$425K Chameleon On Top As Book 3 Opens at Keeneland November

LEXINGTON, KY – The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale entered its Book 3 section Saturday in Lexington. Leading the day's trade was the 4-year-old broodmare Chameleon (Candy Ride {Arg}), who sold for $425,000 to the bid of Terri Burch of Stoneway Farm. The mare, in foal to Practical Joke, was bred and consigned by Mt. Brilliant Farm.

During the session, 243 horses grossed $15,012,500 for an average of $61,780 and a median of $50,000. The average was down 27% from last year's opening Book 3 session and the median was lower by 23.08%. With 80 horses reported as not sold, the buy-back rate was 24.77%. It was 26.63% a year ago.

There were just six horses to sell for $200,000 or over Saturday at Keeneland, compared to 16 a year ago.

“It shows how polarized our sales are right now because I came over here today and RNA'd them for $20,000 and then we sold one for $290,000,” said Tommy Eastham, whose Legacy Bloodstock offered two of the horses to reach $200,000 on the day. “The market is good, but it's really selective. It's very polarized. It just makes us better horsemen. We need to be better consignors, take better care of our horses because little penalties that you used to be able to get away with, that were maybe 20% penalty in the past, are fatal for your sale now. I hope it gets a little better and spreads out a little bit, but if you tick all the proverbial boxes, it's still really good.”

Weanlings from the first crop of Yaupon have been in demand all week and two colts by the Spendthrift stallion led the foals Saturday, selling for $220,000 to Brownsboro Racing and for $205,000 to Peter O'Callaghan's Cavalier Bloodstock.

While the weanling market has been competitive all week at Keeneland, O'Callaghan said he has noticed a drop-off in quality from years past.

“Unfortunately, the quality is not here,” O'Callaghan said. “We used to have a big list of horses in Book 3 at Keeneland November every year, but we are in single digits this year. There are not as many people offering the good weanlings as there used to be.”

O'Callaghan continued, “It's clear they are holding on to them. But if you're smart, selling the weanlings is a smart business. There are a lot of end-users here, the competition is not nearly as strong as the yearling market and the vetting–there is no comparison to how stringent it is at the yearling sales. I'm starting to think I should start selling a few myself. It's been a hot trade for the quality, there's just not enough quality here.”

The Keeneland November sale continues through Nov. 16 with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

Chameleon to Stoneway Farm

Chameleon (Candy Ride {Arg}) (hip 1437) will be joining the broodmare band at Jim Stone's Stoneway Farm after selling for a session-topping $425,000 Saturday at Keeneland. The 4-year-old mare, bred and consigned by Mt. Brilliant Farm, sold in foal to Practical Joke.

“She's a very attractive mare in foal to Practical Joke who just had two double raises in his stud fee,” Stoneway's Terri Burch said after signing the ticket on the mare. “We are looking for big, attractive mares. We lost one of ours this year that was in foal to Jack Christopher, so we were looking to find something to replace her.”

Home to some 15 mares, Stoneway lost the mare Ahh (Saint Liam), dam of multiple graded winner Ahh Chocolate (Candy Ride {Arg}), this year.

“We have a lot of that family, so we were looking for something in a family we didn't have with a lot of winners and stakes horses in it,” Burch said.

Chameleon is a daughter of stakes winner Secret Someone (A.P. Indy). Her granddam is Private Gift (Unbridled), who produced multiple graded winner Private Mission, as well as the dam of Grade I winner Dunbar Road.

Stoneway Farm campaigned multiple graded winner Stonetastic (Mizzen Mast), who the operation purchased for $77,000 at the 2012 Keeneland September sale. The gray mare joined the farm's broodmare band and her filly by Gun Runner sold for $925,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“It's so much cheaper for us to race one of our own and make it a stakes horse then try to come over and buy one,” Burch said. “We've been very successful buying them on the cheap and they turn into graded stakes horses and we bring them home to the farm. So we are hoping we get great babies out of [Chameleon] because she's so beautiful.”

Terri Burch | Keeneland

Yaupon Weanlings in Demand

Weanlings from the first crop of Grade I winner Yaupon (Uncle Mo) have sold well all week at Keeneland, with 20 sold through four sessions for an average of $164,500 and three selling for $400,000 or over.

The top two weanlings to sell during Saturday's session of the auction were colts by the Spendthrift stallion, with Peter O'Callaghan's Cavalier Bloodstock going to $205,000 to acquire hip 1319 from the Grovendale Sales consignment, and hip 1430, from the Legacy Bloodstock consignment, selling for $220,000 to the phone bid of Brownsboro Racing.

“He's a very good-looking horse himself,” O'Callaghan said of Yaupon. “He's out of a Vindication mare, so that's a great influence and it must be coming through, between the Uncle Mo, [Uncle Mo's sire] Indian Charlie, and the Vindication–all of the above. I think he's really a nice horse. I have to hand it to him, they are very consistent. Each session almost, from Fasig, to Keeneland Books 1-3, there has been a couple of star colts and fillies by him each day. It's been impressive.”

Bred by St. Simon Place, hip 1319 is out of the unraced Sunday Driver (Quality Road) and from the family of graded stakes winner Skippylongstocking.

Hip 1430, bred by Scott Pierce, is out of stakes winner Cartwheelin Lulu (Bustin Stones).

“They are really nice horses,” Legacy's Tommy Eastham said of the first crop of Yaupon. “You know how the market is once they figure out the pretty ones. Yaupon is one of the prettiest horses I've seen. Frank Taylor said it best, he's one of the prettiest horses since Unbridled's Song.”

Of the session-topping weanling, Eastham said, “This was colt was great-minded, he did everything we asked him to. Even after he'd been out 111 times, we knew he was tired, but he never failed us. Every horse gets tired, but the ones that keep going are the ones that make a difference. We are really grateful to the people like Scott Pierce who send us these horses.”

Hip 1319 | Keeneland

Opening Act Sets the Pace

Opening Act (Ghostzapper) (hip 1223) went to the lead midway through Saturday's fourth session of the Keeneland November sale when bringing $290,000 on a phone bid from Steve Spielman of Nice Guys Stables. The 3-year-old, who sold in foal to Golden Pal, was consigned by Legacy Bloodstock. Out of Laffina (Arch), she is a half-sister to multiple Grade I winner Bast (Uncle Mo). She raced twice for Michael Tabor and trainer Wesley Ward, finishing third in her debut at Turfway in January.

“She is a beautiful mare,” said Legacy's Tommy Eastham. “She is once covered, carrying a colt. She is beautiful minded and has a big pedigree with an update. Body language counts, even in the horse business and she came out and did everything we asked of her. She had a tremendous following at the barn.”

The mare's 2-year-old half-sister Royal Slipper (Uncle Mo) graduated by a front-running 4 3/4 lengths for Tabor and Ward at Keeneland Oct. 6.

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Last Stop for Yearlings: Fasig-Tipton October Sale Starts Monday

LEXINGTON, KY – The Fasig-Tipton October Yearlings Sale, which has produced back-to-back record-setting renewals, returns Monday morning with the first of 1,605 catalogued yearlings scheduled to go through the ring at Newtown Paddocks at 10 a.m.

As shoppers made the rounds at the sales grounds on a brisk fall morning the Bluegrass Sunday, consignors were expecting to see some familiar trends during the upcoming four-session auction.

“It's going to be interesting to see where the level of quality is here,” said Legacy Bloodstock's Tommy Eastham. “I think [the market] is going to be really good for the horses that are perceived to be above that level and I think it's going to be more of the same for the horses that they perceive to be below that. I think it's going to be tougher on those horses.”

Despite the expected polarization of the market, consignors were pleased with the activity they were seeing around the sales barns.

“It's very refreshing to come into the parking lot early in the day and have it full up from all the way back here in the tents to the front fields,” said Stuart Morris. “I think the traffic, to me, seems to be on par. I'm not going to say it's extra, but it's definitely not weak. All of the faces that you usually see are here.”

For the second year in a row, the October sale set highwater marks for gross, average and median in 2022 with total of 1,100 yearling selling for $55,426,500, an average of $50,388 and a median of $25,000.

“Over the last couple of years, this has become a really strong sale,” said Hanzly Albina of Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services. “It used to definitely be a lower-end horse and now there are 1600 horses here. I think there are people who are pointing horses here who need a little more time and they are more comfortable waiting to sell their horses here because they know there will be money here for them, versus having to put horses in sales they feel they aren't ready for.”

Albina said his 23-horse consignment at the October sale included yearlings who had RNA'd at previous sales, as well as horses pointed specifically to the last yearling sale of the year.

“We have horses in here that have big pedigrees that we wanted to give more time to and we were comfortable waiting until October,” he explained.

The consignment includes a colt by Curlin (hip 691) out of Kateri (Indian Charlie) and a filly by Tapit out of My Bellamy (Bellamy Road) (hip 948) who were both catalogued for the Keeneland September Yearling sale, while a colt by Into Mischief out of Indy Punch (Pulling Punches) (hip 651) will be making his first sales appearance.

“She was offered at Keeneland in Book, but I think she got overlooked,” Albina said of the Tapit filly. “The Curlin was offered in September and I think he needed more time, too, but the Into Mischief we waited on him to mature a little more.”

Eastham said the October sale is a natural place to sell yearlings.

“It's a nice sale to prep a horse for,” he said. “They naturally mature into it. You don't have to push them as much. They keep them outside longer and put a little less pressure on them.

I think you see some of these upper-end buyers that were really active in earlier sales start holding some cash for this sale. Because a lot of good horses come out of this sale.”

Morris agreed the October's impressive list of graduates has attracted buyers' attention, but he also thinks the auction is helped by its position as the final yearlings sale of the season.

“I think a lot of buyers come here because it's the last stop,” Morris said. “So as sellers, we are a little more cautious–what might be considered realistic–and buyers are a little aggressive because they have to fill orders. I think that helps this sale just because of the calendar time that it's the last stop of the year. There are 1,600 head here and a bunch of stakes horses come out of this sale every year, so if you have a big budget of $500,000 or $600,000, you can find horses here for that money. If you've got $50,000 or $10,000 or $5,000, you can find horses. So I think that creates a big buyer base.”

Eastham observed that buyers have been particularly hard on vet issues at the earlier yearling auctions this fall, but he is hopeful the last auction of the season might have them reevaluating that position.

“At Keeneland [the buyers] were strict on vetting,” he said. “A chip that would normally cost you 20% was costing you 70%. Hopefully they will be a little more forgiving on some small, minor vetting issues because we are getting to the end of the year and we can get those horses sold.”

The October sale will be held Monday through Thursday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

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‘Can’t Miss’ Keeneland September Sale Starts Monday

LEXINGTON, KY- The 79th renewal of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale opens its 12-day run Monday with the first of two Book 1 sessions beginning at 1 p.m. Consignors started showing Book 1 yearlings Friday and an international cast of shoppers were getting second looks at those elite youngsters on a misty Sunday morning in the Bluegrass, while also getting a head start on Book 2 horses who will start selling Wednesday.

“I think the activity is very good, particularly for Book 1,” said Peter O'Callaghan, whose Woods Edge Farm will warm up with  four yearlings during the first two days of the sale before offering 11 head in Book 2. “I think we did 83 all-shows on Friday and we did 116 yesterday, maybe not all-shows, but we had a full day's showing. We are showing the next group already today and we've had quite a busy morning for the Sunday morning up there. I think the signs are good.”

The first three days of showing featured an eclectic mix of buyers from around the world, according to Legacy Bloodstock's Tommy Eastham, who expects momentum to build on from a strong group of Book 1 offerings.

“Traffic has been really encouraging, not just volume-wise, but quality of shows,” Eastham said. “Keeneland has done a good job of bringing every accent in the world here. And I think they've done a really good job of picking out the horses. [Keeneland Vice President of Sales] Tony [Lacy] and [Keeneland Director of Sales Operations] Cormac [Breathnach] have done a really great job of putting some quality horses up front here. It's always been difficult for us in Book 1, if we started the sale with a little bit of a thud, then it takes to Book 2 for everyone to get confident in where they are. But the buyers keep mentioning what a great group of horses is here and I think there is a great deal of excitement.”

Consignors expect to see a continuation of familiar marketplace conditions over the next two weeks at Keeneland, with strong demand at the top and a polarization between the perceived quality offerings and those less-fancied horses.

“I am sure it will be a strong sale, but selective as every sale has been this year and for past years,” said Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency's John Sikura. “There is plenty of money here and all of the right people. There is great pre-sale activity. They will do their scrutiny and they will land on the horses they like physically and the ones that vet to their satisfaction. Hopefully, we will have several that appeal to the elite buyers.”

Sikura continued, “I think [the polarization] is here to stay. You have a shrinking foal crop combined with a shrinking number of racetracks. So people are going to buy what they like and there probably isn't a buyer for every horse. You are rewarded on the ones that meet the scrutiny of multiple buyers and they make extra and then there are the ones that don't quite make it. There are savvy people who sometimes bid under the crazed market and then there are people who want exactly what they want and those cost more.”

Foreign buyers come to Keeneland this year while facing uncertain economic conditions in Europe and less-than-favorable exchange rates across the globe.

“Every year you are hoping you have a global market and that people from all marketplaces are here,” Sikura said. “You can't change the economic environment in various nations. That's sort of beyond your control. You just make the horses as good as you can make them and bring your best product to sale.”

Sikura added that economic conditions are less likely to impact top-end buyers.

“I think there is a lot of insulation of very wealthy people and in tough times they are still in a position to buy what they like,” he said. “Everything is cyclical to a degree. But I don't think inflation and potential economic slowdown has a lot of impact on our marketplace. A global recession would, but I don't think the vagaries of marketplaces in different countries would make that much difference because in every environment when things are tough for one sector, they are good for another. If you are in the oil and gas business, it's probably been good, but the stock market hasn't been as good, but it was good before. I think there is an ebb and a flow.”

After years in which overseas interests dominated the buying sheets, the domestic buying bench stepped up at the last two September sales to fill the void left by major buyers Godolphin and Shadwell, with partnership groups leading the way. Mike Repole and Vinnie Viola's St. Elias Stables teamed up to buy 43 yearlings at last year's September sale for a leading $16,045,000. They were followed by the SF Bloodstock/Starlight/Madaket partnership which purchased 24 head for $10,590,000. The powerhouse partnership buyers also included the BSW/Crow Colts Group which purchased 20 horses for $6,805,000.

Representatives from all three groups were out in force at the Keeneland barns ahead of Monday's first session.

“This sale has been very successful without Sheikh Mohammed the last couple of years and no Sheikh Hamdan last year,” O'Callaghan said. “The domestic buyers are very strong. I think it's given the high-end domestic buyers more confidence that they can buy these horses now. For years, I think they thought when they were bidding against the Maktoum families they had no chance. Since COVID, the domestic buyers have really stepped in and gotten in early and been great supporters of the sales. And then there are all the new buying groups–they've just been an absolute gift to the game. Whether it's the SF group or the Liz Crow group, Todd [Pletcher] last year, the way they are working it this year, they are working it very hard. All these guys are very committed–as they should be because racing is strong at the moment.”

Book 1 horses have had to deal with a perception problem in recent years with consignors seemingly happier to be a big fish in a Book 2 pond than overshadowed in Book 1. The Keeneland sales team has made a point of countering that image (Keeneland's Premier Book in Every Way).

“Keeneland has done a good job getting more people in early,” O'Callaghan said. “I think that ad they ran highlighting the success of the first 20 hips was a good ad and they need to sell that message. It's important that people can have confidence to bid on the early horses, because year after year, it's where the value is.”

The Keeneland September sale is often considered a bellwether for the marketplace as a whole and the auction comes in the midst of a series of strong yearling sales throughout the country, giving consignors the optimism that demand for horses will remain beyond the auction's opening books.

“The market has been really strong,” said Eastham. “I think it's been fair. I think horses are bringing what they are worth. We always worry about what happens when we go past these select horses but, just me as a consignor, the Iowa sale was up almost twice as much, the New Mexico sale and the Texas sale were up. I think that mid-market horse, we are going to be fine there. I think there is still going to be enthusiasm for that market.”

In an effort to create a festive atmosphere to the pavilion on sales days, Keeneland added live music, as well as passed hors d'oeuvres and cocktails a year ago. Those amenities, plus facility upgrades, will return this year.

“The success of September Sale graduates combined with the availability of quality yearlings at all price levels make the September Sale a can't-miss event for horsemen from around the world,” Lacy said. “This year, we are excited to share our latest capital improvements and facilities around the grounds–from renovated barns to the Saddling Paddock Chalet here for the Breeders' Cup World Championships–and we are continuing to elevate the September sale atmosphere with fun touches and elements that enhance the experience.”

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

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Method in the ‘Madness’ Connecting Star Juveniles

Any farm, really any farm–right up to the most iconic Bluegrass nurseries–would have been proud to have two juveniles as accomplished as Rattle N Roll (Connect) and Electric Ride (Daredevil) heading towards the Breeders' Cup. And for both to have meanwhile dropped out, in wildly contrasting circumstances, would only have reiterated the odds to be overcome by even the most lavishly resourced operations. Rattle N Roll, winner of the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity, can regroup next year after a minor foot issue ruled him out of the GI TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile; tragically there is no such comfort regarding Electric Ride, the GII Chandelier S. runner-up, following her freak loss (reportedly to an anaphylactic shock) a couple of weeks ago.

Incredibly, however, the farm that bred both still retains, not one, but two unbeaten contenders for Friday's 2-year-old card at Del Mar. Hidden Connection (Connect), nine-length winner of the GIII Pocahontas S., looks formidable in the GI Netjets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, while One Timer (Trappe Shot) heads for the GII Juvenile Turf Sprint off a 12-length maiden win and two stakes scores. A banner achievement for any breeder. Impossible, then, to give adequate credit to St. Simon Place, whose scale of operation can be judged from the aggregate cost of the mares responsible for these four youngsters.

Tommy Wente, the man responsible, quickly does the math.

“Out of the four mares, you know, I think it's less than $34,000 I got tied up in them altogether,” he says.

Actually, it's $32,400.

Wente telephoned his friend Tommy Eastham of Legacy Bloodstock after One Timer won at Santa Anita and Electric Ride ran second in the Chandelier on the same card.

“I just want to know, Tommy,” Wente said to his namesake. “Is this luck, or am I doing something right?”

“Well, when Hidden Connection won the other day, I guess I might have said a little luck,” replied Eastham. “But after these two here? You've got be doing something right.”

Then, when Rattle N Roll won his Grade I a few days later, Eastham called again. “Man, whatever you're doing–just keep doing it!”

So what's the secret? When you think about the fortunes being spent by others, it feels like a pretty big question.

“Everybody asks me that!” says Wente, who runs the breeding division of St. Simon while partners Calvin and Shane Crain concentrate on a parallel sod-growing business. “I'm known for going in there and buying cheap horses. But they're not really cheap horses, in my eyes. For me, they're very well-bred horses that come from very good farms. Okay, so they've been culled: this one's got a bad knee, this one's a little sore, this one needs more leg. But that's what I look for, because I can't buy mares that are perfect.

“So I look for the kind I can breed to something that can fix them. I see whether I can breed [any issues] out of them, and can get me something on the ground that I can sell. But that's what makes it even more amazing to us, everything that's been happening. Because often you can get by with those kinds of mares if you're racing their babies. But we sell [nearly] everything.”

One observable trait, consistent with accepting perceived flaws to meet the budget, is that all four of these mares were very lightly raced. But the real key is to find a filly out of a young mare who has been given a chance with good covers and, ideally, has already achieved prices suggestive of good physicals.

“That way I can just sit back on them,” Wente reasons. “I can let the family grow for a few years.”

A perfect example of the modus operandi is One Timer's dam Spanish Star (Blame), picked up for just $1,500 at Keeneland November four years ago.

“I knew where she was raised, I knew the owner Tracy Farmer, I knew they did it right,” Wente recalls. “Okay, she didn't work out on the racetrack, but she was the first foal of a mare that had some stuff going, she had a son by Awesome Again in work. And that turned out to be Sir Winston. A year later he wins the Belmont and, bam, I can sell the half-sister [privately] for $150,000.”

Now Wente is hoping to close out the exploding value of a couple of other diamonds found in the rough, with the dams of Hidden Connection and Rattle N Roll both scheduled to enter the ring next week.

C J's Gal (Awesome Again) was discovered at the Keeneland January Sale of 2016, having derailed after a single start. Wente knew that the big spenders would literally overlook her, being on the small side, and landed her for $9,500. Her first foal, a Tourist filly, made $70,000.

“So from there,” Wente says, “we're free-riding.”

Okay, so her second foal was a $49,000 RNA weanling who was ultimately let go for $40,000 the following September. But at least that meant Hidden Connection could benefit from the farm regime for another few months–and that, to be fair, could be as important as any other ingredient in St. Simon's success.

“I try to raise a great product,” Wente says. “I love my feeding program, I love how we wean them. And I don't put horses in a barn. Our horses are outside 24/7, raised in herds of, like, 10. And if they get kicked, they get kicked. If they get snotty noses, they get snotty noses. You know, to me, that's what makes them tough. You have to let them go through all that stuff. In my opinion, we give them too much medicine; we baby them too much. I think we get caught up, with so much money tied up in them, wanting to protect them. 'He's limping today, he doesn't feel too good, better get him inside.' No. Let that horse be a horse, let him figure it out.”

C J's Gal is offered as hip 148 (with a Frosted cover) at Fasig-Tipton; while Jazz Tune (Johannesburg) is catalogued as hip 222, in foal to Liam's Map, at Keeneland. Wente picked her up, a $20,000 apple from the tree cultivated by the late Edward P. Evans, at the same sale five years ago. She had won a Parx maiden (though in another light career) in the silks of William S. Farish. Jazz Tune has some wonderful old-school seeding to her family, out of a Pleasant Tap half-sister to two Grade I winners (plus another at Grade II level) out of the Northern Dancer blue hen Dance Review.

Mind you, no matter how much you get right, you always need a bit of luck. How fortunate, for instance, that Jazz Tune did not meet her reserve at $55,000 when Wente returned her to Keeneland, with Rattle N Roll in utero, in 2018. But sometimes it just takes a little time to develop value. One Timer, for instance, made no more than $21,000 as a yearling, his sire having meanwhile been exiled to Turkey. While we've already noted how Hidden Connection struggled for traction.

But the yearling Electric Ride brought $130,000 from Quarter Pole Enterprises at Fasig-Tipton October, some yield for an Indiana-bred daughter of a mare, Why Oh You (Yes It's True), bought for $1,400 deep in the same Keeneland November Sale that produced Jazz Tune. Electric Ride advanced her value to $250,000 through Eddie Woods at OBS the following April, while Rattle N Roll proved a still more profitable exercise for his pinhookers. A $55,000 Keeneland November weanling for Rexy Bloodstock, he made $210,000 from Kenny McPeek in the same ring the following September.

No doubt about it, then, a grounding at St. Simon Place is becoming ever more trusted; and its graduates are punching ever more above weight. Wente has now expanded its broodmare band past 40, some owned with another partner in Scott Stevens, and raised around $750,000 from eight yearlings at Keeneland in September, selling as usual through Machmer Hall.

“You've got to surround yourself with good people, people willing to help,” Wente stresses. “Because I have to reach out every day. I couldn't do what I'm doing without Carrie Brogden. She's opened a lot of doors for me, and she's always No 1 about the horses. People like her and [husband] Craig have been there and done it all. If she's says, 'Tommy, you want to pull that horse from the sale,' I'm pulling the horse from the sale. I'm going to take criticism and use it.”

That said, the driving principle remains the sweat of his own brow.

“At the end of the day, I truly believe that it's the time you put in raising them,” he says. “It's the cutting the grass, fixing the fenceboards, fixing the water. It's everything together. If you want to be the person who just sits in the house watching TV, letting everybody else do your work, fine. But I do my books, I do my matings, I do my contracts, I do my registrations. I'm as hands-on as I can be.”

They say that necessity is the mother of invention and maybe those big farms that find themselves mere bystanders at the Breeders' Cup can learn something from the strategies Wente has adapted to work his budget. Maybe insisting on perfection, on the very best that money can buy, invites its own fragilities. Maybe it's more important to concentrate on connecting with horses, and connecting them with their environment. Nothing, that way, gets in the way of the passion.

Wente first had his imagination captured when visiting the barn of his stepfather, former Hoosier Park trainer Tom Hickman, some 20 years ago. He was captivated. He simply had to have one of these beautiful animals. The one he bought, an Indiana-bred, ran once and showed nothing. Then one night the phone rang.

“We had them boarded over there at the old Quarter Horse track, Riverside Downs, in Henderson, Kentucky,” Wente recalls. “About two o'clock in the morning I had a call from the trainer. They'd had a barn fire, lost all these horses. Of course, my stepdad's horses were in there, my horse was in there. It was the low of the low. My very first horse, lost in a barn fire. But I knew I was hooked–because the very next day I was looking for another one to buy. And I've been hooked ever since. The highs are high, the lows are low, and there's no in-between. It's the guys that can take those lows, and keep on going, that are going to make it.”

So here's one such, who boards the plane for California on Thursday not just flying the flag for a 400-acre parcel of Kentucky, but for every small breeder striving against the perceived odds.

“I'm for the little guy,” Wente says. “I am a little guy. I started out in Indiana, okay. I raised so much crap over there that nobody wanted. And then I've come over here to Kentucky, but I kept the same mindset. I never changed what I did. I just started buying Kentucky stuff, and dealing with Kentucky stuff, the way I did the Indiana stuff. You don't need to have Justify or Tapit. The highest stallion we've used would be $30,000, tops.

“So I want the little breeder to know, keep your head down, keep doing what you're doing. People know me as that crazy guy going in there buying horses for $1,000, $2,000. But you know what, there is some kind of method in my madness. I haven't figured it out yet. But there's something going on, right? I've proved you can do it. You can do it, man. If I can do it, anybody can do it.”

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