Saturday Sires: Oscar Performance

Pop quiz: which North American third-crop sire leads his contemporaries by individual graded stakes winners in the Northern Hemisphere in 2024? It's not Justify, nor Good Magic, who are each tied with three and are the runaway leaders by 2024 progeny earnings. The correct answer is Mill Ridge Farm's Oscar Performance, who has four graded winners in 2024 and also leads the top third-crop sires by percentage of black-type winners to runners at 6.6%.

In addition, Oscar Performance secured his first career Grade I winner as a sire Saturday with Trikari in the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes, a race he also won in 2017.

“The horse himself–Trikari–was such a culmination of relationships over decades for people who were so impactful in our lives,” said Mill Ridge's Price Bell. “If there's an icing on the cake, it's that he would win the same race as Oscar while carrying the same saddle towel number.”

Oscar Performance raced as a homebred for the Amerman family, who entrusted Mill Ridge to help with his mating and raise him, then returned him to the farm to be syndicated and stand at stud. Amerman Racing bought Trikari at the 2022 OBS October Yearling Sale for $27,500 and now races him, as well.

“Dad [Headley Bell] also worked with Mr. Strawbridge to do the mating for Trikari's mother and has been involved with the female family for four generations, going back to [fourth dam] Creaking Board (GB), when he first started working with Mr. Strawbridge in the early 90s.”

After breeding three generations of the Belmont Derby winner's female family, George Strawbridge sold Trikari's dam while she was carrying Oscar Performance's first Grade I winner in utero through Mill Ridge at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton February sale to Michael Slezak, who bred Trikari with Amy Boll.

Bell is quick to deflect credit for Oscar Performance's success.

“The making of Oscar has been such a big team effort,” said Bell. “From the shareholders that believe in him to the breeders who bred to him to the Amermans who raced him and then gave us an opportunity to stand him and bought this yearling to race, the making of him has been a team effort. We feel like such a very small piece of the big puzzle, which is only able to be played because of the relationships.

“The win on Saturday felt like a really big team win. We have always believed in Oscar Performance. When we first saw his foals in the field during the pandemic, they gave you the hope and the dream that one of them could become a great racehorse. That was validated on Saturday at the highest level.”

Oscar Performance from Thoroughbred Daily News on Vimeo.

America's heir apparent to the late Kitten's Joy, Oscar Performance was a Grade I winner at two, three, and four who holds North America's one-mile turf course record of 1:31.23, which is also recognized as a world record. Winner of the 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, Oscar Performance retired to Mill Ridge for $20,000 in 2019 and took a customary fee dip in his third and fourth seasons, but had already done enough to validate a boost to $25,000 for 2024.

“We are committed to limiting his book,” said Bell. “We limited him last year to 160 and this year to 170. In fairness, we were turning a lot of horses away. He had plenty of room in his book early in the season, but as the season progressed his book filled up.”

With his third crop to the races this year–crops that are modest in number by many standards–Oscar Performance has five graded winners from his nine black-type winners. He has 54 current 2-year-olds and 43 yearlings waiting in the wings.

“The market was cautious at the beginning,” said Bell, “but shareholders have helped make him to this point. The foals on the ground right now and the mares he bred this year are his best so far. It's interesting because people are breeding turf mares and getting turf horses, but now because of the success of Red Carpet Ready and Tumbarumba, people are breeding dirt mares, too.

“You pinch yourself, because that's the real dream. He could be Kitten's Joy, but he could also be Medaglia d'Oro.”

Both Kitten's Joy and Medaglia d'Oro are incredibly successful sons of El Prado (Ire), with one known almost exclusively for his turf prowess, but the other with spectacular success on both surfaces.

Although Oscar Performance may rightfully be perceived as a turf sire–every one of his seven graded wins was on the lawn and his own sire was champion turf male of 2004–Trikari is the only one of his 2024 graded winners to date on the grass. This year's GIII Hurricane Bertie Stakes winner and GI Madison Stakes placer Red Carpet Ready was on the dirt, GIII Fred W. Hooper Stakes winner and GII Gulfstream Park Mile Stakes runner-up Tumbarumba was on the main track, and GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks winner Endlessly was on Turfway's all-weather surface.

Trikari's Belmont Derby win Saturday | Walter Wlodarczyk

Bell admitted it can be an uphill battle with a turf stallion in America.

“It's a very small world, so if you want the best choice among turf sires and families, you can shop in Europe and source the best turf horses in European sales. It makes the necessity of having an American turf market questionable when there's a full buffet in Europe of turf value.

“The interesting thing about Oscar is that physically, he doesn't resemble a turf horse. A lot of the Irishmen, like Mike Ryan and Spider Dunigan, who came through to see him in the beginning commented that he resembled Northern Dancer more than anyone else and they would know. We think that physical type has been a key to his success on the dirt. He's also pretty straight through his hocks, doesn't have a lot of bend or sickle like a lot of turf horses do.

“At the end of the day, the dream of any stallion manager is that a horse will improve the mare's offspring. Oscar Performance has really moved his mares up. I think that is what really gives us great hope.”

Bell said it has been incredibly gratifying to watch a horse from conception to race career to sire career get this first Grade I win as a stallion.

“It's very exciting, a key part of the dream and a key part of our business. We appreciated the opportunity the shareholders and the Amermans have allowed us in standing him. There aren't as many horses syndicated today as there once were, but he reinvigorated our position in the stallion business. That win was validating.”

Historically, Mill Ridge had stood a number of stallions, including top sires Gone West and Diesis (GB). The stallion barns at the farm had been empty for a number of years, however, until Oscar Performance arrived. GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Aloha West, whose first foals arrived this year, has since joined him.

“My dad would say we were never out of the stallion business,” said Bell. “We were just waiting for the right one. Oscar Performance was the right one.”

In addition to serving as general manager of Mill Ridge, Bell co-founded Horse Country. He said Oscar Performance is a popular attraction.

“He has such a wonderful personality and is such a cool horse. Each guide has their own love for him and a relationship with him that they share. When you say to a guest that he's the fastest horse in the world at the mile, it really gets their attention and works to describe why he's so meaningful to us because he was raised here.

“Oscar Performance has touched us and our family and the shareholders and everyone who has been involved. That includes the people who have trained his runners, broken them, all the others who are associated with each horse. He's been so generous to us. I hope that momentum continues. I feel so grateful to be associated with him and the other people who are living their dreams through him, too.”