Posts Tagged ‘american graded stakes’

By Ray Paulick
Gulf Coast Farms, the Florida-based operation of veterinarian Jerry Bailey and Utah horseman Lance Robinson, is known more for its pinhooking of yearlings to 2-year-old sales than for breeding. However, 10 weeks into the 2010 racing season, Gulf Coast is one of two breeders in North America to be represented by a pair of American Graded Stakes winners (the other being the Overbrook Farm owned by the family of the late W.T. Young).

Both of Gulf Coast’s AGS winners are on the road to the Triple Crown. The first is Conveyance, a two-time AGS winner in 2010, having captured the San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita and the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park—both Grade 3 races. Conveyance, originally purchased by Legends Racing for $240,000 at the 2008 Keeneland September yearling sale, is now owned by Zabeel Racing, an entity owned by a son of Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai. The Indian Charlie colt was produced from a mare by Holy Bull, who ran the worst race of his life in the Kentucky Derby but went on to be the 1994 3-year-old champion male and Horse of the Year.

The second, of course, is 2009 juvenile champion Lookin At Lucky, who made his season’s debut last week at Oaklawn Park in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes—a race that attracted two other Grade 1 winners, runner-up Noble’s Promise and third-place finisher Dublin. Lookin At Lucky, a son of Smart Strike out of Private Feeling, by Belong to Me, races for the partnership of Mike Pegram, Paul Weitman and Karl Watson. He was purchased by Baffert on their behalf for $475,000 at last year’s Keeneland April sale of 2-year-olds in training. Six months earlier, Bailey and Robinson entered Lookin At Lucky in the Keeneland September sale but bought him back for just $35,000 because the veterinary report on him showed several “minor” physical issues. (Click here <http://www.paulickreport.com/blog/american-graded-stakes-standings-brought-to-you-by-keeneland-lookin-at-a-bargain/> to learn more about those issues, which obviously have not prevented the colt from compiling an outstanding record of six wins in seven starts, including three Grade 1 wins, and earnings of $1,423,000.)

Though they may be known better for their pinhooking acumen, Bailey and Robinson have a large broodmare band in excess of 100, and it’s no surprise they are successful in this end of the business along with getting horses ready for 2-year-old sales. Both are consummate horseman, Bailey having years of experience running his own business along with a stint as farm veterinarian and manager of E.K. Gaylord’s Lazy E. Ranch in Oklahoma, and Robinson plying his trade as a professional rodeo cowboy for more than 15 years.

If you want to call someone an “accidental” breeder of an American Graded Stakes winner, that description might be more fitting for two trainers who have produced AGS winners of 2010: trainers Bob Baffert and Mike Machowsky.

Baffert is the breeder of Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap winner Misremembered, co-owned by his wife Jill and their good friend George Jacobs. Baffert probably didn’t envision winning the Big ‘Cap and more than $1 million with the offspring of the mare, Beyond Perfection (by Quack), when he bid $7,000 to buy her at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale in 2005—but that’s exactly what Misremembered has done. In this business, you can be good, but it also helps to be lucky.

Machowsky is the breeder, co-owner and trainer of Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes winner Caracortado. The 3-year-old gelded son of Cat Dreams was produced by Mons Venus, by Maria’s Mon. Machowsky bought Mons Venus for $45,000 on behalf of some clients at the Keeneland 2002 September yearling sale. After the filly kept having ankle problems, Machowsky told the owners she probably would never race and suggested they breed her. When they said they weren’t interested, the trainer contacted a friend in California who was standing the young Storm Cat stallion Cat Dreams and bred Mons Venus to him. Caracortado went on to win his first five races, including the Lewis, before losing for the first time in last Saturday’s Grade 2 San Felipe.

Mons Venus is the second mare Machowsky ever bred.

This only proves there are many ways to breed a winner of an American Graded Stakes race. You can cultivate the best bloodlines, do all the planning and research in the world, but sometimes the most important ingredient is good fortune.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
The story of James E. Jones, the co-breeder with Randy Swanson of Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks winner Crisp, is one that is so unusual for the Thoroughbred business that it almost defies belief.

In decades and years past, Thoroughbred racing and breeding, especially at the highest levels, generally had been reserved for wealthy businessmen or titans of industry (in other words, old, rich, white men). Racing partnerships have made the game more accessible to people of more modest means, and the expansion of the commercial market brought more risk-takers and speculators into the breeding side of the business. Still, even with those changes, there has not been a great deal of diversity in the Thoroughbred industry, especially when it comes to race.

That’s what makes the story of the late James Jones, known as “J.J.” to his friends, so different.

Jones, the son of a Baptist minister named Joseph Jones, was one of 12 children raised in Jimtown, a small black community north of Lexington created in the 1880s to provide a home for freed slaves in the segregated south. Money was scarce, so Joseph Jones padded the income from his ministry by working as a groom at the famed Spendthrift Farm, then owned by Leslie Combs.

One day in the late 1960s, J.J. tagged along with his father, who was helping prep yearlings for an upcoming sale, and he was put to work, holding the yearlings while they were being shod. The blacksmith, a legend in the profession named John Madison who had worked with the likes of Man o’ War, saw something special in the way young J.J. handled the horses, and soon thereafter the younger Jones was working alongside Madison as he made his daily rounds.

He learned enough to go out on his own at the age of 18, and his clients included some of the biggest names in the industry, including Darby Dan Farm, managed for years by Olin Gentry, Spendthrift, Gainesway Farm, and many others.

Olin Gentry, grandson of the Darby Dan manager and co-owner of Gaines-Gentry Thoroughbreds, is the third generation from his family to have called on Jones for his expertise, his father, longtime breeder and consignor Tom Gentry, also having used him as a farrier and blacksmith. “He could spread a horse’s heels better than anyone,” the younger Gentry said.

John Hayes, who manages the farm for Gaines-Gentry, said Jones “had a technique that others tried but couldn’t do as well,” but added there was much more to the man than his knack with shoeing a horse. “He always, always, always had a smile,” said Hayes, “and he could never say ‘no’ to anyone. He was a gentleman, very generous, and I never heard him say a bad word about anyone and I never him use a swear word. Just one of the greatest guys I ever met in this game.”

Jones wanted to breed his own horses, and with the help of former Spendthrift owner Bruce Kline and yearling manager Randy Swanson in the late 1990s claimed a mare named Thorough Fair for $5,000 at Turfway Park. Bred to Mr. Greeley (then standing at Spendthrift), Thorough Fair produced eventual Grade 1 stakes winner Whywhywhy, who now stands alongside his sire at Gainesway Farm. Jones sold the bargain mare, in foal to Giant’s Causeway, for $825,000, at the 2005 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. The following year her son Spellbinder, also bred by Jones, won the Grade 2 San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita.

Jones liked that family enough to buy Thorough Fair’s half-sister Cat’s Fair, for $14,500 at the 2004 Keeneland September yearling sale. Though unraced, she went on to produce Crisp, the second Grade 1 winner bred by Jones.

Were it not for the nose defeat of Quiet Temper in the Grade 2 Silverbulletday Stakes at Fair Grounds, Jones would be one of only two breeders to have bred a pair of 2010 American Graded Stakes winners. The other breeder is Overbrook Farm, which has bred two individual AGS winners of 2010.

That’s pretty heady company for James Jones to be mentioned in, but he is a man who rose above his humble beginnings to excel in Thoroughbred breeding and in life. A little over a year ago, B. Wayne Hughes, the current owner of Spendthrift Farm, invited Jones to his office one day to talk horses with a special guest, George W. Bush, who had only recently left the White House after serving two terms as president.

A couple of weeks later, on March 17, Jones collapsed and died from an apparent heart attack while shoeing a yearling at Sparks View Farm near Lexington. He was only 56 years old.

Fortunately, Jones passed along much of his knowledge about horses and foot care to a son, Jerard, who is following in his footsteps as a blacksmith after working with his father for nearly 10 years. His widow, Linda Denise Jones, and a daughter, Lisa, are carrying on the breeding business that had such remarkable success and showed so much promise at the time of James Jones’ death.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
Kentucky-bred horses dominated the Eclipse Awards handed out in Beverly Hills, Calif., earlier this week, but that’s no surprise. Of the 10 horses that won an Eclipse Award, eight were Kentucky-breds, including Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra and runner-up Zenyatta. The two others were Mixed Up, steeplechase champion, bred in Pennsylvania, and Goldikova, female turf champion, bred in Ireland.

The 80% strike rate by Kentucky-breds among the Eclipse Award winners was even more dominant than the performance in 2009 American Graded Stakes races by horses bred in the Bluegrass State.

According to Paulick Report records, of the 322 individual American Graded Stakes winners of 2009, 192 of them were bred in Kentucky. That’s a percentage of 59.6%. The state that bred the next highest number of AGS winners was Florida, with 35, 10.9%. California and New York bred eight AGS winners each, a percentage of 2.5%.

How do those percentages stack up with opportunity?

Well, Kentucky breeds the most Thoroughbreds (10,466 Kentucky-breds were registered in 2007, according to the Jockey Club), and accounts for 30.9% of all foals bred and registered in the United States. So Kentucky-breds are overachieving in American Graded Stakes at a ratio of nearly 2-to-1 (30.9% of foals compared with 59.6% of AGS winners). Florida is holding its own, contributing to 12.7% of the foal crop and winning 10.9% of the AGS races. California was ranked third in 2007 by foals, accounting for 9.0% of the foal crop but winning only 2.5% of the AGS races. Louisiana is fourth by foals produced, accounting for 7.4% of foals but had no AGS winners of 2009. New York is fifth by foals, with 5.3% of the foal crop and winning the same 2.5% as California in AGS races. (Click here for the ranking of U.S. states by foals born)

Who wins the most Grade 1 races? You only get one guess.

Of the 80 American Grade 1 winners of 2009, 58 of them were bred in Kentucky, or 72.5%. Four G1 winners (5%) were bred in Florida, three in California, and two each in Maryland and Virginia.

The state that did the most with the least was Virginia, which produced five American Graded Stakes winners from a foal crop of only 403 in 2007, the 14th largest breeding state in the U.S., and accounting for just 1.2% of all U.S.-bred foals.

There were 13 Irish-bred winners of American Graded Stakes, three of which won G1 races in the U.S. Great Britain produced the next-highest number of AGS winners, 10, with three of them winning G1.

Here is the complete list of American Graded Stakes winners by state/country where bred, with G1 winners in parentheses: Kentucky, 192 (58); Florida, 35 (4); Ireland, 13 (3); Great Britain, 10 (3); California, 8 (3); New York, 8; Maryland, 6 (2); Virginia, 5 (2); Argentina, 4 (1); Brazil, 3 (2); France, 3 (1); Canada, 3; Oklahoma, 2 (1); Germany, 2; Pennsylvania, 2; Australia, 1; Arizona, 1; Illinois, 1; Japan, 1.

The message is clear: Kentucky, while facing severe economic and competitive challenges from states with breeding and racing programs recently enhanced with revenue from slot machines and other forms of gambling, remains the clear-cut leader in the production of top-quality Thoroughbreds. How long it can maintain such a position of dominance remains to be seen.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
It should come as no surprise that Sheikh Mohammed is the leading owner of American Graded Stakes winners in 2009 through his Darley and Goldophin racing stables. The ruler of Dubai has invested far more money in his international racing and breeding operation than anyone else in the world, and his American stable has performed exceedingly well this year.

If the Darley and Godolphin Stables are combined, Sheikh Mohammed would be the leading owner by money won, according to Equibase (click here for the list), with earnings of just over $7.5 million. However, they are separate stables and are listed separately in the standings, Darley ranking third behind Mike Gill and Zayat Stables and Godolphin 12th.

But there are a few more American Graded Stakes on the racing calendar, starting this weekend with the Breeders’ Cup. When all the dust settles, I anticipate Darley and Godolphin to have an even more dominating position in the American Graded Stakes standings than they do today.

By Ray Paulick
Keeneland’s September yearling sale is the largest auction of its kind in the world, serving as a marketplace for all levels of participants in the Thoroughbred industry, from the rich and famous who fly into Lexington in their private jets for the early select sessions to the blue-collar horsemen who pull a two-horse trailer into town behind their pickup trucks at the tail end of the marathon sale.

This year’s 14-day Keeneland September sale begins on Monday, Sept. 14 and runs through Sept. 28. Friday, Sept. 18 is a dark day. There are over 5,000 yearlings catalogued to this year’s sale.

Because it is the largest Thoroughbred yearling sale in the world, it should come as no surprise that the Keeneland September sale has more of its graduates win American Graded Stakes than any other auction. The Keeneland September sale has produced 66 AGS winners of 2009, five times as many as any other Thoroughbred auction. It accounts for 38.4% of the 172 AGS winners of 2009 that were sold at public auction. (The figures represent only those horses that sold and do not include RNAs.)

The most surprising thing to me about the Keeneland September graduates that went on to win an AGS race in 2009 is the number of horses that sold for relatively low prices. Unbridled Belle, winner of the Grade 3 Obeah Stakes at Delaware Park, was the biggest bargain, selling for $4,000 at the 2004 Keeneland September sale. Zensational, winner of three consecutive Grade 1 races and the likely favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, was a $20,000 yearling purchase. A total of 20 AGS winners of 2009 brought prices of $50,000 or less at the Keeneland September sale. At the other end of the spectrum is the $3.9 million Storm Cat colt, Mr. Sidney, who won the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland this spring.

The 66 AGS winners that sold at Keeneland September had an average price of $254,621 and a median of $115,000.

Because it serves as a marketplace for such a wide range of yearlings in terms of the quality of their pedigrees, the percentage of Keeneland September graduates that win an AGS race is lower than that of some other Thoroughbred auctions. Since the AGS winners of 2009 sold in different years, we’ll arbitrarily use 2007 as a benchmark for calculating the percentage (the same year was applied to consignors of sale horses in last week’s American Graded Stakes Standings brought to you by Keeneland). There were 3,799 yearlings sold at the 2007 Keeneland September sale, and the 66 AGS winners that were bought at a Keeneland September auction represent 1.7% of that figure.

By comparison, Fasig-Tipton’s select sales in Kentucky in July and at Saratoga in August, which select yearlings based on pedigree and conformation, had 3.3% and 7.0% AGS winners of 2009, respectively, using the number sold in 2007. The average price of FT July’s 12 AGS winners of 2009 was $141,500 and the median was $150,000. FT Saratoga select has produced 10 AGS winners of 2009; their average sale price was $431,000 and median was $330,000.

The Keeneland November breeding stock sale has had 12 of its graduates (10 weanlings, two horses of racing age) win AGS races in 2009. Their average was $415,083, buoyed by the world record price $1.7-million weanling, Mi Sueno (winner of the Grade 1 Darley Debutante last week), and the $2.4 million Mushka, who sold as a 3-year-old at last year’s Keeneland November sale. The median price of the 12 AGS winners sold at Keeneland November was $79,500.

Rounding out the auctions that have produced the most 2009 AGS winners are a pair of 2-year-old sales, Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic May sale and the OBS March sale, with eight each. FT Midlantic’s eight AGS winners sold for an average price of $130,125 and median of $92,500, and the eight OBS March AGS winners sold for an average of $256,875 and median of $260,000. Using the number of 2-year-olds sold at their 2007 sales, the FT Midlantic AGS winners represent 2.3% of the number sold and the OBS March winners 3.2%.

 

By Ray Paulick
Of the 233 horses that have won an American Graded Stakes (AGS) race this year, 122 of them (52.4%) have sold at public auction in North America or abroad, either as foals or weanlings, yearlings or at 2-year-olds in training or sales of older horses.

Yearling sales dominate the roster of 2009 AGS winners. There are 107 AGS winners this year sold as yearlings (that’s 45.9% of 2009 AGS winners and 87.7% of the 122 sold at any type of sale). Keep in mind, these numbers only reflect American Graded Stakes and do not include horses offered at a sale and either withdrawn or bought back by their consignors. Some horses sold as yearlings were previously bought as foals or weanlings or were later sold as 2-year-olds in training by pinhookers.

Drilling down a little deeper on the yearling statistics, the Paulick Report’s weekly American Graded Stakes Standings brought to you by Keeneland shows that Taylor Made Sales Agency is responsible for selling 18 of those 107 yearlings that subsequently became AGS winners. That means 16.8% of this year’s AGS winners sold at public auction as yearlings passed through the Nicholasville, Ky., operation run by brothers Duncan, Frank, Ben and Mark Taylor and Pat Payne.

Of course, we all know that Taylor Made is the industry’s largest volume of seller of yearlings, so how does that 16.8% compare with the overall percentage of yearlings sold by Taylor Made? Since the AGS winners came from different foal crops and yearling sale years, we’ll arbitrarily select one auction year as an estimated benchmark. Using statistics from the 2007 Thoroughbred Times Auction Review (3-year-olds of 2009), Taylor Made sold 536 yearlings, or 5.3% of the 10,215 yearlings sold that year. In other words, Taylor Made sold about one in 20 of all the yearlings auctioned off in a given year, but sold one in six of the yearling sale graduates that won a 2009 AGS race. If 2007 was an average year for Taylor Made in terms of the number of yearlings sold, then its 18 AGS winners of 2009 equates to a success rate of 3.4% AGS winners from yearlings sold.

The prices of Taylor Made graduates reflect that quality. While the overall average of the 10,215 yearlings sold in North America in 2007 was $55,020 and the median was $15,000, Taylor Made’s 2007 average price was $137,500. Buyers of Taylor Made consigned yearlings that went on to success in 2009 AGS races spent, on average, $346,111 for each yearling that became an AGS winner (the median price of a 2009 AGS winner sold by Taylor Made was $342,500).

For comparison’s sake, of all 107 yearlings sold that went on to win a 2009 AGS, the average hammer price was $211,134 and the median was $120,000.

Eaton Sales is typically second in volume (number of yearlings sold) and is also second behind Taylor Made in producing the highest number of 2009 AGS winners, with 10 (two of which were sold by Eaton as weanlings and eight as yearlings).

Using overall 2007 auction numbers, the eight yearlings sold by Eaton that won a 2009 AGS equates to 2.2% of all the yearlings Eaton sold in 2007. The average sale price of Eaton’s 2009 AGS winners is $131,500, almost identical to Eaton’s 2007 yearling average of $130,970.

Paramount Sales is represented by six AGS winners of 2009, all sold as yearlings for an average price of $92,000, and the six AGS successes represents 2.4% of the total number sold by Paramount in 2007 (again, please remember, we are choosing 2007 arbitrarily, since this year’s AGS winners come from multiple foal crops and sale years). Paramount’s overall yearling average in 2007 was $67,803.

Lane’s End has six 2009 AGS winners, one sold as a weanling; the five sold as yearlings had an average price of $1,021,000, a number spiked by the $3.9 million Storm Cat colt Mr. Sidney. The five AGS winners represent 2.7% of the 184 yearlings Lane’s End sold in 2007. Lane’s End had an overall yearling average of $236,506 in 2007, by far the highest of this group of consignors ranked among the leading sellers of AGS winners. (Another reminder, the statistics do not include overseas graded/group race results.)

Hill ‘n’ Dale sold six 2009 AGS winners, four of them as yearlings for an average price of $148,800. The number sold represents 2.1% of all Hill ‘n’ Dale yearlings sold in 2007. Those yearlings averaged $92,982.

Conclusions? Obviously, Taylor Made is enjoying an outstanding year as the leading seller of 2009 AGS winners, and it’s not only because of the higher volume of horses sold. Using those 2007 auction figures as a benchmark, Taylor Made’s rate of 3.4% AGS winners from yearlings sold is higher than all the other leading consignors shown in the table below demonstrating that quantity in a consignment does not by any means exclude quality.

By Ray Paulick
The leading trainer of American Graded Stakes winners through Aug. 9 is not last year’s Eclipse Award winner Steve Asmussen, the runaway leader in the earnings category that is typically used to rank trainers (Asmussen-trained horses have earned $13.7 million so far this year, $5.7 million more than his closest pursuer). Neither is it Todd Pletcher, the four-time Eclipse Award winner who dominated the trainer’s ranks from 2004-07 before Asmussen’s ascension to the top.

The leader of American Graded Stakes winners, with nine individual horses to win a graded stakes race, is Kiaran McLaughlin. McLaughlin has won graded stakes at six different tracks for six different sets of owners. Only one of his AGS winners has won more than one graded stakes race while in his care (one of them, Seventh Street, was moved to trainer Saeed bin Suroor, and went on to win the G1 Go for Wand at Saratoga).

McLaughlin’s winners are: Albertus Maximus (G1 Donn Handicap for Shadwell Stables); Seventh Street (G1 Apple Blossom Handicap for Darley Stable); Justwhistledixie (G2 Davona Dale and G2 Bonnie Miss for West Point Thoroughbreds, Lakland Farm, and R.D. Hubbard); Dream Play (G2 Comely Stakes for Stewart Armstrong); Charitable Man (G2 Peter Pan for Mr. and Mrs. William K Warren Jr.); Carolyn’s Cat (G2 Vagrancy Handicap for the Warrens); the Japanese-bred Florentino (G2 Jefferson Cup for Darley Stable); Justenuffhumor (G2 Fourstardave Handicap for Darley Stable); and Mr. Fantasy (G3 Withers for West Point Thoroughbreds, Brooks and Cammarano).

All but one of McLaughlin’s AGS winners were purchased at public auction, the exception being Albertus Maximus, who was bought privately by Shadwell and turned over to McLaughlin prior to the Donn Handicap. Those bought publicly weren’t found in the bottom of a barrel, ranging from a low price of $200,000 Charitable Man (bought by agent Mike Ryan from the Lane’s End consignment at the 2007 Keeneland September yearling sale) to a high of $1,226,120 at the Japan Racing Horse Association sale from Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm consignment.

His successes in American graded stakes races have helped elevate McLaughlin to third place in the national trainer standings, with earnings of $4.8 million. He’s won 76 races from 373 starts, according to Equibase’s trainer standings, meaning that roughly one of every seven winners is in a graded stakes race.

Asmussen and Pletcher, with far more starters than McLaughlin, are tied for second, with eight AGS winners apiece, and it figures to be only a matter of time before they surpass the soft-spoken Kentucky native as the leader in this category, given the greater overall firepower of their stables. Previous multiple Eclipse Award winners Bob Baffert and Bobby Frankel are next in AGS winners, with seven and six, respectively.

This final note: readers of the first few installments of the American Graded Stakes Standings brought to you by Keeneland might notice some minor changes in the numbers of AGS winners in certain categories. While reviewing our statistical summaries from earlier in the year, we noticed a handful of late December AGS races that were included in our 2009 statistics. They have since been deleted. We apologize for the error.

Immediately after the regulations on toe grabs went into effect in April, stewards at Delaware Park noticed an increase in the number of horses stumbling coming out of the starting gate and began to track the statistics at Wayne’s request. “They noticed two, three or four horses a day were stumbling, and riders were coming off horses." Wayne also said track maintenance crews and the starting gate crew tried different things to alleviate the increase in stumbles at the start, to no avail.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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