Mo Forza's Success Leads Dam Back to Sales Ring

When the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale catalogue was published, Inflamed (Unusual Heat)'s first foal was only an unplaced 3-year-old, but when the mare went through the sales ring last month, Mo Forza (Uncle Mo) was a graded stakes winner. The 9-year-old mare was purchased by Craig Bernick's Glen Hill Farm for $170,000 and Bernick watched as the mare's stock continued to rise when Mo Forza won the GI Hollywood Derby just weeks after the auction. Mo Forza's Grade I win convinced Bernick to supplement Inflamed to the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale where she will be offered Jan. 14 as hip 795E as part of Glen Hill Farm's first-ever consignment.

Bernick was busy as both a buyer and seller at the November sale, which was dominated by the dispersal of his Elevage partnership with John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale Farm.

“We had done the Elevage dispersal and I had a number in mind of money that I wanted to spend,” Bernick said. “So we were selling and then we were going to be bidding on horses, too. I got outbid on the mare I really wanted, [$1.5-million] Mei Ling (Empire Maker), so I had some significant money left over.”

That extra spending money found a home with Inflamed, thanks to an assist from bloodstock agent Donato Lanni.

“I had flipped through the catalogue and didn't really notice the mare because Mo Forza was just placed at the time, but the morning she was selling, Donato Lanni called me and said, 'Do you recognize that horse?'”

Mo Forza took six tries to break his maiden, but following his graduation at Santa Anita Sept. 29, he jumped right up to the graded stakes ranks to win the Nov. 2 GII Twilight Derby on the Breeders' Cup undercard.

“It was Book 5 and I just figured I would go over and look at the mare,” Bernick said of Inflamed, who is in foal to Tapiture. “She was a very attractive mare and, just handicapping, I didn't think Mo Forza had to improve to win the GI Hollywood Derby. I thought his Twilight Derby was good enough to win the Hollywood Derby, so unless a superstar horse shipped out, I thought there was a really good chance that he would be a Grade I winner.”

Mo Forza proved Bernick's handicapping was spot on when he returned to win the Hollywood Derby Nov. 30, but he admitted he was surprised by the mare's $170,000 price tag.

“I thought the mare would make $350,000,” Bernick said. “Because she was the dam of a Grade II winner and still very young, but obviously she didn't. So I was very happy to buy her.”     Of the decision to supplement Inflamed to the January sale, Bernick explained, “I was on my way over to Tattersalls when Mo Forza won [the Hollywood Derby], but I saw [Keeneland Director of Sales Development] Mark Maronde at Tattersalls and he convinced me there would be enough people there in January and she would be a really unique mare. So we decided to sell her.”

Mo Forza continued to bolster his dam's credentials, earning a third straight graded score in the GII Mathis Brothers Mile S. Saturday.

For the past decade, Glen Hill Farm's sales horses were offered through the Hill 'n' Dale consignments, but the operation has catalogued eight horses under its own banner at the January sale.

“We were with Hill 'n' Dale for 10 years and it was a great relationship and we're still in the stallion business together,” Bernick said. “I think they do a fantastic job and I had no thoughts of going to a different consignor, but having taken over the business in 2008 and going to all the sales, I just felt like I wanted to represent our horses myself. We are selling in January and we will continue to sell ourselves whenever we sell horses, as yearlings or in mixed sales, as well. I just feel like we can speak to the horses well and represent them. It was just something that I wanted to do.”

The Glen Hill Farm consignment also includes the rising 4-year-old Confidently (War Front) (hip 595), who will be offered as a racing or broodmare prospect. Out of Playa Maya (Arch), the winning filly is a half-sister to champion Uncle Mo and a full-sister to last year's G1 Irish 1000 Guineas runner-up Could It Be Love.

“She's a very good-looking filly,” Bernick said. “She's a full-sister to a Classic filly and a half-sister to Uncle Mo. I think she is one of the best horses in the catalogue.”

Also in the consignment is Hassler (Ire) (War Front) (hip 676), a daughter of multiple Grade I winner Turbulent Descent (Congrats), who sells in foal to Violence. She will be followed into the sales ring by her yearling filly by Frosted.

“Her Frosted foal is a very nice filly,” Bernick said. “I think the Frosted filly will appeal to the pinhookers because they certainly sold well as yearlings turning two and I think the foal will really sell the mare.”

Since taking over the historic farm his grandfather Leonard Lavin started in 1966, Bernick has had plenty of experience as a buyer at the sales. Now he said he is ready to tackle the challenges of selling.

“Everybody has been trying to sell to me my whole life, so I know all the sales pitch styles,” he said. “I will be on the other side now.”

The Glen Hill Farm consignment will be something of a return to the sales arena for Bernick, who previously served as marketing executive at Alberto-Culver Company.

“I had always been in sales in my career before the horse business,” Bernick said. “I left all of that to get involved in horses. But I was able to sell shampoo and I'm balding, so I should be able to sell horses.”