Catching Up with Breeders’ Cup’s 2008 Ladies’ Classic and 2009 Classic Winner Zenyatta

Thousands upon thousands–likely hundreds of thousands–of words have been written about the legendary Zenyatta, who captured the heart and soul of racing during her time on the racetrack and remains just as beloved today, 13 years after her retirement. Winter Quarter Farm's Don Robinson, who foaled her, was kind enough to share his memories of her formative years with TDN.

“Zenyatta was the ultimate,” said Robinson. “I can't say enough superlatives about her. I could speak endlessly about her.

“The real satisfaction is I delivered her mother, too. I had three generations, so it's kind of the breeder's ultimate reward. Their owner–Eric Kronfeld, who has passed away–over the years we became very fast friends. We formed such a very close human relationship that became obviously closer and closer over Zenyatta's career. He was a great friend. I still miss him.

“My family has been three or four generations in the Thoroughbred business. I don't think we ever could have thought we'd have the good fortune to be such an integral part of such a magnificent horse like Zenyatta. I feel she's the best horse of our lifetimes. I'll leave that to others to decide, but no matter who I run into, people tell me that they feel she's the best horse they've ever heard of or seen. It's heartwarming; it's rewarding; it's all the superlatives.

Zenyatta in September at Lane's End | Sarah Andrew

“The three generations of her family that I had started with For the Flag [Zenyatta's granddam], whom Eric very carefully bred to the Roberto line to get Vertigineux [Zenyatta's dam]. He was so taken with Street Cry that he bred Vertigineux to her and got Zenyatta. I never knew she'd be that kind of horse; you just never know.

“I'd raised all of Vertigineux's foals. It was a really neat family. Balance [Zenyatta's half-sister by Thunder Gulch] was totally precocious. She felt like a quick 2-year-old, so fast and so hot. She was quite remarkable. She'd get away from you. Zenyatta had much more cool; she was a bit more level headed.

“Of course, everyone knows the infamous story about Zenyatta at the [2005 Keeneland September] sale: Street Cry wasn't particularly well received and she was immature. She had a Street Cry hind leg; there was no precocity to her at all.

Zenyatta | Sarah Andrew

“There were really just two people interested in her at all and I think David Ingordo had a little bit of a leg up because Balance was really impressive and he was either in the same barn or next to the barn of Balance.

“Zenyatta looked like a project to many people. She didn't grab them. We thought more of her, but we got her on the ground and raised her well, I hope.

“But the best thing that ever happened was that David purchased her for Jerry Moss, who was one of the more patient owners. He and [trainer] John Shirreffs just really had a sense of Thoroughbreds and giving them time. What a great team. They left the horses alone if they needed it and gave them the time they needed to mature.

“I think that time was really essential for Zenyatta. So much of the key is giving them the time they need.

“My friend Eric Kronfeld said, 'I never could have done that; I would been impatient.' Most people would, but she was in the right hands.”

Zenyatta and Mike Smith celebrate after the 2009 Classic with trainer John Shirreffs in the background | Sarah Andrew

Robinson also talked about Zenyatta's three Breeders' Cup appearances. She won the 2008 Ladies' Classic, briefly rebranded as that name from the Distaff; the 2009 Classic against the boys as the only filly or mare to win the Breeders' Cup's signature race; and then closed out her career with her only official loss in 20 starts in the 2010 Classic.

“My favorite race, what I thought was her crown,” said Robinson, “was her Distaff. She went off–for her–at a fairly long price and was discounted some because she had remained in California, except for the Apple Blossom in Arkansas. She just annihilated the field. That race was, 'Oh my goodness; she's the real deal.' She just performed like no other horse. She was pretty unusual. And then she kept improving.

“When I went to her Distaff, I had not seen Zenyatta since I'd raised her. I was kind of leaning around the wall in the saddling paddock when she made a pass by. She went past me, stopped, and turned her head completely around. She took her time, looked straight at me. There was no question she sensed me. It was like she was saying, 'Where have you been?' She had such a presence. It really gave me the chills. She singled me out, no question. Isn't that remarkable? She was just an incredibly unusual horse. She was so intelligent.

Zenyatta and her team | Sarah Andrew

“Everyone loves the Classic she won, but I think her best race was the one at Churchill she lost in her last start. There was silence afterward. But I came away thinking, 'That was the most sensational race.' She was absolutely out of contact with the field. Floundering. For her to get up and just miss that wire by a head…. I've never seen a horse on dirt make up that kind of ground. It was the best.

“Sometimes I go to YouTube and look up Zenyatta. All her starts are there. You almost end up on the floor, it's so sensational to see her break patiently, get up, and measure the wire. You end up breathless.

“I'm 75 years old and the experience with her has been extraordinary.

“Now, years later, I still sort of pinch myself to think I had a horse like that on this land. To have raised her and to have that sort of extraordinary performance and career and presence and just everything… I can't imagine a greater experience in this industry, but hope springs eternal.”

Zenyatta (2004 dark bay or brown mare, Street Cry {Ire}–Vertigineux, by Kris S.)

Lifetime record: Horse of the Year, Ch. older mare (three times), MGISW, 20-19-1-0, $7,304,580

Breeders' Cup connections: B-Maverick Production, Limited (KY); O-Mr. and Mrs. Jerome S. Moss; T-John Shirreffs; J-Mike Smith.

Current location: Lane's End Farm, Versailles, Ky.

Breeders' Cup: Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup from Thoroughbred Daily News on Vimeo.

The post Catching Up with Breeders’ Cup’s 2008 Ladies’ Classic and 2009 Classic Winner Zenyatta appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

New York-Breds Take Center Stage at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – After an electrifying renewal of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearling Sale just five days ago, the action returns to the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion Sunday evening for the company's New York-Bred Yearlings Sale. Bidding begins at 7 p.m. with a session of 100 catalogued yearlings and is followed Monday by a session of a further 264 yearlings which begins at 12 p.m.

“People seem very eager to buy horses,” Don Robinson said between all-shows at his Winter Quarter Farm consignment Saturday morning. “Hopefully it carries over from the main sale–sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.”

Winter Quarter will offer 10 yearlings at the two-day auction, including fillies by Bernardini and Not This Time and colts by More Than Ready and Malibu Moon, as well as one from the first crop of GI Kentucky Derby winner Authentic, who has gotten off to a fast start in the sales ring.

“We have always done very well bringing Kentucky-raised New York-breds to the sale,” Robinson said. “People like them and we've sold pretty well here.”

The New York-Bred Yearling catalogue includes half-siblings to a pair of 2-year-olds who won on debut at the racetrack just across the street from the sales pavilion. Four Star Sales offers a half-brother by Vino Rosso to Miss d'Or Cherie (Bolt d'Oro), who was a three-length winner Thursday, and Straight Line Equine Sales offers a half-sister by Vekoma to Trust Fund (Practical Joke), who graduated at the Spa Friday. Both were running in special weight races worth $88,000, while New York-breds competing in open company are eligible for bonus purses during the Saratoga meet.

The purses available to New York-breds provides a major draw for buyers, Pat Costello of Paramount Sales confirmed.

“The New York program is very good right now,” Costello said.

“I think the maidens over there run for big purses and with the new program, if they run in open company and win they get an extra 30%. That helps as well. So, to have a New York-bred across the road here is huge.”

Paramount will offer 17 yearlings at the upcoming auction and Costello expects strong demand for the right horses.

“I think it's going to go down to the good horses,” he said. “If you pass the muster, I think you'll be in great shape and if you don't, it won't be pretty.”

Indian Creek, which sold a $3.2-million son of Into Mischief during last week's select sale, returns with 10 New York-bred yearlings.

Asked if she expected to see the electricity from the select sale carry into the New York-bred auction, Indian Creek's Sarah Sutherland said, “I hope so. I think if it does, that will be fantastic. It was just an absolutely electric environment at the first sale. I would not expect it to be exactly the same, but I hope we see the same support with the vetting and the process the whole way through here.”

With 364 yearlings, this year's New York-bred catalogue is the largest it has been in recent years. Sutherland is taking a wait-and-see approach as to how the added numbers will affect the end results.

“I think we will have to wait to see what the sale tells us,” Sutherland said. “Our numbers, personally, are about the same as they always are up here. [The larger catalogue] probably does make me a little bit apprehensive. But I'd love to see everybody do well and maybe the additional horses will work for everybody that way. It's been a few years since they've done that, bumped the numbers. I'm curious to see what happens. But there are a lot of people here, so there may be plenty of people for all the horses.”

The New York-bred sale has shown dramatic growth over the last decade and its 2022 renewal produced its highest-ever gross when 188 yearlings sold for $20,175,000, and its second-highest average and median.

“The New York program just seems to get better and better,” said Sutherland. “The quality of horses up here improves every year. And it's great racing. You're seeing nice New York-breds running in open company as well. I think that's a testament to the strength of the program. We sell a lot of horses for breeders and it's great to bring them here and to have them stay in New York. This is a perfect venue for us.”

While end-users tend to dominate both Saratoga sales, last year's New York-bred sale was topped by a son of Arrogate who brought a sale-record $700,000 final bid from Tom McCrocklin, as agent for Champion Equine, just days after his full-brother Cave Rock impressed on debut at Del Mar. The colt returned to sell for $1.05 million at this year's OBS March sale. Eaton Sales will offer a half-sister by Improbable to last year's sale topper late in Monday's session of the auction.

 

The post New York-Breds Take Center Stage at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Winter Quarter Remains Evergreen

In most respects, the years have passed very lightly over Don Robinson. He remains vigorous and full of verve. But the one thing he really hasn't clung onto is the hair he wore as a teenager in the 1970s, when shaking the Bluegrass from his feet and embracing an alternative lifestyle in Northern California.

“Oh man, the hair,” he says. “Depending who you talk to, it just gets longer every time. It really wasn't that long. Probably over my collar. But they love to tell the story that it was waist length or beyond.”

His strong, chiseled features crease into one of those huge Don Robinson smiles, which you'll know very well if you're among his many friends in Kentucky. We're sitting in the kitchen at Winter Quarter Farm–just about as anomalous a name as you could find, for a place so irradiated by this human sunbeam. Nor is there any quarter given, in terms of his unstinting devotion to the horses grazing here, who have ranged from Zenyatta herself to the granddam of Kelso.

Harking back to his youth, however, Robinson admits that he was happy to be half a world away. Out in Humboldt County he had a young bride, a young son, and was hand-milking four cows.

“Just 'back to the land' stuff,” he recalls. “My grandmother had left me some stock. With the proceeds I bought a lovely, south-west face hillside and I built a house, built a barn, we grew food, grew hair, did the whole thing. Had some great neighbors, some that I still keep up with. It was really neat.”

But then, in 1977, came the awful summons home. Dad had Lou Gehrig's Disease. It was time to rally round, see if Robinson could piece back together the horsemanship he'd learned as a kid. Truth be told, he was already restless. He sensed an urban contamination seeping into their idyll–Eden was on its way to becoming a weed plantation–while their own, bucolic lifestyle would soon have been consumed by industrialization of dairy farming.

“Anyway Dad had been diagnosed, and everything was just falling apart,” Robinson recalls. “Even as it was, there wasn't much business here. Cattle, tobacco, a core of clients and horses. I don't think Dad owned any horses at all, at that time. His passion was training. He'd kept a barn at Keeneland for years. He loved to background horses, year round, pre-training. The nomadic trainer's life was not for him, he wanted to sleep in his own bed every night. So this place was perfect: he loved the farm, and the barn was 10 minutes away. It was a great life.”

Sadly his father could hold out only until 1980. On his own, Robinson felt like an impostor. He remembers coming clean to Jimmy Conway–Hall of Famer James P. Conway, “a great man”–after their mutual client Geoffrey C. Hughes indicated that he would be sending horses to Winter Quarter.

“Mr. Conway, I've got to tell you, I don't know a thing. Really I don't.”

He'll never forget the response.

“Donnie, you are a worker,” Conway said. “You'll be fine. You've got the right ethic. Don't worry about any of that other stuff, it'll come to you.”

And it did, Robinson concedes now. Not that the sweat of his brow was adequate on its own. His father had an expression about people who could work, only without ever getting on a wavelength with horses.

“That old boy,” he'd say, “could sleep with a horse and still wouldn't understand.”

“Either you have it naturally or you don't,” Robinson reflects. “And I've always just been able to connect with an animal. Just organically. I didn't have any teaching, any schooling. As a kid I'd hang out in the barn with the grooms. The more I look back, just the demeanor of those old timers was so impactful, the way they related to the horses. Back then it wasn't just a job. They lived with those horses. They were older men and you'd only call the veterinarian if a horse was dying. The grooms and trainers could do the rest: blistering, soundness, everything. If you had a pneumonia, I'd hear stories of them piling on newspapers and a blanket to sweat the horse.”

Those remedies go back centuries. No less timeless, however, was the loyalty of the farm's patrons, who gradually drew out an inborn vocation in Robinson.

“I mean, just think about those two,” he says of Conway and Hughes. “Both real characters, and both real mentors to me. Geoffrey was British, he'd inherited a shipping company, he lived by himself in Utah, skiing. He would hotwalk his own horses at Saratoga. And Jim Conway, he had been real tight with my father. So the reason I survived, when I came back from California, is because those two adopted me: the son of a New York beat cop, and this fascinating English gentleman, this man of the world.”

It feels like we're doing Robinson a disservice to dwell on those distant days, when the here-and-now remains so full of vitality. It was fully 42 years after his return, after all, that the Winter Quarter consignment broke the record for the New York Sale in Saratoga with a $775,000 Malibu Moon filly; and within the month scored the top two prices of a Book 2 session at Keeneland, at $1 million and $650,000. (This latter turned into Rock Your World (Candy Ride {Arg}), now standing at Spendthrift after becoming Winter Quarter's second graduate–emulating Midnight Interlude (War Chant)–to win the GI Santa Anita Derby. Both were out of mares sent by cherished friend and longstanding client Ron McAnally.) Farm graduates to have succeeded Zenyatta include Audible (Into Mischief), who emulated the GI Florida Derby success of Vicar (Wild Again) 19 years previously. Earlier breakthroughs, meanwhile, had been made by two GI Arlington Million winners in four runnings, Golden Pheasant (Caro {Ire}) and Star of Cozzene (Cozzene).

But the fact remains that none of that could have happened unless Robinson survived the initial crash course.

“So those clients were all like my uncles,” Robinson says, further invoking the names of Charles and Eddie Theriot. “[Mrs. Charles] Theriot had a really nice Sir Ivor filly. I was just barely cutting my teeth, so she was advised to have Lee Eaton sell her. I was not hurt but I did think, 'Oh gosh, that'd have been nice.' And that fall, out of the blue, Eddie sent me a commission. I just couldn't believe it. Those relationships, they were just very, very personal.”

Besides, the real start of this whole story goes a lot farther back. It takes a long time just to get through the hallway at Winter Quarter, so compelling are the photographs recording the era of Duntreath Stable, owned by Robinson's grandmother Suzanne, Mrs. Silas B. Mason. These include the iconic image of the stretch duel for the 1933 Kentucky Derby, Head Play versus Broker's Tip with the jockeys practically hauling each other out of the saddle. (Head Play put things right in the Preakness.) There's also a photograph of Mrs. Mason with Samuel Riddle, giving a 20th birthday cake to Man o' War.

Winter Quarter Silks | Sue Finley

“Oh, she was a force!” Robinson says. “She loved the horses, and she loved entertaining. I was only a little kid but remember her very well. She was scary, because she was such a huge personality, but always very gracious and I loved visiting her.”

Her stable had to be dispersed after the death of her husband, but their son Burnett had by then inherited a passion for horses. He wanted to drop out of school and ride steeplechases, so Mrs. Mason sent him to James Cox Brady in New York, to have some sense drummed into him. Brady, either misreading or ignoring his brief, told the young man to follow his dream.

The war interrupted Burnett's turf career, but did at least yield a name for the Fayette County farm he bought in 1948: Winter Quarter had been a coastguard lightship off Virginia, where he rode mounted patrols securing the shore against the contingency, presumably fairly remote, of sabotage by German frogmen.

Robinson was born the same year. Granted the depth of his own pedigree–his father also resurfaced Keeneland, incidentally, and laid out the training track–he was honored to revive his grandmother's silks to campaign Cambodia (War Front), bred in partnership with Eric Kronfeld, to win four graded stakes between 2015 and 2018.

“That was fantastic,” Robinson reflects. “I'd had the whole page for clients, and ended up buying into the family which was durable as hell. I'd bred and raced the mother, and I'd got to War Front at $25,000. But when we did the screening X-rays on the yearling, my vet just said, 'You're done.' He's pretty blunt! I was crushed.

“But I don't think she had three lame days that spring, and we did a stem cell procedure at his suggestion. We broke her in the fall and she was a star from the beginning. We gave her time, she didn't really get going until she was four, but she ended up winning $860,000 and Grade I-placed. And of course she was one of our own. There's been no thrill like Zenyatta. But to breed a racehorse as good as that, when you'd had the mother and grandmother, that was incredibly rewarding.”

Cambodia's first foal, a Medaglia d'Oro colt sold for $575,000, is now in training with Zenyatta's trainer John Shirreffs, which brings many things full circle. Shirreffs, a near-contemporary, himself had his drifting years in the 1970s, and the pair forged a great bond during the rise of the champion bred by Kronfeld and raised at Winter Quarter.

Kronfeld had arrived at the farm fairly circuitously. It had initially seemed an ample boon, to Robinson, simply to receive some Marshall Jenney and George Strawbridge mares when King Ranch was sold.

“I don't do much seasonal stuff anymore,” Robinson says. “It was a lot of work. But these magnificent mares, when they came in, gave me chills. It was like when I first got some King Ranch yearlings to break: I'd been used to Chevrolets and Fords, and then these Ferraris come in. I said to Helen [Alexander] that she taught me what pedigree was all about, just by seeing that difference. They could be crooked-legged or anything, but they just had that fire.”

Jenney brought in Kronfeld, too–and when that pair fell out, the music executive declared that he would leave his couple of mares at Winter Quarter.

“Eric was gruff, and Marshall was gruff!” says Robinson, by way of humorous explanation. “Anyway one of Eric's mares was For The Flag (Forli {Arg}), the granddam of Zenyatta. Over time Eric and I became fast friends. We were night and day, but somehow a great match. He was the New York lawyer, so sharp, knew a lot of stuff I didn't. But I knew stuff he didn't know, too. He was a real curmudgeon, but I had a lot of affection for him. I still miss him.”

Zenyatta | Sarah Andrew

When they were selling Zenyatta, they argued over the reserve. Kronfeld got his way and David Ingordo was bewildered to get her for just $60,000. But then Robinson had opposed the Street Cry (Ire) cover, as too European, so nobody got everything right!

Here, then, is a man who has not only seen an awful lot over the years, but can entwine it with many rich strands of the past. And who can say what fresh chapters may yet be written by the couple of dozen mares on these 300 fertile acres?

Sure, our world has changed a lot over the last 75 years. Robinson remembers chatting with Bernie Sams at a sale, maybe 25 years ago now, and the Claiborne manager commenting: “You know what's changed, Donnie? These days, people would rather make $1 million in that ring than win a Grade I.”

“Believe me, I love to sell a horse,” Robinson says. “But boy, the reward is on the track. I mean, that's why we're doing this.”

Sure enough, this relatively small farm has consistently produced elite runners decade after decade.

“First of all, it's great ground,” Robinson says. “My father knew what he was doing. You can't raise them on a rock pile. I always say Kentuckians aren't very smart, but the smartest thing we do is take care of this land that we're lucky enough to be on.”

Robinson has certainly walked the walk, on that account, having long since gone in “with all four feet” on local land use policy. In fact, he started out by suing the planning commission–and ended up being asked to join it. Subsequently he was a founder of the Fayette Alliance, a local land use advocacy organization.

“Farm land's under threat, but it feels like we've got the community's ear,” he says. “In polling, what do people consistently value? The farms, the green space. They feel they own that. Now, you have to buy into that. It can't just be us guys behind the black fences, that won't work. But people get it: the rings of economic impact, what this business means to the state, and how this land really is a finite resource.”

With the parcel under his direct stewardship, however, Robinson is happy to play a rather shorter game: taking and enjoying each day as it comes.

“I'm still out getting horses every day of the week, all year, in all weather,” he says. “It's what I do, and it's what I love. I don't do nearly as much as I used to, thanks to great staff, but the hands-on is so important.”

He exudes such boyish enthusiasm, in fact, that you can still discern the teenager who used to go to Saratoga with Charlie Nuckols.

“I was about 14 or 15 and we worked the sale and really thought of ourselves as grown men,” he recalls. “And then Charlie, who was a little older, told me about riding the train to Santa Anita with horses. I said, 'You got to be kidding me.' Because I used to love to ride vans with horses. So I got myself introduced to Tex Sutton–another guy, thank God, that took me under his wing.

“So for the next couple of summers I got to take horses through Cincinnati, St. Louis, all the way to Santa Anita, on a baggage car. I could have done it the rest of my life. It was the most magnificent deal ever. The door was wide open and you're just sitting there watching the country pass by. And if a horse ran a temperature, you just let the conductor know–and at the next stop the vet would come and, though there were passenger cars too, that train did not move till that horse was treated and cleared, or else needed to be offloaded.”

That opens a still farther horizon of memory: his father and his farm manager, telling him about how horses would be led into the branch stations from outlying farms in Scott County, Georgetown, Jessamine County.

“Kids would be paid 50 cents to take them downtown, to load on the box car to Saratoga,” he recalls. “They'd start at dusk and lead them by lantern. There was a one urban streetcar to Georgetown. They had to wait till that stopped, because all the horses would freak out. But once the last car had gone through, then they'd walk the horses in and put them on the train at 2 a.m.”

No less a man than John Magnier, coming to Winter Quarter to appraise Zenyatta's dam, once congratulated his host: “Don, this is a magnificent place.”

“I knew that to be no idle compliment,” Robinson says proudly. “But here's the thing, my people all had patience. They had a program, and they stuck with it. To me, that's for all time. If you're not patient in this, you'll be a flash in the pan.”

And that still applies at his time of life, no less than when he was gazing at the continent unscrolling from a train car. That's why Robinson has decided not to sell Cambodia's yearling filly by Tapit.

“I'm an old man now, and I have a great partner in Allen Schubert,” he explains. “We were little kids together, and he loves to race one. I'm not sure I really have an exit strategy, anyway. Mostly, I don't want one. The life, this farm, this land: no kidding, I just got lucky that my father started a small horse business. It's been pretty remarkable. I've had a lot of good horses. I've worked really hard, but I've always had wonderful people. And that's key. Wonderful people I think can bring wonderful horses.”

The post Winter Quarter Remains Evergreen appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Early Impressions: Kentucky Derby 147

LOUISVILLE, KY – With the first Saturday in May quickly approaching, TDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack caught up with the connections of leading GI Kentucky Derby contenders to get some of their 'Early Impressions.'

In this edition, we check in with: Godolphin USA President Jimmy Bell and Winter Quarter Farm Owner/General Manager Don Robinson.

Unbeaten 2-year-old champion and 'TDN Rising Star' Essential Quality (Tapit) heads to the Kentucky Derby as the one to beat. The Godolphin homebred's unblemished five-for-five record is highlighted by wins in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity and GII Toyota Blue Grass S. Essential Quality's graded stakes-placed dam Delightful Quality (Elusive Quality) is a daughter of the unraced Contrive (Storm Cat). The latter produced champion and 2005 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies heroine Folklore (Tiznow). Contrive was purchased by Sheikh Mohammed's operation for $3 million in foal to Pleasantly Perfect at the 2005 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Essential Quality received his early education from Niall Brennan in Ocala, Florida, before heading to trainer Brad Cox.

Rock Your World (Candy Ride {Arg}) switched to dirt with aplomb, running his record to a perfect three-for-three for John Sadler with a dominating, front-running performance in the GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby. Bred in Kentucky by legendary trainer Ron McAnally and his wife Deborah, Rock Your World brought $650,000 from bloodstock agent David Ingordo on behalf of Hronis Racing and Talla Racing out of the Winter Quarter Farm consignment at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. McAnally trained the brilliant Candy Ride as well as owned/bred/trained Rock Your World's MSW & MGISP dam, Charm the Maker (Empire Maker).

ESSENTIAL QUALITY:

“From the time Essential Quality hit the ground as a foal, he's never had an awkward day or stage in his life. From every picture you look at of him–his foal, yearling and 2-year-old pictures, to right now–he's just always been a very balanced, athletic individual. And that's just rarely the case. Most of these horses go through phases and stages, and we say, 'Well, give 'em a little time. The front end will catch up with the hind end, or just wait until they fill out.'

Early on and throughout the whole [breaking-and-training] process, Niall [Brennan] said, 'He could do whatever you want him to do. Whatever you ask for, it's there.' After his first work, I remember walking back to the barn with Brad [Cox] at Keeneland and he just shook his head and said, 'This one is different than the rest of them.' He's never had that awkward stage and always had that athletic look. You know those are far and few between.

Vicky Van Camp in our office named him. Every employee on the entire farm is asked to and invited to submit names. It's kind of a neat thing. There's a lot of names that come in and she does a great job of handling all that as well. It's a good phrase–Essential Quality–and there's a pretty good tie-in to the dam's side, too. It's great that he has a nice name because it does play well.” –Jimmy Bell

ROCK YOUR WORLD:

“I had two really nice Candy Rides that sold together that day [during the fifth session at KEESEP]. One [the unraced Contango], brought a million dollars and topped the session and Rock Your World brought $650,000. It was a wild day.

Interestingly, Rock Your World, to me, really looked like the two-turn horse, without question. He wasn't going to be ready tomorrow for a 2-year-old sale, but he was really all there. Very elegant, Classic-looking horse. This whole family gets gorgeous, good-looking performing Candy Rides. Boy, Ron's family really seems to connect. And it's fascinating because Ron trained Candy Ride, so it's really cool. I've had four generations of this family for the McAnallys. That's just wildly rewarding if you're a breeder, there's nothing better. They're performers.

Rock Your World looked the part. His mother could really run, Charm the Maker. He was just a nice horse from the beginning. He was an extraordinary Candy Ride, and when the [sale] selectors came and looked at him, he was one that goes right to the top of the list. I like the sales to get going though, so I asked them to put him a little further back in the book. I thought he would be a knockout and it really worked.

Horses like that don't miss buyer's attention. They just don't. He really did well that day. David Ingordo is very shrewd and identified and wanted that horse. David was committed and ended up buying him. I've said the joke before–David found Zenyatta [$60,000 KEESEP yearling graduate from Winter Quarter Farm consignment in 2005]… this one cost him more [laughs].

I had heard about Rock Your World getting ready to run and you know there are a lot of talking horses. But I'd heard really good things about him and thought he'd run well. Ron's assistant Dan Landers was telling me, 'Boy, Sadler's horse can run.' It makes me pretty nervous that the fourth race of his life is going to be the Kentucky Derby. But it's very exciting.” –Don Robinson

The post Early Impressions: Kentucky Derby 147 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights