October Newsletter
A CELEBRATION in 2024
Truly, there are very few industries like the Thoroughbred industry. If you are a breeder, it will take a minimum of five years before you have any idea if what you attempted to create with a mating, the athlete, that fulfills your dreams.
Because, there are so many unknowns on the journey, it is best to stay grounded basing your involvement in this Thoroughbred industry off the LOVE of the HORSE. With that your foundation, you can begin to add layers like the love of land or the thrill of success or the dream. The dream too becomes a cornerstone for your foundation for as Price often says: “it is a game of high-fives!”
With the year approaching the end and our Championship Day of racing, BREEDERS’ CUP, only two weeks out, we celebrate the many “high-fives” experienced this year starting with OSCAR PERFORMANCE! Bred, raced and owned by dear friends, Jerry and John Amerman, he continues to excel in every chapter of his career from a Grade (1) winner as a 2,3 and 4-year-old including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) and equaling the ‘World Record-Mile’ in a time of 1:31.2. From his days of racing excellence, he was retired to stud at Mill Ridge, where he was raised and syndicated into a (40) share syndicate of leading breeders in the industry at $75k/share and stood an initial stud fee of $20k. With his early success of his runners winning as 2-year-olds and continuing through his third-crop of 4-year-olds, he is currently ranked (# 1) over all third-crop-sires with Graded Stakes Winners by % of starters in 2024. Included in this third-crop are leading sires, JUSTIFY (private fee), GOOD MAGIC ($125k), BOLT D’ORO ($60k) and on. Among OSCAR PERFORMANCE leading runners are TRIKARI (G1), RED CARPET READY (G2), ANDTHEWINNERIS (G2), ENDLESSLY (G3), TUMBARUMBA (G3) (pointing for The Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar) and on. Shares in OSCAR PERFORMANCE are now valued for $450k and his fee for ’25 is $45k.
Also, we celebrate the accomplishments of our dear friend, Audie Otto and her Jamm Ltd. with breeding and raising at Mill Ridge, SEIZE THE GREY to become a Classic winner of The Preakness (G1) and nearly $2.5m. Like the Amermans, this journey started years ago with the assistance of Nicoma in purchasing the granddam, SHOP AGAIN in 2007 with Tolie Otto, Audie’s mom for $450k. She became a very successful producer of POWER BROKER (G1) among her offspring along with the talented and abbreviated racing career of a daughter, ’13 SMART SHOPPING, dam of SEIZE THE GREY who is pointing for the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) at Del Mar. Truly, this is a dream come true and Audie has shared so much of this experience with all of us as she is so very generous.
Adding to the extraordinary year with celebration is dear friend Jon Clay and his Alpha Delta Stable. He joined us at Mill Ridge just over 15 years ago with the counsel and guidance of brother Reynolds. They have had wonderful success over the years but the pinnacle of experiences occurred in August at Saratoga when home-bred RAGING SEA won the Personal Ensign (G1). Jon shared that while he had extraordinary accomplishments as a breeder this was his highest as the owner/breeder of RAGING SEA with her (G1) win!! Big words, indeed. And for Reynolds to fulfill this dream and experience, too ranked as the highest of emotions. She too, now points for The Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar.
Please know that while we exclaim these tremendous accomplishments in this year with our Mill Ridge/Nicoma family, there are so very many others that contribute mightily to this success as in trainers Brian Lynch-Oscar Performance, Wayne Lukas for MyRacehorse-owners of Seize The Grey and Chad Brown and his mighty team with Raging Sea. For anything any of us are so blessed to accomplish in this Thoroughbred business, we are only as good as our teams and without them, we would not Celebrate this extraordinary 2024!!
Headley and Price