By Jessica Martini
When SF Bloodstock and Newgate Farm purchased Con Te Partiro (Scat Daddy–Temple Street, by Street Cry {Ire}) for $575,000 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton November sale, the team was already impressed with her accomplishments, but fast forward two years and it will be an even more imposing mare who goes through the ring during the first session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale Nov. 9 in Lexington.
Out of the Grade I placed Temple Street and a half-sister to multiple graded placed Donworth (Tiznow), Con Te Partiro was purchased by bloodstock agent Gatewood Bell for $130,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Campaigned by the Hat Creek Racing partnership, she opened her career with a 'TDN Rising Star'-worthy victory at Keeneland for trainer Wesley Ward in 2016. Two starts later, she won the Bolton Landing S. at Saratoga and concluded her juvenile campaign with a runner-up effort against the boys in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint S. The following year, she joined Ward's Royal Ascot contingent and came away with a win in the Sandringham H.
She was winless in six starts in 2018 before going through the sales ring at Fasig-Tipton, but had done enough to make the SF team's short list that November.
“At the time, she was a stakes winner on two continents, a winner on dirt and turf, and by Scat Daddy–those attributes definitely put her on our list, but on top of that she is a beautiful mare and all class which was evident at the sale,” SF Bloodstock's Tom Ryan said of the mare's appeal in 2018.
Despite her winless 2018 season, Ryan said the plan was always to send the then 4-year-old racing in Australia.
“The plan was dual-pronged,” Ryan explained. “We felt, given her obvious talent as a racehorse on the turf, that she would suit Australia and could be very competitive there and then ultimately, being by Scat Daddy, from a lovely female family, that she would be an exceptional broodmare prospect.”
Transferred to Australia and the barn of trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Con Te Partiro found immediate success Down Under, winning the G3 Dark Jewel Classic at Scone in May. Off the board in her next three outings and with the Australian breeding season looming, the decision was made to retire the mare, who had now won stakes on three continents. But the retirement was short-lived.
“Honestly, it was breeding season in the Southern Hemisphere and she was a highly accomplished mare–a Group 3 winner in Australia, and a stakes winner in Europe and the U.S. with tons of appeal,” Ryan said of the decision to retire the mare. “It's hard to pass up on a breeding season in that scenario, so we decided to go ahead and retire her. When she didn't take on the first cover there was a lot of discussion–firstly, she was a maiden, so we didn't want to stretch into a late cover and secondly, she was so talented. Thankfully we decided to put her back in training.”
Returned to training, Con Te Partiro would have her best season of racing in 2020, winning both the G1 Coolmore Classic S. at Rosehill and the G1 Coolmore Legacy S. at Randwick.
“It was outstanding,” Ryan said of Con Te Partiro's season. “She surpassed all previous accolades picking up two Group 1s at two of Australia's premier racetracks, Randwick and Rosehill. It was a credit to [Newgate Farm's] Henry Field and to Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott–they had the belief in the mare and it paid off handsomely.”
In early September, it was announced Con Te Partiro would be returned to the United States for a tilt at the GI Breeders' Cup F/M Turf before going through the sales ring at the Keeneland November sale two days later. But the 6-year-old suffered a knee injury later that month scuppering plans for an appearance at Keeneland championship weekend.
“It was absolutely disappointing to miss the Breeders' Cup,” Ryan said. “A mare of that caliber would have been very competitive and we would have loved to end her journey there, especially given her exceptional juvenile performance against the boys at the 2016 Breeders' Cup.”
While her Breeders' Cup start was canceled, Con Te Partiro will still be keeping her engagement at the November sale down the hill from the racetrack.
“She arrived back to the U.S. in early October and is in the very capable hands of Neal Clarke and Conor Doyle at Atlas Farm,” Ryan said. “She looks superb, we are very proud to offer her at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.”
Of the decision to offer a mare with clearly international appeal at Keeneland, Ryan said, “It was a hard decision for sure–a mare like that is always going to be hard to give up, but we have to be true to our business and we are sellers in this case. In terms of location, I think we were spoiled for choice in that we could have offered her anywhere, but the international presence and broad buyer bench at Keeneland appealed to us. She is, after all, a U.S.-bred mare and there is something special about bringing her home.”
Ryan said buyers will find plenty to like about the well-traveled mare.
“I think she's one of very few mares that really has it all,” he said. “She is cosmopolitan in every sense of the word; she was at home all over the world and took everything thrown at her with class and brilliance. A black-type winner on three continents, excelling on turf and dirt, wins from 4 1/2 furlongs to a mile, not to mention a beautiful physical, from an active female family that has also produced top sire Into Mischief, and by prolific sire Scat Daddy.”
Consigned by Bedouin Bloodstock, Con Te Partiro is catalogued as hip 217. (Click for Thorostride video)
The Keeneland November sale opens Nov. 9 with a single-session Book 1 beginning at noon. The sale continues through Nov. 18 with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.
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