Sunday Insights: Well-Bred Son Of Tapit And Lady Take Charge Debuts At Oaklawn

5th-OP, $115K, Msw, 2yo, 1 1/16m, 3:22 p.m. ET.
A $700,000 Keeneland September purchase by Willis Horton Racing and trained by Eddie Milligan Jr., WILL TAKE IT (Tapit) is the first to the post out of unraced Lady Take Charge (War Front).

The latter was the top-priced foal at the 2015 Keeneland November Sale when she was hammered down to Whisper Hill Farm for $3.2 million. Eclipse Award winner Take Charge Brandi (Giant's Causeway), a daughter of Lady Take Charge's half-sister Charming (Seeking the Gold), was the overall topper when sold to John Sikura and Hill 'n' Dale Equine for $6 million.

Last year, Lady Take Charge produced a full-sister to Will Take It, who went to Sinandigan Stable at the Keeneland September Sale for $1.3 million.

The extended female family runs through influential second dam MGISW Take Charge Lady (Dehere), who is responsible for GI Florida Derby champ Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy), Horton's champion 3-year-old colt Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song), GI Beholder Mile winner As Time Goes By (American Pharoah), and Take Charge Brandi's half-brother and top-five first-crop sire Omaha Beach (War Front). TJCIS PPS

5th-AQU, $85K, Msw, 2yo, 1m, 2:14 p.m. ET
Trained by Todd Pletcher, Don Alberto and Bridlewood Farm homebred Carolo Rapido (Curlin) is out of GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Cathryn Sophia (Street Boss). She was a Blandford Bloodstock buy last year during Fasig-Tipton's Fall Mixed Sale for $1.2 million while in-foal to Gun Runner. TJCIS PPS

6th-OP, $115K, Msw, 2yo, 6f, 3:50 p.m. ET.
SF Bloodstock bred Guarani (Speightstown), who will be making his first start for Three Chimneys Farm after they purchased him for $425,000 at Keeneland September. The Steve Asmussen trainee is out of MGSP Czechers (Indian Charlie), who also produced his full-brother, G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen S. hero Switzerland. TJCIS PPS

 

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McPeek: Swing High, Swing Hard

Call it going with his gut. Literally. They cut out a whole stretch of it, and with it went much of the caution, the aversion to risk, that seems to stifle so much of the adventure in other trainers.

“The truth is that when I was younger, I was probably real conservative,” Kenny McPeek admits. “Early in my career, I was mostly dealing with claiming horses, with the odd allowance or stake horse here and there. Then I had a misdiagnosed ruptured appendix. It walled off and they did emergency surgery on me.”

When he came round, the surgeon asked whether he realized how close he had come to never doing so. He shook his head.

“Six hours, maybe,” she replied. “If we'd waited another six hours, you would have died. From here on, son, everything's a bonus.”

The appendix had started troubling him in the winter of 1994, but they didn't get it out until the summer of 1996. With six hours to spare. He'd used up nearly his whole rope.

“So I was 33, and I'd had a near-death experience,” McPeek says. “I lost several feet of my intestinal tract. After that, I started to reflect. It was almost a month before I was able to go back to work, but from that moment on, I don't waste time. Because, hey, you just never know. It completely changed my perspective. So I tend to swing high and hard. I like to hit a home run.” He pauses and chuckles. “I'm also prone to strike out. But I don't care.”

And thank goodness for that. Because if McPeek were as timidly conventional as most of his peers, our world would be a lot less fun. McPeek runs horses back, sometimes he runs them in spots that few others would even contemplate. Typically, moreover, these are horses that he has bought himself, a rare distinction in the modern trainer. And here is, with 107 graded stakes winners and nearly $110 million prizemoney; and, for all that he has been training since 1985, he's still only 60.

Who else but McPeek could have given us Swiss Skydiver? He bought her for $35,000 as a yearling, when her sire Daredevil had been banished to Turkey. And even though she couldn't quite win a Classic against her own sex, McPeek promptly ran her against the Derby winner in the GI Preakness S.–and won.

Three years on, he has again hit it out of the park with a sophomore filly in Defining Purpose (Cross Traffic). The GI Ashland S. winner, remember, had been a $14,000 RNA. So whatever the future may hold for the likes of V V's Dream (Mitole), a recent TDN 'Rising Star' debut scorer at Churchill, or indeed the back-on-a-roll Rattle N Roll (Connect), we know it won't be dull.

“I don't put any emphasis into my win percentage,” McPeek says. “I think 'win' percentage is a bit of a misnomer. You can accomplish a lot and not worry about that. And when you hit those home runs, it's pretty cool. Like I say, that experience taught me perspective. I have no fear of failure whatsoever. Failing is part of racing horses.”

So while everyone else jumps through the same hoops, McPeek does things his way. Paradoxically, however, the kind of thing that makes him an outlier today is actually pretty old school. In an era when horses tend to leave the barn to vote more often than they do to race, McPeek believes that a thriving horse has its own momentum. And thriving doesn't even have to mean winning. During her $2.5 million career, Take Charge Lady (Dehere) once won a stakes race nine days after being beaten at odds-on.

“I think we need to run our horses, as opposed to train and train and train,” McPeek reasons. “If they're in the feed tub and aggressive and happy, then why not run? Of course it all depends on the horse. Some do need their races spacing out. You learn from each horse you purchase, each horse you train, all the dynamics that go with it. But when a horse is really doing well, you shouldn't hesitate. Find out how good they are at the right time.”

He suspects that phasing out Lasix, at least in elite racing, has contributed to the way trainers today tip-toe along. But here, again, McPeek marches to his own beat. When Lasix was ubiquitous, he routinely found himself saddling the only runner to have declined the option. Salty Strike (Smart Strike) was a case in point, in both races, when she won the GIII Dogwood S. two weeks after a seven-length win.

“I actually think you can run a horse back quicker without Lasix,” he argues. “Lasix can dehydrate horses pretty badly, and then it takes more time for them to recover. So if you've got the right horse, and don't think Lasix is necessary, you can run them back quicker. When I was a claiming trainer, a lot of the horses we would claim were extremely dehydrated. We'd hydrate them, lower or eliminate the Lasix, and they'd run better.”

With his willingness to experiment, McPeek has been a fascinated observer and/or participant in the diverse racing theaters of Europe, Australia and South America. He was ahead of the curve, certainly, in sending runners to Britain. Once upon a time even Wesley Ward had to ask McPeek how it all worked over there. (McPeek told him not to worry about the detail. “Bring a fast horse,” he said. “You'll be okay.”)

But patrons may sometimes be as reluctant as rivals to depart from orthodoxy. To that extent, they can be emboldened by McPeek's willingness to retain some equity in his purchases. For instance, he owned a quarter of Hard Buck (Brz) (Spend A Buck)–the first horse he took over the pond, for the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond S. at Ascot in 2004. He ran second at 33-1.

“I would rather have 10% ownership than a commission,” McPeek explains. “And then obviously I have to pay 10% of the bills. So it doesn't do me any good to buy an average horse, or to keep one. And that also gives me a bit of leverage and trust in the sense that they can say, 'Hey, why's he doing this if he's going to incur part of the cost, of the trip or entry fee or whatever?' So I think a lot of my clients feel comfortable with me having a stake in the game.”

His curiosity about other Turf environments was first stimulated as a college freshman at the University of Kentucky. He was a hometown boy, used to come to Keeneland with his grandfather on Saturdays. The old man liked a bet and young Kenny could study his beloved pedigrees. Then, Sundays, he would come back after church with his grandmother–who only passed away last year, at 104-for kids' pony rides. McPeek would ride all afternoon–and the guy would get mad at him for running his ponies into the ground. Now he was supposed to be reading for his degree in business administration, but had found an archive of old Turf periodicals in the library basement.

“By the time I graduated, I had read them all,” he says. “I started in 1902 and worked all the way through. I was an avid reader about the history of the sport: Mahmoud, Ribot, Nearco. Before I ever handled a thoroughbred, I knew quite a lot about the bloodlines.”

He was duly fascinated to visit England, as cradle of the breed, and to observe the variety of facilities and methods used there. Sure enough, he again swam against the local tide when establishing his own training center at Magdalena Farm, outside Lexington, which features a 12-furlong turf gallop.

“I built it to give horses a change of scenery,” he explains. “One of the problems here is that we go left all the time. All the time. We need somewhere we can go right, every now and then, because I think horses fatigue by constantly going left. You can see it when they fall off form. And the racetrack's also a bit of a 24/7, 365-day program. So we've been able to utilize Magdalena just to change their mindset and relax.”

But what really crowns McPeek's propensity to swim against the tide is his record prospecting the sales. Noble's Promise (Cuvee) was a typical McPeek project: a $10,000 weanling, he won a Grade I at two before running fifth both in the GI Kentucky Derby and the G1 St James's Palace S. Most famously, it was McPeek who found Curlin for just $57,000 at the 2005 September Sale. At that time, he happened to be taking a break from training, which is always a bittersweet reflection, but how many full-time agents have found a dual Horse of the Year for that kind of money?

“When I go to auction, okay, I might not always have the biggest budget,” he says. “And I do still have a little envy for guys that do. But if I outsmart them, buy the right horse for the right price, then I can be competitive.

“My first yearling budget was $6,000. I have this base of clients that still want me to buy the bargain, people I've always worked for, and I'm not going to turn my back on them now. They need me to work the last session of the Keeneland Sale as well as the first. And enjoy doing that. There's a bigger rush, or bigger satisfaction, buying a horse for a modest number and beating the game at a different angle. And actually there's pressure, having a horse that you gave too much for. The failure, the fall-off, is a lot more painful.”

McPeek has a virtually photographic memory of the horses he has trained. Every horse that enters his barn, he pieces together pedigree and conformation and running style. Even when he only had claimers, he would go to the paddock before stakes and ask himself what had qualified these horses as superior athletes; and to see how the best sires and broodmare sires stamped their stock. After 38 years with a license, that builds up to quite a matrix.

“There is a rhyme and a reason to the riddle,” he insists. “Really there's something to it. And we've got a pretty serious system by now, for how we squeeze them down. The hip is a big deal. Never seen a top horse that didn't have a great hip. Never seen a top horse that had a bad hind leg. Just doesn't happen. Then balance, and shoulder, there's a lot of moving parts there. But you never know. What's the old saying? 'Buying yearlings is getting married. You don't know how it turned out for two or three years.'”

The reason he never got to handle Curlin? That spring, they had given his mother six months to live.

“My mom was my idol,” he says. “And she was really sick. She needed help. She needed doctors, she needed estate planning. And that turned into another of those things that kind of kick you in the head and say, 'Hey, wait, time out. What's important?' At that time I had well over 100 in training, in Chicago and New York and Kentucky. But it was time to deal with some real-life stuff.”

He was only away for nine months, but in that time he didn't just straighten everything out for his mother and find Curlin. He also bought Magdalena.

“I'd never have bought the farm if I hadn't had time to step back a little, clear my head, get a good picture of what I wanted to do, and then go at it again,” he says.

So this was a second prompt, after his health drama a decade previously, to maintain perspectives on the essential frivolity-a bunch of brown animals running in circles-of our professional obsession.

“Yeah,” McPeek reflects. “Makes you more patient, I think. Certainly you don't get so upset about things that are insignificant. I still got to worry about the payroll, the worker's comp, all those details. But that's why I like having some assistants that have a little age on them: experienced guys that are calm, and understand what they need to do. I have a group that I can trust, we talk about every horse every day, and then they carry out a lot of the game plan.”

He wasn't always so chilled.

“When I was young, I was in the barn every day and an absolute terror to work for,” he admits. “I was so picky, nobody was allowed to leave until everything was perfect. Then I came up with my first Derby horse, in 1994-95, and actually I had that ruptured appendix while I was training him.”

That was Tejano Run (Tejano), a $20,000 yearling who came through and beat all bar Thunder Gulch.

“And he took me from 25 horses to 75,” McPeek recalls. “I was ill all through that time. But then I figured out that you can't pretend you're a better trainer than anybody else. Your really, really good trainers know how to get good horses; and they recognize a good horse when they get one. But there's an old saying, 'Win like you're used to it, and lose like you like it.' So you don't get too high when you win; and don't get too low, when you lose. It's a very humbling business. Win a big one on Friday, lose a bunch Saturday, and you're back to work again on Sunday.”

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Background Check: Ashland

In this continuing series, we examine the past winners of significant filly/mare races by the lasting influence they've had on the breed. Up today is Keeneland's GI Central Bank Ashland S., the first Grade I of the year for 3-year-old fillies.

First run in 1936–also Keeneland's first year–for 3-year-olds and up, the Ashland was named for the plantation home of Kentucky statesman Henry Clay. It had a predecessor, the Ashland Oaks, which was inaugurated in 1879 at the old Kentucky Association Racetrack and was a very different race.

Perhaps it's the magic of the Ashland running in front of the home crowd, but it has left a truly extraordinary endowment on the breed. Yes, it is the major Kentucky prep for the GI Kentucky Oaks–now just four weeks away–and it counts no fewer than 14 winners who have also taken the Oaks, but it's much more than that. The Ashland has been so rife with extreme quality that it's harder to find winners who haven't become stakes producers than it is to name those who have.

Counting split divisions and a dead heat, 90 fillies have worn the Ashland crown. If we eliminate the past 10 years of winners as young mares haven't necessarily had a chance to prove themselves as broodmares yet and focus on the first 80 winners, a full 56 (70%) became stakes producers. Some of the foals were obviously higher quality than others: a few of the mares may have had one or two black-type performers instead of stakes winners among their foals, while others had champions.

Even those who don't enjoy statistics should be staggered by these numbers; 70% stakes producers on any list–whether a race's winners, a broodmare band, or a top stallion's book of mares–is simply preposterous. When including what their daughters and granddaughters produced, the number jumps up to 67, or 83.75%, of those 80 winners who threw black-type quality. Of the remaining 16.25%, five (6.25%) died before ever producing a foal and only eight (10%) were not responsible for any black-type among their descendants.

So heavily laden with quality are the Ashland winners as producers that we'll only list the particularly phenomenal here. No fewer than 30 would be included here otherwise.

Following are a fraction of the most important Ashland winners by what impact they've had on the sport through their sons and daughters. Unbelievably, producing a champion or even a Grade I winner or two isn't enough to make this list.

Take Charge Lady (1999, Dehere–Felicita, by Rubiano), bred by William Schettine: Named the 2013 Broodmare of the Year, she produced three Grade I winners and is granddam to a champion. She's also probably not done adding to her legacy, as a number of promising prospects are in the pipeline through her daughters as is MGISW and 2023 first-crop sire Omaha Beach.

Prospectors Delite (1989, Mr. Prospector–Up the Flagpole, by Hoist the Flag), bred by W. S. Farish: Broodmare of the Year in 2003, her first foal was MGISW and Grade I producer Tomisue's Delight, while her last was Horse of the Year Mineshaft. All five of her foals were stakes winners.

New to the sire ranks for 2023, Olympiad descends from the 1987 Ashland winner | Sarah Andrew

Chic Shirine (1984, Mr. Prospector–Too Chic, by Blushing Groom {Fr}), bred by Emory Alexander: No fewer than 20 graded winners already trace to her, including GISWs Keen Ice, Somali Lemonade, Harmonize, Preservationist, Verrazano, and Olympiad in the last decade alone.

Blush With Pride (1979, Blushing Groom {Fr}–Best in Show, by Traffic Judge), bred by Mr. and Mrs. Darrell Brown: Among her best was her Broodmare of the Year daughter Better Than Honour, who hammered for $14 million at Fasig-Tipton's November sale in 2008, and that one's champion daughter Rags to Riches. The family remains extremely active and continues to rack up graded victories.

Gay Missile (1967, Sir Gaylord–Missy Baba, by My Babu {Fr}), bred by Michael G. Phipps: She produced French champion Gay Mecene among her four stakes winners, but it was Gay Missile's daughter Lassie Dear who cemented her legacy with a number of champions tracing straight to her. Among the extensive list of Gay Missile's breed-shaping descendants are Broodmare of the Year Weekend Surprise and her Horse of the Year and leading sire son A.P. Indy, as well as champion and sire Lemon Drop Kid.

Miss Swapsco (1965, Cohoes–Soaring, by Swaps), bred by Mr. and Mrs. John W. Galbreath: Her first foal, Ballade, produced Canadian Horse of the Year and U.S. champion Glorious Song (who in turn produced champion and multiple-continent Grade I/Group 1 winner Singspiel {Ire}, as well as stellar sire Rahy), champion Devil's Bag, and excellent sire Saint Ballado.

Hidden Talent (1956, Dark Star–Dangerous Dame {GB}, by Nasrullah {GB}), bred by Harry F. Guggenheim: Among her descendants are Broodmare of the Year Too Bald, champion Capote, 11-time Grade I/Group 1 winner Exceller, and MGISW Broad Brush.

Real Delight (1949, Bull Lea–Blue Delight, by Blue Larkspur), bred by Calumet Farm: Her Broodmare of the Year granddaughter Sweet Tooth produced champion Our Mims and six-time GISW and leading sire Alydar. Others tracing to Real Delight include champion Christmas Past and Classic winner Codex.

Myrtlewood (1932, Blue Larkspur–Frizeur {Fr}, by Sweeper {Fr}), bred by Brownell Combs: As the first winner of the Ashland, Myrtlewood set a stunning precedent in her second career as a broodmare. Among her foals were a champion as well as a Kentucky Oaks winner, with several more champions and another Oaks winner among her descendants. Her biggest legacy? Tracing to her through her daughters are breed-modeling sires Mr. Prospector and Seattle Slew.

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Will Take Charge To Darley Japan

Champion Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song–Take Charge Lady, by Dehere), whose 13 black-type winners includes this year's GI Hollywood Gold Cup hero There Goes Harvard, will join the stallion roster at Darley Japan in 2023, according to a post on the nursery's website. Will Take Charge has stood his first eight seasons at stud at Three Chimneys Farm.

Campaigned by the late Willis Horton during his first two seasons at the races and trained by D. Wayne Lukas, Will Take Charge won the 2013 GI Travers S. and GII Pennsylvania Derby before dropping a heartbreaking decision in that year's GI Breeders' Cup Classic. A defeat of his elders in the GI Clark H. secured him the Eclipse Award for champion 3-year-old male. With Three Chimneys joining in as part-owner for his 4-year-old season, the blaze-faced chestnut won the GII Oaklawn H. at Horton's home track and was placed in the GI Stephen Foster H. and GI Whitney S. prior to his retirement to stud.

Overall, Will Take Charge is the sire of 224 winners from five crops to race and a dozen stakes winners in addition to There Goes Harvard, including this year's GII Phoenix S. upsetter Manny Wah and Grade III winners Will's Secret and Abaan. His four Japanese winners from five to race includes France Go de Ina, who participated in the 2021 GI Preakness S. and GI Belmont S.

Will Take Charge is out of the gifted MGISW Take Charge Lady, making him a half-brother to WinStar stallion Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy); GISW As Time Goes By (American Pharoah); and to Charming (Seeking the Gold), the dam of promising young Spendthrift sire Omaha Beach (War Front) and Horton's Eclipse Award winner Take Charge Brandi (Giant's Causeway). This is also the family of GISP 'TDN Rising Star' Charge It (Tapit) and of Japanese MSW Strong Souther (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}), a son of Take Charge Lady's MSW/GSP half-sister Eventail (Lear Fan).

“We are delighted to be able to introduce this horse at a time when he has produced a Grade I winner in the U.S. and has further enhanced his reputation in Japan,” said Darley Japan CEO Harry Sweeney. “We are confident he will be a success in Japan.”

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