Front Rolls in for Allen

Ask longtime owner/breeder Joseph Allen who the best horse he's been involved with is and there is no hesitation.

“War Front,” Allen said assuredly. “He's like catching lightning in a bottle. It doesn't get better.”

Allen bred and campaigned War Front (Danzig–Starry Dreamer, by Rubiano), who won the 2006 GII Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. and was second in that year's GI Vosburgh S. and GI Forego S. But it was when the bay entered stud at Claiborne Farm in 2007 that he really became a star.

“We always liked him,” Allen recalled of the future super stallion. “He was born at Claiborne and we all liked him. But we had a lot of trouble with him, there were soundness issues. And we were very fortunate to get him to the races and to have him perform. While I thought he had a good record on the racetrack, I think we all felt he was probably a much better horse, but had a lot to overcome.”

War Front has left no doubt about his dominance in the stallion ranks. Currently commanding a $200,000 stud fee, he is the sire of 12 Grade/Group 1 winners, including champions Lines of Battle and Declaration of War and G1 Dewhurst S. winner War Command, all bred by Allen.

The stallion has been in demand in the sales ring, as well. At last year's Keeneland September Yearling Sale, War Front had four offerings sell for seven figures and his 21 yearlings sold averaged $600,714.

“It's spectacular,” Allen said of War Front's record at stud. “You just have to be very fortunate to experience something like this.”

Through the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment, Allen catalogues three yearlings by War Front to next week's Keeneland September sale. While two have been withdrawn, he will offer hip 466, a filly out of French stakes placed Louve des Reves (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), who is a full-sister to group placed Omar Bradley. Allen will also offer hip 437, a colt from the first crop of Declaration of War. Out of La Conseillante (Elusive Quality), the yearling is a half to multiple group placed War Envoy (War Front).

“We always liked Declaration of War–we liked him a lot–but he was a different type of horse [from War Front],” Allen, who campaigned the bay in partnership with Coolmore, said. “He won two races as a 2-year-old rather easily and then he had a major injury at the beginning of his 3-year-old year and we had to lay him up. We always thought he was very, very good and he had a chance to show us how good he was in his 4-year-old year. Aidan O'Brien did a wonderful job with him.”

As a 4-year-old in 2013, Declaration of War won the G1 Juddmonte International S. and G1 Queen Anne S. and was second in the G1 Eclipse S. and third in the G1 Sussex S. In his racing finale, he finished third in a dramatic blanket finish behind Mucho Macho Man and Will Take Charge in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic in his only start on dirt. He entered stud in 2014 and stood this season at Ashford for $40,000.

Allen's trio of Book 1 offerings is concluded by hip 371, a filly by Galileo (Ire) out of graded stakes winner Grande Melody (Ire) (Grand Lodge).

The trio of yearlings have a decidedly European flair which Allen hopes will appeal to a diverse buying bench in Lexington.

“I think it's an international market,” Allen said of Keeneland September.

“About 15-20 years ago, I liquidated almost everything,” he explained. “And one of the ways that I got back into was basically buying European horses who were good over there on the grass and I brought them here. And I had a certain amount of success with that. We did that with American horses as long as we could find them that I liked with pedigree. So yes, [these yearlings] certainly do have a European pedigree.”

For Allen, who has been breeding racehorses for nearly four decades, his sales offerings are simply a stab at fiscal responsibility.

“I like to race if I can, but like anything else, there is a certain cost to this business and you can't cover it just racing unless you win everything,” he explained. “You really have to turn over horses. It's a matter of finding a combination that works. I'm now in a position to sell some stallion services. So the revenue aspect is the race revenue, which is not great, the sale of certain horses–that's either selling yearlings or horses I've tried off the racetrack or selling services. I try to put it together if I can. There is no magic formula for that. It's not that I'm culling things, I'll sell some of my best things if I can. It just depends on what I can get for them. It's a very hard business to balance and to expand in.”

Allen currently has a broodmare band of 25 mares, up by about 10 head from recent years as he tries to increase the quality of his mares to keep up with War Front's exploits.

“I really wasn't trying to expand,” Allen explained. “It's really because some of my mares are starting to get old. I have some daughters, but I don't know how good they are or how good they are going to be. So I felt like I had to really improve on the qualities of the mares if I wanted to continue to breed to War Front. I bred three of my best mares to him when we had the magical season in 2013 when we had Declaration of War, we had Lines of Battle and also War Command. Those were out of three of my better mares and they are all old. So I felt I needed not only get more volume, but also greater quality. I bought some yearlings which I think will help in the long run–fillies with good pedigrees.”

A native New Yorker, Allen first became involved in racehorse ownership some 40 years ago, but he was always a fan.

“I'd always been interested in racing and it was in my early 30s that I actually got in a position where I could participate other than just going to the racetrack,” Allen said. “I went to the racetracks when I was younger as a spectator and a gambler and then I always thought the people on the inside knew something.” He added with a chuckle, “Over 35 years, I've learned that they don't always know that much.”

Allen campaigned several American graded stakes winners, including War Front's half-sister Teammate (A.P. Indy) and 2007 GI Suburban H. winner Political Force (Unbridled's Song), but has been largely missing from the U.S. racing scene in recent years.

“I changed my operation a little bit,” he said. “I had gone to Europe with most of my horses. I felt that it became a soundness issue here. Especially since I had a lot of mares that I had retired from the racetrack, in America it's very difficult because there are so many injuries. It's hard to know if the horses are any good or if the produce is any good, or was it compromised by injuries. And I kind of liked the European end of it in that there is very little or no medication, which I much prefer instead of fighting these battles at every track about who is using what. Secondly, I just felt it was better for the horses.”

But Allen is currently in a stateside reemergence, with his Jay Gatsby (Giant's Causeway), another half to War Front, recently finishing a neck second behind Ring Weekend (Tapit) in the GII Bernard Baruch H.

“Now I've changed it back a little bit,” he said. “I am bringing some horses here. Last year was the first year in a long time that I kept, I think, six yearlings here. So we'll see what happens.”

The reason for the change is simple.

“I miss it,” Allen said. “I got tired of watching everything on the computer over there. It's nice to go to the races every once in a while. It's a little bit selfish, but I think everything in moderation is nice. It's nice to have some horses here, it's good to have some horses over there. If you can. It requires a little bit of volume, but if you can, it's good to be diversified.”

The Keeneland September sale gets underway Monday with the first of three Book 1 sessions beginning at 11 a.m. Allen expects the market polarization to continue at the 13-day auction.

“It's like every other market,” he said. “If you've got what they want, you're optimistic. Everybody seems to want the same thing. Quality is probably the most important thing and if you have quality, people will want it and if you don't, then it's hard to give things away.”