brought $850,000 from Mayberry Farm at last year's Keeneland September sale.

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South Gate Farm Making Noise from Saratoga to Keeneland

After a youth spent around horses, Amy Moore took a three-decade long sabbatical from the sport to focus on a career in law, but she is making up for lost time with the launch of her South Gate Farm in Millwood, Virginia. The fledgling operation has a star-in-the-making in 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence), who goes postward in Monday's GI Hopeful S. at Saratoga, and will follow up the following Monday when that colt's half-brother by Uncle Mo (hip 11) goes through the sales ring during the first session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

“I rode as a child and teenager and showed hunters that belonged to other people,” Moore said of her first introduction to horses while growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina. “The people I was with got into racehorses and I helped them at a few sales. Then I galloped horses one summer at the track for Del Carroll, Sr.”

Eventually, Moore had to take a step back from her interest in racing.

“I had to earn a living, so for 30 years I worked as a lawyer in Washington, D.C.,” she said. “But when I retired, I bought a farm and bought a couple of horses.”

Moore bought South Gate Farm in 2015 and moved to the 126-acre property in January of 2016.

A year before purchasing the farm, she made her first equine purchases at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Her very first purchase was Queen Caroline (Blame), who she acquired for $170,000. Trained by Michael Matz, the dark bay went on to win four stakes races in Moore's colors in 2016 and 2017 and earned over $400,000 before helping to kick start the South Gate broodmare band.

Forte, Queen Caroline's first foal, sold for $80,000 as a weanling at the 2020 Keeneland November sale and was purchased by Mike Repole and Vinnie Viola for $110,000 at Keeneland September the following year.

“I thought he was a gorgeous foal,” Moore recalled. “I was really happy with him. I had had weanlings by Violence that I had pinhooked–I bought weanlings and sold yearlings–and I liked them, but they didn't really resemble the sire at all. So I was pleased to get a foal in Forte that looks a lot like Violence. He's a good blend of his sire and his dam.”

The prohibitive 1-5 favorite, Forte romped to a 7 3/4-length debut victory (video) May 27 at Belmont Park.

“When he won big in his first race, of course, that was a joy to see,” Moore said. “That was what I was trying to achieve when I bred the mare to Violence. I hoped to get a foal that had a little more speed and was a little more precocious than she was, but had her athleticism and racing temperament. It worked out just as I had hoped. Another case, I am sure, where it won't always work out like that. But Queen Caroline has been very good to me, both as a racehorse and as a broodmare. If they were all like her, it would be easy.”

Forte comes into the Hopeful off a fourth-place effort in the six-furlong GIII Sanford S. July 16 and will get an extra furlong to work with Monday at Saratoga.

“I would be ecstatic if that happened,” Moore said of a possible Hopeful win. “But I think, win or lose the Hopeful, he looks like he's going to be a good racehorse. So I am looking down the road, as I am sure his connections are, and hoping for good things for him. I think he will do better as the races get longer. So I think the extra furlong in the Hopeful will help and I hope he goes on from there.”

Queen Caroline next visited Uncle Mo and produced a colt by the Coolmore stallion last spring.

“It is a cross that I really liked, both physically and in the pedigree,” Moore said. “The mare is a nice, big athletic mare and Uncle Mo is obviously a nice, big athletic stallion with a similar build. But it also has some intriguing pedigree aspects to it. Nyquist (Uncle Mo) is out of a Forestry mare and Queen Caroline is out of a Forestry mare. And the good filly by Uncle Mo, Bast, is out of an Arch mare and Queen Caroline is by Blame who is by Arch. So you have a lot of good pedigree connections to some very successful runners, as well as having a good physical match.”

The yearling will be Moore's first homebred Book 1 offering at Keeneland September when he goes through the ring as part of the Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services consignment next Monday.

“He is a lovely colt,” she said of the yearling. “I am prejudiced, of course, but he is a really, really nice colt. He has his dam's mind, which is good, he has a good racing temperament. He is tall and big-bodied and strong and athletic. I think he is what everyone wants–he's what I want.”

Well. The colt wasn't exactly what Moore wanted.

“I was, to be honest, hoping to get a filly,” she said with a laugh. “I would have kept and raced her and hoped to retire her to the broodmare band one day. But I got a very nice colt.”

The colt conundrum is nothing new to Moore, who currently has four broodmares housed at her Virginia farm.

“I have bought nothing but fillies,” she said. “I sell the colts that I breed. I would keep fillies, if I ever had a filly. I am 0-for-7, seven colts and no fillies.”

Moore takes stock of market conditions when determining when to sell her foals.

“I just sort of fly by the seat of pants,” Moore explained. “If the stallion is doing very well, as Violence was when I sold Forte–I think Violence had three Grade I winners that year–I might sell the foal as a weanling. But if it's a nice physical that I think would be one to send to the Saratoga select sale or one of the first two books at Keeneland, then I would keep it and sell it as a yearling. It just depends on how the stallion is doing and how the foal develops. And what the finances are like.”

As for Queen Caroline, after not producing a foal in 2022, she is now in foal to Not This Time.

“She was in foal to Authentic, and lost that one, which was very disappointing, but I am really excited that she is in foal to Not This Time,” Moore said. “I think that's going to be a great match and who knows, I might get a filly this time. She is an easy mare to mate because she is doesn't have any faults you want to breed away from. She is a very nice well-conformed mare that had a lot of success on the track. So you are trying to add a little speed and a little precociousness to the offspring, but you don't really have faults that you want to breed away from. Which is helpful.”

Queen Caroline's first two foals are both Kentucky-breds, but future foals are expected to be born at South Gate Farm.

“In the case of Forte and his brother, those I sent the mare back to Kentucky to foal,” Moore said. “I am now starting to foal in Virginia, so that I will have Virginia-bred foals.”

In addition to her four-horse broodmare band, Moore also has borders at South Gate taking advantage of the Virginia-certified program which allows horses conceived and foaled outside of the state to become eligible for incentives at Mid-Atlantic racetracks if they maintain residency in Virginia for at least a six-month consecutive period prior to Dec. 31 of their 2-year-old year.

“I have lot of yearlings, a lot of boarders, that are here for the Virginia-certified program,” Moore said. “And I do some sales preparation for the boarders.”

Reflecting on her seven years as a farm owner, Moore said, “I enjoy living on a farm. It's very nice to have a reason to have a farm–you can't have 126 acres and not have any animals. So that's been a lot of fun. The racing has been highs and lows, as it is for everybody. When it's good, it's spectacular. When it's bad, it's pretty depressing. But you get through the bad and hope for more of the good. And on balance, I have enjoyed it quite a bit.”

The Keeneland September sale opens with two Book 1 sessions next Monday and Tuesday beginning at 1 p.m. Book 2 sessions Wednesday and Thursday begin at 11 a.m. and, following a dark day Friday, the auction continues through Sept. 24 with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

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