Taking Stock: Accelerate is Bright Spot for Lane’s End

[Wandering Eyes]

The sun is shining as brightly on Will Farish’s Lane’s End in Versailles as it does at his winter base in Boca Grande, Florida. “We’re trying to keep things chugging along,” said Bill Farish, who was stationed back at the farm in Kentucky and overseeing operations when I called on Tuesday, a wintry and cold day that had the younger Farish longing for the end of the week when he’d also be in the Sunshine State for the Eclipse Awards on Thursday and the Gl Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park Saturday. Of his father, who co-bred Horse of the Year and leading sire A.P. Indy and stood so many other standouts, including the top Mr. Prospector sons Fappiano, Kingmambo, and Smart Strike, he said: “He’s very excited. You know, we talk a whole lot, and he’s thrilled with everything.”

He ought to be.

The farm’s Quality Road (Elusive Quality) is sizzling and has entered the elite realm–his $35,000 advertised stud fee in 2017 doubled to $70,000 in 2018 and more than doubled to $150,000 this year. Candy Ride (Arg) (Ride the Rails) sired the 2017 Horse of the Year and 2018 Pegasus World Cup winner Gun Runner and came right back last year with undefeated Grade l winner and champion 2-year-old colt Game Winner. Union Rags (Dixie Union) already has four Grade l winners through three crops and threatens to have another with the Will Farish-bred Catalina Cruiser, an undefeated multiple Grade ll winner from only four starts before running off the board in the Gl Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile last year for trainer John Sadler and newly crowned Eclipse-award winning owner Kosta Hronis’s Hronis Racing.

Meanwhile, the farm has a promising quartet of young sires in Honor Code (A.P. Indy), Liam’s Map (Unbridled’s Song), Tonalist (Tapit), and Mr Speaker (Pulpit) ready to unload their first 2-year-olds this year. And its 2019 recruiting class is just as top notch: Hronis Racing’s champion older horse and 2018 Gl Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky); Gary and Mary West’s 2017 champion 3-year-old colt West Coast (Flatter); and Mr. and Mrs. William K. Warren Jr.’s multiple Grade l winner and 2018 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner City of Light (Quality Road).

Both Accelerate and City of Light will end their careers in the $9-million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational before beginning new ones at Lane’s End, where they, along with West Coast, are already booked full for the season. Bill Farish’s Woodford Racing partnership also will be represented on Saturday with multiple Grade ll winner and Gl Breeders’ Cup Mile runner-up Catapult (Kitten’s Joy) in the inaugural Gl $7 million Pegasus World Cup Turf. It’s a potentially big day for the Lane’s End team, its partners, and the syndicate members of Accelerate and City of Light.

Catapult, a winner of $961,384, and Accelerate, with $5,792,480 in earnings, were both selected at auction by bloodstock agent David Ingordo, who famously bought Zenyatta as a yearling for only $60,000. He paid more for the two colts. Catapult was a $235,000 Keeneland January short yearling who was wheeled back by Lane’s End at Keeneland September for $350,000, and Accelerate was a $380,000 September buy for Hronis from the Bluewater consignment at the same yearling sale.

Ingordo is part of the team at Lane’s End, and both horses are trained by Sadler, an “uncle” to Ingordo. “When John came on the racetrack, he was 21, and my father was a famous jocks’ agent, and my dad took him around and took him under his wing. John Sadler has known me since I was in a bassinet–maybe three months old. So, I’ve always called him ‘Uncle John,'” Ingordo said. “No one could figure out why we’re always so inseparable on business. Everybody tries to go up and under and over, I mean, partly because we succeed. But my mother’s one of his best friends, you know, and all that, so we’re all very close. We’ve been very loyal to each other. I basically, with few exceptions, do all the buying and selling for John Sadler.”

When Sadler got Hronis as a new client about eight years ago, it was Ingordo who delivered the goods in with private purchase Lady of Shamrock (Scat Daddy), a subsequent multiple Grade l winner of $950,400 in 2012. She was Hronis Racing’s first major winner, and she was sold later through Lane’s End as a broodmare prospect for $2 million at Keeneland November in 2013.

“And ever since then we’ve been on the team and it’s like a family deal. Everybody’s loyal to each other. We’ll give each other the best shots,” Ingordo said.

There have been many other successes since, including private purchase Stellar Wind (Curlin), a multiple Grade l winner of $2,903,200 who was subsequently sold, also through Lane’s End, for $6 million to Coolmore at Keeneland November in 2017. She made her career swan song for her new owners in last year’s Pegasus, finishing sixth at 40-1.

Accelerate

This year, Hronis and Sadler have “The Daddy” in the race in Accelerate, whose main competition figures to be City of Light. That gives Lane’s End full coverage.

Bill Farish said the relationships between Lane’s End and the Accelerate camp gave the farm the inside track to land the horse.

“We were obviously watching him very closely because of our relationship with Kosta Hronis and Sadler and David Ingordo,” he said. “As he kept winning Grade l races, we got more and more interested. The conversation was kind of ongoing all year, and we just said when the time is right, we’re ready, willing, and able to get involved, and so we did. He’s just had a phenomenal 2018.”

Farish noted that he and his father were pleased that Accelerate was loudly included in Horse of the Year discussions against a Triple Crown winner. “Any other year, he wins,” Farish said.

Accelerate, who is from Awesome Again’s multiple stakes-producing daughter Issues, was originally syndicated into 40 shares for $75,000 a share but Farish said that “with kickers,” the price ended up at $100,000 a share with a stud fee of $20,000–still very much a bargain for the combination of race record, pedigree, and physical that Accelerate brings to the table.

Had he been a son of Smart Strike instead of by his son Lookin At Lucky, Accelerate would have stood for twice as much. Farish acknowledged this but said, “Lookin At Lucky is one of the most underrated stallions around, I think. From our standpoint, he is that line. It’s a line that we’ve had a lot of luck with, not just with Smart Strike, but Mr. Prospector in general. The fact that he’s a grandson of Smart Strike–you know, when Curlin moved, we lost our best son of Smart Strike; and we had English Channel, another Smart Strike, too, and he left–makes us feel very fortunate” to have Accelerate.

Accelerate’s pedigree has similarity to Curlin’s as well. The latter is by Smart Strike from a Deputy Minister mare while the former is a grandson of Smart Strike from a granddaughter of Deputy Minister. This structure will allow breeders the chance to copy patterns from some of Curlin’s successes, including inbreeding to Deputy Minister. Moreover, because Accelerate is a half-brother to two Scat Daddy stakes winners, mares by that sire should suit him as well. His own sire has two Southern Hemisphere Group 1 winners from Scat Daddy mares to date, and the greater Curlin/Storm Cat cross is responsible for eight non-restricted black-type winners so far, four of them graded winners.

Accelerate is inbred 5×5 to the top broodmare Smartaire, his fifth dam and the dam of champion 2-year-old filly Smart Angle and graded stakes winners Quadratic and Smarten. The latter is the broodmare sire of Smart Strike.

There’s been a bit of a trend lately for farms to stand accomplished horses by stallions that aren’t “big names.” WinStar’s Tiznow (Cee’s Tizzy, by Relaunch) and Lane’s End’s Candy Ride (Ride the Rails, by Cryptoclearance, by Fappiano) are older successful examples of this, but recent ones include Taylor Made’s California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit, by Pulpit) and Hill ‘n’ Dale’s Bayern (Offlee Wild, by Wild Again). Accelerate fits with this group.

His physicality is also a big plus, Ingordo said. “He’s about 16.1 1/2 [or] 16.2. He’s a big, stretchy, imposing horse. A little bit of a throwback on his looks. He has all the good qualities of the Smart Strike line,” Ingordo said, and he noted that as a $380,000 yearling he was his sire’s top price that year when the Lookin At Lucky yearlings averaged $99,312.

Sent to the Mayberrys in Ocala for early training, Accelerate “never had a bad day” despite being a May foal. “He’s such a cool horse and I’m excited about him as a stallion because I’ve known him through all these different stages of his life. He’s always been good, and I think horses like that will reproduce. I think he’ll imprint that genetic dominance that way. You know, he’s as sound as can be. He’s correct. He’s had no surgeries that I’m aware of or anything like that. I mean, horses like this are really what a lot of people are looking for.”

SF Bloodstock on Board

Accelerate is what SF Bloodstock, a global entity and the owner of a powerful international broodmare band, was looking for. The company also takes positions in stallions and had a 15% stake in Justify’s breeding rights before the Triple Crown winner was sold to Coolmore. SF has now taken a significant position in Accelerate, according to SF’s Tom Ryan, and will support the horse with at least 12 mares, “including the dams of Grade l winners California Chrome, Wild Dude, and Denman’s Call; others include dams of graded stakes winners My Boy Jack and Miss Sunset.” Ryan added, “When you look at his body of work paired with his physical, he fit perfectly into our portfolio. Our preparedness to support is only a reflection of our belief in his ability and this sire line. Lookin At Lucky is really making people pay attention. I remember back when Smart Strike was getting going, selling a season in February for $15,000 live foal and another in December of the same year for $75,000 NG. We’re excited to be involved.”

SF’s participation in Accelerate is new for Lane’s End, Farish said. “Our relationship was just starting, and we’re happy to have them involved and welcome their support. They support stallions, and that’s a prerequisite for us. We want breeders in [the syndicate] that will breed mares and not just investors for the stallion shares.”

Farish said that SF’s and others’ strong support the first year would allow Lane’s End the luxury of having the firepower to keep some of its own mares slotted for the stallion’s second and third books to ensure uniform quality before his runners hit the track. Farish said the books of each of the new stallions would be limited to about 165 mares.

It’s that type of strategizing with the right types of horses and the right relationships that has kept Lane’s End in the deep end of the sire business since it opened its stallion division in 1985, and the future for the farm and for Will and Bill Farish certainly looks as bright as its past.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

 

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