The Green Group | Horse Racing Free Tips

Ned Toffey Talks Into Mischief, Authentic, Monomoy Girl and More On Writers’ Room

Business is booming at Spendthrift Farm. The once-defunct stallion station has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence in the past decade, thanks in large part to a superstar stallion, a deep-pocketed owner and the steady hand of an experienced general manager. Ned Toffey has seen it all since B. Wayne Hughes purchased Spendthrift in 2004, and he joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Toffey talked about the explosive growth of the farm, what makes Into Mischief special, likely Horse of the Year Authentic (Into Mischief), the future of recent Spendthrift purchases Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) and Got Stormy (Get Stormy) and much more.

“Once we did some renovations here at Spendthrift, we brought Malibu Moon over and really thought that was going to be our flagship horse. And all the while there was this little son of Harlan’s Holiday we bought for $180,000,” Toffey recalled when asked about Into Mischief. “The first couple of years he was here, he was a very tough sell. One of the programs that we did, ‘Share the Upside’, was actually designed to help sell seasons to Into Mischief. But it turned out to be the opposite. Into Mischief made the program. He gave us credibility and has given us the confidence to start to go after other top horses. He’s done so much. He drives traffic to the farm. We’ll be fortunate if we can ever have another one as good as him. People give us a lot of credit for having ‘made’ Into Mischief. We’re happy to take that credit, but I think the credit goes to Into Mischief.”

Spendthrift made major waves at last week’s Fasig-Tipton November ‘Night of the Stars’, shelling out $9.5 million for champion topper Monomoy Girl, $4.2 million for MGISW Bast (Uncle Mo) and $2.75 million for MGISW Got Stormy.

“We wanted to have some marquee mares to breed Into Mischief, Authentic and even some of the stallions that came in within the last year as well,” Toffey explained. “We generally will move our own mares out of the way if we have clients that really need to get their mares bred. So oftentimes some of the mares that we start out planning to breed to some of these stallions, end up getting bred to somebody else. This year we wanted to have some mares that we just felt were really strong. We may not breed a lot to Into Mischief. Mr. Hughes usually likes to collect the stud fee and make room for our clients. But now we’ve got a handful of mares that will certainly need to go to Into Mischief, Authentic and the likes of those.”

Asked about the reasoning for retiring Authentic as a 3-year-old while bringing Monomoy Girl and Got Stormy back to the racetrack in 2021 as 6-year-olds, Toffey offered, “You’re talking about a little different price point. We were wide open in terms of what we might do, but his racing career just went so well and Bob [Baffert] said, ‘He’s done so much. He’s done everything that he really can.’ And our primary business is breeding. That’s what drives things here and the stallion complex is the epicenter of Spendthrift. That is our primary focus and everything we do revolves around that. He’s such a sound, talented horse, it was very tempting to go on and run next year, but again, this is such a central part of what we do, we felt like it was time for him to come and start his career here.”

Elsewhere on the show, the writers debated which Eclipse categories are still to be decided, appreciated strong 2-year-old performances from the weekend and, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, broke down the latest developments in the indictments surrounding Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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Brad Cox Talks Breeders’ Cup Grand Slam, Monomoy Girl 6YO Campaign On Writers’ Room

Already considered one of the hottest barns in America heading into Breeders’ Cup weekend, Brad Cox’s stable provided an exclamation point to a monster 2020 season with a whopping four World Championship victories at Keeneland. Now leading all conditioners with 28 graded stakes wins this year and a legitimate threat to unseat four-time defending champion trainer Chad Brown at the Eclipse Awards, Cox joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Cox explained his barn’s breakout success the past few years, talked about what’s next for his Breeders’ Cup winners and hinted at some potential new tests for soon-to-be dual champion Monomoy Girl (Tapizar)’s expected return as a 6-year-old.

“It’s the quality of horse. We always left like we’ve been able to win races,” Cox said of his outfit’s rapid rise to the top. “The bulk of the stable was made up of claiming horses for several years. We had a run with Midwest Thoroughbreds that was, for me and my crew, very educational. We had the opportunity to see a lot of different types of horses. But over the last five years, the biggest change is the clientele and the horses for sure.”

Already with an enormously satsifying weekend under its belt, Cox’s operation got even more good news Sunday night, when Spendthrift Farm announced that Monomoy Girl would return to the races in 2021 after buying the mare for $9.5 million at Fasig-Tipton November.

“They asked me if I’d be interested in taking her back to campaign her in 2021, which was a no-brainer, but that was basically the extent of our conversation,” Cox said when asked about a potential schedule for the wildly popular chestnut. “She’s back here with us at Churchill, she came out of the race in fantastic shape. I think we’ll find out more, they’re still buying horses and they seem to be busy, but I think that facing the boys or racing internationally could be something that’s on their mind. And it’s something that we would be up for, to say the least.”

After Monomoy Girl, the headliner of the weekend for Cox was Essential Quality (Tapit), who dominated the GI TVG Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to run his record to three-for-three and likely salt away a divisional championship. The gray is the latest best hope for Godolphin to win its elusive first GI Kentucky Derby, and Cox talked about his impressions and immediate plans for the colt.

“He came out of the race really, really well,” he said. “We took him back to the track this morning, just jogged him. He’s full of himself at times. He’s a Tapit, so he has a lot of energy. But he seems to know when to turn it on or shut it off, which I think is a great trait of quality in a classy horse. I think the sky’s the limit and I don’t think there’s any kind of distance limitations with him. There really doesn’t seem to be a bottom with him so I’m very optimistic he could be a horse that gets a mile and a quarter. We’ll start training him again at some point in early December at Fair Grounds. It’d be nice to get a couple of races into him in February, March, April and hopefully he does enough to earn himself a spot in the Derby.”

Cox also indicated that he would consider a maiden European journey for his barn with GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf heroine Aunt Pearl (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), saying, “It would be nice to get a start into her this spring and then maybe look at Royal Ascot with her. Maybe a similar campaign that Sharing (Speightstown, second in Ascot’s G1 Coronation S.) had. I thought about that after she won the Jessamine because of one, her pedigree, and two, [winning with] no Lasix. I think that’s a benefit that’s going to help our horses internationally.”

Elsewhere on the show, the writers broke down all the action from Breeders’ Cup weekend and, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, laid out their biggest takeaways from Fasig-Tipton’s ‘Night of the Stars’ and the early days of Keeneland November. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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Wesley Ward Joins TDN Writers’ Room

Holding a typically strong hand of 2-year-olds heading into Future Stars Friday at the Breeders’ Cup Nov. 6, trainer Wesley Ward joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday morning. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Ward talked about Golden Pal, the exciting son of Uncle Mo and Lady Shipman who figures to go favored in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, multiple group stakes winner in Europe Campanelle (Ire) and why he’s so willing to run his fillies against the boys.

Telling the story of how he came to train Golden Pal for Randall Lowe, who owned Lady Shipman, Ward said he almost got a chance to train the mare herself and only a veterinary setback let him keep her son in his barn for Lowe.

“When [Lowe] had the mare, he had reached out and asked if I was interested in training and it just didn’t come to fruition,” he said. “His ultimate pick was Kiaran McLaughlin. I had followed Lady Shipman’s career and was a big fan of hers. Then I went and saw the colt in the sale. I loved him. He was my pick of the sale last year at Keeneland September. We tried to buy the horse for Coolmore and we had a couple months for them to take possession to see if he could get over a minor issue he had, and unfortunately, it’s just a minor thing that he was born with. He has that issue today, and he didn’t pass the vet. So being as I put a couple months in on the horse, [Lowe] sent him back to Ocala to give him a little bit of time off from the breaking and right around the first of the year, I called him back and I said, ‘Look, I’d still be really, really interested in training the colt.’ He thought about it for a couple of weeks, then he sent him up to Keeneland and we’ve had him ever since. He’s just been a joy to train, I’m a big fan and I’m looking forward to Breeders’ Cup.”

Ward continued his unprecedented run of success for an American trainer in Europe with Campanelle, a 190,000 guineas Tattersalls October purchase by Ben McElroy who parlayed a Gulfstream maiden win into scores in the G1 Prix Morny at Deauville and G2 Queen Mary S. at Royal Ascot this summer. The undefeated bay figures to be among the favorites in a contentious renewal of the Juvenile Fillies Turf.

“She’s a little different than the horses that I’ve brought to Ascot and to the Morny in years past,” said Ward. “She’s got a big, long stride and she’s fast. So my thought always going into the Morny was that she would go a mile. Even though she has a sprinter’s pedigree, she’s a big filly. And with that long stride, I took the blinkers off going into the Morny to sort of help her to stretch her speed for this particular race. And it was fortunate, we were lucky. She won a big race that day with Frankie and she got right back here to Keeneland. Ever since then, even before the Morny, this was the plan with this particular race.”

Asked about his willingness to run fillies against males, Ward said, “I took a lot of heat for it at first for running 2-year-old fillies against the colts, but I just think it’s pretty easy. If you line a bunch of us up with some women and some men, some women are going to be faster than the guys you put them with, so it’s easy to figure where you’re at. I think a lot of fillies develop a lot quicker. If you look at the 2-year-old in training sales, the majority of the faster times will be fillies rather than the colts, and the colts will come on late. I like to take advantage of that. The majority of the time, especially in sprints, if you have the fastest horse and you break well, you’re going to win early on. I’ll zero in and the faster ones come to a head real quick, early in the spring. If that’s a filly, I’m more apt to run them against the colts.”

Elsewhere on the show, the writers broke down where every major division stands heading into the Breeders’ Cup and, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, talked about what it means for the industry that stallion farms are slashing stud fees nearly across the board. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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Kirk Robison Talks ‘Horse of a Lifetime’ Jackie’s Warrior On Writers’ Room

Having been involved in horse racing for decades, Kirk Robison knows how much luck plays a part in finding success. He admits as much. But perseverance also pays, and Robison has finally seen the fruits of his labor pay off at the highest level of the game, as his undefeated Jackie’s Warrior (Maclean’s Music) is set to head into the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile as a heavy favorite, with a chance to solidify a divisional championship to boot.

Wednesday morning, Robison joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to discuss his emerging superstar, the breaking news of his deal with Spendthrift for the colt’s breeding rights and what it means to have a potential Breeders’ Cup or GI Kentucky Derby winner after all these years supporting the game he loves.

Already with runaway victories in the GII Saratoga Special S. and GI Runhappy Hopeful S., Jackie’s Warrior added a devastatingly easy 5 1/2-length victory in the GI Champagne S. Saturday at Belmont.

“I read that they’ve run the Champagne since 1867, and I appreciate the fact there’s a lot of horses that were in there that are in the history books,” Robison said. To win that race is just incredible. First Landing and Dehere were the only 2-year-olds in the last 60 years that swept the Saratoga Special, Hopeful and Champagne. And now our colt did it. So putting it in that perspective, I appreciate every one of these races.”

The score earned a 100 Beyer, giving the bay clearly the two top figures of all 2-year-olds this year, and stamped him as a clear Juvy favorite. Robison said that while he’s taking nothing for granted, he likes Jackie’s Warrior’s chances to run his record to five-for-five.

“He hasn’t gone two turns yet. He hasn’t run at Keeneland. That other colt [GI Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity hero Essential Quality] already won a two-turn race there at the distance, so that’s a huge advantage for him, but our numbers, if he can carry that speed around two turns, our colt’s going to be very, very hard to beat,” he said. “The numbers don’t lie. And I watched the replays of the Hopeful and Champagne a number of times–he’s just a blur out there. I never dreamed I’d have a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile favorite, now we’ve got to go out and do it. But I’m extremely confident.”

News broke Wednesday morning that Robison made a deal with Spendthrift Farm to stand Jackie’s Warrior at the top-flight stallion outfit after closing out his racing career.

“They wanted to buy a part of the horse early on, after he won the Special. And I said, I’m going to wait until maybe he wins the Hopeful,” he recalled. “I wanted to control his racing career, and I got that. They agreed to that. So Steve Asmussen and I are going to manage the horse until he’s retired. I get all the purse money during his racing career. I’ve got some bonus structure in there from Spendthrift. At the end of his racing career, he goes to them and they manage the stud career.”

Asked how early he knew his colt was a runner, Robison reflected on a conversation he had with a different Asmussen as the horse was being broken at the family’s Laredo, Texas training center.

“I talk to Keith once in a while about how they’re doing,” he said. “He doesn’t get too ahead of the curve on who’s running well because he doesn’t do much with them as far as asking for speed. But I told him early on, like February or March, ‘I want to win the Hopeful someday with a 2-year-old.’ He actually said, ‘This might be your colt.'”

While Robison can’t help but dream about winning the Derby, he’s realistic about his colt’s potential distance limitations. Sire Maclean’s Music is more of a sprint influence, and his dam never won beyond 6 1/2 furlongs, so while Robison would love to win the Derby, he’s only interested in running with a top chance.

“You can’t not think about it, but I think I’m pretty good about measuring and managing my expectations,” he said. “His mother was a pure stone cold sprinter. So to even get a mile or a mile and a sixteenth could be the upper limits of where this horse goes. If we could be lucky enough to win a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile or Breeders’ Cup Sprint later on, it’d be satisfying. I only want to go to the Derby with a horse that can run one, two, three. I don’t want to be 20-1 and run up the track.”

Robison reflected on when he and Asmussen bought Jackie’s Warrior for the bargain price of $95,000 at Keeneland September, and spoke about how that elusive force of luck shined on him with a horse who’s done everything right since the hammer dropped.

“Steve called him an old soul,” Robison said. “He’s like a 6-year-old gelding. He takes everything in. He’s easy on himself. He looks around the paddock like, ‘OK, got to go to work.’ He’s a very smart horse. Takes care of himself and doesn’t get too worked up and use up all of his energy. So he’s the horse of a lifetime for a guy like me. Other people may have multiple Grade I winners, I don’t. And he may be the last one I ever have. How much can you say about luck in this business? A lot of people were not willing to pay 100,000 for this horse. So they stopped at 95 and Steve got him. If this horse had gone to 150 or 200, we might not even own the horse. So I’m extremely grateful for what we have. When you get one, you have to say, ‘Thank my lucky stars, I got one.'”

Elsewhere on the show, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, the writers paid tribute to the great Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), who was retired from racing this week after an illustrious career. Plus they broke down the Ken McPeek vs. Matt Muzikar beef that stemmed from last week’s podcast and celebrated the Grade I success of the show’s unofficial mascot, Harvey’s Lil Goil (American Pharoah). Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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