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Agree. And the Derby ( IMO) has also been made less relevant by the same factors. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
“I think this filly's cheating on me.” Well, if that was the opinion of a Hall of Fame trainer, who could argue? Least of all a woman, in the male-dominated Bluegrass of the mid-1970s. But Headley Bell remembers that when Frank Whiteley Jr. sent Nicosia (Gallant Romeo) home to Mill Ridge, his late mother Alice Chandler was not ready to give up. After all, this was a daughter of Nicoma (Nashua), whose previous foal had just won a Grade I; and Alice's husband, Dr. John Chandler, suggested that maybe the filly had simply been bleeding. “This was before anybody really thought about stuff like that,” Bell recalls now. “So they give her some time, and then mom brings her out and starts training the filly herself. Takes her to Chicago, where I end up being her groom, my senior year at Vanderbilt. And we win the Sheridan, and the Matron, and mom is suddenly the first woman to own, breed and train a $100,000 stakes winner.” That maintained what became an unblemished record for the mare: five foals, five stakes winners. Sadly, Nicoma died of strangles after being sold to Tom Gentry to be bred to Northern Dancer. But her name would live on. Not just because of those foals, albeit they achieved a literal longevity: Nicosia herself lived to 34, while a half-brother won 18 of 122 (!) starts. First and foremost, Nicoma's name was preserved through the advisory service founded by a young man entering an old business at a time of bewildering change. Bell had been learning the ropes under Jim Brady at Elmendorf when one of his mother's hardboot friends was outflanked on a stallion deal. Instead of just complaining about upstart competition, they urged Bell to set up Nicoma Bloodstock in 1979 so that the old school might at least know what was happening around them. “I don't want to do that kind of thing,” Bell protested. “It's like being a car salesman.” “Well, do it differently.” Nicosia wins the Sheridan Handicap for trainer Alice H. Chandler | courtesy of Mill Ridge Farm Eventually Bell would also take over management of Mill Ridge itself, and over the years there has inevitably been some crossover. But the margin that persisted can be judged from the fact that the farm's recent celebration of a 41st Grade I winner since 2000 reaches a still more remarkable 54 when combined with Nicoma. Obviously both had many others before then, too, not least the two Arc winners (Trempolino in 1987, Suave Dancer in 1991) that helped to put Nicoma on the map. But it feels apt that the Mill Ridge landmark was brought up by a horse–Test Score (Lookin At Lucky) in the GI Belmont Derby–homebred by the Amerman family, longstanding clients of both the farm and Nicoma. “It's been a long time, though,” Bell notes. “I mean, you're talking about 40 years. It has been, and remains, an evolution. But that was my directive: do it differently. And that's what we have tried to do.” He's the first to stress his debt, from the outset, to clients and collaborators. Certainly he owed much, in establishing Nicoma, to the mentorship of Bill O'Neill and Ray Barnes; and he always had a sounding board, around the home hearth, in his mother and stepfather. But while Sir Ivor would always remain the foundation stone, for the farm itself, another dimension of the Alice Chandler legacy is less obvious. “So many great women were naturally attracted to mom, wanted to be a part of her story,” Bell remarks. “Maggie Carver was probably first. Shirley Taylor. Nancy Dillman. Tolie Otto, with us 40 years. Lynn Schiff. And of course Jerry Amerman. It has been a great thread of Mill Ridge, if you look back, and truly all because of mom. “And then of course John Chandler was a great partner in the whole process. From his time in Britain he knew all the people around the Arabs: Tom Jones, Robert Acton, James Delahooke, Guy Harwood. They needed a presence here, and knew they could trust us. Then George Harris and I became very good friends. So I ended up with this incredible mix of demand and supply. In those days, remember, stallion access was a big thing. Seasons might be $1 million, no guarantee.” Headley Bell | Keeneland It feels very different today, with some books nearing 300, but back then restricted access would lock in mare quality. True, the whole environment was already changing. And Bell is proud, looking back at the explosion of commercialism, to have brought together the likes of Ted Bassett, D.G. Van Clief, William S. Farish and Buddy Bishop in laying down a code of ethics for agents and consultants. “You still had the old hardboots around, guys like Henry White, and mom was a founder member of the KTA,” Bell recalls. “But there were all those commercial people coming through, and then huge issues like CEM, all sorts of ups and downs. It certainly wasn't a straight line. It went up and up, and then crashed. And all the collateral the banks were holding turned into nothing, because suddenly there wasn't a market. There had to be a real reboot.” Fortunately Bell had never abandoned his first vocation, as horseman. So whatever boom-or-bust cycles might dictate the commercial environment, he could always be grateful for a breed-to-race core: early on with Peter Goulandris and Paul de Moussac, in Europe, right through to programs such as that operated by the Amermans today. “So that was really the foundation play,” Bell explains. “Not just that other side, of commercial revenue, but to be able to assist with the horse side. Sharpen Up was a blue-collar horse, and we ended up breeding Trempolino right out of the box. And then I'd managed to associate with Lillie Webb at Xalapa, and we bred Suave Dancer right afterwards.” As already mentioned, controlled access itself guaranteed quality. As such, it feels unsurprising that Bell should have become so absorbed by the cultivation of families. “I had never previously been very academic but when I got into this business, I became a real student,” he says. “A student of pedigree. I started noticing all these different things, like Diesis with Roberto. So I started tracking it, keeping records.” And–again something that has changed–there remained few short cuts for a diligent researcher. Much of it was done longhand, albeit Bell eagerly subscribed to some of the pioneering tools, from cumbersome almanacs to primitive software. “It was certainly all developing,” he reflects. “But part of being a student was to realize that just because a horse was by a particular sire, it wouldn't necessarily be emphasizing that particular line. So you try to recognize the clues, whether color, size, distance, ability. And then we started tracking trends, how stallions ebb and flow, and trying to catch them in those cycles. Putting all these different things together was a real process of evolution.” With their ubiquity eroding such edge as “nicks” may ever have offered, Bell found himself delving deeper into mare produce records, and all the ancillary variables. “There are so many links in the chain,” he says. “Where a horse is raised, how it's managed, its early training. And, with pedigrees, I'm always looking at the entire blend. I love to see Nureyev wherever I can get it, or even Hyperion–and maybe try to double it up. Basically it's about putting the ingredients in the stew and making it the best it can be. Oscar Performance | Sarah Andrew “The commercial drivers weren't quite as extreme as now. But I was always a value player. Dynaformer, for instance: here was a $5,000 rogue, outperforming, moving mares up. It was about going out there and being willing, trying not to compromise. Because that way you found not just the Dynaformers but also the Into Mischiefs, the Tapits. We played those until they became too expensive. But when a window closes, you pull out and look for the next one. Because they're out there. Obviously it helped that most of my people weren't commercial breeders. They can use a horse on the bubble. I sent 10 mares to Arrogate when he was $50,000. He was still, then, whatever he was going to be a couple of years before.” Mill Ridge's return to the stallion game has itself proved exemplary in that respect. Oscar Performance, now wildly oversubscribed, was down to 63 mares in his fourth season–and that included plenty of “home” support. “Just think about that, pushing him up that hill,” Bell says. “Sometimes that contrarian way of thinking can work out in a market. Well, maybe not contrarian. But we've always tried to find value. Here was a proper racehorse, but a turf horse. And we managed to beat the system. And that's healthy for our industry, that it doesn't always have to be one type.” The whole ride with Oscar, from foaling to covering shed, has been all the more fulfilling because of the mutual trust and respect between the Amerman family and their counselor Bob Feld, on the one hand, and Bell and his son Price, livewire General Manager at Mill Ridge since 2020, on the other. “That's why the farm's 41st Grade I means so much,” Bell emphasizes. “Because it was Test Score. To work with people like these, with Jerry Amerman who's so intuitive, is a true privilege. She was a champion dog breeder, she understands animals. The success they've had, with a 10-mare program, is incredible. So none of this is ever about me. This was their moment. Every single thing we achieve is because we work as a team.” That said, Test Score is a Mill Ridge graduate and the mating did have Nicoma fingerprinting. “I mean, we could only use Lookin At Lucky because the Amermans want to breed runners,” Bell acknowledges. “The mare, Joy of Learning (Kitten's Joy), is out of Mrs. Amerman's favorite, Miss Chapin (Royal Academy), who was very talented but not sound, won her only start. And Joy of Learning was actually offset in her knee, only won an off-the-turf maiden. Jerry Amerman | Keeneland “Lookin At Lucky was a horse who just outkicked his coverage. Obviously with these very large books nowadays, statistically you really need to look at relative performance. I had always been a huge Smart Strike fan, all our clients had shares in him. And then, being out of a Belong To Me mare, that gave me some Danzig. It's becoming harder to get that. Anyway the result was a value but proven stallion, who just wasn't ever given a true chance.” This is not an industrial operation. Bell reckons to advise on no more than 75 matings every spring. Yet since the turn of the century there have been three Horses of the Year, three GI Kentucky Derby winners, 13 at the Breeders' Cup. There are no definitive rules, of course: one of those Horses of the Year, Bricks and Mortar (Giant's Causeway), was just about the only yearling George Strawbridge sold in the 30 years Bell worked with him. “But I can't say it enough, it's all been about the people you're working with,” Bell reiterates. “Just quality people, all the way through. But while we're only ever a piece of it, things have happened more often than they should. We've been truly blessed, and often with sires–Animal Kingdom, Point of Entry–that haven't done too much otherwise. It's about navigating a way through, rather than just depending on some nick that everybody thinks they know. “Our role is to fulfill dreams. Just think of that, what a thing to be able to say. But that is the truth of it. And we've done it a lot. It is extraordinary–especially, as our visitors remind us every day, to be able to do this out here and working with our son. So all of it's a gift, and we celebrate it every day.” The post Mill Ridge Landmark Only Half The Story For Nicoma, Farm Celebrates 41st Grade I Winner Since 2000 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
8th-IND, $43.5k, Msw, 2yo, f, 5fT, post time: 5:47 p.m. ET HEN PARTY (Into Mischief) is the headline act in this turf dash for Godolphin and trainer Eoin Harty. The May foal is set to become the latest starter for Fair Maiden (Street Boss), who graduated by better than 14 lengths at second asking and was third in the GI Natalma Stakes in 2019 before upsetting the GI La Brea Stakes the following season. The bay filly is the year-younger half-sister to First Resort (Uncle Mo), himself a first-out winner sprinting through the Ellis slop and last seen taking last year's GII Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths in November 2024. Hen Party, who has trained well over the Turfway synthetic ahead of this first go, will be ridden by Martin Garcia. TJCIS PPs The post Tuesday Insights: Well-Related Into Mischief Colt Gets Going at Indy 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 Fasig-Tipton California Fall Yearlings Sale will be held Tuesday at Fairplex in Pomona, with bidding scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. PT. A total of 266 yearlings have been catalogued for the one-session auction. “It's been strong,” Fasig-Tipton's California representative Mike Machowsky said of activity around the sales barns ahead of Tuesday's sale. “There were quite a few people out here looking yesterday. And they are starting out again today. Interest is always strong for these Cal-breds.” The catalogue, made up predominantly of California-breds, includes yearlings by Army Mule, Authentic, Clubhouse Ride, Corniche, Cyberknife, Drain the Clock, Early Voting, Good Magic, Grazen, Hard Spun, Justify, Knicks Go, Liam's Map, Maxfield, Maximus Mischief, McKinzie, Nashville, Olympiad, Omaha Beach, Oscar Performance, Practical Joke, Sir Prancelot (Ire), Stay Thirsty, Tiz the Law, and Vekoma. “We have a good, balanced catalogue with a little bit of everything,” Machowsky said. “We have some productive stallions in the catalogue, both California sires and Kentucky-sired Cal-breds that are eligible for the state's breeding program.” California Fall sale graduates who have won stakes races this year include graded stakes winner Big City Lights (Mr. Big), Old Pal (Grazen), Pushiness (Kantharos), and Santa Barbarian (Bodexpress). Barton Thoroughbreds will offer a half-sister by Bodexpress (hip 255) to recent Daisycutter Handicap winner Pushiness, who sold for $115,000 at the 2022 California Fall Yearling sale. “If you enjoy racing Cal-breds or race in California, this is the only market that gives you the chance to look at a number of Cal-breds,” Machowsky said. The post Fasig-Tipton California Fall Yearlings Sale to be Held Tuesday 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
There's never a good time for a spill, but the one Sunday at Churchill Downs that landed Brian Hernandez Jr. in the intensive care unit at the University of Louisville Hospital could not have come at a worse time. Hernandez sustained seven broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a liver laceration that was treated by a minor surgical procedure. The doctors have told Hernandez he should expect to be out six to eight weeks. That means he will not be able to ride Mystik Dan (Goldencents) in Saturday's GII Lukas Classic at Churchill or Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) in the Oct. 5 GI Spinster Stakes at Keeneland. Both horses are trained by Kenny McPeek. When reached Monday by text, McPeek said he had not yet decided who would take over for Hernandez. A possible substitute could be his brother, Colby Hernandez “I am sore, of course,” Hernandez said Monday when reached at the hospital. “I'm just laying in the hospital bed now. They did a little small surgery on my liver last night, but we still have the seven broken ribs. They're going to do a surgery on the ribs [Tuesday] and, hopefully, that will be something that will get me going in the right direction. The doctors are saying between six and eight weeks. We'll know more here in the next few days after we do the surgery on the ribs. That's when we'll have a whole lot better idea of when we can get back.” With just five weeks to go before the Breeders' Cup, it appears that Hernandez will not be able to ride in that event either. Hernandez was aboard Sgt. Garcia (Audible) in the maiden race for $30,000 claimers when the horse injured one of his front legs near the 5/16th pole and threw Hernandez to track. Sgt. Garcia was euthanized. “Any time you're dealing with a profession where an ambulance follows you around the track proves the point that it's a pretty dangerous job,” Hernandez said. “Riding-wise you know that going into it, so you have to keep that in the back of your mind. At the same time yesterday sitting there in the back of the ambulance, at one point you're saying I don't ever want to ever do this again. The next second, you're thinking 'When can I come back? I have all these good horses to ride.' You start preparing to get back out there and you try to miss as few days as possible.” The post Brian Hernandez Jr Out Six to Eight Weeks After Churchill Spill 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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