Headley Bell

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...

Headley Bell has run Nicoma Bloodstock for 40 years, planning matings for clients at his Mill Ridge Farm and beyond. "It's like being an artist," says Bell. "You're crafting, and planning matings is part of that whole creation." Bell said he uses various tools for his matings, including TDN's statistics on percentages of black type to foals, mare produce records, five-cross pedigrees, and examines patterns of broodmare sires with certain families. Finally, he takes physical traits of mares into consideration to determine, he said, "who that mare really is." He...

As 2023 draws to a close, the TDN is asking industry members to name their favorite moment of the year. Send yours to suefinley@thetdn.com My favorite '23 moment was watching Jena Antonucci and her team, 'vigorously' rooting home Arcangelo in the Belmont and then becoming the 'spokesperson extraordinaire' on behalf of our industry! --Headley Bell, Mill Ridge Farm

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup with Living Legends It wasn't so long ago that the magnificent sire Gone West held court at Mill Ridge Farm near Lexington. From 22 crops, all while at Mill Ridge, he netted a mouth-watering 9% black-type winners from starters, including Breeders' Cup winners Da Hoss (twice), Johar, and Speightstown, all back in the days when the Breeders' Cup was still a single day and there were far fewer races. The son of Mr. Prospector passed away in 2009, but his influence on the...

Longtime Kentucky breeder Audrey "Tolie" Otto passed away on Apr. 18 after a lengthy illness, longtime friend Headley Bell of Mill Ridge Farm announced. A native of St. Louis, Otto moved to Lexington in the late 1980s and bred and raced a number of top runners under the stable name Jamm Ltd., which stood for her four children--John, Audie, Michael and Matthew. Among the more notable names Otto either owned, bred or raced were MGISW Keeper Hill (Deputy Minister); and MGSW producers Hamba (Easy Goer), the dam of GI Blue...

Most of us, in this business, have experienced times when we would implore Jerry Amerman to leave that flier, promoting a horseracing syndicate, right where her husband John had thrown it--in the wastebasket. Happily, while they have sampled the full spectrum of the Turf's ups and downs in the 35 years since, their sense of fulfilment only continues to grow. And the sport has itself welcomed corresponding gains from their presence: John's judgement, seasoned by a stellar business career, has been drafted by numerous regulatory and benevolent bodies; Jerry's love...

Was it divine intervention? As the story goes, sometime in late 1923 or early 1924, a Kentucky pastor, Rev. Dr. Thomas Settle, convinced some state legislators in Frankfort not to end legalized gambling in Kentucky by repealing parimutuel wagering, much to the relief of the Kentucky Jockey Club and other concerned horsemen. Most ministers may have taken the opposite tack at the time, but not Dr. Settle, and this made him stand out. A well-travelled Englishman who'd found his way to a small congregation on Main St. and Bell Ct....

The 2022 class of first-crop yearling sires features a diverse batch of Kentucky-based young stallions including a pair of Breeders' Cup champions, two sons of reigning top sire Into Mischief, five graded stakes winners at two and five Grade I winners on turf. Throughout the course of the yearling sales season, we will feature a series of freshman sires as their first crop points toward the sales ring. Check out past editions of our series here.   Omaha Beach (War Front--Charming, by Seeking the Gold) set the bar high for this...

For a farm so steeped in heritage, and so properly respectful of it, there's no mistaking the vitality, the aversion to complacency, animating Mill Ridge with a sixth generation now at the reins. Back in April the Bell family grieved farm founder Alice Headley Chandler, a revered matriarch not just around their own hearth but among the whole Bluegrass community. But their loss, while poignantly refreshing their gratitude and sense of privilege, could only reinforce an engrained determination that her legacy be honored by all the ambition that had characterised...

A life as long and rich as that of Alice Headley Chandler, which drew to a peaceful close on Tuesday, Apr. 6, at her home in Lexington, Kentucky, at the age of 95, is measured by four generations--from her surviving contemporaries to her great-grandchildren--for whom the black raiment of mourning will surely be brightened by cheerful scarves of pride. And that's not just because of the consolations available in remembrance of a wonderful character or celebration of her wonderful achievements. For this iconic Kentucky horsewoman was always animated by a...

LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale's two-session Book 3 section concluded with another day of steady trade Friday in Lexington. Bill Betz made the day's highest bid, going to $270,000 late in the day to acquire the racing/ broodmare prospect Divine Queen (Divine Park) from the Trackside Farm consignment. The mare was one of four to bring $200,000 or more during the session. While only 292 of the 401 catalogued head went through the ring Friday, 235 sold for a buy-back rate of just 19.52%. Through the...

Mill Ridge Farm has set the 2021 stud fee for world record turf miler Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy) at $15,000, LFSN. Bred and raced by Jerry and John Amerman, he won the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, captured Grade I stakes at 2, 3, and 4, and broke a 20-year track record at Belmont Park at a mile in 1:31.23, all with no Lasix. "We celebrate his third year, for we have seen so many of his foals and they are genuine quality," said Headley Bell. "He has every opportunity...