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Beholder’s First Foal, Q B One, Nears Debut at Santa Anita

He has yet to race, but Q B One (Uncle Mo) has already been the subject of several stories and a video feature from XBTV. That’s the way it is when your dam is one of the best horses of her era.

Now, the story of Q B One is about to heat up even further. After the 3-year-old colt worked five furlongs in 1:01.80 Jan. 8 at Santa Anita, trainer Richard Mandella said that Q B One was “a couple of weeks from starting.” He will start for her owner and breeder, Spendthrift Farm, who also campaigned Beholder.

Asked to gauge Q B One’s talent level, Mandella seemed uncertain.

“He’s a big gangly colt and doesn’t take life too seriously,” Mandella said. “He works better than average, but he hasn’t shown yet in his workouts that he is a star. But he is doing what we ask and a little more sometimes. It’s hard to say how good he is.”

Q B One arrived at Mandella’s Santa Anita barn last Mar. 20 to prepare for his racing career. He had his first recorded workout Mar. 30 and had several more breezes until Mandella decided to back off on him. Between July 27 and Dec. 5, he did not have a published work.

“I got him up to five-eighths and he kind of lost interest on me,” the trainer said. “So, I just gave him a little break and kind of backed up to zero and started over again. We’ve been happier with his works. We just have to hope it stays this time.”

Q B One worked three furlongs on Dec. 5, the first of a string of six breezes.

“We’re not trying to make him do much,” Mandella said. “Just like with any other horse, we’re just trying to get him ready to run. He’s training a little more forward than he did before.”

Does he see any similarities to Beholder, the winner of 16 stakes and a champion at two, three, five and six?

“It’s apples and oranges,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything to make me see her. But I’ve had a lot of others that didn’t show me that either. He does shows enough that it could happen.”

The trainer said Q B One will likely begin his career at six furlongs and “might need that first race to wake him up.”

Mandella did think enough of him to send a nomination fee to Oaklawn Park, which made Q B One eligible for the preps for the GI Kentucky Derby at that track. The first race in the series is the Feb. 15 GIII Southwest S.

“He’s obviously not going to be ready for the Southwest, but you never know what can happen.” he said. “So, we wanted to make him eligible for those races at Oaklawn.”

Nominations for the Derby preps at Santa Anita are not in yet.

After Q B One, there will be more to come. Beholder has a 2-year-old filly by Curlin named Karin With an I and a yearling filly named Teena Ella, who is by War Front. She is due to Bolt d’Oro this season.

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Street Sense Mare Tops Keeneland Wednesday

The Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale continued into its Book 2 section with a measured session of bidding Wednesday. Five broodmares brought six figures during the session, with the 6-year-old From the Hood (Street Sense), a half-sister to champion Folklore (Tiznow), bringing the day’s top price of $375,000. The mare was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency and Chris Baccari made the winning bid.

A colt by Laoban (hip 1053) was the session’s top-priced short yearling when selling to Rascal Bloodstock for $70,000. Bred in Ohio by Mark Toothaker and Gigi Chiandussi, the dark bay colt was consigned by Bill Murphy.

During Wednesday’s third session of the four-day auction, 255 horses sold for $4,378,300. The average was $17,170 and the median was $7,000.

At the third session of the five-day 2020 January sale, 226 head sold for $5,105,200 for an average of $22,589 and a median of $12,000.

Taylor Made Sales Agency was the session’s leading consignor, selling 54 horses for $1,108,800.

“It’s typical Book 2 January,” said Taylor Made’s Mark Taylor. “You have one walk in there and it’s life and death trying to get someone to raise their hand at $1,000. Then you have another walk in that’s a good-vetting foal and you’ll have 10 people trying to bid and there is a good bit of action. At Book 2 of January, you get a little bit of everything. What I think is very, very apparent is that anything that is in the bottom 20% of the market, nobody that is paying the fees and the bills that it takes in Central Kentucky wants to be operating in that environment. They’re fleeing to quality. Here it’s about trying to find these horses a good home where they can go on and hopefully be successful in a regional market or elsewhere. That’s the lay of the land and that is where we are at right now.”

Baccari agreed the market was all hit or all miss.

“I think it’s like anything, if you have something they are looking for, it’s very competitive to get them bought,” Baccari said. “If you miss the mark, you miss it completely. But if you are on the mark, you are probably going to be good to go.”

Wednesday’s session concluded the dispersal of Spry Family Farm. The day’s second-highest offering, Heavenly Sis (Hard Spun), who sold for $180,000 to WinStar Farm, came from the dispersal, which was handled by Hill ‘n’ Dale Sales Agency. A total of 41 Spry horses sold at the January sale for $1,405,900, led by Sand Hill Stables’ purchase of the Maclean’s Music yearling colt Mac’s Prize (hip 275) Monday for $200,000.

The Keeneland January sale concludes with a final session Thursday. Bidding begins at 10 a.m.

Baccari in the Hood

Chris Baccari went to $375,000 to acquire the well-related From the Hood (Street Sense) (hip 1019) from the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment at Keeneland Wednesday. The 6-year-old mare, in foal to Fast Anna, is a half-sister to champion Folklore (Tiznow) and to Delightful Quality (Elusive Quality), dam of likely 2-year-old Eclipse champion Essential Quality (Tapit). Folklore is also the second dam of last year’s Japanese Triple Crown winner Contrail (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}).

“The thing with her family, that female pedigree, all of those daughters are reproducing if you look down the list right now,” Baccari said. “All of them are reproducing.”

Baccari already has another member of the family in Miss Moon (Malibu Moon), a daughter of Folklore, whose son Savile Row (Quality Road) was a first-out winner for trainer Bob Baffert and SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Golconda Stables, Siena Farm and Robert Masterson.

“Miss Moon just throws really good-looking individuals that can run,” Baccari said. “That’s very hard for me, as a person who both races and sells commercially, to find. If I am selling commercially, I have to have mares that are going to throw the quality look that you need with the pedigree behind it. And she has that.”

Baccari continued, “I really want to have the best mares I can get my hands on to bring them back to the farm, so people will know that we raise a good quality horse. And you have to have good mares who can get big results.”

Baccari said mating plans were still undecided on From the Hood, but added, “The best thing about this mare is you can breed her to anything. She has the size, the scope, the strength, she has enough bone. There is nothing really to fix on her.”

From the Hood, bred by Godolphin and a $47,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase in 2016, made just one start for V-Leaf Stables and trainer Michael Tomlinson.

“It’s arguably the hottest pedigree going,” said consignor Mark Taylor. “You could have a [Kentucky] Derby winner out of that pedigree and you have Contrail, who is a Japanese equivalent to a Triple Crown winner. The whole page has just exploded. I think it was a fair price. I had her in the $350,000 to $500,000 range. She’s a beautiful mare and I think Chris Baccari made a good buy. I think that he’s got a good shot to make money in the long run whether he keeps her or turns her over.”

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Jack Wolf Joins TDN Writers’ Room

Fresh off a dominant Grade I win by his Starlight Racing’s Charlatan (Speightstown) and a newly-minted ‘TDN Rising Star’ for his outfit, Jack Wolf joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday morning. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Wolf talked about the highs and lows of 2020 with his barn star, Thoroughbred aftercare and more.

Charlatan’s 3-year-old campaign featured dazzling victories but also a disqualification for a positive drug test in the GI Arkansas Derby and a long layoff that forced him to miss the GI Kentucky Derby. Luckily for Starlight, they also owned a piece of a colt named Authentic (Into Mischief) who carried the flag to a Derby victory and presumptive Horse of the Year trophy.

“It was a roller coaster,” Wolf said. “Initially we had three big horses in there of which Charlatan looked like he was probably going to be the best of the three with Eight Rings and Authentic. Then all this stuff happened. We went to Arkansas and got the disqualification there, then we had to remove a small chip [in his ankle] and that put everything up in the air. In any case, when you’ve got somebody like Bob Baffert adjusting to all these changes, I think we have a little bit of an advantage over everybody else. Then we had Authentic, who [because of the Derby postponement] had seven weeks between the Haskell and the Derby. I don’t think Authentic would have won the Derby if it was run May 2, and it all just worked out. Crazy business.”

Two weeks after Charlatan’s devastating GI Malibu S. win, 3-year-old filly Jouster (Noble Mission {GB}) kept Starlight spirits high with an 8 3/4-length maiden romp Sunday at Gulfstream to earn ‘Rising Star’ honors. The $360,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga buy was a beaten favorite in her first two starts on dirt before relishing the turf in Sunday’s graduation.

“I think we’ve got her on the right surface now,” Wolf said. “The field that she beat the other day, there were some pretty nice horses. I was talking to one of our partners last night and he asked if I thought we’d win the race. I was at the race. So, I’m not going to go down there without thinking we’re going to win the thing. But, in any case, I didn’t think we’d win by 8 3/4 lengths. She’ll probably run in an allowance race next and we’ll point for something like the Belmont Oaks and some of those longer turf races, in the summer.”

Elsewhere on the show, the writers reacted to the passing of Juddmonte Farms’ Khalid Abdullah, discussed the swift industry backlash to Eric Guillot in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment and looked forward to the beginning of Derby prep season. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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Kentucky Winter Mixed Catalogue Now Online

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 580 entries for the main catalogue of its Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale, to be held Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 8 and 9, in Lexington. Sessions will begin each day at 10 am.

The sale will also feature a supplemental catalogue that will be available online and on the sales grounds. Fasig-Tipton will continue to accept supplemental entries over the next couple of weeks.

Hips 1-324 will be offered in the Monday session. Hips 325-580, followed by the supplemental catalogue, will be offered in the Tuesday session.

“The main catalogue has grown and improved once again this year, offering buyers additional opportunities at this last breeding stock sale of the season,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. “We have our usual strong group of racing and broodmare prospects catalogued, but also increased quality among the in-foal mares. A large group of nearly 250 ‘short’ yearlings should prove very popular, as well.”

The Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale catalogue may now be viewed online. Print catalogues will be available beginning Jan. 21. The catalogue will also be available via the equineline sales catalogue app.

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