KatieRich Babies at Home at Keeneland

[Wandering Eyes]

Larry and Karen Doyle’s KatieRich Farms typically sells most of its crop of youngsters as yearlings, but the commercial breeders will offer a solid eight-horse consignment at next Tuesday’s Keeneland April Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

“Generally, we race what we don’t sell [as yearlings], but we have kept some in the past and sent them to other consignors and going many years back every now and then we’d sell one or two ourselves,” said Mark Hubley, KatieRich’s president and head trainer. “[This year’s April sale] presented a great opportunity for us–it’s right at home and it’s easy. We knew they were going to have the sale last fall [during the yearling sales], so we protected some of our yearlings a little better–the ones we felt were maybe a little immature–and kind of pointed them to this sale.”

While many of the Keeneland April 2-year-olds will ship in from Ocala, the KatieRich offerings will enjoy a bit of a home field advantage. They’ve been based at Keeneland since traveling over from KatieRich in Midway, KY at the end of last year.

“We’ve been [at Keeneland] since Dec. 15, so the horses are at home and they’re acclimated,” Hubley said. “The main track didn’t open until March this year, but even so, we’ve been on the main track since then. They’ve already gotten acclimated to the area, and it’s all gone surprisingly smoothly, so I’m excited.”

He noted, “As far as pedigree goes, they’re all pretty much by fairly commercial stallions.”

When asked for some stand-outs among the group, Hubley is quick to mention hip 107, a colt by Hard Spun already named He’s Impressive. The grandson of MGSW 2-year-old Classic Elegance (Carson City) was bought back for $40,000 at Keeneland September. KatieRich sold his now 3-year-old half-brother Standard Deviation for $450,000 at the 2017 September sale.

“He’s very attractive–his brother [Standard Deviation] ran third in the [GI Claiborne Breeders’] Futurity in October,” Hubley said. “He’s very fast and he’ll get some attention. He’s a big, strong, good-looking colt.”

Another juvenile that Hubley is high on is Quick Passage (Candy Ride {Arg}), who sells as hip 127. The daughter of GSP Journey On was a $240,000 KEENOV ’16 in utero purchase and $160,000 KEESEP RNA.

“She’s very nice and very fast too,” Hubley said. “I think she’ll get some attention. She’s just kind of plain and not very big.”

Others among the KatieRich consignment include Make Us Smile (Empire Maker) (hip 119), a $175,000 September buyback out of Grade I winner Her Smile (Include), herself a $1.5-million KEENOV purchase; and Urban Diva (City Zip) (hip 118), who hails from the family of Grade I winners Sky Diva (Sky Mesa), Pure Clan (Pure Prize) and Finley’sluckycharm (Twirling Candy).

Urban Diva was a $47,000 RNA. Her full-sister City Diva was third in last year’s Exacta Systems Juvenile Fillies S. at Kentucky Downs with Hubley training. She’s pointing for an allowance return at Keeneland, while her year-younger full-sister sports something you don’t see often for a 2-year-old entered at auction–six published breezes, up to four furlongs and including three from the gate.

“We thought about racing her before the sale,” said Hubley, “But we’ve decided to just sell her instead.”

As for the sale as a whole, Hubley admitted that he wasn’t quite sure what to expect. This will be the first Keeneland April sale held since 2014–it will feature a horses of racing age section for the first time ever.

“It’s a big question mark–I don’t think anybody knows,” Hubley said. “I know the buyers will be there; I don’t know how picky they’re going to be, what they’re looking for or how impressive the horses are going to be. But, we know a lot of buyers will be there–many of them are based in Kentucky and the meet’s going on, and there should be more trainers around probably. I hope it’s successful, and I hope they do it again. We’ll just have to see how it goes.”

The New York-based Doyles acquired the land that would become KatieRich Farms in 2007 and have built up their operation significantly with the help of lifelong friend Hubley. They currently have about 35 mares on the farm. Larry Doyle’s background is in finance and investing.

Among past horses bred and sold by KatieRich was Instilled Regard (Arch), a $110,000 KEESEP RNA turned $1.05-million OBS March graduate of 2017. The 2018 GIII Lecomte S. winner makes his seasonal debut in a Keeneland allowance Thursday.

Hubley still trains a small string of horses for KatieRich, and the farm has five other 2-year-olds who will not be offered at auction. One is expected to be sent to New York, while some of the others may be sold privately.

KatieRich does have a runner who could be set for stakes company in the near future.

Lady Apple (Curlin) finished second on debut for Hubley at Keeneland last April after RNA’ing the previous September, and a controlling interest in the filly was subsequently sold to Phoenix Thoroughbreds. Turned over to Steve Asmussen, she was a close second in Belmont’s Astoria S. in June, but was off the board in her next two tries over the summer. Lady Apple resurfaced at Oaklawn Feb. 7, and broke through the maiden ranks in fast time before adding an optional-claiming score there on the stretch-out Mar. 23.

Hubley isn’t quite sure yet where Lady Apple could resurface next, but any stakes success could prove particularly valuable for KatieRich. “We’re very invested in that family,” Hubley said. “We have four of her half-sisters in foal, and we still have her dam.”

The KatieRich babies will breeze Monday during the Keeneland April under-tack show, which begins at 11:00 a.m. Selling begins Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. Visit www.keeneland.com for more information.

 

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