2025 Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift Farm: Marc Wampler

[Wandering Eyes]

Marc Wampler has been involved with racing since 1993 and currently is the racing manager and bloodstock agent for Pocket Aces Racing as well as offering similar services to private clientele.

When breeding, the first thing Wampler asks his clients is whether they are breeding a racehorse or a sales horse. He says he believes it's an important initial step in the process as the pool of potential stallions to use varies depending on the answer. “If breeding to race, the stud book offers many options and an opportunity to find value. If breeding to sell, the focus narrows to commercial sires–in today's market that usually means the most-recently retired, fashionably bred, graded stakes winners–and it will take money to make money.”

From there, Wampler says he likes to start zeroing in on specific stallions by establishing a stud fee range that suits the mare, based on her pedigree, performance, and physical.

“Over-breeding your mare can be just as dangerous as under breeding, especially from a commercial standpoint. You don't want your weanling or yearling to show up at the sale as one of the worst-bred progeny by a particular sire.”

“I also like to make a critical assessment of each mare's physical attributes and flaws so I can match her up to a stallion who will hopefully improve her weaknesses and further enhance her assets.”

Wysteria, 9, Tale of the Cat–Smokey Diplomacy, by Dynaformer
Wyseria is going to Gun Runner. She is an unraced Tale of the Cat mare whose first foal, MGSW Implicated (Connect), won the GII Nassau Stakes at Woodbine last summer. She defeated 2023 Canadian Horse of the Year MGISW Fev Rover (Ire) (Gutaifan {Ire}) in the process.

For 2025, we were looking for a stallion who could take Wysteria to the “next level” commercially and now that she is a Grade II winner producer, we felt like the step up in stud fee (relative to her other matings) was justified. We considered other options, however, Gun Runner seemed like the best fit for Wysteria as he was an ideal match physically and we were able to avoid excessive, up close, male line in-breeding with him on the 5-cross. That, and his yearlings averaged more than $520,000 in 2024, with 10 individuals topping the seven-figure mark.

Neom | Thorostride

Neom, 9, Mineshaft–Noble Grey, by Forestry
Neom is a mare that we purchased privately shortly after her half-sister broke her maiden at Santa Anita in January of 2023. The half-sister is MGSW & MGISP Ag Bullet (Twirling Candy) and she has gone on to become a multiple graded stakes winner and earner of more than $1.3-million.

Neom will be bred to Arabian Lion in 2025. There are many factors that make him a very exciting, young stallion prospect, however, the key trait for her is the “curb appeal” he should bring to this mating. Neom is a big, sturdy mare, correct through the knees and ankles and hard to fault physically. However, she is being bred commercially, and while it might not have anything to do with her foal's ability to run, her lack of “flash” could hurt us in the sales ring. We love the fact that Arabian Lion is a Grade I winner at seven furlongs. but it is just as important for the commercial success of her offspring that he is an extremely handsome son of Justify that sold at public auction for $600K. Big and pretty sells!

Pocket Aces Racing
Pocket Aces Racing has been around for 20 years now and for much of that time we have sold, or placed, our fillies and mares once their racing careers are over. However, enough time has gone by now that we've been able to see a few of those fillies and mares go on to have success producing sales horses and racehorses for other people. Considering this, we've become more cautious about which fillies and mares exit our program, especially ones we anticipate having an upside in the not-too-distant future and that might not sell particularly well at the time of retirement.

Homeroom Angel with her 2025 Drain the Clock colt | Courtesy Pocket Aces Racing

Spellbook, 6, Unified–Swampoodle, by Broken Vow
We purchased Spellbook as a racing prospect at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton October Yearling sale. At the time, we were particularly excited about her potential as a racehorse. She had good size, scope and strength and a very athletic way of moving. However, as she matured into her backend 2-year-old and 3-year-old seasons, her physique changed dramatically. She finished out at 16.3 hands and filled that frame out like a tank, and less like a sleek racing machine, by the end of her 3-year-old year. She ran once, and acquitted herself quite well, finishing 4th in a maiden special weight at Laurel as an early 3-year-old. However, she got so big as that year wore on that it became increasingly difficult to keep her sound long enough to sustain any kind of racing campaign.

We have decided to breed her to Blazing Sevens for 2025. We knew, going into the breeding season, we would be looking for a commercial stallion for Spellbook as our goal is to sell. With that in mind, we focused on new stallions for 2025 that represented the best value. As we went through the process, we realized that Blazing Sevens was ticking all our boxes. Strong sire line through Good Magic, Grade I winner at two and classic-placed at three (just missing a win in the Preakness, by a head, to National Treasure), as well as being a high-priced sales yearling himself. However, none of those were the key factors in selecting Blazing Sevens.

The key was value. There are multiple first-year stallions which met our pedigree, performance and sales criteria but Blazing Sevens' $12,500 stud fee represented a much better value than any of the others. The stud farms are smart. They know breeders have migrated from proven to potential and they price first-year stallions accordingly. We felt like Darby Dan did an excellent job of creating instant demand, especially with key industry insiders, by pricing Blazing Sevens reasonably and not adding $5,000-$10,000 on his stud fee just because he's a freshman sire. Hopefully, that demand will carry over to the sales ring.

Homeroom Angel, 7, Will Take Charge–Reading Room, by Indian Charlie
Homeroom Angel is a 7-year-old Will Take Charge mare that we purchased privately as a 2-year-old. We campaigned her until her 5-year-old season and she won three races for us while hitting the board six times from 17 starts. There were two main reasons why we decided to keep her: first, she had an excellent physical. At 16.1 she has great size; she is correct through her knees and ankles and tracks well. She also has tons of strength through her hip and gaskins with the kind of bone you like to see in a broodmare prospect. Second, by the time we retired her in early 2023, her dam's half-sister England's Rose had established herself as a stakes winning and graded stakes-placed filly whose career best was a 2nd place finish in the 2022 GI Matriarch Stakes.

At the Keeneland January 2023 sale, England's Rose sold as a racing/broodmare prospect for $600,000 and was subsequently bred to Flightline. In addition, her 2-year-old half-brother of 2024 broke his maiden at Saratoga last summer (sidelined since but he's back on the work tab now).

We have decided to breed Homeroom Angel to Blazing Sevens as well and the reasons for that decision are similar to the reasons we are breeding Spellbook to him. It also helps that Blazing Sevens' sire, Good Magic, has done very well with Fappiano line mares, which is the male line Homeroom Angel hails from.

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