The TDN's popular annual series 'Mating Plans, presented by Spendthrift,' continues today in a conversation with Hanzly Albina of Newtownanner Stud.
“I don't take this lightly at all,” said Albina, who is both general manager of Newtownanner's Kentucky farm and North American bloodstock manager of the operation. “It's a ton of fun when it works out. For me, the physical is what I'm shooting for as I can't predict performance. We want to produce what we would buy in a sales ring, want to produce as nice a horse as we can, whether it's to sell or to race. We raise them all as if we were going to race them all, then if we sell, we're confident we're selling the best product we can.
“Some people are traditionalists and breed to race or breed to sell, but there's not really a difference anymore. At the end of the day, everyone is technically a seller–unless you keep every single foal, you're going to see the marketplace, and that goes for either a filly or a colt. You'll eventually either breed your mare or market your stallion, so you must consider these things. I find there's a lot of commonality among the guys who do the best with this.”
Wamathaat (8, Speightstown–Special Me, by Unbridled's Song), to be bred to Into Mischief
We bought her from Tattersalls (220,000gns) in 2019 and brought her over here. At the time we bought her, I thought it was a family that was on the uptake and it has rewarded us. She's a half to Gina Romantica, Gift Box, Stonetastic, Special Forces. It looked like a family that was exploding. She's a very good-looking mare. She has a 2-year-old Twirling Candy filly we sold to Mike Akers last year (FTSAUG, $385,000) and a Candy Ride (Arg) colt that is very nice.
She went to Into Mischief last year and this year is going to go back to him. It's hard to go wrong with Into Mischief. (MGISW) Gina Romantica obviously has continued to run very well and so we kind of wanted to bring that out of her. We tried the Candy Ride with her and there will probably be more of him in her future, maybe some Gun Runner in there, but for right now we went to Into Mischief and we'll see what happens.
Toni Tools (10, Roaring Fever–Patine, by Smart Strike), to be bred to Gun Runner
We bought her for $330,000 at the (2023) Fasig-Tipton Mixed Sale. She is the dam of Candied, a Grade I winner of the Alcibiades. She's going to Gun Runner. It's a natural inclination from a body perspective, plus we get a little more consistency from Gun Runner than Candy Ride (sire of Candied). She's a young mare and deserves to be bred to the best sire out there; she warrants the money. This is her time.
Toni Tools as a 2-year-old on the track | Sarah Andrew
Flourish (17, Distorted Humor–Viviana, by Nureyev), to be bred to Into Mischief
She's the dam of (MGSW & GISP) Fulsome, an Into Mischief millionaire. She's going back to him for obvious reasons. She has an Into Mischief sister to Fulsome on the ground and basically this is the third year in a row we've gone to him with her.
Kosmo's Buddy (19, Outflanker–Vaulted, by Allen's Prospect), to be bred to Gun Runner
She's the dam of (Horse of the Year) Knicks Go. She recently had a Paynter colt and will be going back to Gun Runner. It was more of a physical match for us. She's not the biggest mare in the world, but she transfers a lot of the stallion through. I think if you breed her to a strong stallion, that is pretty bulletproof for her. Gun Runner is the horse for me and is the hot stallion right now. This mating was more of a physical one than from a pedigree perspective. In the past we'd bred her to Justify and Ghostzapper, trying to follow the Awesome Again, but we think Gun Runner makes a lot of sense as she brings out a lot of the stallion. We all try to figure it out; you develop your theories and see what has validity or not.
Kadira (19, Kafwain–Raw Gold, by Rahy), to be bred to Tapit
This is the dam of Paola Queen, winner of the Test. She is going to Tapit. We loved Flatter (sire of Paola Queen) and he was very generous to us, but he's gone. We sold one Flatter filly out of Kadira and retained another. She's in foal to Tapit and going back to him, because of the Pulpit/A.P. Indy factor. She has very beautiful foals and he will be a good match. When the mare has already proven herself, it makes my job easy.
Malibu Pier (17, Malibu Moon–Blue Moon {Fr}, by Lomitas {GB}), to be bred to Forte
She's the dam of Malibu Stacy, who was Grade II placed, and Coasted, who was Grade-I placed in the Breeders' Cup. She's an older mare, but we bred her to Medaglia d'Oro and got a nice filly. She's in foal to Jackie's Warrior now and is going to be bred back to Forte. I thought the body types matched well. We like the Medaglia d'Oro (yearling) filly very much and with Forte a first-year sire we wanted to breed to and it being a very hard season to get a hold of, we wanted to make sure we used it well.
Meg Fitz (9, Tapit–Meguial {Arg}, by Roy), to be bred to Justify
This is a Tapit mare we bred. She's in foal to Olympiad right now; we'll go back to Justify because she's a half-sister to (GISW) I Want Revenge, more than a half-sister. Her first foal is a Mendelssohn, who was second in the Kentucky Jockey Club (Real Men Violen). We're excited about the Olympiad. She had a Speightstown sell for $600,000 at Saratoga last year and has been very generous to us so far, so we're going to Justify since that's a Scat Daddy line. She brings the best out of every stallion we've bred her to and has beautiful foals.
Kateri (12, Indian Charlie–Sue's Good News, by Woodman), to be bred to Cody's Wish
She's a mare we've had her entire career; again, very generous to us. She's a stunning mare, an Indian Charlie mare. We sold a Tiznow out of her for $420,000 as a 2-year-old, a Curlin for $725,000. Obviously, her best racehorse to date is (GSW & GISP) Souper Sensational (by Curlin). We bred her to Curlin again and are retaining that 2022 colt to race. He's in training with Robbie Medina. She has a yearling filly by Curlin and went back to him again. That would have been four years in a row to Curlin if we went this year, so we're going to Cody's Wish. She puts a great body on a horse and we thought he was a standout physically. If you went to see that horse, you bred to him.
Shopit's 2021 colt in the sales ring | Fasig-Tipton
Shopit (9, Yes It's True–Shop Here, by Dehere), to be bred to Into Mischief
Dam of (SW & MGISP) Shoplifted. It's probably not that interesting, but we just breed her to Into Mischief every year since it already worked. She has amazing foals.
Afleet Maggi (17, Afleet Alex–Mindset, by Coronado's Quest), to be bred to Nyquist
Dam of Grade I winner Dream Tree. We bought her, have an Uncle Mo filly out of her that I was pretty happy with. She went back to Uncle Mo, but aborted. This year, we went to Nyquist. With him taking off last year, we think he's now done enough to warrant being bred to her.
Fancier (13, Bernstein–Princess Pegasus, by Fusaichi Pegasus), to be bred to Flightline
She is the dam of (GISW) Get Her Number by Dialed In, which is the Mineshaft/A.P. Indy line. She has a Tapit colt and is back in foal to Tapit, but this year we'll be breeding her to Flightline. We typically wouldn't breed a mare of this caliber to a second-year sire; we'd go to a proven or a first -year sire, but he's going to defy the odds. He has a lot of buzz, a lot of industry support, and looks exactly what you think a horse of his race record is going to look like. I think he'll defy the trend; I don't think he'll have the usual slump of a second and third year. We're seeing if we can improve the Tapit we have with him. We think he's a good fit for this mare.
Go Go Princess (4, Justify–Kosmo's Buddy, by Outflanker), to be bred to Mage
She's more than a half to Knicks Go and we're going to breed her to Mage. The reasoning is she's a very typical Justify, she's an even leggier version of him. I think from a body perspective, she is a beautiful mare and we had a little flexibility on who to breed to. We're very excited about Mage at Airdrie. A first-year Derby winner is one of the soundest bets in our sport. We're actually sending two to Mage.
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