Tag: Steve Weston

Breeders’ Cup Runner-Up Jody’s Pride Takes Next Step on Oaks Trail

Steve Weston hoped to produce a nice turf horse when he sent his mare Jody's Song (Scat Daddy) to Coolmore's American Pharoah. Jody's Song had been undefeated in two starts on the grass in New York and American Pharoah had already shown his versatility as a sire when he produced several Grade I-winning turfers from his first few crops.

Everyone spoke highly of the resulting filly, whom he named Jody's Pride, throughout her early years, but when it came time for the dark bay to make her debut last August at Saratoga, the race got rained off the turf. Trainer Jorge Abreu opted to keep the filly entered anyways and to her connections' pleasant surprise, she sprinted away to win by over 10 lengths.

Again in her next start in the Matron S., the race was switched to the main track. Again, Jody's Pride won going away.

“So then we tried the grass for a third time in the Breeders' Cup,” recalled Weston. “But they said they didn't have room for us. So we said, 'Okay, we'll try the dirt. We don't know how she'll do. She's never gone two turns, but we'll see.'”

Sent off at 18-1 odds in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, Jody's Pride and jockey Flavien Prat trailed heavy favorite Tamara (Bolt d'Oro) along the rail before swinging out to close in on winner Just FYI (Justify) in the final strides and finish second by a neck.

A newborn Jody's Pride with dam Jody's Song | courtesy Ashford Stud

At that point it was a pretty easy decision that Jody's Pride would be sticking to dirt, at least for the time being, as she points toward the GI Kentucky Oaks.

“Believe me, I'm not complaining,” Weston said with a laugh. “It's very hard to be able to get a good dirt horse that can go two turns. I'm blessed right now to have one.”

Steve and Debbie Weston's Parkland Thoroughbreds has excelled at the top level of the sport in recent years by partnering up on the likes of Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio), who won the G3 Albany S. at Ascot last year, 2023 GII Appalachian S. victress Papilio (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}), and other graded stakes winners like Royal Charlotte (Cairo Prince) and Horologist (Gemologist). But Jody's Pride stands out as a rare homebred for their stable and she's the one that Weston said is “by far” the best he's ever bred.

Weston, who is based in Parkland, Florida but spends his summers in Saratoga, purchased the filly's dam as a yearling for $250,000 at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale. The daughter of Scat Daddy was bred by Avanti Stable, whose owners Mario and Dawn Martinez lived just a few doors down from the Westons on Fifth Avenue. Named after Weston's sister who had recently passed away, Jody's Song showed talent early on and won on debut by three lengths, but injuries cut her career short.

Jody's Pride was only the mare's second foal, but sadly Jody's Song passed away from colic a week before Jody's Pride made her debut last year.

“It was a terrible loss,” Weston said. “She had two surgeries and she lived for about a month, but we just couldn't save her.”

Jody's Song produced three other foals including a 4-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo who broke her maiden last summer at Belmont and retired to Weston's broodmare band this year. She also has a 2-year-old colt by American Pharoah training in Ocala and another American Pharoah yearling colt.

Weston's boutique breeding program is strictly a breed-to-race operation. Along with a handful of mares in New York, he owns Sabrina's Angel (Scat Daddy), a half-sister to WinStar sire Audible.

Weston said that he considers breeding a filly like Jody's Pride to be one of the highlights of his time in the game.

“It's a different feeling,” he explained. “Not that I don't enjoy Porta Fortuna and the others because I do, but it's a different feeling when you breed one and you're racing it, especially at a high level.”

Jody's Pride as a yearling at Ashford | courtesy Ashford Stud

Weston co-owns Jody's Pride with his good friend Joe D'Agostino of Sportsmen Stable. The pair has been counting down the days until their star filly's 3-year-old debut.

Jody's Pride was originally pointing for the GII Davona Dale S., but after she put in two works at Gulfstream, Abreu decided to send her to the Busher S. at Aqueduct, where she has won once before.

“She's up there now and she's ready to go,” Weston reported. “It was different when we went into the Breeders' Cup because we were not expecting much. There wasn't much pressure and we were just happy to be there. Now I'm sorry to say that our hopes are so high that going into New York, sure we hope we win, but we expect to run really well.”

Weston has followed this same path to the Oaks before. In 2022 Venti Valentine (Firing Line), a filly Parkland Thoroughbreds co-owns with NY Final Furling Racing Stable, won the Busher and was second in the GII Gazelle S. before taking her connections to the Oaks. While the Abreu trainee finished well back in 14th that day, she has since proven to be a skilled New York-bred stakes filly for the group, most recently finishing second in the Broadway S. at Aqueduct on Feb. 17.

Weston has a lot to look forward to this spring as many of his top horses are set to return to the racetrack in the coming weeks.

Porta Fortuna, who ran second in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, has returned to training for the partnership of Medallion Racing, Parkland Thoroughbreds, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Barry Fowler and will make her 3-year-old debut back in her home country of Ireland in early April.

Papilio, who is co-owned by DJ Stable, Medallion Racing and Barry Fowler, made her 4-year-old debut at Gulfstream this past weekend and finished a close second to MSW Sweet Dani Girl (Jess's Dream).

Mischievous Angel (Into Mischief) is a 4-year-old out of Weston's broodmare Sabrina's Angel. The gelding broke his maiden on debut last June and then finished sixth in the GII Hall of Fame S. While the Chad Brown trainee hasn't seen the starting gate since, Weston said he has been putting in solid works at Palm Meadows this year and is set to make his 4-year-old debut at Keeneland this spring.

“I have had a lot of lean years, but the last couple of years have really improved,” he said, and then grinned. “I think I'm actually almost breaking even.”

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Porta Fortuna Is Medallion Racing’s Lucky Charm at Ascot

Ever since Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio)'s win in the G3 Coolmore Stud Irish EBF Fillies Sprint S. at Naas last month, bloodstock agent Mark McStay had been pestering Taylor Made's Mark Taylor to make his plans to come to Royal Ascot. But the Taylor family is more known for probity and hard work than they are flights of fancy, and Taylor demurred, citing preparations for upcoming sales in America.

But when Porta Fortuna launched a determined bid and got up for the win in Friday's G3 Albany S. at Ascot to give Taylor Made's Medallion Racing partnership a win at the royal meeting, Taylor couldn't be blamed for maybe having thought twice about his decision.

“It's been two and a half hours, and I think my blood pressure has just come down to the point where I can have a conversation with you that you can understand,” said Taylor, reached after the race. “I'm a very superstitious person, so the agent who helped us find this filly, Mark McStay, he has been texting me literally three times a week since she won her last race, saying, `you've got to come, you've got to come, you've got to come.' And historically, any time I go to great lengths to see a race, things never go well. So, I've got a lot going on here, I've got to get ready for sales season, I'm not going. When I was watching the race, there were 18 horses, some of the best two-year-olds that have come out in Europe so far are in this race, and I thought if we could crack the top four it would be a great accomplishment. I was trying to temper everybody's expectations, and then when she put on that move and put everybody away. It was just surreal. I was watching it, saying, `is this really happening?' It was fantastic.”

Medallion and its partners-Barry Fowler, Steve Weston and Dean Reeves-bought the filly after the win at Naas, telling the TDN at the time that the partnership tries to buy one or two horses a year in Europe.

“I was very happy for our partners, both our partners in Medallion Racing that enable our team to go build the stable and also the people that come in alongside us like Barry Fowler, Steve Weston, and Dean Reeves because they put their confidence in us. With Steve Weston and with Barry, we've bought into some horses that have gotten hurt, didn't pan out, but they've stuck with us, and to see Steve Weston's silks cross the finish line at Ascot and to see him get to lead that filly in, it just really made me so happy because he's such a loyal guy, he's such a just great human being. I was crying for him, I was just so happy for Steve.”

Mark Taylor | Fasig-Tipton photo

Taylor said that Medallion has around 25 partners, each of which invests $50,000 or more in the partnership. The group raises from $1.2 million to $1.7 million every two years, only buys proven horses, and every partner is in on every horse.

“Our model is we buy all female horses and we buy horses that have already run who we believe have graded stakes talent off of what they've done so far. A lot of times, we have to pay; we're not stealing these horses. Everybody would like to go in and buy them, but we're also willing to let the existing partners stay in. A lot of times, we can leave them with the same trainer.”

In Porta Fortuna's case, they left her with her trainer, Donnacha O'Brien, son of the original owner, Annemarie O'Brien. Taylor said he felt that it was accommodations like that which help them to get a leg up on others who might be offering more.

“We try to be very accommodating partners, which allows us to get a crack,” he said. “Even though somebody else might offer more money, they're going to take the whole horse and do their own thing. So we try to be more flexible and just allow our people to participate on stages like Royal Ascot or the Kentucky Oaks or the Breeders' Cup or Grade Ones at big racetracks. Our theory is that once people get a taste of that, they might want to play on their own and take it to a larger level, or they might want to stay with this model. We have had some people that have gone outside and tried to do it themselves, which is great. It drives investment in the game.”

Porta Fortuna was well-represented by her American owners at Ascot this week, with Medallion's Philip Shelton as well as Reeves, Fowler and Weston, and at least six additional Medallion members on hand for the win. Ironically enough, it wasn't Taylor Made's only connections to succeed at Ascot this week. Other Taylor Made customers, Black Ridge Stable, won the Queen Mary with Crimson Advocate (Nyquist).

“We were going crazy for her when they won the other day, and then in my superstitious mind, I was like, `Well, there's no way two horses are going to win at Ascot with Taylor Made connections.' For it to happen twice, it was beyond words.”

In addition to creating and nurturing new owners, Medallion also has a goal of showing off the sport at its best.

“In Medallion, we want to educate the people who come into the sport about all aspects of racing, including international racing, and to showcase to them how well these horses are taken care of. So many people look at our sport and say negative comments like, `These horses are just pawns in this big game,' but they're really not. We partner with people and we employ trainers that really care about these horses. And we try to shed light on that anytime we can so that our partners can see these horses are really loved, they're cared about, and we cheer for them and love them whether they win or lose.”

And even if he wasn't on hand, Taylor said he'd celebrate the win in typical Ascot-and typical Taylor–fashion. “I will drink some champagne,” he said. “But I'll wait until 5:00 tonight.”

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