Constellation Sale Fits a Galaxy of Opportunity

[Wandering Eyes]

They called her Constellation because of the sprinkling of silver Birdcatcher spots in her coat. But while she had shone as brightly as any, during the giddy opening phase of the LNJ Foxwoods adventure, her $3.15 million sale to Don Alberto Corp. at Fasig-Tipton earlier this month was only a point of reference in a much bigger picture.

For just as a constellation only exists as a function of the human imagination, so does the navigation of an enterprise as ambitious as LNJ depend on the kind of eye that can see where each investment fits with the rest. Because the sale of Constellation confirmed that LNJ cannot be pigeonholed: they’re breeding, they’re buying, they’re selling, they’re racing.

Step forward Jason Litt, along with agency partner Alex Solis II, advisors to the Roth family (Larry, Nanci and daughter Jaime) since the inception of LNJ six years ago. Or, rather, spring forward-such being the vigour exuded by this Californian sunbeam, the words tumbling out, barely able to keep up with his ideas.

“At the end of the day, we are opportunistic players of the market,” Litt says. “We do a bit of everything, and LNJ are tremendous to work for because they understand how opportunities sporadically present themselves.”

And that, in turn, heightens the dynamism suffusing the project. “You always have to debate if you’re keeping a horse for sentimental reasons, or because you think it’s exactly what you need,” says Litt. “Or, do you take advantage of the fact that the market is very strong and you have what people want? Because in this market, you’ll be rewarded if you have the right horse.”

Last year, that meant cashing in Nickname (Scat Daddy) for $3 million: LNJ’s first Grade I winner, picked out by Solis/Litt as a yearling for $350,000. It was a taller order, however, to turn a profit on Constellation, whose $800,000 tag as a daughter of Bellamy Road had raised eyebrows at OBS.

“When we started with the Roths, the plan was to build a broodmare band,” Litt explains. “But the inherent problem with that is that it just takes time. You do a mating, it’s a year later before you get a foal; it’s two years before they get going; then there might be setbacks, what have you. So we needed to get some action. We’d had good success at the 2-year-old sales, so the idea was: ‘All right, let’s go and try and get the best filly at the sale.’

“And it turns out that the best one, to us, is by a sire since shipped to New York. But she breezed 9.4, and beautifully, her ears pricked, just class, you knew she’d be expensive-but what was that? Four? Five? So we’re bidding, and it’s heated, we’re at 775 and they’re asking for eight and Alex and I are looking at each other, thinking: ‘This is either going to go really, really good-or really, really bad!’ So the hammer drops and everyone is like, holy cow. Including us.”

So the pressure was on when Constellation was given her debut at Saratoga during sales week. Everyone in town, a loaded field. She won by four and a half lengths, and a month later had a Grade I placing in the Spinaway. She did miss much of her sophomore year but resurfaced to win the GI La Brea S. and was only thwarted by a neck in the GI Madison at Keeneland at four.

On retirement, she was covered by Curlin and all set to complete the original agenda. But then Litt and Solis fell head over heels for her Tapit half-sister at Saratoga, adding her to the stable for $750,000. With a foothold in the family, they reasoned it would be worth letting the market value Constellation.

There is, then, action on every front for LNJ-reflecting the cosmopolitan strategy recommended by Litt and Solis on taking up their brief.

“The question is: can you breed better than you can buy?” Litt explains. “Because if you can, and keep going, maybe you can get stallions too. The Roths came and said we’re in this for the long term. And filly prices were down, and we were willing to travel-to see how other markets work, how they value different stuff. If you can cherry-pick the best of what every country brings to the table, maybe you might get lucky.”

And, as the old axiom has it: the harder they worked, the luckier they got. They picked up Gold Round (Ire) (Caerleon), a half-sister to Goldikova (Anabaa) for €520,000 at Arqana December in 2012-carrying not only a filly, but a filly who would go on to win at Group level. They found an Unbridled’s Song half-sister to Shamardal in Australia, hardly her optimal market. (Her name is Diamond Necklace and her mating with War Front makes Dogtag, a Saratoga stakes winner for LNJ this summer, a quite ingenious name.) Closer to home, they bought Life Happened (Stravinsky) while her daughter Tepin (Bernstein) was still only a Grade III winner.

It was purely as a fan that Litt originally got interested, his dad having claimed a few around Golden Gate Fields or Bay Meadows. So he was a relatively late starter in bloodstock, already in his late twenties when he first visited the sales at Keeneland. “And it was just crazy, the energy of the whole thing,” he recalls. “And I thought how cool it would be one day to be able to look at a horse and say, ‘this is a good one’ and be right.”

He earned his stripes thereafter, notably by a seven-year stint at Three Chimneys. Having started out with $2,000 yearlings, his first big gamble, a $150,000 yearling, proved to be Grade I winner Cry And Catch Me (Street Cry {Ire}). And while the budget kept going up as he hooked up with Solis-along with the quality, through the likes of Mizdirection (Mizzen Mast) and Shared Belief (Candy Ride {Arg})-he has never lost sight of the abiding principle: you’re trying to find a runner.

“I used to be a swimmer,” Litt says. “You trained, you were timed, and if you were faster than someone by half a second you knew what that meant. There was nothing subjective to it. And that’s the beauty of this game, too. There’s a moment of objective reckoning. All this stuff [at the sales] gets puts aside. They race, and they tell you how good they are, no hiding place.”

So the rewards of the game are earned. Though he feels himself to be working with the best of them all in Solis, raving about his “freakish” talents, Litt feels as though they are rummaging through a flea market against dozens of antique experts.

In the meantime, the abiding priority is that the Roths enjoy the ride. “We’re trying to provide owners an experience that is unique, one they can’t get by just visiting a place,” Litt says. “But to go to Deauville, France when Gold Round’s daughter, Golden Valentine, won a Group 3, at the finish we were all just dumbfounded. That’s a phenomenal experience.

“It’s interesting to have an operation not only geared towards racing but that recognises the market. How to handle the play of the emotion and practicality-that’s the nuance of the game.

“You need people who understand, and the Roths are spectacular. We have a lot of pieces moving. They know it doesn’t always work out, but that every now and then it will. So to come full circle with a lovely mare like Constellation is tremendously gratifying.”

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