Thoughts from home: Spendthrift shuttlers' first foals impressing

Cover image courtesy of Spendthrift

Spendthrift Australia recently welcomed back a pair of their Kentucky-based team -G1 Breeders' Cup Classic hero Vino Rosso (USA) and multiple Grade 1 winner and G1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile runner-up Omaha Beach (USA)- to its Victoria nursery, about 60 kilometres from Central Melbourne.

They retired as two of the hottest stud prospects in North America in 2020 and were supported with according quality. Each is to be represented by their first young produce to go under the hammer during breeding stock sales in the upcoming American autumn.

Vino Rosso the talk of the town

By the influential Curlin (USA) and out of a mare by the late Street Cry (Ire), Vino Rosso was bred at Kentucky's Glennwood Farm by John D. Gunther and cost owner Mike Repole's Repole Stable and Vinnie Viola's St. Elias Stable US$410,000 (AU$564,688) as a yearling at the 2016 Keeneland September Sale.

Though bred to excel over a route of ground, the Todd Pletcher-trained chestnut was a debut winner over seven furlongs (1400 metres) and stamped his ticket to the US Classics with a victory in the G2 Wood Memorial S. in April of his 3-year-old season.

He showed further improvement as an older horse, winning the G1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita and the Breeders' Cup.

Though he was a later-maturing sort, breeders are reporting that his first-crop foals are shaping as anything but that.

“I have a really nice mare that I bred back to Vino Rosso in May, because every single Vino Rosso we have is stunning,” said Carrie Brogden, who breeds under the banner of Machmer Hall with her Australian-born husband Craig.

“Vino himself was a lovely horse, but I have been stunned with what I've seen and I think a lot of people feel the same way.”

She added: “They have bone, they have size, they have substance and they have a big, old kachunga--a big old butt. They look a lot faster than I would have expected for a horse that was a Classic-type distance horse. They look very correct and he's really stamping them.

"I can't think of any of them that we have that aren't chestnut and really good-looking. Every single foal we have by him is a better physical than the mare they're out of. He's throwing sprinter-type bodies with stretch, and a lot of times, that gets you the miler-type that can get a distance as well.”

Martha Jane Mulholland breeds out of Mulholland Springs in Kentucky and has also been taken by Vino Rosso's first batch of horses.

“These foals look very early and I think you have to look individually at a horse,” she said. “They look quick and they look early. (Vino Rosso) ran a Classic distance, but it looks to me like he's getting foals that will be able to sprint and go a distance when they get older.

“I am seeing a lot of size and scope and body and in a weanling, those are important,” Mulholland commented.

“They've got a lot of leg, a lot of air under them and they're good-sized. They have the appropriate amount of length - they're not too short-coupled and they're not too long. Significant muscling, particularly in the hind quarters, which should make them quick and I like the way the neck sets into the shoulder and they're very correct, solid horses.

“I also think they are very attractive-headed, which, commercially, a pretty foal always sells well. They are very nice foals, nice big eyes, good shoulder, good, scopey horses and very well-balanced.

"In a baby, if they're correct and have good size and scope and a nice head, that bodes very well for a successful sales year. And the balance and muscling bodes well for success on the racetrack.”

Vino Rosso is one of 14 top-level winners for Hill 'N' Dale's Curlin (USA), a number that also includes this Shadwell Stables' G1 Kentucky Oaks winner Malathaat (USA), who recently added the prestigious G1 Alabama S. to her growing resume. According to Jody Huckabay, who operates Elm Tree Farm alongside his wife Michelle, Vino Rosso has every opportunity to follow in his sire's considerable hoofprints.

“To me, he is throwing a lot of Curlin into them,” Huckabay said. “They're very correct and very good movers and I've just been probably as impressed with him as any freshman sire that I've seen here this year, at our farm in particular. I am very high on them. We are putting two in the November sale, a colt and filly.

“In my opinion, they look like they could be early. Short backs, good hips on them. I think the commercial people are going to snap them up. I think the 2-year-old (resellers) that fuel our market here are really going to like him.

"I'm just very keen on him, at least based upon the ones we have. They look like they're going to be early enough, but that's not all they're going to be. I think they are also going to get better with time. But he's going to have some early runners, if they look anything like ours.”

Brogden believes Vino Rosso will be a 'buzz' horse once mixed sales season kicks off in a few months' time.

“You have this chatter across the farms in Kentucky -'who do you like? who do you like?' and invariably, I keep hearing that 'I love my Vino.' Obviously, Curlin is becoming such an influential stallion in the United States and I think (Vino Rosso) would do so well with the speedier, shorter-coupled mares in Australia.

“Curlin's reputation continues to move forward, his flag is flying higher. He's doing things he really shouldn't be doing, and from what I see with the Vinos, it won't shock me if that's what you see there, too. And he has a beautiful female family. I am very excited for his foals.”

Omaha Beach, the Danzig connection

Danzig-line stallions need little introduction to the Australian market, but in the form of Omaha Beach, breeders also have access to a female family with abundant class and racetrack success.

A son of US$3.2 million (AU$4.4 million) Keeneland September yearling Charming (USA) (Seeking The Gold {USA}), Omaha Beach is a half-brother to Champion US 2-Year-Old filly Take Charge Brandi (USA) (Giant's Causeway {USA}) and was himself bought in for US$625,000 (AU$860,804) at Keeneland in 2017. Treble Grade 1-winning second dam Take Charge Lady (USA), a daughter of successful dual-hemisphere stallion Dehere (USA), produced Champion 3-Year-Old colt Will Take Charge (USA) (Unbridled's Song {USA}), Grade 1-winning sire Take Charge Indy (USA) (A.P. Indy {USA}) and multiple stakes winner As Time Goes By (USA) (American Pharoah {USA}).

Trained by Richard Mandella for the late Rick Porter's Fox Hill Farms, Omaha Beach placed in three tries on the turf, but became a different animal once switched to the dirt, with victories in the G2 Rebel S. and G1 Arkansas Derby establishing him as the Kentucky Derby favourite. Forced to miss that engagement, he later returned to win a pair of Grade 1s over sprint trips either side of his runner-up effort in the Dirt Mile.

Omaha Beach's first foals have impressed this group of breeders.

“I feel certain he will pass on his ability to his progeny,” said Mulholland. “This horse is producing the best foals that these good mares have ever had.

"With the size of his fee, he was sent some very nice mares, but these are nonetheless the nicest foals that these mares have ever had. Lots of quality, lots of class, good balance and size.

"The only other horse I felt this way about is (US Horse of the Year and Breeders' Cup Classic winner) Gun Runner. I just don't say that about a lot of stallions and I am going to go to (Omaha Beach) in his third year. I feel very strongly about that horse.”

Added Huckabay: “I only have one Omaha Beach-unfortunately. I did breed a couple more mares to him, but they didn't get pregnant. The one we have belongs to my son, very nice filly. She's also going in November. (Spendthrift's) Mark Toothaker came out and he thought she was a very good representation of what the sire can throw.”

Huckabay reports that the filly, produced by the stakes-winning Star Super (USA) (Super Saver {USA}), has a date in the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

“We were original shareholders in War Front as well, and this filly to me looks like a lot of the good War Fronts,” he commented. “She's got good leg, plenty of muscle. She's a good mover and she ties together extremely well. She's out of a pretty nice mare, we're really pleased with her.

“She looks like a rocketship, no joke. She looks like just pure speed. Mark really thought she was one of the better ones he'd seen.”

The highly positive feedback from a handful of prominent breeders suggest that not only do prospective buyers on this side of the world have something very much to look forward to, but so, too, does the Australian industry when the first foals are offered to the market.