“He's earned it,” Pyrenees takes on Grade I company in Stephen Foster

Blue Heaven Farm had every intention of selling Pyrenees (Into Mischief).

As a boutique, family-run breeding program, selling foals is what pays the bills. They had a number in mind for what they thought the colt was worth, but after he RNA'd for $350,000 as a weanling and again for $380,000 as a 2-year-old, they had to make a decision. Should they keep him to race themselves or cut their losses and sell him? Retaining a filly was one thing, but they had raced a few homebred colts in the past and been burned in the process.

“It was one of those situations where the sales never came at the right time for him,” explained Adam Corndorf, Blue Heaven Farm's vice president and general manager. “He was either going through growth spurts or an awkward phase and it just never quite worked out. Especially for us because we are primarily commercial breeders, when we're keeping horses to race that usually means that things are going wrong. Our goal is to sell horses, but we liked him a lot and there was obviously some breeder's pride with him. It was a rare situation where we were not willing to budge. We were stubborn on him and it ended up being a blessing in disguise.”

This Saturday, Pyrenees will look to add a fifth straight win to his record in the GI Stephen Foster Stakes. It will be a big step up for the rapidly improving 4-year-old as he takes on Grade I company for the first time, but so far this year, the Cherie DeVaux trainee has answered every question presented to him.

As a 2-year-old, inconsistent performances kept Pyrenees out of the winner's circle. An injury sidelined him for much of his 3-year-old season, but when he returned off a year-long layoff last December, he showed plenty of professionalism as he cleared the field to win by over four lengths at the Fair Grounds. Since then he has added three more victories, most recently getting his first stakes win in the GIII Pimlico Special Stakes.

Corndorf credits the colt's mental maturation for much of the improvement he has shown this year.

Pyrenees and Cherie DeVaux after the GIII Pimlico Special Stakes | Horsephotos

“As a foal he was a high-energy, happy dude,” he recalled. “We have videos of him even three or four weeks old where he is climbing all over his mom. I think that's really what changed for him going from three to four. He has been able to harness that energy and use it in a good way as opposed to in a mischievous, playful way. You used to watch him breeze and his head was everywhere and he was a little all over the place. Cherie and her assistants and exercise riders have done an incredible job with him and really turned him into a pro.”

Corndorf was able to make it to Pimlico for Pyrenees's breakout stakes performance, where he beat the likes of MGSWs Kingsbarns (Uncle Mo) and Red Route One (Gun Runner) as he closed late to get a narrow win.

“Kingsbarns was the overwhelming favorite and it looked like everything was set up for him to win that race,” Corndorf admitted. “Obviously you hope your horse can win, but I just didn't know he had that in him. For him to run the way he did and in sort of a dramatic fashion, it was definitely one of the top days in my life in the racing business.”

A few years after Blue Heaven Farm was founded by Corndorf's mother Bonnie Baskin, the operation landed its own farm in Central Kentucky in 2010. The next year as they were expanding their broodmare band, they spent $600,000 on Our Khrysty (Newfoundland), a graded stakes winner carrying her first foal by Tiznow.

“We fell in love with her physically,” Corndorf recalled. “Her race record was also sneaky good. She broke her maiden first time out and was a stakes winner at two and then had a really good, durable career. She was what we were looking for–versatile, sound, precocious. She was not super regally bred. She was a half to Grade I winner Bullsbay (Tiznow), but she was by Newfoundland who was very well bred himself but not a superstar stallion, so she actually fell into our price range.”

In her time at Blue Heaven, Our Khrysty has produced six winners including the graded-placed homebred Virginia Key (Distorted Humor), Grace Adler (Curlin)–who sold as a yearling for $700,000 and went on to win the 2021 GI Del Mar Debutante–and now, Pyrenees.

“If we could have a barn full of ones like her, everything would be great,” Corndorf joked. “The family is just extending in ways that we never could have envisioned, so it's almost like we're at the point where we don't want to sell any fillies because they're too valuable to us potentially.”

Blue Heaven raced Our Khrysty's daughter Bay Harbor (Speightstown), but she never broke her maiden and they sold her in foal to Mitole in 2020. That foal, Miuccia, recently scored in the Game Face Stakes at Gulfstream. Bay Harbor's 2-year-old Briland (McKinzie) sold for $675,000 at the OBS April Sale.

Blue Heaven did retain Virginia Key, whose second foal Tappan Street (Into Mischief) sold for $1 million at last year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale. This year she has a Curlin colt pointing to the Keeneland September Sale.

Our Khrysty also has a 3-year-old daughter Prestwick (Uncle Mo) that was retained by her breeder. Currently in training with Cherie DeVaux, the filly was entered to make her debut last week but a minor scratch she incurred the morning of the race pushed back her debut to the upcoming meet at Ellis Park.

Corndorf reported that Our Khrysty also has a Gun Runner filly that is pointing for the September Sale.

In addition to Our Khrysty, Blue Heaven's other superstar broodmare is 2019 Sovereign Horse of the Year Starship Jubilee (Indy Wind). The champion has a 2-year-old colt by Medaglia d'Oro in training at The Thoroughbred Center, a Quality Road yearling filly going to Keeneland September and a Flightline filly that she produced this year. The mare has since checked back in foal to Gun Runner.

Starship Jubilee with her Quality Road filly last year at Blue Heaven Farm | Sara Gordon

When Starship Jubilee retired in 2020 after amassing nine graded stakes wins and over $2 million in earnings, the Blue Heaven team doubted that they would ever have the opportunity to campaign a top racehorse like her again. In Pyrenees, they have a shot at getting their farm a second Grade I winner and possibly even earning another trip to the Breeders' Cup. In her only Breeders' Cup appearance in her final career start for the 2020 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, Starship Jubilee stumbled at the gate and unseated Florent Geroux.

“We feel like there was some unfinished business from that year,” admitted Corndorf. “I know it's several steps away, but if we could somehow make our way back to the Breeders' Cup, that would be great. But really we're just enjoying the ride and enjoying him.”

With only four horses currently in training, the Blue Heaven operation has a lot to look forward to between Pyrenees, his younger sister Prestwick, a 2-year-old McKinzie filly out of their broodmare Featherbed (Smart Strike), and a promising 3-year-old turf filly named Sy B (English Channel). Named after Corndorf's grandfather Sy Baskin, who was the one that got their family started in the horse business, Sy B broke her maiden at Keeneland this spring before running second in the GII Wonder Again S.

“Cherie is really high on her and thinks that she is going to get better with age, like a lot of the English Channels do as they're going further,” said Corndorf.

He added that Sy B is slated to run on July 6 in the GI Belmont Oaks, making it back-to-back weekends of Grade I racing for Blue Heaven Farm after Pyrenees runs this Saturday.

Facing eight other rivals in the Stephen Foster, Pyrenees will break from the rail with Brian Hernandez Jr. aboard.

“If you want to be the best you've got to beat the best,” Corndorf said. “When he won that race at Pimlico, he showed that distance was not really an issue. This race obviously has a lot of really good horses, but he's earned it. I know he's already halfway through his 4-year-old year, but we really think he's scratching the surface. He's improving with every single start.”