Really sorry that I’ve been away such a long time! With three two-year-old sales between the months of March and May, I didn’t get to spend an awful lot of time behind my desk. So, we’ve got a bit of catching up to do. It was really pleasing to see Downtown Connector become our first winner for West Paces Racing; Jaime Torres gave him a super ride to break his Maiden on March 12. He was claimed shortly after and is now racing at Thistle Downs. We wish him and his new connections all the very best.
On March 25, Locally Owned won the $75,000 Stud Muffin. Again, Jaime Torres gave this horse an unbelievable ride – he sat patiently going eleven furlongs on dirt in the longest race he’d ever run, making it all the more gratifying to see this old boy get another major victory. Locally Owned then went to Churchill Downs and finished third on Kentucky Derby Week. He came back with a non-life threatening injury which, sadly, forced his retirement. The good news is there’s a strong chance that I’ll be bringing him back to our barn as my pony, as I haven’t had a pony for a couple of years.
Grannys Connection has been on a tour de force. Through the winter months at Aqueduct, she finished second in December, broke her Maiden in January, won an Allowance Other Than in February, and came back very quickly 19 days later to win a Two Other Than on March 19. She had a brief freshening after having run very quickly four times and came back at Monmouth on May 28 where she absolutely demolished an open company field by six lengths. This is a New York-bred filly we have very high hopes for. She ran a very fast time at Monmouth – 1:09.60 – and will now point towards the Dancing Renee in July for New York-bred Fillies.
Curbstone also thrived through the winter, winning back-to-back races in December and January, finishing second in February, and then winning on March 31 at Aqueduct. He had a little bit of a freshening and then ran amazingly to finish second in his first ever one-turn race on May 28 at Belmont. The plan with him is to run in the Suburban in July to determine what our targets might be for Saratoga.
The OBS March sale was a productive sale for us. We picked up four horse: a Connect filly for West Point Thoroughbreds and Mike Lyden; a Maximus Mischief colt and Take Charge Indy filly for RAM/Zanotti; and a New York-bred Destin filly for Mike Lyden and Homewrecker Racing.
Moving on to the month of April. It was a bit of a frustrating month as we had several horses get rained off the turf at the beginning of their turf season. We did, however, have some good second place finishes. Yorkshire Prince missed out by a neck. Saint Eros Girl went down to Laurel and finished second by a length. Doctor Love finished second by four lengths – the third place finisher was four lengths behind him. Portos ran a good fourth in the Excelsior and will point towards the Brooklyn on Belmont Stakes Day. He’s a colt who’s done really well since joining our barn and we’re looking forward to seeing how he progresses.
At OBS April, I found the market to be very strong. We picked up three horses, but it was difficult to buy the ones we really wanted.
The month of May was very busy. Son of a Birch and American Know How went head-to-head the length of the Belmont stretch on May 5, Son of a Birch breaking his Maiden and American Know How finishing second in his career debut. The following day, Tide of the Sea ran the best race of his entire life as a seven-year-old coming back off the bench. He nearly wired the field in the Gr. 2 Fort Marcy just being run down late by Charlie Appleby’s shipper from the UK. I could not be happier with his effort. He is entered to run today in the Gr. 2 Belmont Gold Cup, a two-mile race on turf.
On May 11, a dream was fulfilled in a strange sort of way. Back in September 2022, I bought a filly by Omaha Beach from a very deep turf pedigree family in conjunction with Conor Foley of Oracle Bloodstock and his team. This filly, named Cynane, reminded me enormously of the types of horses that Jeremy Noseda used to buy to bring back to England to run in races like the Queen Mary. I said to the ownership group of Rainbow’s End Racing, West Paces Racing, and VinLaur Racing that if she were to break her Maiden early in the year, first time out, we would have to seriously consider giving Royal Ascot a go. Cynane did exactly that on May 11, winning very impressively in fast time, first time out, beating Wesley Ward’s runner by two and three-quarter lengths. She breezed back on May 28 and came out in very good shape. She breezed well again this morning and will hopefully ship to England tomorrow, June 10, to contest the Gr. 2 Queen Mary at Royal Ascot.
Colloquy won first off the claim in a Starter Allowance and Mama Banned Me got his Maiden victory, both on May 13. We had a number of really promising performances at the tail end of the month. Sweet Franny Lu came back on May 26 with an excellent third after a very long layoff. She hadn’t run since July of last year as she needed time to get over some ankle issues, so I was absolutely thrilled with her return. Mauritius ran a gutsy second the same day, setting relatively fast fractions. And it was great to see Curbstone and Grannys Connection run so well on May 28.
A couple of weeks ago we went down to the Timonium Sale, which is always a fun time for us as a family because I go down very early on Sunday morning, look at about 60-65 horses, narrow the list and then Maggie and the girls come down in the afternoon and we spend the evening eating Maryland King Crabs with great friends Brian and Whitney Johnson and their daughter Alexis. It’s an annual tradition before we go back to the sales the following day and I take the girls around our shortlist of horses that we’re going to be bidding on for the next two days. Grace and Willow generally want to buy the greys, or chestnuts with flaxen manes and tails, and it’s always great to hear their opinions on what they think of the horses. Obviously, I also pay a bit of attention to what Maggie has to say seeing as that she makes a living literally being a horse judge. We picked up three horses at this sale: two fillies for V Hop Racing, a Not This Time and an Enticed; and a Connect filly for the partnership of VinLaur Racing and Bourbon Lane Stables. Hopefully now we’ve got the two-year-old division sorted out for the forthcoming year.
We’ve had a handful of horses run this first week of June. Among them, Magic Eight Ball made her debut on June 2 as the first runner I’ve had for Steven Rocco. She drew the rail and was ridden by John Velasquez to finish third.
That’s it for now. I’ll catch up with you again prior to the start of Royal Ascot.
