By Jessica Martini
When the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Mixed catalogue came out, Blaine Isaacs earmarked one page in particular and when he was driving home to Lexington Wednesday, he had acquired his objective, purchasing the $230,000 sale-topping daughter of Cyberknife (hip 301) Tuesday in upstate New York.
“When they released the catalogue about a month ago, I did the Auction Edge on all the horses in the sale and I was just really impressed by the mare's produce report on her,” Isaacs said. “[D'Fashion] had a McKinzie filly [Cash Call, who sold for $600,000] in OBS April that had the co-fastest breeze of the OBS sales this spring. She hasn't broken her maiden yet, but she's hit the board in maiden special weights twice. So I think she could be a special filly. And then also, the yearling half by Game Winner was the highest-priced Game Winner [$450,000] at Keeneland September Book 2, so there were two really good horses in the pipeline. And when I got to see her in person, she's a beautiful filly and I didn't want to go home without her.”
Isaacs, the son of longtime Bridlewood Farm manager George Isaacs, was signing just his second ticket when he purchased the weanling for a record-tying price at the Saratoga Fall sale, but he has already had plenty of pinhooking success in partnerships.
“I started pinhooking back in 2021,” he said. “The first pinhook I ever had, I just had a leg of it with Brian Graves, but it ended up being Federal Judge (Army Mule), the horse who won the GII Ogden Phoenix at Keeneland a couple weeks back and is going to the Breeders' Cup. That's the first horse I ever had a piece of pinhooking.”
Now a 4-year-old, Federal Judge was purchased for $40,000 at the 2021 OBS Winter Mixed Sale and resold for $200,000 at the following year's Fasig-Tipton July sale.
“From there, I met Tami Bobo and did some pinhooking with her,” Isaacs continued. “And then I also bought one at Keeneland November with my dad and it ended up being the Instagrand that sold for $350,000. It was the highest price for the stallion, and he's in training with Bill Mott.”
Now named Chatbot (Instagrand), that colt was purchased for $85,000 and sold to Pin Oak Stud at last year's Keeneland September sale.
“I had a small piece of the Gun Runner who sold for $2.2 million last April,” Isaacs continued. “I got in with Tami Bobo with that horse for a small percentage. Over the past few years, I got to be in on some really nice horses with some really good pinhookers.”
Isaacs made his first solo pinhooking purchase when buying a son of Modernist for $65,000 at last year's Keeneland November sale. Prepped by Carlos and Sarah Estrada and consigned under the couple's C & S Thoroughbreds banner, the colt sold for $100,000 at this year's Fasig-Tipton July sale.
“So I kind of broke even on him, made a couple of bucks,” Isaacs said of the result. “Maddie Mattmiller bought the horse for Black-Type Stables and Swinbank Stables and he is going to George Weaver. Maddie says there is a good chance he will be a Royal Ascot horse next year.”
In addition to being his first pinhooking purchase on his own, that result marked Isaac's first collaboration with the Estradas.
“Tami introduced me to Sarah and Carlos back at the 2021 Night of the Stars sale,” he said. “I spoke to them a lot in the back ring because I had been shopping with Tami and her husband Fernando. I would always just talk to them when we were looking at horses in the chute. When I bought that Modernist colt back in November, I was going to leave the horse up in Kentucky, since I had moved up here. I just walked up to Sarah and Carlos and said, 'Hey, I just bought this colt. Can he go to you guys? They said, 'We just bought a Practical Joke, so he can go on the trailer with him. I went over to the house just about every weekend to see how that horse was coming along and I ended up being really good friends with them.”
The Estradas will be prepping the Cybernife filly for Isaacs for a potential return to the Saratoga sales ring next August.
Isaacs, who relocated from Ocala to Lexington last summer, has been working at Taylor Made Farm and currently serves as the farm's sales coordinator. But his involvement in the racing game has been a lifelong endeavor.
“From the time I was four or five, my mom had always done Quarter Horses,” Isaacs said. “So I went all over the country riding Quarter Horses, Western Pleasure and Cutting Horses. When I was 13, I started working on the farm for my dad. And then I shopped all the sales and short listed horses with my dad. I was part of the selection process when we bought Tapwrit, who won the Belmont back in 2017. I got to see a lot of really nice horses growing up and I got to sales prep a lot of nice yearlings for my dad back home.”
Long-term, Isaacs hopes to continue working with Taylor Made while adding to his pinhooking portfolio.
“I love working for Taylor Made and the Taylors have been amazing,” he said. “They have treated me like family. And someone that I've always looked up to is Brian Graves. He is one of the top pinhookers in the industry, but he's also the general manager and runs the consignment for Gainesway. I would love to keep working for Taylor Made and do high-end pinhooking like Brian Graves has done over the years. That would be my long-term goal.”
In the shorter term, Isaacs can look forward to watching how his newest acquisition matures over the next several months.
“The only ticket I had ever signed was the one for $65,000, so this [$230,000] was almost four times as much. I have gotten to be part of some really big horses, but never signed the ticket on them. It was nerve-wracking, but I think she has a lot coming up in the pedigree and I think she can be a special filly next year.”
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