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Athabascan outstays rivals in St Leger Stakes
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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Based at his Mill Ridge Farm, Headley Bell and his Nicoma Bloodstock have been helping clients mate their mares since 1979. With such notable successes as Trempolino, Suave Dancer, Keeper Hill, Barbaro, Street Sense, Havre de Grace, Oscar Performance, Bricks and Mortar, and the 2024 Preakness winner Seize the Grey, it's no wonder that many of the clients he discusses below have been with him for over 40 years. “It's such a gift to be able to assist our clients in this manner because it's something I'm passionate about,” said Bell, who went on to describe the methods he brings to his matings. “My first objective is to understand what the goals of the client are. Are they a commercial breeder? Are they breeding to race? Or are they both? And then, if they have a portfolio of mares or are trying to build one, I like to grade them out into A, B, and C categories because it helps you to decide. I value them, appraise them and generally stick to a 20% value of the mare for the stud fee. I also use various tools such as your TDN sire statistics, Mare Produce Records and a computer program that lets me study stakes winners and their 5 cross pedigrees. My goal is always to breed a racehorse. I understand the commercial side, but by breeding a racehorse, you'll satisfy the commercial side as well. My objective is to assist clients in fulfilling their dreams. Because truly, that's why we do this.” “The first thing I try to do in the process is inspect the mare if possible, because that helps define, by looking at her, what her pedigree is. Through her color, her size, her racing talent, I'm trying to identify who she is and not just that she's a Bernardini mare because she's by Bernardini. I try to understand the entire pedigree, and strongly consider the dam's side. I also apply this practice with stallions.” Below, Bell takes us through seven of his clients, old and new, and their plans for their 2025 matings. SMART SHOPPING, 12, Smart Strike-Shop Again, by Wild Again. To be bred to Oscar Performance Tolie Otto and her daughter, Audie, have been clients of ours for 40 years, and while we lost Tolie two years ago, her daughter, Audie, now runs the business, Jamm Ltd. In 2007, we bought Shop Again and she became a foundation mare for her. She produced G1 winner, Power Broker and Tolie kept a Smart Strike filly out of her to race that she named Smart Shopping. Smart Shopping showed talent with Brendan Walsh and appeared to be an Oaks filly, but injured herself at Tampa. It's a very active family, and we bred her to Arrogate to produce Seize the Grey. The commercial side of the business can be such a herd mentality and for clients, and I bred 12 mares to Arrogate in his last year when everyone had stopped breeding to him. She's a beautiful mare and has a lovely 2024 Life is Good filly. Audie is a shareholder in Oscar Performance and going to breed her to him which has a terrific pedigree blend with mare. Shop Again was a daughter of Wild Again, which is the Icecapade family, the Hyperion line. Oscar Performance has that same line through Nureyev and blends very well with Smart Shopping. MADEMOISELLE COCO, 12, Medaglia d'Oro-Easter Bunnette, by Carson City. To be bred to Cody's Wish Another longtime friend and client of 40 years is Nancy Dillman who bred to Diesis (GB) to produce Champion Diminuendo in 1985, his first crop. Nancy also bred Havre de Grace who was Horse of the Year and she only has three mares but is very intuitive and has always been a student of things. Mademoiselle Coco is a half-sister to Havre de Grace and another mare who we sent to Arrogate and has a nice three-year-old filly called Neon Icon who has earned $250,000. Mademoiselle Coco is a Medaglia d'Oro mare and we were looking for some size with mating. She's currently in foal to Cody's Wish, and Nancy is going to return her to Cody's Wish. We like him and we're happy enough that it's his second year. She has two Essential Qualities that precede this mating as well. If we believe in the horse, we'll go back to the horse. JOY OF LEARNING, 9, Kitten's Joy-Miss Chapin, by Royal Academy. To be bred to Not This Time Bobby Frankel once told Jerry and John Amerman, `you need to meet Alice Chandler,' and Jerry will tell you it was one of the best days of her life. As you can see with our clients, many are ladies and they had wonderful friendship and relationship with Mom and Mill Ridge. Jerry is a horseman, a champion dog breeder and animal lover, and she and John make a tremendous partnership. Obviously, Oscar Performance is the flagship and the fulfillment of every dream. They have about 10 mares or so that they breed from and are not commercial breeders. Their two foundation mares have been Devine Actress, the dam of Oscar Performance, and Miss Chapin, a beautiful mare and good producer. One of her daughters I'd like to feature is Joy of Learning by Kitten's Joy, such an underrated stallion, pedigree-wise and performance-wise. Joy of Learning was a winner and she has a very promising three-year-old called Test Score, who is by Lookin at Lucky. I have used Lookin at Lucky quite a bit, because he breeds racehorses, and he's a beautifully-bred horse but was never commercial. She has a very attractive Not This Time, just turned two, and we were able to get that fee at $40,000. We're going to return to Not This Time and he's deservedly gotten more expensive, so you kind of average out the $40,000 from her first mating to him and the $175,000 and you're at $100,000. Not This Time | Sarah Andrew WILD SILK, 12, Street Sense-Spun Silk, by A. P. Indy. To be bred to Not This Time Another client and dear friend is Lynn Schiff and her Clover Hill Farm. Sadly, we lost Lynn a few years ago but her daughter, Maggie Gieseke, is carrying on. They have about six mares or so, and are commercial breeders. Lynn and I bought three mares in 2017 to inject some new blood into their program and one of the mares we bought was Wild Silk for $70,000. She was a Godolphin cull, from the good Fed Biz family. She is a daughter of Street Sense, and she needed some size, so we were going to experiment to see if we could breed some size into her. You identify the weaknesses and see if you can breed those out. I was fortunate enough to have mated with Jim Tafel, Street Sense from the first crop of Street Cry. He too provides a source of Hyperion through Dixieland Band and Lynn, also a shareholder in Oscar Performance, bred Wild Silk to him and produced Red Carpet Ready from that mating. Wild Silk has a lovely Not This Time filly who sold as a yearling in Saratoga this year for $750,000, so Wild Silk has done very, very well in the process, and we are going to breed her back to Not This Time for the same reason really as the Amermans did with Joy of Learning. If you're trying to breed a racehorse and you can see you've got a very nice one, you're inclined to replicate that but we know there are no guarantees. HUMOR ME DIXIE, 8, Distorted Humor-Dixie City, by Dixie Union. Will be bred to Upstart Frank Garrison is a longtime friend from my college days. We own a couple of mares together and a mare I'm going to feature here is a mare called Humor Me Dixie. She is a Distorted Humor mare who, similar to Wild Silk, I paid $50,000 for her because I wanted to get into the pedigree. She lacked some size. I bought her as a maiden, and we mated her to Omaha Beach in her first year and she has a very promising two-year-old by him called Presha that we sold for $40,000 and then sold as a two-year-old for $390,000 and is stakes placed in the Tepin. She has some potential for Will Walden and Woodford Racing. We have a very nice Upstart yearling now. We believe in Upstart and a shareholder. You study the cycles in these stallions, and you see their books, when they get weak, and the strength and use certain stallions accordingly. She's currently in foal to Oscar Perfomrance and we'll return to Upstart for the blend, the size, and the timing with Upstart. KODIAC WINTERGREEN (IRE), 4, Kodiac (GB)-Humble and Proud (Ire), by Pivotal. To be bred to Oscar Performance Kodiac Wintergreen is for a new client, a lovely gentlemen named Michael Salley. It's a fascinating story. He was in Lexington, and came into town for a TOBA new-owner seminar. He owned some horses and was just trying to continue his education, and took a Horse Country tour to Mill Ridge. He fell in love with Mill Ridge and reached out to see if he could meet Mr. Bell. He told me he wants to breed and race from what he breeds. I said in the meantime, let's shave a couple of years off that plan and consider a few yearlings. He bought four yearlings in September and a maiden mare named Kodiac Wintergreen in November. She comes from a lovely family, and her dam is by Pivotal, such a great source of the Nureyev line, and once again, you've got Hyperion in the process. She was stakes-placed at Keeneland and earned $150,000. We are going to breed her to Oscar Performance to utilize that Hyperion line and the pedigree blend. NICKNAME, 12, Scat Daddy-Nina Fever, by Borrego. To be bred to Munnings Lastly, a new client is Brookdale Racing whom I'm assisting with their U.S. operations. They're commercial breeders and they also race and have stallion interests. They own half of Thorpedo Anna. They've got about 15 mares, about five or six that are A and B mares. The mare I'm going to feature is a mare called Nickname, winner of the GI Frizette Stakes, a good mare. She's got a good Wootton Bassett (GB) colt who has just turned three, as well as a just-turned two-year-old Wootton Bassett. She is in foal to Gun Runner. They ended up sending three of their mares to Munnings, including this mare. I believe Munnings is a value play, and at the same time breeds you a racehorse. Timing-wise, it's a good time to use him. You might say, `my goodness, you're stepping back from Wootton Bassett and Gun Runner to go to Munnings.' For me, those sires are paving the way, and this complements her. DREAM TREE, 10, Uncle Mo-Afleet Maggi, by Afleet Alex. To be bred to Life is Good Dream Tree is currently in foal to Constitution and both of these mares have been given every chance with quality stallions. This mare was a very good racemare, a Grade I-winning, multiple graded stakes winner of over $500,000, and she has a very nice Gun Runner filly that they retained to race. She has been bred to Curlin, Into Mischief, and stallions like that and we are going to breed to Life is Good. We really do believe in the horse and are sending a few mares to him. It doesn't put me off to use a stallion in their third or fourth years, particularly a brilliant horse like him. The post 2025 Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Headley Bell, Nicoma Bloodstock appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Special Agent · Posted
It would be nice if everyone here could enjoy her. Rob said she's the best horse he's trained. Money talks, and what do you do? -
By Special Agent · Posted
The plus is at least something is being tried. Unless the ideas evolve very little will be sustainable. Everything looks great at the pointy end. Book 2 at Karaka tells a different story. I hope someone bought a champion at a bargain price there. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
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