STORM RAVEN (m, 6, Bodemeister–Crystal Current, by A.P. Indy), to be bred to Justify
Several days into the 2020 Keeneland November sale, I found Storm Raven. She was just what I was looking for, a 2-year-old winner from a deep dirt race family and in foal to my most sought-after covering sire, Vino Rosso.
Fast forward to not quite a year later and I found myself at the Fasig Tipton Night of the Stars November Sale. Her beautiful scopey Vino Rosso Colt sold for $150,000, becoming my top sale, was the highest-priced Ohio-bred weanling in 2021. My hobby now turned profitable and the dream of being able to breed a mare to Justify was looking like a possibility. Coolmore had looked at the Vino Rosso colt and liked the Justify/Storm Raven mating and after analyzing a few other options, the contract was signed to breed to Justify in 2022. Dreams really do come true.
CANDY LANE (m, 6, Twirling Candy–Tangueray Miss, by Cowboy Cal), to be bred to Practical Joke
I walked the Keeneland Sales grounds with my best friend Jon Wise in 2021, looking for another standout mare that would fit my program. After a couple of good sales earlier in the year, our budget had grown. Candy Lane was that standout to us. A young multiple stakes placed Twirling Candy mare from a family of solid dirt winners and in foal to Justify, I doubted the chances, but decided to make sure we were there when she sold. She ended up selling for the exact amount that I had written down for her. In all of my excitement, I hadn't really considered that although our Ohio OTBO board had passed a rule allowing me to make the Justify foal an Ohio-bred, it still had not been approved by the Ohio legislature.
My only commercial and financially responsible option with her would be to become a Kentucky breeder, leave Candy Lane there to foal and breed her back to Kentucky stallion. It was a bittersweet decision. Candy Lane's pedigree lines up particularly well with Into Mischief line, and we spent the rest of the November Sale looking at foals of sons of Into Mischief and decided that Practical Joke was the best choice for Candy Lane based on the attributes he was passing on to his foals.
I am so excited for these 2022 matings and hope to see them result in great foals for these two young mares.
Let us know who you're breeding your mares to in 2022, and why. We will print a selection of your responses in TDN over the coming weeks. Please send details to: garyking@thetdn.com.
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