2025 Mating Plans, Presented By Spendthrift: Harris Auerbach, Auerbach Racing LLC

[Wandering Eyes]

Some 47 years ago, a horse by the name of Bravo Bravo won his first start off a claim by the Auerbach Family of California, setting in motion a long and successful career in the racing and breeding business, both at home in California and in Central Kentucky. The matriarch of the family is the widely respected Madeline Auerbach, who among other accomplishments founded and is the former Chairperson of CARMA (California Retirement Management Account), a funding arm for retired race horses in the state.

In 1996, Madeline Auerbach and her late husband Jim were approached the much-missed trainer Barry Abrams with the idea of claiming a then 6-year-old son of Nureyev named Unusual Heat. While he only won one of his two start for the Auerbachs and partners, Unusual Heat was retired to stud in the Golden State and raised the bar for stallions in the state, topping the standings seven times prior to his passing in 2017. As you will read below, Unusual Heat as left an indelible mark on the family's breeding operation, now headed up by Harris Auerbach, one of Madeline's six children.

“We have really trimmed down our line-up the last few seasons as 'less is now more,'” Harris Auerbach said. “All of the mares on our roster are homebreds out of our best mare lines. We have had some of these families for 30 years!”

To follow is the operation's plans for the 2025 breeding season.

HAUTE STYLE, 12, Unusual Heat–Style of the Year, by Half a Year, to be bred to Kingsbarns

Foaled a colt by Nashville Friday, Jan. 17. Haute Style is a productive young mare with five foals of racing age (including a 2-year-old of 2025), three have started and all are winners.  Her 2022 filly by Global Campaign, Warming, was a very impressive first-out winner at Aqueduct last summer and is being pointed to a winter 2025 campaign. Haute Style is out of our oldest family. We raced her mother and bred all 14 of her siblings. There are three other active mares in her first dam. Physically, she is the best-looking of our broodmares and is the beauty winner of her family. Big, but not oversized, well-proportioned and correct. She has passed those traits along to all of her foals. She's versatile and can be bred to a lot of different body types. For 2025, we decided to send her back to the Uncle Mo line with Kingsbarns, who we consider one of the top physicals of Uncle Mo sons to start at stud. They are a good pedigree match on paper and physical combination for the eyes. Hoping to inject more dirt profile on a pedigree that's been largely slanted to the turf.

JAX EL, 17, Unusual Heat–Sci Fi Kin, by Siphon (Brz), 2025 covering TBD

Currently in foal to Candy Ride (Arg) on an Apr. 17 cover. Jax El is a stakes-placed mare and Grade I producer who has six horses of racing age, five to run, all five are winners. She currently has 5-year-old King's Glory (a $575,000 Keeneland September graduate), by Speightstown on the race track. Her first baby was Dr. Dorr by Lookin At Lucky, winner of the GII Californian Stakes and second to champion Accelerate in the GI Hollywood Gold Cup, besting champion City of Light in that race. Dr. Dorr was also graded-stakes placed multiple other times at various distances on the dirt.

Jax El is also a full sister to Grade II winner Pretty Unusual. Jax El is a large, heavier mare who dazzled with brilliant speed as a racehorse. She, like most Unusual Heat mares, is a good outcross for many sire lines due to her Nureyev descendancy, plus she adds the added uniqueness of the Siphon line.

Jax El will be visiting Epicenter at Coolmore-Ashford. She's a big strong mare and he's right sized and scoped for her. Dirt long producer on a dirt long runner. She offers some speed while he offers distance. Giant's Causeway over Unusual Heat is a lightly tried but intriguing pedigree play.

LETHAL HUNTER, 22, Jade Hunter–Lethal Leta, by Synastry, to be bred to Charge It

Currently empty. Lethal Hunter is an unraced mare and a graded stakes producer of seven horses to race, five winners, two black-type winners and one graded stakes horse. She's also the producer of two different sales yearlings of $500,000 and $485,000. She currently has an unraced 3 year old in Dubai in training with Michael Costa named La Jedal (Candy Ride {Arg}) and a yearling filly by Nashville. There are eight other active mares in her first dam, including two of her daughters. Generally, we are hesitant to breed any mare over 19 or 20 years old, but based on Lethal Hunter's physical condition (she looks 15 or 16) and her ability to deliver nice foals after empty seasons, we decided to give her one more try in the breeding shed. The bulk of her babies as a young mare were by Unusual Heat, as we acquired her dam Lethal Leta when she carrying with Lethal Hunter, specifically for the purpose of breeding to Unusual Heat. Lethal Hunter is one of the last Jade Hunter mares in production and offers a very different profile to breed and many good outcross possibilities. In the past, she has produced a multitude of body types, different types of runners by distance and style and her foals have all had unique mental characteristics to match their “outlier” mother. In other words, she goes well with a lot of different lines and we're never quite sure what type of foal will be produced.  She is booked to Charge It, first crop son of Tapit at Gainesway, for 2025 in hope to add his impressive body frame and dirt distance preferences to her long legs, narrower frame and turfy preference.

LETHAL LEGACY, 12, Unusual Heat–Lethal Leta, by Synastry, to be bred to Street Sense

Currently in foal on an Apr. 9 cover to McKinzie. Lethal Legacy got a later start in breeding shed at age seven and has produced three foals, two of racing age, one to race, a winner at in his first start at two, Lethal Speed (Kantharos). The other foals are by Oscar Performance and Improbable. There are eight other active mares in her first dam. This mare was a hard-knocking, durable racehorse out of a very fast family geared towards longer sprints and mile races. Versatile to run on both dirt and turf. Has a page that easy to outcross and goes well with many sire lines.  Physically, it would be advantageous to mate her with leggier stallions with more scope, but the Kantharos mating produced a horse with speed and closing kick. She is going to proven stallion Street Sense in 2025, as the cross has produced multiple graded stakes winners and the physical match should produce a well- balanced foal.

REMINISCING, 6, Acclamation–Chi Chi Nette, by Ole', unlikely to be bred in 2025

Currently in foal on a May 26 cover to Olympiad. She's a young mare with a lot of upside that has produced two very different foals–a 2023 filly by More Than Ready and a 2024 colt by Liam's Map. Both are nice young prospects and we're excited to have her in foal to Olympiad and the Speightstown line, which goes very well with the Unusual Heat dam side. In light of the late cover date, we have tentatively decided to give this mare the 2025 breeding season off to ease the pressure of a potential quick breeding turn around. It would allow her to concentrate on raising a probable May foal and cycle back to an earlier cover in 2026.

We retired AMERICA'S FRIEND, a graded stakes producer (dam of GSW America's Tale and recent SW Hollywood Beauty) and legacy for us in 2024 at age 20 after she aborted her 2023 cover.

The post 2025 Mating Plans, Presented By Spendthrift: Harris Auerbach, Auerbach Racing LLC appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article