Knicks Go Yearling Brings Moore Full Circle at Keeneland January

Sabrina Moore's GreenMount Farm will offer its final consignment during next week's Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale and, fittingly, the consignment's three offerings kick off with a short yearling from the first crop of the champion who put the Maryland farm on the map, Knicks Go.

“It's a little bittersweet that this is going to be my last consignment,” Moore admitted. “But it will kind of come full circle, hopefully.”

Moore and her mother Angie co-bred Knicks Go and sold the son of the late Paynter for $40,000 as a weanling at the 2016 Keeneland November sale. He sold to the Korea Racing Authority for $87,000 at the following year's Keeneland September sale.

Knicks Go went on to win five Grade I races, including the 2021 GI Breeders' Cup Classic, GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational, and GI Whitney S., as well as the 2018 GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity and the 2020 GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. The gray was named Horse of the Year and champion older male in 2021 and retired to Taylor Made Farm the following year.

Knicks Go had 18 weanlings sell last November for an average of $64,611 and a high of $220,000. With the turning of the year, the stallion's first yearlings sell at Keeneland next week and Moore's GreenMount will offer the first of the group as hip 69 during the auction's first session Monday.

“He has this tenacious attitude,” Moore said when asked if she saw similarities between the yearling and his famous father. “He is a little hard-headed, but in the best way possible. He definitely has his own opinions and he is a very confident colt. I foaled him at my farm [in Maryland] and he came out brown and I thought, 'oh no!' I just had this dream in my head that I would get this little gray Knicks Go baby. But other than that, body style, they are pretty similar. He is a stout individual and he carries good body.”

After foaling the colt in Maryland, Moore picked up roots and moved to Kentucky last fall.

“We moved him down here and I can't believe how much he's progressed in the last two months,” Moore said. “He is really coming on. If a pinhooker picks him up, I think they will be thrilled with him in the next few months. He is really headed in the right direction.”

Of her move to Kentucky, Moore admitted it was a transition that just made sense.

“It had been on my radar the last few years,” Moore said. “I bred a really nice horse, but at the end of the day, that didn't get me far, at least financially. The Maryland circuit was really struggling and I had a lot of clients who were really struggling. It felt like it was going in a direction that I didn't think was going to benefit me long term. So I just had to try to think about my future and where I wanted to be. And owning a farm in a regional market was just not going to do it.”

The decision to make the move to Kentucky was made easier when some Maryland clients, Steve and Denise Smith, encouraged her to join them as their farm manager.

“They just bought a really nice farm,” Moore said. “It's the old Fort Blackburn Farm on Old Frankfurt Pike. They were looking for a manager and I was looking for a job. We've had this relationship for a long time, so I was really comfortable. I was scared to come down here and get lost in the mix, but it's been a really smooth transition. It's been great.”

Now renamed Mesingw Farm, the operation is home to some 40 horses, as well as a racing stable of some 20 horses in training. Among the stable, the Smiths are co-owners of graded stakes winner Danse Macabre (Army Mule), who is trained by Kelsey Danner.

“[Smith] is getting close to retiring and this is his passion and he's always had his eye on doing this,” Moore said. “They aim to keep the fillies and sell the colts. But if they bring them through the ring and it's not what he wants, then he will race them, too. He is aiming to try to build a really nice broodmare band.”

As for Moore, she's settling into a more relaxed way of life.

“I thought I wanted an office job for a while–I didn't realize how much I would miss working with horses,” Moore said. “I was so burned out. It was so hard to find help in Maryland. I had 50 horses for the last year and a half and it was me and one other girl and sometimes another part-time person. It was unrealistic and exhausting.”

Of her final GreenMount consignment, Moore said, “I will miss it, but I am a little relieved to be done with it and to focus on my current job right now full force. And go on from there.”

Moore retained one broodmare, a half-sister to Knicks Go, and she is looking forward to seeing what the champion's first offspring can do on the racetrack.

“They are falling into the hands of a lot of really nice professionals,” she said of the stallion's first crop. “It will be really exciting to watch them develop and hopefully they go on and do big things.”

The Keeneland January sale will be held next Monday through Thursday with sessions beginning each day at 10 a.m.