Clifton Farm Looks for More F-T July Success

[Wandering Eyes]

Maureen Merkler will certainly be hoping that lightning strikes twice in the same spot when her Clifton Farm, which bred and sold Cairo Cat to Ken McPeek two years ago, offers the graded stakes winner’s half-sister by Outwork as hip 273 at next Tuesday’s Fasig-Tipton July Selected Yearlings Sale in Lexington.

Merkler, who maintains a commercial broodmare band of eight head at her 50-acre Clifton Farm in Stamping Ground, Kentucky, purchased Cairo Cat’s dam La Belle Cat (Tale of the Cat), in foal to Archarcharch, for $22,000 at the 2014 Keeneland November sale.

“I wanted a Tale of the Cat. He’s a very good broodmare sire,” Merkler said of the then 5-year-old mare’s appeal. “I saw her and I loved her. She has lots of bone and balance and a beautiful hip on her. She has a pretty head and I loved her eye. I just liked everything about her. I wasn’t crazy about who she was in foal to, but I figured she was a maiden and we could always improve on that. That probably hurt her price a bit, but that was fine by me.”

Merkler sent the mare to first-year sire Cairo Cat in 2015.

“I am a big fan of Pioneerof the Nile–I remember when he was at Vinery, I loved him at that time,” the New Jersey native said. “So I think it was a no-brainer going to Cairo Prince. I liked him and I had an opportunity to get to the Pioneerof the Nile line with a Tale of the Cat mare. So it was perfect.”

The future graded stakes winner distinguised himself early on, according to his breeder.

“He was a huge foal,” Merkler said. “He was probably the biggest foal I’ve ever had. But when he started unfolding, I thought, ‘Wow. I have something special here.’ He had lots of leg and bone, everything that you would want.”

While Merkler has been represented as breeder of several stakes winners, Cairo Cat became her first graded winner when he captured last year’s GIII Iroquois S. But she admitted she didn’t watch the milestone victory live.

“I didn’t watch him,” Merkler said. “Believe it or not, I do not watch any of my horses. I wait for the results and then I watch the replay. I guess I am a little bit supersititious, but also, I just worry. People texted and called me and my phone went off the hook. I knew he was running, but I was just doing my farm chores and then I heard the result. I was quite excited.”

La Belle Cat was bred back to 2016 GI Wood Memorial S. winner Outwork in 2017 and the resulting filly heads through the Fasig-Tipton sales ring next week.

“She takes more after her sire Outwork,” Merkler said of the yearling. “She has a little more length, but she is a big filly with lots of leg and a lot of depth to her. She is going to be a big girl with a beautiful shoulder and a beautiful hip. And she has an attitude like Cairo Cat had. When I was prepping her, everything I introduced her to, she just took in stride. And she also has a lot of presence. When you bring her out, she just says, ‘Hey, look at me.’ But she’s also very sociable. She’s my social director on the farm. She’s a very athletic-looking filly. It’s hard to fault her.”

La Belle Cat produced a filly by another first-crop sire this year in Midnight Storm, and the mare was bred back to Claiborne’s young stallion Mastery.

“It is intentional on my part from a commercial standpoint,” Merkler said of using young stallions. “I was active during the crash in 2007 and 2008 when everyone said, ‘We’re going to get away from first-crop sires and we’re going to buy the proven sires.’ That lasted for a little while and then people went to trying the first-year sires who have yet to prove or disprove themselves.”

Clifton Farm’s two-horse consignment at the July sale also includes a filly from the first crop of multiple graded stakes winner Anchor Down (hip 85).

“It’s a starting point,” Merkler said of the July sale. “Cairo Cat was the first Cairo Prince [yearling] to go through the ring. I was hip six. And now interestingly enough, this is the last Outwork to go through the ring at July. Everyone always says, ‘Who wants to go early?’ But if you have what they are looking for, it doesn’t really matter.”

Merkler, who got her first horse when she was just nine, grew up riding hunter/jumpers. She bred show horses and retrained Thoroughbreds off the track before transitioning to breeding racehorses some 30 years ago.

“When we moved here to Kentucky in the early ’80s, that’s when I got actively involved,” Merkler said. “We bought a farm out towards Shelby County and I would foal and break yearlings and I would do layups because I was a lot closer to Churchill. I was able to find people who would guide me and it just evolved from there.”

Merkler credits Wayne Sweezey with helping with much of her evolution in the sport.

“I had an opportunity to work with Wayne Sweezey at Darby Dan and Timber Town,” she said. “We’re good friends and he used to sell my horses. I spent about five years with him at the sales. He taught me a whole lot–we looked at babies and yearlings and we did sales together. And I learned an awful lot from him. So I want to credit him for that because it was a great experience when I was given that opportunity.”

While Merkler and her husband purchased Clifton Farm just

13 years ago, the farm has been around since 1842 and it’s clear the breeder is relishing her time at the helm of the historic property.

“I just have some 50-some acres,” she explained. “The original farm was 600 and something. We love our farm and we love the history. I just wake up every day because I love what I do. I think I’m lucky because I am able to pursue my passion.”

The Fasig-Tipton July Selected Yearlings Sale will be held Tuesday at the company’s Newtown Paddocks, with bidding beginning at 10 a.m. Fasig-Tipton will host its July Horses of Racing Age Sale Monday beginning at 4 p.m.

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