Why Not Tonight | Horse Racing Free Tips

Nashville Sires First Foal

WinStar Farm's 'TDN Rising Star' Nashville (Speightstown) was represented by his first foal when a filly was born Monday, Jan. 8, at Maryland's Murmur Farm. Bred by Wasabi Ventures Stables LLC, Robert Angelo, Terry Schuck and Greenspring Mares, the filly is the first foal from Maryland-bred stakes winner Why Not Tonight (Tapiture).

“She's a leggy, correct filly with plenty of quality, and we are ecstatic with her as the first foal out of Wasabi's first stakes winner,” said George Adams of Housatonic Bloodstock. “We'll be breeding multiple mares back to Nashville this year.”

The brilliantly fast Nashville won his maiden by 11 1/2 lengths at first asking at Saratoga, covering 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.48 and followed up with an equally dominating allowance win at Keeneland before winning the 2020 Perryville S. in 1:07.89, a time significantly faster against the clock than that of the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint (1:08.61). He also won a Fair Grounds allowance in 1:08.61 in 2022, the fastest time at the six-furlong distance in over two years.

“We are thrilled to receive the first live foal report for Nashville,” said Elliott Walden, president, CEO, and racing manager of WinStar Farm. “He was extremely well received in his first season at stud in 2023 and he will be very busy again in 2024. With the recent loss of our beloved Speightstown, news of Nashville's first foal has brought plenty of smiles around WinStar.”

Having bred 204 mares in his first year at stud in 2023 and with his in-foal mares fetching up to $850,000, Nashville is standing the upcoming breeding season at a fee of $15,000 S & N.

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Mating Plans, Presented By Spendthrift: Wasabi Ventures

by George Adams, Housatonic Bloodstock

Wasabi has been focused on upgrading the quality of the foals that it's breeding over the last few years, and to that end will be using some higher-end stallions in 2024 than what we've bred to in the past.

A stallion that we'll be patronizing heavily this year is Maclean's Music. He's about to jump from a crop of 2023 2-year-olds numbering 41 and conceived off of a $20,000 stud fee (out of which he already has nine winners, three of whom have also picked up black-type), to a crop of 2024 2-year-olds numbering around 182 and conceived off of a $25,000 stud fee, which will be followed by two more triple-digit crops conceived off of $50,000 stud fees.

His 2024 2-year-olds include 113 that sold at yearling sales this year for an average of $118,636 (up over last year's average of $100,857 for 21 sold), including individuals that brought $625k, $500k, $460k, $400k, $350k, $310k, $300k (x4), etc. Purchasers of Maclean's Music yearlings in 2023 include the likes of the “Avengers” group, Stonestreet, Klaravich, WinStar, Rigney Racing, Cherie DeVaux's Belladonna group and Mike Ryan.

Wasabi will be sending four young mares to Maclean's Music, including their first stakes winner Why Not Tonight (as a daughter of Tapiture, her foal will be bred on one of Maclean's Music's most successful crosses, that with A.P. Indy-line mares), as well as Floral Hall (half to three black-type winners, one of which is the granddam of '23 GISW Wet Paint) and American Thriller (by American Pharoah from a deep Michael Tabor family), who are both Unbridled-line mares, and the Juddmonte-bred Kitten's Joy filly Paw Prints.

A year ago, Wasabi purchased a Gun Runner filly named Gun Slingin with the hopes that her full-brother Disarm could make some noise on the Triple Crown trail this year. After a solid fourth in the Kentucky Derby, he won the GIII Matt Winn S. and finished second in the GI Travers S., and will hopefully make plenty of noise in 2024 when Gun Slingin will visit Authentic. He's another that had a great sales year in 2023, with an excellent average and individuals purchased by some of the top connections in the industry, and we'll be shocked if he's not at the top of the Freshman Sire List at this time next year. He's a gorgeous individual who will suit her physically, and he was a heck of a racehorse by the best stallion in the country. There's really nothing not to like about him.

One of the incoming stallions of 2024 that we were very impressed by–both as an individual and his race record– was Gunite, and Wasabi will be sending their newly acquired Justify filly Itgetsgreaterlater to him after she delivers a Practical Joke foal this January.

We also believe very strongly in the chances of Up to the Mark to become an important stallion. Despite his success as a turf horse, Up to the Mark has an undeniably dirt pedigree, being a son of leading sire Not This Time out of a mare by leading sire Ghostzapper, who is herself a full-sister to a dirt sprint stakes winner, the pair of them, in turn, out of the wickedly fast GI Test S. winner Capote Belle. Given that he himself was a winner at six furlongs on dirt at Saratoga in his debut before eventually scoring top-level wins on turf at eight furlongs, nine furlongs and 10 furlongs, plus an excellent placing against the highest company at 12 furlongs, Up to the Mark possessed a dazzling amount of versatility in addition to his obvious quality and turn of foot. We think he has every shot to make it, and the package he brings to stud makes him strong value at his first-year $25,000 fee.

Wasabi will be sending four mares to Up to the Mark, including a pair of well-bred maiden mares in Calling All Angels (Ire) (a Dark Angel half to a Group 2 winner by Lope de Vega) and Saucily (a Curlin filly bred by Stonestreet from the family of Uncaptured and Interstatedaydream), as well as the Juddmonte-bred Tapit filly Prosperity (a half to Fulsome) and the Godolphin-bred Desert Rendezvous (a half to GISW Better Lucky and to the dam of Grade III winner Prevalence).

Other stallions that will see multiple Wasabi mares in 2024 include Nashville, who should have a great shot to make it as a wickedly fast and gorgeous son of the sire-of-sires Speightstown, and the promising young Maryland sire Blofeld, who continues to put up excellent statistics from small crops of modest mares in a state-bred program that is solid, but without the hugely inflated purses of some of the neighboring states.

Editor's note: As breeding season approaches, the TDN is asking breeders where they are sending their mares in 2024. To participate in the series, email suefinley@thetdn.com or katiepetrunyak@thetdn.com.

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2023 Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Wasabi Ventures

As we approach the opening of the 2023 breeding season, the TDN staff is once again sitting down with leading breeders to find out what stallions they have chosen for their mares, and why. Today, we catch up with George Adams at Housatonic Bloodstock, who serves as the Director of Stallions and Breeding for Wasabi Ventures Stables.

WHY NOT TONIGHT (5, Tapiture—Pay the Lady, by Not For Love), to be bred to Nashville

This filly became Wasabi's first stakes winner last year when she won the All Brandy Stakes at Laurel, and she also won an allowance for them after they claimed her at Monmouth. Originally a $57,000 yearling, she has good size and is well-made, and we're sending her to one of the more exciting freshman stallions in this year's crop in Nashville. A wickedly fast sprinter, he's a gorgeous specimen, and the cross is a good one. Plus, she's a half to a stakes horse of last year by Great Notion, from the same Gone West sire-line.

GUN SLINGIN (4, Gun Runner—Easy Tap, by Tapit), to be bred to Liam's Map

Wasabi really upped its game at the Keeneland November Sale, buying five mares for a total of $247,000, and this one was the most expensive at $77,000. A maiden mare, she's a full-sister to the TDN `Rising Star' of last summer Disarm (Gun Runner). We wanted to send her to a proven horse, and she gets that in Liam's Map, who should still have some upside as his best-bred crop comes to the races this year. This mating results in loads of line-breeding to some great Tartan Farm names like Fappiano, In Reality, Dr. Fager, Aspidistra and Rough n Tumble.

AMERICAN THRILLER (4, American Pharoah—Thrilled, by Uncle Mo), to be bred to Candy Ride (Arg)

Another purchase from Keeneland November who will be bred for the first time in 2023, she is another for whom we tried to find a proven stallion to fit. Physically, she's a great, big filly, so should match nicely with Candy Ride. And he has done very well with the Empire Maker sire line from which this filly hails. Her family can also show some versatility on the track, and Candy Ride should play into that, as well.

MAD GRACE (8, English Channel—Floating Island, by A. P. Indy), to be bred to Aloha West

This was a hard-knocking, versatile racemare that Wasabi claimed and who will be bred for the first time in 2023. She has a lot of page, and there are turf horses and dirt horses, sprinters and routers on it. We're sending her to Aloha West, a first-year stallion that is going to get every chance from the folks at Mill Ridge. He was exclusively a dirt sprinter himself, but his pedigree contains the same type of versatility that Mad Grace showed, and we won't be shocked if he gets horses that run longer than he did, and on turf. He's a beautifully balanced horse, very nicely-made, and we're excited to have a share in him and send a couple of mares to him.

FLORAL HALL (4, Bodemeister—Painted Lady, by Broad Brush) to be bred to Greatest Honour

Another Keeneland November purchase, this one carrying her first foal by Frosted, she goes to another first-year stallion that we are very high on in Greatest Honour. Physically, he's an incredible specimen, and we think the turn of foot he showed to win those Derby preps for Shug McGaughey over a surface and configuration that should not have suited his style means he's got a huge shot and offers a lot of value where Spendthrift priced him. This mare's family has had plenty of success with Pulpit-line stallions, and a few by Street Cry, who happens to be Greatest Honour's broodmare sire. So we like this pairing a lot.

WILD FOR LOVE (13, Not for Love—Sticky, by Concern) to be bred to Tapiture

One of Wasabi's first broodmares, Wild for Love delivered her first foal for us in the form of stakes winner Local Motive by the Maryland stallion Divining Rod, a son of Tapit. She has a two-year-old filly of '23 by Maximus Mischief that brought $160,000 as a yearling in 2022, but since then we've gone back to that Tapit/Pulpit line with her–she's in foal to Tacitus currently, and we will send her to Tapiture this spring. Tapiture gets such a high proportion of runners and winners, and plenty of stakes horses, too–and his numbers with Not For Love mares are pretty incredible (4-for-4 winners to runners, two stakes winners plus another black-type placed). We hope we get another Maryland-bred runner to earn us breeder bonuses for years just like Local Motive.

WOWWHATABRAT (11, Louis Quatorize—Kim the Brat, by Smart Strike) to be bred to Blofeld

This mare was a warrior, running 74 times over eight years and earning over $300,000. She was stakes-placed at two and four, and comes from the family of New Money Honey, Any Given Saturday, and a good horse named Second of June. After slipping last year, she is carrying her first foal by Jimmy Creed and looks like she'll be our first mare to foal this year. We are going to breed her back locally to Blofeld—the numbers he has put up are pretty amazing, with his first 14 foals to race all having won, and now he's sitting at 29 winners from 37 runners (out of just 50 foals). He had the winners of both Maryland Million two-year-old races in 2022. He has a couple of decent winners out of a full-sister to Wowwhatabrat, and this mating doubles up on Broodmare of the Year Misty Morn, and adds two more crosses of her dam, Grey Flight. Too far back to count as the Rasmussen Factor, but hopefully still effective.

Interested in sharing your own mating plans? Email garyking@thetdn.com.

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