With the 2023 season upon us, the TDN staff is once again sitting down with leading breeders to find out what stallions they have chosen for their mares, and why. Here is what Tracy Farmer had to say about his broodmare band for 2023.
We had a great few years on the track and we retired our GI Belmont Stakes Winner Sir Winston to Crestwood Farm in Lexington, KY this year, so we will offer him a lot of support both in the stallion barn now and in the sales ring in the future. We generally only keep about 10 mares, but we have bought some new mares to support Sir Winston as we plan to breed more than a dozen mares to him in 2023.
ALYDORABLE (m, 13, Arch–Esprit D'Escalier) booked to Sir Winston.
She is a stakes placed Arch mare that has already produced a nice stakes winner by Quality Road. She has a daughter by Ghostzapper that is the dam of multiple stakes winning 3-year-old Girl Trouble, and we want to support Sir Winston with some proven mares, and she is a great match for him. Awesome Again's son Ghostzapper has done great with Arch mares, with Grade I winners like Contested and Nucky.
TROPHY GIRL (m, 10, Warrior's Reward–Storm West) booked to Good Magic.
We generally do not breed to many first year stallions but a few years ago we really were excited about Good Magic and felt like Trophy Girl would be a very good fit. She is a big mare, about 16.3h, had a lot of talent, and broadly speaking, the Smart Strike line has done quite well over the El Prado line. We felt like Good Magic might benefit from a mare with some size to her and he could add speed while not sacrificing our chance to breed a classic horse. The resulting foal was Blazing Sevens, who won the GI Champagne S. this year. She will go back to Good Magic.
BAKSHEESH (f, 4, Summer Front–Spider Dust) booked to Sir Winston.
We bought this very good looking mare specifically to be bred to Sir Winston. She was a stakes-winning 2-year-old at Woodbine and Sid Fernando really liked her pedigree to match up with Sir Winston's. We wanted to buy some mares that were fast and precocious. Don't forget, Sir Winston was also a stakes-winning 2-year-old, so we expect him to sire precocity despite the fact that he trained on to win the Belmont and graded stakes later in his career.
SKYGAZE (m, 6, American Pharoah–Skyscape) booked to Tapit.
Skygaze was champion older mare in Canada in 2021 and we retired her in the middle of 2022. She actually won a Grade III as a 2-year-old but was disqualified, and we felt like she was worth going all the way to the top. Her dam has produced five black-type horses so the family is very strong. We felt like this mare could really use A.P. Indy, and Tapit has a great strike rate with Empire Maker line mares as he has three graded-stakes winners on that cross out of 12 attempts.
LA GRAN BAILADORA (m, 16, Afleet Alex–Affirmed Dancer) booked to Ghostzapper.
She is the dam of Sir Winston (Awesome Again) and also the grand-dam of One Timer (Trappe Shot), who won a Grade II last year. We had a Ghostzapper filly out of her that we felt was very talented but had an injury and we were forced to retire her early. If we can get another foal by Ghostzapper that showed her talent, by the same sire line as Sir Winston, we will be in great shape.
GILDED LILY (m, 9, Speightstown–Handpainted) booked to Sir Winston.
From the moment we retired Sir Winston, we wanted to find some fast fillies by Speightstown to breed to him. On paper, this filly has all the things we look for. She comes from the family of Touch Gold–which makes her 3×4 to Deputy Minister– historically strong inbreeding with Awesome Again as we see in horses like Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) and Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow). Gilded Lily's dam is by A.P. Indy, and Awesome Again and his son Ghostzapper have done great with A.P. Indy line mares.
LA BOHEMIAN (f, 4, Tiznow–La Rambla) booked to Sir Winston.
This filly was a homebred of ours and she is a half sister to two very talented and fast stakes-level sprinters. Needless to say, Tiznow has done well under Awesome Again (Paynter/Oxbow/ Bravazzo etc) but, more importantly, her dam, La Rambla, is by City Zip, who is a half-brother to Ghostzapper. So we know the family has an affinity for Awesome Again.
IMMORTAL LIFE (IRE) (m, 11, Iffraaj {GB}- Pursuit of Life {GB}) booked to Not This Time.
This is a mare we are very high on. Her first foal is graded-stakes winner Neptune's Storm (Stormy Atlantic), who is $10K short of being a millionaire. The 3-year-old filly out of the mare is Fearless Angel (More Than Ready), who was beaten just a nose in a stake as a 2-year-old last year. Not this Time has sired Grade I winner Just One Time, who is out of a Gone West line mare, just like this one. Immortal Life's best foal is by a Storm Cat line as well, and although Not this Time is primarily a dirt stallion, he has gotten some very good horses from European families such as Epicenter.
Interested in sharing your own mating plans? Email garyking@thetdn.com.
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