Tawny Port Another Strike for Wente

He really does seem to have some kind of Midas touch right now. And a lot of people, hitting a formula that has paid off with such remarkable consistency, would be tempted to raise the stakes. But it's not just the fact that Tommy Wente is perfectly well acquainted with the other kind of luck, so routine in this business, that will stop him getting carried away. Because even if he believed that his model might be adapted to a higher level of the market, he would miss the sheer buzz of beating the odds.

“I can't go in there and buy those mares for $200,000 or $300,000,” Wente says. “They're just not going to work out for me. You'd be so heavily invested, at that point, it would be no fun. And that's what keeps me going every day, the fun of it. Trying to find young mares with blank dams, and just sitting on them for a couple of years, and seeing if their families can go to work for you. Because when they do, it's so much more of a thrill if you took a shot on something nobody wanted.”

And who knows, maybe there's something in this temperate response to his recent success that explains why his program is functioning so effectively in the first place. Maybe the kind of person who would become giddily convinced of his or her genius would never have had the clarity required to spot the same bargains.

Wente first demanded our attention last fall, thanks to the very first crop bred from a handful of mares acquired, some five years previously, after he had moved his program from Indiana to St. Simon Place in Kentucky. Four of these juveniles had contested “Win and You're In” races for the Breeders' Cup. Three won; the other ran second. Their dams had cost Wente and his partners a total $32,400.

Everyone was asking him what his secret was. He shrugged. “Am I just really, really lucky?” he asked his buddy Tommy Eastham of Legacy Bloodstock. “Or is something going on here?”

“Well, I guess anybody can be lucky once or even twice,” Eastham replied. “But man, you're just doing it over and over again. You've got to be doing something right.”

Rattle N Roll won Keeneland's Breeders' Futurity | Coady

The right thing to do, next, was to close out the cycle by cashing in a couple of those mares. Wente had bred GI Breeders' Futurity winner Rattle N Roll (Connect) from Jazz Tune (Johannesburg), found for just $20,000 at the Keeneland November Sale of 2016. Back at the same auction last fall, Hunter Valley Farm bought her for $585,000. C J's Gal (Awesome Again) had been even cheaper, picked out for $9,500 in the same ring in January 2016. Her daughter Hidden Connection (Connect) having won the GIII Pocahontas S. by nine lengths, Woodford Thoroughbreds gave $450,000 for the mare.

Time, you would have thought, to let the dust settle awhile. But Wente was only just getting started. Since then, a couple of other mares to have caught his eye have also made a name for themselves.

Just about the least surprising thing to emerge from the GI Kentucky Derby success of Rich Strike (Keen Ice) was that his dam Gold Strike (Smart Strike) had been sold to Wente deep in the 2019 Keeneland November Sale, for just $1,700. Admittedly this was a rather different case: an older mare, picked out for a friend. But then last weekend Tawny Port (Pioneerof the Nile), who had finished seventh at Churchill, confirmed himself one of the crop's most progressive colts in the GIII Ohio Derby. And it turned out that his dam Livi Makenzie (Macho Uno) had likewise been sold since his foaling, to Wente and partner Scott Stephens, for $30,000 at Keeneland November 2020.

Wente happily credits this latest coup to Carrie Brogden of Machmer Hall, a trusted mentor ever since his Bluegrass transfer.

“When I'm at a sale, I never go to the barns to look at mares,” Wente says. “I never look at a book and say, 'Okay, let's go see these 10 today.' I buy them coming into the ring, and I'm trying to get a deal on. And Carrie was sitting there, and said, 'Hey, this mare coming up, you need to take a look at her: we sold the Pioneerof the Nile yearling out of her for WinStar in September for $430,000.' We're kind of suckers for chestnuts anyway, and I liked the way she looked, and I figured that a real good Pioneerof the Nile colt could be anything. I just thought the mare might be too expensive. Because she could run, she was a stakes winner [and graded stakes-placed]. I thought she'd make $75,000 to $100,000. But I thought, 'Hell, we'll give it a shot.' And we got her.”

Tawny Port followed up a Stonestreet Lexington win at Keeneland with last weekend's Ohio Derby | JJ Zamaiko Photography

She came with a bonus, as she was carrying a filly by Always Dreaming–who has meanwhile obtained a residual value as half-sister to Tawny Port. And while “a really nice colt” by Global Campaign followed this spring, his Apr. 25 delivery left his mother only a short window and she missed on a single covering.

“But that's fine, she's in her prime [13] and the year off will do her good,” Wente remarks. “She can get back on an early cycle next time. But we do like her baby, and if Tawny Port can go on and win a Grade I, then it's all good. She's a really laid-back mare, a real sweetheart.”

As for the dam of Rich Strike, she was being culled so cheaply that Wente reckoned her ideal for Indiana horseman Merrill Roberts.

“When I'm buying these mares, a lot of the time I'm thinking in the back of my head about people who have asked me to look out for one,” Wente says. “That particular mare I bought strictly for my buddy Merrill, because they'd just got a stallion [Candy Ride (Arg)'s son Looking Cool] going and I thought she's be perfect for him, with her race record and pedigree, if they could get her in foal.”

Unfortunately that final part of the equation proved difficult, and Roberts turned her over to Austin Nicks the very week that her son came out of nowhere to land the Derby. (Nicks, unsurprisingly, wasted no time in sending the mare to Munnings!)

As already indicated, however, Wente has a properly seasoned perspective on all this success. In fact, he has an unhappy bond with Eric Reed, trainer of Rich Strike, whose career was likewise nearly unraveled by a barn fire.

Wente had become captivated by horses when visiting the barn of his stepfather, former Hoosier Park trainer Tom Hickman. Before long, even though money was tight, Wente found himself buying one of the babies.

“I way overpaid, though!” Wente recalls. “He charged me $5,000 and, looking back, the horse probably wasn't worth $200. It was for me, though, at the time. I wanted it so bad. I was driving a truck in those days, and giving him like $500 a month for this horse. And I'd just got it all paid off, and the horse had just had his first run. They were stabled down there at the old Quarter Horse track in Henderson, Kentucky, and one night I got a call, 2 a.m., to say he'd lost all these horses burned up in a fire.

“He had always told me, 'You know, if you're not willing to put $1,000 in an ashtray and burn it, don't get into this business.' To this day I always try to remember that. Only in my case it wasn't bills in an ashtray. It was that poor horse in a burning barn. But I was hooked, even so. Next day I was back on it, looking for a new one.”

Wente picked out the Derby winner's dam at Keeneland November in 2019 for a friend | Coady

Looking back, in fact, Wente wonders whether the early difficulties he has had to overcome–both in his own life, and then in his journey of Thoroughbreds–have condensed into a foundation stone essential to his better fortunes now.

“We were raised poor,” he stresses. “And I had my struggles, trying to find my way. I couldn't save money. I owed everybody. I robbed Peter to pay Paul. But I straightened up. I figured I wanted more from life. And I think it was the horses that did that for me.

“I don't know if you need that; whether you need to know the bottom to appreciate everything more. But now, when I look back to when I was new to the game, and thinking of those really poor horses as the best thing in the whole world, and my stepdad teaching me all those things, him being so back in the old ways, I think that really helped me towards where I am today. Having all that under my feet gave me a different perspective.”

Wente is candidly disparaging about the animals he raised in Indiana, but they sharpened his judgement and taught him to respect every horse as a potential opportunity. Coming to Kentucky just elevated the caliber of the disrespected, the rejects.

Conceivably, moreover, perhaps the resilience Wente had himself acquired can be shared with the young stock on St. Simon Place?

“It's so true,” Wente replies. “If you baby them, pamper them, to me they're not going to make racehorses. They need to get out there, need to knock heads, knock bodies. They need to get cuts, to get sore. They need to be in the snow, in the rain, in the heat. They need a struggle. Because when I struggled, I got tough. And I think it's the same with horses.”

MSW One Timer, another bred by Wente and St. Simon Place | Coady

Maybe, then, that's at least part of the answer. Not that many of those asking Wente for his “secret” will find that very helpful. It was only as an outsider, making a journey few would choose by design, that Wente found redemption in horses. Maybe that couldn't have happened if, like so many competitors, he had been born to this way of life, and not in suburban poverty near St. Louis.

“Everybody's just shaking their head and they're like, 'How in the world are you doing this!?'” says Wente with a chuckle. “And like I said, I don't know whether I'm just really, really lucky, or I'm doing something right. But I think the people that have the wealth to back themselves up would still rather buy mares with more page, mares with some produce under them, mares that are already proven out. But they've got the money. Me, I do the opposite. Because I have to buy cheaper mares, I'd rather buy one that has no page but might get some runners. Because things can change so fast. I bought Spanish Star (Blame) for $1,500 off the track [Keeneland November 2017], and then, bam, her brother [Sir Winston (Awesome Again)] wins the Belmont. And now she's had One Timer (Trappe Shot).”

That colt is currently four-for-five, his sole defeat at the Breeders' Cup. But while a lot of things have been falling into place, Wente emphasizes that he has not done it all on his own. On the farm Calvin and Shane Crain run a parallel sod-growing business, and he has partners in a broodmare band now extending to 40 or so, as well. And whatever inspiration Wente may bring to the equation himself, he will only take credit for perspiration.

“You've got to be dedicated,” he says. “You have to live and sleep this business. I'm hands on. I like to get out there and mow my own grass. I don't know if that helps me do what I'm doing, but I do know that I love it. And since I came over here, and Carrie took me under her wing, everything's been going great. I just feel blessed.”

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Tawny Port Whistles Home at Thistle

Saturday's GIII Ohio Derby–the lone graded event carded annually in the Buckeye State–attracted three runners who made their last start on the first Saturday in May beneath the Twin Spires in neighboring Kentucky. The trio, sent off the first, second and fourth wagering choices in the $500,000 test, would go on to combine for a trifecta that returned a chalky 14-1, as Peachtree Stable's 13-10 favorite Tawny Port (Pioneerof the Nile), a respectable seventh in the Derby, gathered up 3-2 second-elect White Abarrio (Race Day)–16th at Churchill–in the waning stages to take it by a length. Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway), who outran odds of nearly 79-1 to be 11th in the Run for the Roses, boxed on gamely for third in his first run for the Ken McPeek barn.

Tawny Port broke without incident and was happy enough to sit back in the latter half of the field as longshot Pineapple Man (Gormley) and Classic Causeway led from White Abarrio, who appeared to be falling into yet another perfect trip. Classic Causeway, who displayed a bit of a rating gear, re-engaged and poked his head in front with about five furlongs to travel and galloped them along down the backstretch, as the chief protagonists bided their time a few lengths in arrears. White Abarrio was the first to come after the front-runner at the three-eighths marker and Tawny Port was also finding his best stride while forced to cover a bit of ground on the turn. White Abarrio poked his gray snout in front between rivals at the top of the lane, but Tawny Port was doing slightly the better work to the outside and grinded out the victory.

Two-for-two over the Turfway synthetic to start his career, Tawny Port was an even fifth behind Epicenter (Not This Time) in the GII Risen Star S. Feb. 19 before returning to the Florence oval to complete the exacta underneath Tiz the Bomb (Hit It a Bomb) in the Apr. 2 GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks. Backing up on just two weeks' rest in an attempt to pick up the necessary points for a Kentucky Derby bid, the dark bay scored a one-length success in the GIII Stonestreet Lexington S. at Keeneland. Drawn 18 of 20 in the Derby and sent off at 80.50-1–30 cents lower than the victorious Rich Strike (Keen Ice)–Tawny Port raced in the last third of the field for the opening three-quarters of a mile, came six wide for the drive and was beaten just under five lengths.

Pedigree Notes:

It has been a remarkable 2022 posthumously for Pioneerof the Nile, who passed away suddenly just over three years ago. Of course the sire of Triple Crown hero American Pharoah, Pioneerof the Nile has been represented by no fewer than nine black-type winners this season, including recent GI Acorn S. heroine Matareya, GII Summertime Oaks/GII Santa Ynez S. victress Under the Stars, GII TwinSpires Turf Sprint hero Arrest Me Red and Canoodling, winner of the GIII Megahertz S. and GIII Wilshire S. He is the sire of an additional 10 black-type performers this season alone.

Tawny Port is one of three winners from four to the races for his talented dam, a half-sister to Korean-based stakes winner and millionaire Clean Up Joy (Purge). Third dam Trust Greta bred eight winners from as many starters, including six-time GSW Surf Cat (Sir Cat) and GSW Rosie O'Greta (Fight Over). Livi Makenzie is the dam of a yearling filly by Always Dreaming from the same Empire Maker sire line as Tawny Port and foaled a colt by Global Campaign this past Apr. 25.

Saturday, Thistledown
OHIO DERBY-GIII, $500,000, Thistledown, 6-25, 3yo, 1 1/8m, 1:50.46, ft.
1–TAWNY PORT, 126, c, 3, by Pioneerof the Nile
1st Dam: Livi Makenzie (SW & MGSP, $354,069), by Macho Uno
2nd Dam: Greta's Joy, by Joyeux Danseur
3rd Dam: Trust Greta, by Centrust
($430,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Peachtree Stable; B-WinStar Farm, LLC (KY); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr. $300,000. Lifetime Record: 7-4-1-0, $727,000. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–White Abarrio, 126, c, 3, Race Day–Catching Diamonds, by Into Mischief. ($7,500 Ylg '20 OBSWIN; $40,000 2yo '21 OBSMAR). O-C2 Racing Stable LLC & La Milagrosa Stable, LLC; B-Spendthrift Farm, LLC (KY); T-Saffie A. Joseph, Jr.. $100,000.
3–Classic Causeway, 126, c, 3, Giant's Causeway–Private World, by Thunder Gulch. O-Kentucky West Racing LLC & Clarke M. Cooper; B-Kentucky West Racing LLC & Clarke M. Cooper Family Living Trust (KY); T-Kenneth G. McPeek. $50,000.
Margins: 1, 1 1/4, 5. Odds: 1.30, 1.50, 6.30.
Also Ran: Barese, Droppin G's, Ethereal Road, Pineapple Man. Scratched: Brigadier General. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Sophomore Races Lead Saturday Stakes Action

A pair of graded stakes for 3-year-olds highlight Saturday's racing action, starting with the GII Mother Goose S. at Belmont. Two of the five fillies are looking to rebound after off-the-board finishes in the May 6 GI Kentucky Oaks, 'TDN Rising Star' Shahama (Munnings) (sixth) and Venti Valentine (Firing Line) (14th).

Shahama is making just her second U.S. start after starting her career with a perfect four-for-four record during her time in Dubai. Her trainer Todd Pletcher is looking for his seventh Mother Goose victory here.

“It was hard to gauge her racing form. The one thing we felt pretty good about was the way she had trained in company with some of our other horses,” said Pletcher. “To me, she's proven she belongs in races like that, and I thought her Oaks was maybe a better race than it looks on paper. She was still closing at the end. She drew an outside post and it took her a little while to get on track. I thought it was a solid effort.”

Meanwhile, Venti Valentine is a native New Yorker and has never been worse than second in her home state.

“She came out of the Oaks in good shape,” trainer Jorge Abreu said. “I'm going to cross a line through that race and just regroup with her. She's been doing everything well here. I think one turn will suit her better, not that she can't go two turns because she proved she can go two turns. But I think the mile and a sixteenth and cutting back in distance will be better for her.”

GI Darley Alcibiades S. winner Juju's Map (Liam's Map) skipped the Oaks and instead dominated an optional claimer on the undercard in her first start since finishing second in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. She returns to stakes action in this five-horse field.

Just under an hour later at Thistledown, a trio of GI Kentucky Derby also-rans and a good-looking winner on the GI Preakness S. undercard will line up in the GIII Ohio Derby. GIII Stonestreet Lexington S. victor Tawny Port (Pioneerof the Nile) finished best of the three when seventh on the First Saturday in May for Brad Cox, who won this event in 2019.

GII Tampa Bay Derby hero Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway) was a few spots behind him in 11th that day. Previously trained by Brian Lynch, the chestnut–one of just three from his outstanding sire's final crop–makes his first start for Ken McPeek Saturday.

Ethereal Road | Jim McCue/MJC

White Abarrio (Race Day) finished 16th in the Derby after winning both the GIII Holy Bull S. and GI Curlin Florida Derby. The gray receives Lasix for the first time in this event.

GII Rebel S. runner-up Ethereal Road (Quality Road) was a late defection from the Run for the Roses, allowing winner Rich Strike (Keen Ice) into the field some 36 hours before post time. His GI Kentucky Oaks-winning stablemate Secret Oath (Arrogate) went on to the Preakness, while Ethereal Road was re-routed to the Sir Barton S. earlier on the card. The D. Wayne Lukas trainee produced an eye-catching late rally, charging home to a decisive victory.

Also worth a look at a price is New York-bred Barese (Laoban), who gets Lasix for the first time here. He thrashed his fellow native New Yorkers in his first three starts, but could only manage fifth behind eventual GI Belmont S. winner Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) in the GII Wood Memorial S. and could only manage third as the heavy favorite back against locals in an NYSS event Apr. 23.

Right in the middle of those sophomore races is a competitive sprint for older fillies and mares, the GIII Chicago S. at Churchill Downs. This test has attracted a pair of Grade I winners in Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) and Kalypso (Brody's Cause), as well as Sconsin (Include), who enters off wins in the Open Mind S. and GIII Winning Colors S. Don't count out GIII Go For Wand H. romper Lady Rocket (Tale of the Cat) or GI Derby City Distaff runner-up Four Graces (Majesticperfection).

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Fasig-Tipton Catalogue for April Digital Selected Sale

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 23 entries for its April Digital Selected Sale. Bidding is now officially open and will close this Tuesday, Apr. 26, at 2 pm. The catalogue, which may now be viewed at digital.fasigtipton.com, consists of horses of racing age and breeding stock. Entries catalogued include:

Time Sensitive (Hip 1): 4-year-old daughter of Nyquist is a half-sister to recent GIII Stonestreet Lexington S. winner Tawny Port (Pioneerof the Nile).

Topo Grigio (Hip 2): Winning daughter of multiple graded stakes winner Summer Wind Dancer is believed to be in foal to Liam's Map.

Weekend Away (Hip 3): Daughter of Malibu Moon from the family of Private Mission, Dunbar Road, and Secret Status. She is believed to be in foal to Nyquist.

Wrong Color (Hip 4): Stakes-placed daughter of Gemologist is a half-sister to Jean Gros (More Than Ready), a recent 3-year-old Group 2 stakes winner in Japan, and multiple graded stakes winner Tom's Ready (More Than Ready). She is believed to be in foal to Caravaggio.

Amazing Ride (Hip 5): The first mare offered in foal to multiple Grade I winner Charlatan.

Champagne Bliss (Hip 6): Young daughter of Into Mischief is believed to be in foal to Bolt d'Oro.

Delia O'Hara (Hip 7): Multiple stakes-placed mare is a half-sister to graded stakes performer Winning Map (Liam's Map) and believed to be in foal to Bolt d'Oro.

Gun Society (Hip 8): Stakes-winning 2-year-old and earner of over $200,000 from the immediate family of Kentucky Derby winner Country House and graded stakes winners Mitchell Road and Breaking Lucky. Believed to be in foal to Omaha Beach.

Hidatsa Park (Hip 9): Stakes-placed earner of over $210,000 is believed to be in foal to Upstart.

Mamasz (Hip 11): Daughter of Giant's Causeway is the dam of recent GII Monrovia S. winner Brooke Marie (Lemon Drop Kid). Believed to be in foal to Midshipman.

Philanthropic (Hip 12): Stakes-placed daughter of Malibu Moon from the family of leading sire Curlin. She is believed to be in foal to Constitution. She sells with her 2022 Not This Time filly at her side.

Rich Love (Hip 13): Dam of the recent $1.2-million sale-topping Bolt d'Oro filly at the 2022 Gulfstream Sale, this mare is believed to be in foal to Breeders' Cup winner Good Magic. She sells with her 2022 Good Magic filly at her side.

Power Surge (Hip 22):3-year-old California-bred daughter of young sire Straight Fire won the Evening Jewel S. at Santa Anita in her most recent start on Apr. 9.

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