Honey Creek Farms

Brazilian jockey Jorge Ricardo tied retired North American-based Russell Baze as the jockey with the most all-time wins in history Monday evening at Hipodromo da Gavea in Rio de Janeiro. In his sixth ride of the day, the 56-year-old veteran rode Jubileia (Brz) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire})) to a wire-to-wire win in a maiden special event to earn his 12,844th victory.

Spending the majority of his time riding in Argentina, “Ricardinho” said he intends to return home to attempt to eclipse the record in Buenos Aires. He returned to Argentina via plane Monday and will resume riding Wednesday at San Isidro.

Ricardo and Baze engaged in a well-publicized battle for the world record as their careers overlapped. Ricardo almost retired after a bout with cancer in 2009 and Baze ultimately retired from riding in 2016. Ricardo defeated cancer, returned to the races and recommitted himself to again set a new record. He is now very close to achieving that goal.

LEXINGTON, Ky – Monday’s opening session of the Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale, topped by the broodmare prospect Bling on the Music (Too Much Bling) (hip 68), set figures largely on par with its 2017 edition and in line with recent market trends.

Out of 300 horses catalogued for Monday’s session, 246 went through the ring and 181 sold for a gross of $4,143,200. With 65 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 26.4%, down from 31.1% a year ago. The average dipped 20.3% to $22,841, while the median ticked up 2.6% to $10,000. Nine horses sold for six figures Monday, down from 12 a year ago.

“I think it is the same marketplace that we have seen,” Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning said. “There is a significant demand for quality. There was a lot of competitive bidding for those horses that jumped through the hoops. The market is still very, very, very difficult for a segment of the population. If a mare has a little age on her or is not covered by a marketable stallion, it’s tough. There were no significant surprises. I think the assessment is status quo.”

Browning added, “The numbers can be really misleading, especially at this range in the marketplace. I think we continue to see polarization. I don’t honestly think there is much change in the middle market, particularly in the broodmare section.”

The 4-year-old broodmare prospect Bling on the Music brought the day’s top price when selling for $260,000 to Oussama Aboughazale’s Sumaya US. The gray was consigned by Chris Baccari’s Baccari Bloodstock. Baccari made similar comments about the demand for quality in the market.

“I think it is like anything else. You have to show up with what they want,” Baccari said. “If you have what they want, they will fight over it. You just have to have that product.”

Machmer Hall and Select Sales’ Carrie Brogden was active as both a buyer and seller Monday, including purchasing the day’s top yearling, a Distorted Humor filly (Hip 189). She expressed similar sentiments to Browning and Baccari on the marketplace.

“I think it is all about the above-average,” Brogden said. “There is plenty of money for the above-average and below that, it is a free fall. We only had one RNA so far today. I think you have to be reasonable with reserves. If you have something in the market people no longer want, I think the only way to trade it is to walk in here with no reserve. Whether you are boarding Songbird or a $3,000 mare, they are still the same price to carry, expenses are still the same. The market is strong for the good stuff and the rest is the rest.”

The second session of the two-day sale gets underway Tuesday at 10 a.m. and includes a 57-horse supplemental catalogue, highlighted by a pair of mares in foal to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

“The catalogue looks like it has some significantly better horses [Tuesday],” Browning said. “It should start with some sparklers and end fairly well, as well.”

Sumaya Takes Home the ‘Bling’

Oussama Aboughazale’s Sumaya US was the leading buyer at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale and the operation did not take long to make its presence known at this year’s renewal, going to $260,000 for the broodmare prospect Bling on the Music (Too Much Bling). Sumaya US bought eight mares overall during Monday’s session for a total of $476,000.

“I thought she was a very attractive mare,” Sumaya US farm manager Jody Alexander said after signing the ticket out back as International Equities Holdings. “We are looking for more mares to take to California Chrome on Southern Hemisphere and a few more mares to support him in the Northern Hemisphere. Plus, we are trying to get a few more mares for our stallion Protonico. She’s a pretty mare. They prepped her too well.”

As for his thoughts on the price, Alexander said, “I think everybody will be on all the better-looking mares. Somebody else liked her, too, or I wouldn’t have had to pay that much.”

Bred in Texas by W.S. Farish, Bling on the Music is out of the Action This Day mare Soft Music and is from the family of stakes winner Super Marina (Warrior’s Reward).

Purchased by Keene Thoroughbreds for $95,000 out of the 2016 Texas Thoroughbred Association 2-year-old sale, Bling on the Music (hip 68) won three of six starts and $153,167 for that operation and trainer Allen Milligan.

She had two stakes wins and was third in the 2016

GIII Pocahontas S. Claimed for $20,000 out of her final start in November, the 4-year-old mare was consigned Monday by Baccari Bloodstock.

“I know she is by the sire she is by, but she is a very good physical and has a good race record,” consignor Chris Baccari said. “I probably should have kept her myself to breed her, but I have too many horses in training right now. She is a very good filly.”

Glen Hill Picks Up a ‘Great Soul’

Bloodstock agent Donato Lanni signed the $220,000 ticket for multiple stakes winner Great Soul (Great Notion) on behalf of Glen Hill Farm Monday afternoon.

A $20,000 EASSEP RNA, the big bay mare was campaigned by breeders Steven and Jane Long and trainer Tom Proctor. Her record currently stands at 11-5-4-1 with earnings of $259,220 and is highlighted by wins in the 2016 Wide Country S. and 2017 Mrs. Penny S.

“She is huge and she can run, which is what carried her,” said Indian Creek’s Shack Parrish, who consigned the mare as hip 211. “She is going to race again. I thought it was an exceptional price, given the market.”

The 5-year-old mare is out of What Am I Gonna Do (Partner’s Hero), who is a half-sister to MSW Doing Great (Great Notion) and SW Heaven Knows What (Holy Bull).

“Tom Proctor trained her last year, so I watched her a bit,” said Glen Hill’s Craig Bernick, who will send the mare back to Proctor. “I was surprised to see her in the sale. She has a nice pedigree and can run in the Midlantic for us, being PA-bred and Maryland Million eligible. She will race again in 2018 and we have a lot of stallions we can send her to in 2019.”

Brogden Gets the ‘Gold’

Machmer Hall and Select Sales’ Carrie Brogden would not be denied on Hip 189, stretching to $105,000 to take home the filly by top sire Distorted Humor, who was the highest-priced yearling of the session.

“I think it is at her value. If she was perfect in front, we wouldn’t have been able to buy her,” Brogden said. “I think if she stays where she is, she is fine. With this kind of filly, we have more options. That’s what really appealed. She has plenty of page to be appealing no matter what she does in the future. Everybody wants a young, well-bred Distorted Humor filly in their broodmare band that has a body and a walk like that.”

Bred by Colts Neck Stables and Barry Weisbord, hip 189 is out of MSW Gilded Gold (Gilded Time), making her a half-sister to stakes winner Thieves Guild (Medaglia d’Oro). Thieves Guild sold for $310,000 carrying a foal by Speightstown at the 2016 Keeneland November sale and Gilded Gold hammered for $15,000 in foal to Kantharos at the 2017 Keeneland November sale. This is also the family of Canadian champion Hope For a Breeze (Briartic) and SW Pancake (Corinthian).

WinStar stalwart Distorted Humor cemented his status as a top broodmare sire in 2017 thanks to the exploits of Grade I winners Arrogate, New Money Honey, Elate and Practical Joke, to name a few.

“The reason we bought this horse is because my husband said no, but he didn’t stay here to hold my hand down,” Brogden said with a laugh. “So, since he left and wasn’t paying attention, my mom and I bought her! We figured she is out of a stakes winner and stakes-producing mare, so we can either go to the yearling sale or the 2-year-old sale or put her in the Machmer Hall broodmare band. Distorted Humor is becoming such an unbelievable broodmare sire, so we figured, with what we do at our farm, she could be a very versatile purchase.”

Brogden added, “She wasn’t perfect in the front end, but I was really happy with her. That was our last bid. I am just a huge fan of the sire. He is 25 now and is an unbelievable broodmare sire. She’s got a great bottom side of her pedigree, plus my mom and I are horse addicts.”

The Valentine’s Day foal  was consigned to the sale by Craig and Holly Bandoroff’s Denali Stud.

GSP Ittetsu (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), a millionaire and winner of six of his 26 starts in Japan, was purchased by Jamie Lovett’s Australian Bloodstock with his long-term goal the A$13-million The Everest during the Australian spring, news.com.au reported. Also bought with an eye toward The Championships in April, Ittetsu will be trained by Darren Weir. Among his victories is a 1200-metre win at Sapporo in 1:07.7.

“We have had our eye on Ittetsu for a few months,” Lovett told The Daily Telegraph on Monday night of the G3 Keihan Hai third. “We feel he has the speed and ability to be a big chance in The Everest later this year. Some of our clients were keen to get involved in The Everest after we had Brave Smash (Jpn) (Tosen Phantom {Jpn}) run third in the race last year and Ittetsu has been purchased with that race in mind. The plan is to bring the horse to Sydney. He will go into quarantine at Canterbury and come out four days before [G1] The Galaxy [at Rosehill on Mar. 24]. All going well, he will then go to the [G1] TJ Smith S. [at Randwich on Apr. 7] and then we hope to get him to The Everest in the spring.”

Thursday’s card at Aqueduct was not drawn until 3 p.m. Saturday, some 24 hours after the deadline for trainers to enter their horses had come and gone. At least they put together a card, something that looked to be in jeopardy a few hours earlier. But it’s not much of a card. There will be only eight races with 49 total horses entered, or an average of 6.125 horses per race.

It has never been easy to fill races in New York during the winter, but the last few weeks have been particularly difficult for the NYRA racing office. With the racing week that concluded yesterday, there were 34 races run at Aqueduct and 18 of them had six starters or fewer.

“The last two weekends we held the entry box open to Sunday [for the Thursday programs] to try to bolster the card a little bit,” said NYRA Senior Vice President of Racing Operations Martin Panza. “This week, however, it was a particular struggle, for whatever reason. We’ve struggled the last week, week and a half.”

Due to severe weather, NYRA did not complete a full card from Dec. 29 to Jan. 13. Had there not been that gap in the racing schedule, the current problem of filling races could be that much worse.

Like all racing organizations, NYRA is having to deal with what has become the modern theory on training a race horse–run them as little as possible–which makes it hard to fill races everywhere. But Panza says NYRA has problems that are unique to its circuit, in particular the high cost of workmen’s compensation in New York.

“We were over at Oaklawn trying to hustle some guys to come from Oaklawn for the Belmont meet,” Panza said. “We need dirt horses. So we went down there and that seemed to be the universal theme when you go from barn to barn, people say that they’d love to come to New York, but with workmen’s comp the expenses are just too high. The purses are what they are here but that only helps you if you win. The costs are set. A guy looks at the costs, thinks I have to pay this much for workmen’s comp and this much for my housing, I can find some place cheaper to race. [New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association President] Joe Applebaum is a good guy. If he can get the governor’s office to cooperate with us, hopefully, we can get some things done this year.”

Panza said another problem is the way purses are structured at NYRA, particularly for the lower level races. When there was a rash of breakdowns during the winter of 2012, a panel put in new rules that forbid NYRA from having a purse that is more than double the claiming price. The theory was that if the purses were too big for cheap horses, trainers might run an unsound animal in hopes that it would hold together and get a part of the pot.

“Our $10,000 claimer runs for $20,000 and the $10,000 claimer at Parx runs for $28,000,” Panza said. “Our day rate is $100-a-day and the day rate down there is $65. We’re at a disadvantage on the cheaper end of our claiming races. That’s another thing we have to get the state to allow us to change.”

Panza would also like to see NYRA based horsemen more loyal to the NYRA product. With Laurel and Parx also having big purses, it’s not uncommon to see New York horses head down the highway to run at the competing racetracks. On Saturday, there were six NYRA-based horses that ran at Parx and two at Laurel. One in particular stands out. Trained by Gary Sciacca, the New York-bred Hit It Once More (Hard Spun) has made three straight starts at Parx and ran there in four of his last five starts.

“It certainly doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Panza said of seeing New York horse race out of town. “On one hand they say NYRA is trying to kill winter racing and on the other hand they’re all running some place else. It is very frustrating, especially when we have to run five- and six-horse fields.”

Panza is frustrated to the point that he isn’t afraid to say that NYRA might need to further cut back on its winter dates.

“We probably need to run just three days a week in the winter, like they do at Laurel and Parx,” he said.

After the Keeneland spring meet ends, NYRA has a much easier time filling races as the major outfits have made it back to New York by then. In the meantime, it looks like it’s going to be a rough winter.