'Princess' Becomes a Queen

The $2.1 million Jane Lyon spent to purchase Littleprincessemma (Yankee Gentleman), who was in foal to young sire Pioneerof the Nile, at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November sale may have seemed a little steep at the time. However, it proved to be a steal at 6:53 p.m. June 6 when her son American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) captured the GI Belmont S. and in turn became the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years.

“Pioneerof the Nile was still a young stallion, although he had obviously already produced a Grade I winner and some other runners, he wasn't one of those horses that would escalate the price of a mare in our opinion, just because she was carrying a foal by him,” Lyon said. “So, we kind of thought we might sneak in there and get her a little cheaper than we did, but she is worth much more than that now.”

American Pharoah was already a dual Grade I winner, having captured the GI Del Mar Futurity and GI FrontRunner S., last November when Lyon began eyeing up his dam, but he had recently been scratched from the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile with an injury.

“We usually buy Grade I winners and they haven't always turned out to be producers,” Lyon said when asked what attracted her to the mare besides her famous son. “We had decided we wanted to purchase a producer, a proven mare, and when we looked at her, American Pharoah had already won two Grade Is as a 2-year-old, though he was already injured at the time and had been withdrawn from the Breeders' Cup. When we saw the mare, we thought she was really beautiful, a very good-looking mare. I really, really liked her, so I was most happy to be able to get her.”

Lyon, who owns Summer Wind Farm in Georgetown, Kentucky, with her husband Frank, was even happier to own Littleprincessemma, and American Pharoah's full brother Irish Pharaoh, when she witnessed American Pharoah earn his place in history as the 12th Triple Crown winner at Belmont last Saturday.

“Maybe the Bafferts and the Zayats were more excited than we were, but not much,” enthused Lyon, who made the trip to New York with family and friends to attend the Belmont. “It was just so exciting! It would have been exciting even if we hadn't had Princess Emma because anyone that loves racing was ready for a new Triple Crown winner.”

Lyon continued, “I remember, of course I wasn't there, but watching Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed, and it looked kind of easy because they were all three in one decade. Then it was just getting longer and longer and longer. The naysayers are awfully quick to condemn and to say, 'Well, it's because you are doing something to the breed, or you're doing this, or you're doing that.' I just think we had to wait for the right one.”

Luckily for Lyon, the right one was out of a mare she now owns and a full-brother to her colt Irish Pharaoh, who was named by her son-in-law and farm manager Mark Moloney.

“My son-in-law is from Ireland, and when the foal was born he said, 'You need to name him Irish Pharaoh,' right off the bat,” Lyon recollected. “I said, 'Well, I don't know.' Then I thought about it and I thought, 'You know, I actually kind of like that name.' I named him that and he laughed and said, 'Well if you name him that, we might just have to keep him.'”

Summer Wind Farm is first and foremost a commercial nursery, so Lyon will not be keeping Irish Pharaoh, or at least not all of him.

“He will be for sale, but I suspect people will come to us sooner,” Lyon remarked. “We have sold foals, weanlings, in the past prior to putting them in the sale and we have done so very successfully. We don't do it often, but he is just kind of a special case and I think we might even entertain the thought of staying in for part of him. If he continues to develop the way he has, he is pretty spectacular right now. Anything is possible right now. All of our foals generally are, and have always been, for sale.”

Lyon added, “Usually we only keep fillies. Littleprincessemma is currently carrying a Tapit filly and I've already got my eye on her!”

Lyon also has her eye on a few other fillies at her farm, including a Smart Strike filly out of Love Me Only, but quipped, “I have to be cautious about making these statements because I would hate to give my husband another heart attack!”

A dual resident of both Arkansas and Kentucky, Lyon will occassionally keep a young horse to race due to either sentimental attachment or an issue she thinks will prevent them from bringing what they are worth at auction. Lyon currently has two 3-year-olds in training with Hall of Famer Bill Mott.

“I have a daughter of Dark Sky named Darkandwindingroad, by Quality Road,” Lyon said. “We kept her because she is quite small and I just said, 'Well, I am not going to just give her away. She's got a good pedigree.' So, I RNA'd her and kept her. I have a colt out of Shiner's Sister, the half-sister to Indygo Shiner, who was also our horse that we bred and RNA'd him and kept him and he was a graded stakes horse. We lost Shiner's Sister due to a hemorrhage and this was her last foal, so I kept [Hard to Hold] and he is a Hard Spun. That was sentimental, but he is a nice colt.”

While Irish Pharaoh is for sale, Littleprincessemma is not going anywhere, according to Lyon, who was already approached by a few interested buyers before the Belmont. Lyon is already planning the mare's next breeding back to Pioneerof the Nile, which she called a “no brainer.”

“I just had a phone call from an old friend that does bloodstocking and he said, 'Would you be interested in selling the mare for a lot of money?' and I said, 'I don't know. What's a lot of money?' Lyon recalled with a chuckle. “He said, 'Well, I don't know exactly, but you know just trying to put the feelers out.' I thought about it for a minute and I said, 'Actually, no. I am not going to lead you on. I don't want to sell this mare because this is what we have been looking for our whole career.' This was before the Belmont and nothing has changed. Why would you sell your best asset?”