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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Opportune black type awaits some of the seven fillies and mares contesting the $100,000 Las Flores Stakes (G3) Jan. 11 at Santa Anita Park.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Veteran riders Alex Birzer and Orlando Mojica each earned career milestones, leading to the panel of racing experts voting the pair Jockeys of the Week for Dec. 29-Jan. 4.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Coinciding with the United States' national celebration of the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding, the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame will mark the occasion with a special exhibition, Racing at the Dawn of the United States.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Last summer, we began “The Producers” as a way to spotlight a few of the extraordinary mares–and some of the people behind them–who produced the Grade I winners of 2025. With 83 individual North American Grade I winners in the books for the 2025 season, we return to it now, continuing with two mares who each made a massive impact at the fall breeding stock sales. Galloping Ami, dam of Kopion Galloping Ami (Victory Gallop) is a mare accustomed to making headlines. Named Outstanding Broodmare in Canada in 2016 after producing three black-type winners, including that year's Canadian 3-year-old colt champion Amis Gizmo (Giant Gizmo), she's only gotten better in the years since. In 2025, her fourth stakes winner Kopion (Omaha Beach), the GI La Brea Stakes winner of 2024, roared to a GI Derby City Distaff Stakes win with a gaudy 109 Beyer Speed Figure (one of three 107+ Beyer Figures for her on the year). Six months later, Galloping Ami's weanling by Curlin became North America's highest-selling weanling filly of 2025 when she sold to Wesley Ward for $1.25 million at Keeneland November. Nick Lotz has raised not only Galloping Ami's foals at his Briarbrooke Farm near Paris, Ky., but also Galloping Ami herself. Lotz knows his way around a good horse–in addition to a number of top-level winners to flourish under his watchful eye at Briarbrooke, he also had a significant hand in breaking the legendary Ruffian as a young man during his time at Claiborne Farm. He stresses how gratifying it is to have his hands on good horses. “That's why I live,” he said without hesitation. “That's what I live for. From the time I was 12, all I wanted to do was raise horses. This is not work. This is everything.” It's a long association–more than three decades–with Ivan Dalos of Tall Oaks Farm that led to both Kopion and the Keeneland topping filly. “I met Ivan through a bloodstock agent named Elizabeth Blythe,” said Lotz. “Ivan had a few mares in Canada and was racing some, but wanted to make a little more of a commercial effort to some extent and wanted to breed to some Kentucky stallions. Elizabeth was in the business of rounding up stallions and I was in the business of feeding horses, so that's how it got started.” Galloping Ami with her $1.25-million filly in June | Sarah Andrew Dalos was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in August, as well as honored with the E.P. Taylor Award of Merit in 2022, He won Sovereign Awards for Outstanding Breeder in 2018 and 2020. Some of the top U.S. runners he's bred have included 2020 Eclipse champion turf male Channel Maker and 1999 Eclipse champion older male Victory Gallop, whose stellar race career is celebrated most for his dramatic last-gasp GI Belmont Stakes win to deny Real Quiet the Triple Crown. “We kept three daughters of Victory Gallop,” said Lotz. “Ivan bred him, sold him as a yearling to [Dr. E.C.] Pug Hart, then turned around and bought two breeding rights in him after he retired, so we kept three daughters and they've produced 10 stakes winners and two stakes-placed horses. Galloping Ami and her full-sister [Victorious Ami] are both Broodmares of the Year in Canada.” Lotz is quick to credit Dalos “for his unselfish love and joy of creating a good racehorse. [It's the] perfect time for Kopion to show up.” Even after having his hands on so many top horses, Lotz captures the thrill of having a horse he raised for a client and friend make a big splash on the national stage. “When Kopion won the Grade I at Churchill, I beat all the dust out of the couch and tears were running down my eyes,” he remembered. “It was the fastest Beyer Speed rating of Derby day. She ran faster than the colts did. She did everything wrong–broke last, missed the break, it was on a sloppy track, she was always on the lead before but fifth then, hung out wide, came five wide around the turn, and still caught 'em and pulled away and won by three. “I've seen a lot of horses do a lot of things, but that was a big deal race.” Lotz and Dalos had sent Kopion to the 2022 Keeneland September sale, where she brought $270,000 from Spendthrift Farm. More than a dozen other fellow first-crop Omaha Beach yearlings at that sale sold for more than Kopion, but she was the first of that crop to win a Grade I. “She was gorgeous from the start,” recalled Lotz. “She was a little more feminine-looking than [the fall's $1.25-million Curlin filly], not quite as muscular. Pretty athletic. People kind of liked her right away. She was a pretty nice-looking foal and she became a pretty nice-looking yearling.” In June, when the Curlin foal was four months old, Lotz already suspected she'd go to the fall sales as she was bred “as a project between Tall Oaks and Hill 'n' Dale. She was a pretty compact foal. A lot of Curlins are a little bigger, a little leggier. She was a little ahead of her growth curve for her age and group, but she was still sort of compact. I think she'll fill out as she grows up.” Kopion was retired in November the same week her weanling half-sister sold. Galloping Ami, now 20, is in foal to extremely popular first-crop stallion Arabian Knight for this spring. What most people don't know is the mare has a deformed right front leg stemming from an injury when she was a three-week-old foal. She'd fractured her sesamoid in her left front while turned out with her dam in a paddock and compensated by carrying all her weight on her right front. “It had been straight!” said Lotz with emphasis. “When it started to torque in, we put two screws in that ankle to hold it but it didn't work. It caused that deformity, but there's nothing genetic about any of it.” Galloping Ami | Sarah Andrew The leg may look rough and may have kept her from racing, but it hasn't hindered Galloping Ami's broodmare career. “But then, about five or six years ago, she fractured a cannon bone,” lamented Lotz..”She did it out in the field and I had her booked to Into Mischief. That was when he was starting to move up, about $75,000 at that point. I bred her and two days later she fractured her leg. We had to put a cast on her, keep her in the stall. Usually, I just show her a picture of the stallion and she conceives, but not that year. It was too much stress. It was kind of shame that we missed out on that one.” Dalos still owns three daughters of Galloping Ami, including Quality Ami (Essential Quality), a 3-year-old who sports the Tall Oaks silks and was most recently runner-up in an Oaklawn maiden special weight last month for trainer Tom Amoss. Lotz said he and Dalos have always planned the matings together, but things at Tall Oaks are changing with a fresh face on the team. “Ivan's daughter Colleen has become more and more involved in the last few years; she's the heir apparent as Ivan is about 85 now,” said Lotz. “She's very enthusiastic about the sport and is learning a lot. Colleen is very business oriented, so she wants to make a profit. When Ivan and I were planning matings, it was all I could do to get him to spend $25,000 for a stallion fee.” Colleen Dalos is now the general manager of Tall Oaks. When mares like Galloping Ami–the third generation homebred of her father's first-ever broodmare prospect purchase and the granddaughter of that mare's first foal from a mating he researched and chose–get Kopion and a $1.25-million weanling filly in the same year, it's a great time to be at the helm. Lotz couldn't agree more. “Everybody needs a mare like this,” he said. “It's a lot of fun.” Streak of Luck, dam of Ted Noffey When Marie Jones bought Streak of Luck (Old Fashioned) at the 2021 Keeneland November sale for $620,000, the mare was a stakes winner at Canterbury Park, had placed in two graded events at Santa Anita, and was carrying her first foal by Authentic. Fast forward four years and that same mare, supplemented in mid-October to the Fasig-Tipton November sale, sold for 10 times that much–$6.2 million–as the highest-priced broodmare in North America in 2025. Streak of Luck at Taylor Made in September | Sarah Andrew Instrumental in the mare's increase in value was the decision by Jones and the team at Taylor Made, where she and her late husband have kept their horses for more than 40 years, to send Streak of Luck to Into Mischief for her second mating, which resulted in Ted Noffey. That 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard,' a Spendthrift colorbearer after a $650,000 Keeneland September purchase in 2024, is the champion-elect 2-year-old colt of 2025 after his unbeaten season culminated in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile and two other Grade I scores. He was one of just three runners, including Sovereignty and Journalism, who won three Grade I races in 2025. Ben McElroy signed the $6.2-million ticket for Streak of Luck on behalf of Kia Joorabchian's Amo Racing USA, which sent her to Archie and Michelle St George's Brookstone Farm near Paris. “She is correct, she's big-bodied, she's lovely,” said Michelle St George after two months with the mare. “To be around her, she is absolutely lovely. She is kind and gentle and has been an absolute dream. She settled right into the farm, she's so easy to do everything with. We obviously haven't foaled her out yet, but she is so easy to work with. I can't say enough nice things about her.” Due in about a month to Not This Time, Steak of Luck is likely to go back to Into Mischief for a full-sibling to Ted Noffey, said St George. The mare's yearling colt is by Into Mischief and her freshly minted 2-year-old is a Munnings filly. Jones still has the yearling, while Repole Stable bought the 2-year-old in September at Keeneland for $425,000. “I've got to be honest–this is the first time I've ever been around a $6.2-million mare,” said St George with a laugh. “It always means a lot when people entrust you with their mares. “Mares are a long, hard journey, so it's an honor that Amo trusted us enough to have her, but we're fortunate to have other mares for them as well and we really appreciate it.” Streak of Luck | Sarah Andrew St George and her husband will foal about 65 mares at Brookstone in 2026, about 10 of them for Amo. She said they usually breed approximately 150 mares off the farm each year. Streak of Luck is the obvious star. “Horses like her make it look easy,” said St George of Streak of Luck, who just turned 11. “We hope she produces a lovely racehorse for Amo and they can have as much fun as Spendthrift is having with Ted Noffey. From what the Taylors were telling us, this mare has been good to anybody she's crossed paths with. It's really fun for us and we hope things keep going.” Ted Noffey, certain to be named the champion 2-year-old colt at the Eclipse Awards in two weeks, is the early favorite for the first Saturday in May. Although trainer Todd Pletcher hasn't officially committed to his next start, the GII Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Feb. 28 is a logical possibility with the Mar. 28 GI Curlin Florida Derby likely his main spring target leading up to the GI Kentucky Derby. See our previous stories on Luna Rosa (dam of Locked {Gun Runner}); Virginia Key and Our Khrysty (dam and granddam of Tappan Street {Into Mischief}); and Linda (dam of Burnham Square {Liam's Map}). The post The Producers: Galloping Ami and Streak of Luck appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
The term 'blue hen' may have emanated from the game birds of the American state of Delaware, but its appropriation by the Thoroughbred breeding industry bears similarities to its origins in that it remains a badge of honour. There are few true blue hens across the world but one who has certainly earned that title is Vimal and Gillian Khosla's Green Room, who died in December at Ballylinch Stud at the age of 23. Bred in Kentucky by Juddmonte Farms, the daughter of Theatrical never made it to the racecourse herself, but her name has echoed across the turf over the last two decades. Her own lineage entitled her to such acclaim even before one considers the exploits of her three highest-profile offspring: Lord Shanakill, Together Forever and Forever Together. Green Room was out of the Blushing Groom mare Chain Fern, who was also unraced but was of particular note as a full-sister to the top racemare and producer Al Bahathri and as the dam of GI Yellow Ribbon Stakes winner Spanish Fern (El Gran Senor). It is a time-honoured aspect of the game that breeders from around the globe have gone on to establish their own successful operations through cherry-picking mares and fillies from the drafts of large established owner-breeders. Green Room had in fact been let go by Juddmonte for 20,000gns at the 2005 Tattersalls February Sale. Almost a year later, after she had been repatriated to America, she was reoffered at Keeneland's January Sale by James Keogh's Grovendale consignment. For the Khoslas, the upscaling of a fledgling interest into a passion for breeding began almost exactly 20 years ago with the purchase of Green Room, for $240,000, when she was carrying her first foal by Speightstown. Yes, it was quite a hike in price from the previous year, but very quickly it looked like money well spent. “We started as racing enthusiasts,” says Gillian Khosla. “Vimal had some racehorses but when we got the opportunity to go into breeding, we thought that it was something we could do together. It was a new project for us after we'd sold our business.” She continues, “We've been very fortunate that we've had some wonderful people who shared their knowledge and enthusiasm with us. So we're slightly less naive than we were, but it was pure luck that we got Green Room. She was just a nice mare and an opportunity, and she's kind of guided us all the rest of the way, really.” Khosla credits Caroline Green, formerly of Templeton Stud, and Rob Speers as being of great help during their early years of boarding a few mares in England, and it was Green who put forward the suggestion of buying what has become an important foundation mare for the couple. “Caroline said, 'I really think you ought to buy this mare',” Khosla recalls. “We'd started becoming interested in pedigrees and bloodlines and we were very much guided by Caroline. She was a great sharer of knowledge and was obviously quite important to us then in beginning to get an understanding of what the business was about. “Green Room stayed in America for several years after that and went to different American sires without any great success, it has to be said. Partly because of that, and also because we had no intention of setting up anything in America, we decided that we really needed to bring her over here. So that's when we sent her to the great Galileo.” By that stage, Green Room's first foal, Lord Shanakill, had firmly stamped his mother's credentials for such a lofty mating. He had been offered as a yearling at Keeneland September and bought for Mark Gittins, who sent him to be trained by Karl Burke in Yorkshire. Burke is now established among the top echelon of trainers in Europe, but it was Lord Shanakill who gave him his first Group 1 success when winning the Prix Jean Prat in 2009. He had also taken the previous year's G2 Mill Reef Stakes, as well as being placed in both the G1 Prix Morny and G1 Dewhurst Stakes. Having briefly been sent to race in America for Richard Mandella, Lord Shanakill later returned to the UK to spend 2010 at Warren Place with Henry Cecil, who saddled him to finish his racing career with victory in the G2 Lennox Stakes before Lord Shanakill joined the Irish National Stud roster for five years. The winners Brannagh (Hennessy) and Smart Artie (Smart Strike) followed from Green Room's time in Kentucky, but it was her move to Ireland which reignited the pedigree. “That really made all the difference, and it was quite an important stage in our development, because we began to look more seriously at studying bloodlines and talking to more people,” Khosla says, and explains that, as Green wound down her Templeton operation, a new home was found for their broodmare band. “Green Room was in foal to Galileo and we were sending her next to Sea The Stars, so we approached the Aga Khan Studs in Ireland and asked if we could send her over early. Together Forever was actually born there and then Green Room moved down to Ballylinch, where we've been ever since. And we've learned so much from John [O'Connor, managing director] in particular, and all of the team at Ballylinch. That has been a fantastic thing for us.” From the first of Green Room's six matings with Galileo came the aforementioned Together Forever, a €680,000 yearling purchase by Coolmore who would go on to win the G1 Fillies' Mile before surpassing that accomplishment by producing the Derby, Eclipse and Juddmonte International winner City Of Troy among her five black-type-earning offspring to date. Together Forever, dam of City Of Troy, wins the Fillies' Mile | Racingfotos Thereafter, Green Room became a darling of the Goffs Orby Sale via her offspring, who, between 2014 and 2019 sold for €1.1m, €900,000, €3.2m and €3m. These included another Galileo filly who was destined to confuse pedigree enthusiasts for years to come when named Forever Together. She was also destined to be good. Forever Together won the Oaks by four and a half lengths and was second in the G1 Pretty Polly Stakes as well as being beaten a neck by Sea Of Class when runner-up in the Irish Oaks. Another of Green Room's Galileo daughters, Do You Love Me, picked up some black type when placed in the Listed Fairway Stakes at Newmarket, while the unraced Espania is now the dam of Warsaw (Wootton Bassett), the winner of a juvenile maiden at Navan last year for Aidan O'Brien. Signe, an 86-rated treble winner for Fiona Carmichael, was the result of Green Room's first mating with Sea The Stars, and she in turn is now proving her worth as a broodmare as the dam of G2 Queen's Vase winner Carmers (Wootton Bassett). Happily, the Khoslas have retained two of Green Room's winning daughters: Black Ruby (Dansili) and Fennela (Sea The Stars), and they also have the mare's final foal, the unraced three-year-old colt Yogini (Waldgeist), in training with Donnacha O'Brien. Khosla says, “Green Room had been very beautifully looked after at Ballylinch in particular. I think the reason that she never raced was that she had lots of issues with her feet. They have done absolute marvels with her, looking after her all the way through, right until the end.” She adds, “I have a great fondness for unraced broodmares, so we have more than one. With fillies who are incredibly successful on the racecourse, it isn't so often that they turn into this kind of blue hen. I suppose partly that's due to time, of course, but I also wonder about other factors within that.” John O'Connor, who oversees plenty of top-class stock at Ballylinch, had Green Room under his care for 13 years. He says, “She was a lovely, kind mare and a pleasure to have on the farm. She was a great mother to her foals and she continued to produce very good-looking and athletic progeny right into her older years. “To have bred three Group 1 winners, she was a rare commodity, but the Khoslas have deserved that because they're great owners and they really care for their horses. “Luckily they have two daughters of Green Room, which are themselves producing very nice stock. And when you think of what the daughters have done in the last couple of years, and with young daughters still to come through and getting good covers, I think we'll be hearing of the Green Room dynasty for many years to come.” Of those two retained daughters, Black Ruby, who is not currently in foal, is already the dam of two winners, Brooklyn (Night Of Thunder) and Rubydooby (Dubawi). Fennela's first foal, a filly by Lope De Vega, was bought by Amo Racing for 550,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 1 last year, and she is carrying a foal by the late Wootton Bassett. The Khoslas have also enjoyed the vicarious thrill of watching City of Troy become the co-top-rated horse in the world in 2024. “And for that reason, we sent a Sea The Stars mare to him last year,” says Khosla. “We'll watch his progress with great interest.” She adds, “Coming to this after having built up a business together and sold it, it was fascinating to go out and learn something else about a completely different industry. And I think we're extremely fortunate that we've got to learn about such a complex one, realising that we've only scratched the surface, as it were.” Based in Scotland, the Khoslas travel regularly to Ireland to see their horses and visited Green Room in the week before she died. “After the last foal, who's now the three-year-old, she clearly wasn't wanting to breed again and she'd been having a lovely time out in the paddock. She's always been treated with such affection by everybody at Ballylinch. We wanted her to enjoy her retirement, which I think she did. “Probably the one who resembles her most, physically, is Black Ruby. Obviously for her last progeny, we were really fingers and everything crossed for another filly. But it just doesn't work that way, so we have a colt, and maybe the last one might be like the first one. Who knows?” That is indeed one of the draws of breeding, that for all the research and money one can invest, it remains one of the great imponderables. What we do know, however, is that Green Room's legacy, though already significant, is far from complete. The post Green Room: A True Blue Hen Remembered appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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