Breeder Spotlight, Presented By Keeneland: All About Family For Kilwin’s Breeders

[Wandering Eyes]

When Andrew Schwarz and his sister Wendy Schwarz-Gilder decided to turn their longstanding enthusiasm for the Turf into a deeper commitment, in 2017, the option that best matched their outlook was a modest breeding program. If that meant taking their time, patiently building each page, so be it. All they knew was that they wanted to work with others of a similar disposition: people who gave time to each other, and to their horses.

Schwarz, after all, is a real estate developer in New Orleans. “And in real estate, five years is nothing,” he says. “Everything takes forever. So I think I have the personality for doing things long-term. And, breeding, you measure everything in years, not months. From the time you select the stud to the time you actually have something hitting the racetrack, it's three full years. So, yes, you've got to be patient. And we don't have endless funds. So the idea was to build carefully; put together maybe 10 mares over, let's call it, a 10- or 15-year period.”

On those terms, however, something has gone badly askew with their nascent operation. It has become an overnight success, threatening instant dividends.

A nice problem to have, clearly. And, true to his temperate principles, Schwarz fully expects bumps in the road ahead. But there's no denying that they landed running when paying $275,000 for an unraced daughter of Blame named Spanish Star, only their second mare, at the 2020 Keeneland November Sale.

Wendy Schwarz-Gilder with her brother Andrew Schwarz | courtesy of Andrew Schwarz

She was six, in foal to Arrogate, and her value had rocketed since being fished out of the equivalent sale three years previously (by that remarkable prospector, Tommy Wente of St. Simon Place) for just $1,500–her half-brother Sir Winston (Awesome Again) having the previous year won the GI Belmont Stakes.

“She's absolutely perfect, physically, if there's such a thing in a racehorse,” Schwarz says. “Just an outstanding specimen, and we had a good feeling already for Blame mares. Our concept was to get quality by concentrating on the physical, and the family. You can't have everything, so we concentrate more on those than on race record. And in those terms, she was a standout.”

But while in no hurry, they found that things started to happen quickly. Spanish Star's first yearling, a son of Trappe Shot, sold for just $21,000 a few weeks previously, and was beaten only at the Breeders' Cup in his first five starts, winning three stakes. One Timer has since added a Grade II on turf.

Meanwhile, Spanish Star's Arrogate foal turned out to be a filly, and Schwarz and his sister decided to retain her for their program. They named her Just Basking, and sent her to Ian Wilkes. Last summer she romped in the Iowa Oaks, earning a crack at the GI Alabama Stakes where she was beaten barely a length into third.

“I always said, when we decided on more of a breeding operation, that I had only one goal for the racetrack,” Schwarz says. “And that was someday to have a filly in the Alabama. My mother's family is from Vermont and we would go down to Saratoga every year. And, like everyone else, we fell in love with it. So, knowing that we were only ever going to be racing fillies, for me the ultimate filly race isn't the Kentucky Oaks. Having seen so many, through the years, it was the Alabama. And amazingly enough, it happened–and she ran really well, might have had a shot with a little better racing luck.”

The dream will duly have to be upgraded, to winning next time. Just Basking herself, incidentally, is on her way back after a setback, with the Keeneland fall meet a potential target. But meanwhile Saratoga has this summer yielded another great day.

Kilwin working at the Spa | Sarah Andrew

After delivering Just Basking, Spanish Star was sent for her first cover as a Schwarz-Gilder mare to Twirling Candy. The resulting filly was sold to BBN Racing at the 2023 Keeneland September Sale and went on to win her first two starts as a juvenile, both on turf: an Ellis Park maiden and then the Untapable Stakes at Kentucky Downs. And this summer she has reached new heights, adding a black-type prize on dirt at Churchill and now the GI Test Stakes. For her name, of course, is Kilwin–and her Grade I update will make Hip 518, Spanish Star's daughter by Flightline, one of the potential stars of the forthcoming September Sale.

“It's been amazing,” Schwarz marvels. “First One Timer comes to life. Then the filly we kept runs in the Alabama; and the one we sold wins the Test. Obviously we're glad Kilwin is doing so well, we can only keep so many and she's working for the mare all the time. Now we have the Flightline. Of course, for a breeder, there's always a Plan B. Ian Wilkes went out to look at her, a couple months ago, and he certainly wants us to hold onto her! He'd be setting a very high reserve. We'll have to see. But she's really beautiful, a May foal so still growing, but she has everything you'd want in a yearling.”

With a Cody's Wish filly on the ground, Spanish Star has naturally been sent back to Twirling Candy.

“You can see that we've been trying to strike a balance between known quantities and then some of the new stallions that tend to sell well,” Schwarz explains. “It's part of the strategy, to do a bit of both. But we think Twirling Candy tremendous value, for a stallion doing what he is, and all being well we will end up with a sibling to Kilwin.”

In these and all other decisions, Schwarz emphasizes his debt to Pope McLean Jr. and his family at Crestwood, who host the entire operation from foaling to consignment. Meeting McClean was unmistakably a pivotal moment in the evolution of this program–and it was also one of apt provenance.

“My sister and I grew up going to the Fair Grounds,” Schwarz explains. “We also had a farm in Mississippi, growing up, so one way or another we were always around horses. But I always loved that saying: 'When you go to the racetrack for the first time, you see one of two things: you either see animals running in circles, or you see something else.' And my sister and I have always just seen something else.

Twirling Candy | Lane's End

“Anyway, Pope's wife is from New Orleans. I knew her brothers and sisters, and we had friends of friends in town. So that's how Pope and I crossed paths, and we hit it off immediately. Everyone knows what Crestwood is about: they're horse people, quality people, family people. And it was the same, natural fit with Ian as trainer. He and his wife had long been friends with my sister. And again, we're talking about a real horseman. So you can see the combination of horsemen, friends and family. I guess that's kind of our secret sauce. We're all friends, a lot of us are family–and we're all horsemen at heart.”

With all that in mind, there is zero danger of Schwarz getting ahead of himself. The program still only comprises four mares, with Just Basking eventually to join them. The only one acquired before Spanish Star was All Night Party, a half-sister–actually by One Timer's sire Trappe Shot–to GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Ria Antonia (Rockport Harbor). She has made short work of her $180,000 tag at the 2017 November Sale, banking $400,000 apiece for fillies by Liam's Map and Omaha Beach at consecutive September Sales.

Her daughter by More Than Ready has meanwhile been retained to breed. Most recently, meanwhile, Hurley (Mucho Macho Man)–a modest runner out of dual Grade II winner Rite Moment (Vicar)–cleared her $150,000 cost at the 2022 November Sale at the first attempt: the Ghostzapper colt she was carrying in utero realized $285,000 last September.

So it is not just Spanish Star who has been piling coal into the engine. On the face of it, it might seem paradoxical that a program predicated on such restrained principles, by no means immune from sentiment, should be firing on all cylinders commercially. But maybe there's a lesson there for those who are in rather more of a hurry.

“We'd been talking about wanting to do something like this for so many years,” Schwarz reflects. “So when we finally got the opportunity, we've been so lucky that the whole family feels part of it also. My sister and I might be the ones out front, making decisions, but everyone gets involved: my daughters, our other siblings, our parents, our in-laws. It's one big family operation, and it couldn't be more rewarding.”

Pope McLean Jr. | Sarah Andrew

Sure enough, while unable to make it to Saratoga, the Test still proved a memorable occasion for the clan.

“We had other family events that weekend so couldn't go,” Schwarz says. “But the entire family watched it at our lake house in Wisconsin, I think there were 15 of us. And of course, we thought the race was over after one second [when Kilwin stumbled leaving the gate], so we were all disappointed that we'd made such a big deal about it. And then of course the screaming and yelling, as Kilwin comes down the stretch, was crazy.”

It all dovetails: the connection is not just between families, but between upbringings.

“I think family's always been very important and I hope that is what we're all about,” Schwarz says. “We never thought there was anything unusual about a brother and sister doing this together, until people started telling us so. But it certainly does make everything more special. It's no coincidence that we've ended up with Pope and his family operation. These are people with integrity. People who are realistic and patient. That doesn't mean the pace has to be slow. But we've surrounded ourselves with the best horsemen in the business, who can gradually help us build–without ever putting anything ahead of the horse.

“It's already more than I could ever have asked for. I guess sometimes if you put yourself in the right place, you can get a little lucky. And even though we've had early success, we're trying to keep everything under wraps and stay focused on our strategy. Again, Pope and I are eye-to-eye on that. No-one's trying to do anything overnight. When we started, I gave Pope a little business plan, just a page, and the first bullet point was: family fun. So, in those terms, we've certainly exceeded anything I could have hoped for. It's just a dream come true.”

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