OBS Shoppers Glad To Return To This Well

[Wandering Eyes]

System seems to work pretty well. Donato Lanni buys their standout for Amr Zedan, and on they go: win their Grade Is, make another ton of money at stud. In 2022, it was the $2.3- million Uncle Mo colt we now know as Hill 'n' Dale stallion and 'TDN Rising Star' Arabian Knight; a year later, it was a $2-million son of Good Magic, 'Rising Star' Muth, meanwhile underway at Gainesway.

With horses, however, there's always something you could do to make things even better.

Last year Zedan called Jimbo Gladwell with the obvious question: which single horse should he pick from the Top Line consignment this time?

Jimbo recalls his answer with a chuckle. “Well, you need to change your way of thinking,” he told Zedan. “Because you did the same thing with Arabian Knight. Only wanted one out of the consignment. You know what that did? Cost us both the Breeders' Cup Classic. And the Breeders' Cup Mile!”

Zedan could be forgiven if baffled by that response. But had you watched the 2023 Classic through the same lens as Jimbo and wife Torie, you would have discovered extra vexation in the way Arabian Knight was harried by Saudi Crown (Always Dreaming). For both horses had learned their trade with the Gladwells, before being offered at OBS April the previous year. So if Zedan had also bought Saudi Crown, who cost $250,000, he would not only have had yet another Grade I winner but could also have kept the pair apart–and so, in Jimbo's view anyway, permitted them to channel their energies to win two different races at Santa Anita that day.

Okay, so that's a deliberately mischievous hypothesis. Nobody can know how things might have played out in that parallel world. But a less contestable conclusion (especially when you remember that GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Two Phil's {Hard Spun} also prepped with the same consignment) is that none of the big spenders, Zedan or anyone else, should hesitate to double down if shortlisting a Top Line 2-year-old back at OBS for the forthcoming March Sale.

For this has become one of the most progressive such operations in Florida, leading the next generation in competing with the more seasoned brands–and aptly so, too, Jimbo's father having been a pioneer in this whole sector. Jimmy [Sr.] remains a valued contributor to what is very much a family operation, but Top Line is unmistakably consolidating a hard-earned niche of its own.

So when Torie declares their March consignment “the best we've ever had, for sure,” that's a matter of relief as well as pride. If it's their best offering yet, so it should be–having also been their most expensive to assemble.

When first switching from weanling pinhooks, around 15 years ago, Jimbo and Torie had a bare handful of horses and zero margin for error. But each new breakthrough has fed the next: Zedan himself, for instance, had already found a Grade I winner here in 2020, when Gary Young purchased future 'TDN Rising Star' Princess Noor (Not This Time) for $1.35 million.  (“I love her,” says Torie. “Every time you showed that filly, she'd stop and lift her head and look off into the distance. She has such a big, pretty eye, you really couldn't fault her.”) Now, by plowing back their winnings, they have both quantity and quality: 25 or 30 yearlings of their own, besides maybe twice as many for clients.

Princess Noor at OBS in 2020 | Photos By Z

“When we started out, we were investing everything we had,” Jimbo recalls. “It was a real high-wire act. One casualty, and it's a disaster. But as you get more financially stable, it does become a little easier to swallow the bad luck.

“When you come down the barn and look at these horses now, there's some real quality on the end of the shank. Five or six years ago, the most expensive of maybe 50 head would have been around $100,000. But then a couple of our partners decided to get into pinhooking in a big way, and spent $200,000 to $400,000 on about 10 yearlings. So now we had some better quality to showcase what we could do. And that just opened the door for people wanting to do more business with us. This year we probably have 20 or 30 in the barn that cost $200,000-plus. So hopefully, we should stack up pretty good.”

If the standards of stock have risen, that's only a matter of resources. The selection process has remained as exacting throughout.

“We're very picky,” Torie emphasizes. “Our whole team–Jimbo's mom and dad, brother and sister–goes up and shortlists together. Those yearlings have to make everybody's list, not one or two. But if they do, most of the time we'll end up buying them.”

They do also have clients and partners who do their own shopping. “So it's definitely a group effort,” Jimbo stresses. “A lot of our successes have been about some really sharp guys that we partner with. We're just the tip of the spear.”

Unsurprisingly, they often find themselves bidding against others on a parallel quest–people they view as peers rather than rivals. (Six, indeed, are neighbors at the training center outside Williston.) In fact, they will almost feel alarmed if none of the usual faces are ringside.

“The people that have made it in this business have done so because they figured out what works,” Jimbo remarks. “And there's attrition: you don't see 50 pinhookers that have been doing it 30 years. So when you walk in there, if you're not up against one or two of those guys–Ciaran Dunne, Eddie Woods, Niall Brennan, Nick de Meric, Barry Eisaman–you're maybe in the wrong spot. It was the same buying weanlings. I had a rule back then: if I've gone one bid past Brian Graves, I'm stopping.”

By now, however, the Gladwells can increasingly measure horses against models that have previously worked for their own program. And, in terms of individual mechanics, their priority is always speed.

Torie Gladwell with father-in-law Jimmy | Photos By Z

“So we're looking for a strong hind leg, big gaskin, good hip,” Torie says. “And just a really well-balanced horse. We don't buy real big. The average-sized horses hold up a little better for these early sales. Most of our top horses haven't had that real big walk. Sometimes the big, loose-walking horses aren't the real fast ones. They have that pretty stride, but they're just not snappy-footed.”

“And we look from the bottom of the market to the top,” adds Jimbo. “We still have guys that buy a horse every year for $50,000 or $75,000. When they come to us for a nice horse, we need some product in our barn that will fit them too. Still quality athletes, but maybe by lesser sires. We haven't got away from those, but just don't have as many as we used to.”

If ever a partner sends him a catalogue shortlist, Jimbo candidly bins it. Even Muth, for instance, had a pretty thin page. “But when we saw him, we were all like, 'That's the one we're buying today,'” Torie recalls. “If you look at his angles, his shoulder and hips and forearms and gaskins, he's just a very balanced, fluid individual. Very sound mentally, too. He was just so trainable.”

In recent years, prospectors have become mercilessly oriented to the clock. The Gladwells don't disparage that. Eventually, after all, these animals ultimately enter a starting gate for no other purpose than to determine which can run fastest. It's just that with such high stakes, the stress of funneling months of work into barely 10 seconds is immense.

“People want a system, they want something that decides for them,” Jimbo says. “So it's not just the clock anymore. You've got to do everything. And actually you can take a guy off the street that doesn't know a thing about horses, and if he takes the top 20 on stride length, and then correlates those to the top of the gallop-out sheets, he probably will end up with the same 10 or so horses that a real horseman can see, without all that stuff.

“But the difference is that when Bob Baffert watches these horses, and then comes to the barn, he knows what LeBron James looks like, what D. Wade looks like. The other guys, with their systems, may end up with a similar list but what they won't really know is when to say, 'All right, we're going to give $3 million for this one if we have to.' Whereas when Bob walks off, he can say, 'Okay, we're buying that one.' Because he knows that for every 10 like that, he'll have a great chance of two Grade I winners.”

It is when a horse fails to show its true merit, in those fleeting 10 seconds, that relationships become key. If your word has been borne out in the past, you will be trusted again. And that can cut both ways: when people want to engage, the Gladwells will as readily caution that a fast breezer is actually tough to train as they will urge the merits of one that for some reason underperforms on the day. Sometimes they have even committed to taking a horse back, should some concern not be resolved, as a guarantee of good faith. Once, in fact, they welcomed home a filly that had been sold privately–and were rewarded with a seven-figure surplus when she went through the ring soon after.

But if people can trust your word, that's also because you know exactly where you stand with a horse. The Gladwells repeatedly stress the importance of their crew, above all the riders.

“It really makes our job easier when they know what they're doing and what the end goal is,” Jimbo says. “So many people buy these horses and don't know where they're at. They need to see how fast horses can go, so they work them, and then they work them faster. Our goal is to build them up and peak right at the sale. We have such a track record, buying them and then using those building blocks, that if we feel a horse stands out, well, I can guarantee you: if they're well on the day, they're going to be fast.

“Some of those horses you see going nine-and-four, they give everything they have and there's nothing left when they've galloped out. When people come back to our barn, we want them to see a big, beautiful horse: not to count every rib of a greyhound, raw-boned and gutted, looking like it just ran its last race. People need to see something they can mold, a piece of clay. So all we're trying to do is let a natural athlete show off.”

Mostly, however, the Gladwells feel only respect for a fraternity that pulls together. “We're all rooting for each other because we want the whole business to thrive,” Jimbo says. “Every $1 million dollar horse that comes out of the 2-year-old sales, man, I'm hoping it's a graded stakes winner. Because that helps everybody.”

Within this tight community, however, there's an even tighter sense of family. As already noted, Jimbo's family have always played a big role in Top Line–but just the same holds true of Torie's side, above all parents Randy and Teri Burns.

“They've always been supportive of my crazy love for horses, allowing me to attend an out-of-state college and take my show horse along with me,” Torie remembers gratefully. “Being from Missouri, none of us knew much about Thoroughbreds. But we showed Arabian horses, who have a similar mindset, so it was an easy switch for me. My mom and dad really enjoy helping at the 2-year-old sales, beautifying the consignment, running cards, etc. They're huge supporters and even own a handful of broodmares with us, selling the produce where we see fit.”

Torie also appreciates the involvement of her aunt and uncle, Janice and Steve Geeding. “They have gone from small investors to large ones in the past few years, just rolling what they make back in every season,” she says. “They still live in Missouri but enjoy the thrill of the sales and getting to meet so many amazing people along the way. People back in my small hometown think what we do for a living is a fairytale, if a very stressful one!”

And it's true, of course: this game is a notorious roller coaster. Even when all the scouting and patient groundwork condenses to that priceless bullet breeze, you can't be complacent.

“You have to hold your breath until they shoot the X-rays,” Jimbo says. “Every time that machine beeps, it feels like somebody's shooting at you. One year our two best horses came back with chips. One chipped both ankles, the other a knee. You've been hyped up all year, they do everything they were supposed to–and then don't get through it.”

And, of course, there's no longstop. If things do go wrong, they tend to be left holding the baby: an unscheduled horse in training, an unscheduled broodmare.

“You can buy the best horses in the world, but you'll still need some racing luck,” Jimbo says. “Still need some God on your side to get through all the trials those horses face every day. But it's an exciting lifestyle. That's what I always tell people, to share that dynamic of what these horses do for us.

“They take us all over, and we get to do it as family. I have friends with great jobs and great lives. But what we do, to them, is just a fairytale. Sure, it can give you the lowest of lows, as well. But when it's good, there's nothing like it.”

The post OBS Shoppers Glad To Return To This Well appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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