August Newsletter
SARATOGA BLOSSOM
When we last spoke, Price and team, headed by our general manager, Jeremy Harlow were adding the finishing polish to our select group of yearlings heading to Saratoga for the Fasig-Tipton sale. When you contemplate as a commercial breeder, it has been three years in planning and hoping and polishing with nature to produce these yearling sales candidates to offer in Saratoga, there is very high expectation.
That is, the mating consideration of commercial/racehorse sire with your broodmare, eleven months gestation, birth and nursing on mom for five months. From there they are weaned, and on January 1st they become yearlings, survive the winter, blossom in the spring, hand walked and exercised and polished in the summer to then ship to Saratoga.
And now, after assistance from the Fasig crew, we decide on (7) yearlings for the select portion of Saratoga. Of those (2) are by our OSCAR PERFORMANCE, (1) UPSTART, (1) COMPLEXITY, and (1) FROSTED and all these five yearlings are the only ones being offered in the sale by these sires. Also, we had a NOT THIS TIME filly, a half to RED CARPET READY and an outstanding CANDY RIDE colt.
Mill Ridge has a very high-profile location at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga, right next to the sales pavilion, walking ring and restaurant. Foot traffic must walk past our horses and ourselves, frequently, coming and going to visit other consignors on the grounds. So, when we announced on the Wednesday prior to the sale that Saratoga and crowd favorite, CASA CREED was retiring to Mill Ridge as our next stallion, it added a sense of terrific energy already gathering with our high-quality yearlings we were offering. CASA CREED was an enjoyable conversation to have with prospective breeders as he is an “iron horse” making (36) starts, (27) in Graded company, (15) G1’s! He won (4) G1’s including the FOURSTARDAVE (2) and JAIPUR (2) and earned nearly $2.7m. Remarkably, racing against the highest level of competition for these six years, all over the world, he lost only one time on the turf by more than 4.5 lengths. That is showing up for every race and never making excuses.
Our location on the sales grounds allowed Price and me to speak on CASA CREED and offer shares to him based on a (40) share syndicate for $25k/share, and they were very well received. He is going to stand for a fee of $10k and if you breed on your share it will entitle you to a bonus season for each of his first (4) years; outstanding horse and attractive terms for breeders.
As it turned out, the Fasig-Tipton select sale was energized with record results. We too, had great results with our Oscar Performance yearlings selling for $260k and $500k both for our dear friend and long-time family client, Audie Otto. The Upstart colt for $200k, Complexity for $130k, and we sold ¾ interest in the Frosted for $65k. All these prices exceeded our expectations as we anticipated the sale ahead of time. Also exceeding our expectation was the ½ to RED CARPET READY for our dear friends in Cincinnati, the Lynn Schiff family and her daughter, Maggie, who sold for $750k to Mike Repole. Also, another dear friend, Susan Moulton sold her homebred Candy Ride colt for $375k to Spendthrift and partners, a fabulous home and great result.
OSCAR PERFORMANCE has blossomed into an extraordinary stallion, ranked #1 over ALL stallions with Graded Stakes Winners by percentage of starters in ’24. He is moving up his mares, which means the mares he has been bred to in the past had not produced such a high-quality runner as when they were mated to OSCAR PERFORMANCE. There is no better example than G1 winner TRIKARI who just this weekend won at Colonial Downs, the same race his father and sire OSCAR PERFORMANCE won in 2017, the G2 Secretariat. We celebrate this win for Jerry and John Amerman and their sire OSCAR PERFORMANCE and now his son and their racehorse, TRIKARI. It is as good as it can possibly get, and we live with great thanks and appreciation for our great fortune.
Our kind regards,
Headley and Price