By Jill Williams
Who can forget the pulsating finish of this year's GI Kentucky Derby, when three noses hit the wire together in one of the tightest photo finishes we've seen in years? Other than the immediate connections of those three colts, it's hard to imagine anyone more invested in the result than Debby Oxley, whose beloved mare, Darling My Darling (Deputy Minister), is the granddam of two-thirds of that trifecta.
While Mystik Dan (Goldencents) got his nose on the wire first, it was the Oxley-bred 'TDN Rising Star' and GI Toyota Blue Grass Stakes winner Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) and then-unbeaten MGSW globetrotter Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) who had Oxley's attention. The two leaned on each other down the lane, exchanging bumps as they went, only to finish a nose apart and, more crucially, a nose behind Mystik Dan.
Two grandsons of the same mare hitting the board in the Derby is unprecedented. Now they have a chance to equal or better that result in the Nov. 2 GI Breeders' Cup Classic.
“Even when I watch the Derby replay, I think, 'Boys, boys! You're cousins. Just lay off each other and think about that other guy,'” said Oxley with a laugh. “It was exciting. They did so well. When Sierra Leone came around the corner and started making that move, I thought I was going to watch Monarchos again. He was just rolling. I almost bred a Derby winner.”
Sierra Leone (left) and Forever Young battling in the Derby | Coady Media
Mystik Dan's nose may have stood between Oxley and the honor of breeding a Derby winner, but she's already been in that hallowed winner's circle as an owner. In 2001, her husband, John “Jack” Oxley, captured the sport's most coveted prize with Monarchos, who joined Secretariat as the only winner to finish the Derby's 10 furlongs in under two minutes. While the couple often breed and campaign horses in their separate names, they share the experiences together.
They've also won Breeders' Cups as owners. Their 2016 champion 2-year-old colt Classic Empire won the Juvenile, while 1999 champion older mare Beautiful Pleasure won the Distaff as she tore through the female ranks with six Grade I victories. Also among their combined dozens of black-type winners is 1995 GI Kentucky Oaks winner Gal in a Ruckus and 2013 Canadian Horse of the Year Uncaptured.
“We've been very, very blessed with our racing career,” said Oxley. “Beautiful Pleasure was our horse of a lifetime. Right now, we seem to be in an exciting part on the breeding side. In racing, you just have to be patient and persevere.”
Perhaps no where in the Oxleys' racing history is that long game more evident than it is with the classy Darling My Darling, who first caught Oxley's eye as a yearling in 1998.
“I really liked her dam, Roamin Rachel. I remember seeing her run and she was just a real hard-knocking, tough mare,” remembered Oxley. “When 'Darling' appeared in the [1998 Keeneland September] sale, I said to Jack, 'Look at this horse.' He bought her and gave her to me later.”
Roamin Rachel, a daughter of Mr. Prospector's son Mining, won Saratoga's GI Ballerina Handicap and Keeneland's GII Beaumont Stakes in the early 1990s for William Farish. John Oxley would secure her daughter by Deputy Minister for $300,000. Roamin Rachel would eventually also produce Japanese Horse of the Year Zenno Rob Roy (Jpn).
After breaking her maiden on debut at Saratoga by daylight, Darling My Darling finished second in both the GI Matron Stakes and GI Frizette Stakes as a 2-year-old. The late John T. Ward, Jr., who trained so many of the Oxleys' horses, conditioned the bay.
“We have an incredible picture of her first win at our house in Saratoga,” said Oxley. “She's always been special to us. She won the Doubledogdare in 2001. My sister, who at that point lived in Maryland, was able to be here for that race and was able to be in the win picture with me. 'Darling' also won the Raven Run. Those are two nice races at Keeneland she won which have subsequently became graded stakes.”
Darling My Darling at Keeneland more than two decades ago | Horsephotos
It's as a broodmare that Darling My Darling has excelled even more. Her two top runners were GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes winner Heavenly Love (Malibu Moon) and GII Santa Ynez Stakes winner Forever Darling (Congrats), who just happen to be the dams of Sierra Leone and Forever Young, respectively.
Oxley raced and retained Heavenly Love, but sold Forever Darling for $8,000 at Keeneland in 2014. She doesn't regret letting the latter go.
“Obviously, she had some issues [to bring that price]. She was by Congrats and he was not very popular at that time. What's interesting about the breeding side of the business is if you're trying to sell, a horse might be in demand when you breed and, by the time you go to sell, nobody might want them. Plus, we already had others in the family and you can't keep everything.”
Forever Darling's son, Forever Young, figures to be one of the favorites in the Breeders' Cup Classic. Unbeaten in his native Japan, including earlier this month in the Japan Dirt Classic, he won this year's G2 UAE Derby and G3 Saudi Derby, both in spectacular style, before suffering his only career defeat when just missing in the Kentucky Derby by two nostrils.
One of those nostrils belonged to Sierra Leone, who is scheduled to once again join Darling My Darling's other grandson in the gate for the Classic. When he topped the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale at $2.3 million, the Oxleys had never before bred a major sales topper and certainly not at that level. They'd bred and raced a number of Grade I winners, champions even, but topping one of the sport's most prestigious sales was new territory. Had they ever envisioned such a thing?
Sierra Leone's $2.3-million sale at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga | Fasig-Tipton
“Heavens, no! No, no, no. Not at all,” said Oxley. “It was shocking. We knew he was going to sell well, but you never know one is going to sell that well. On the flip side, we've had horses we thought were going to sell well and didn't. When Sierra Leone sold, we just had to sit there and get our thoughts together before we left the pavilion.
“The sale was pretty amazing,” continued Oxley. “He always had a really, really good disposition and I think that helps him. He was always a very smart horse and it just was a dream to deal with him. It's a lot of fun to see his races. I scream just as loud as if I owned him.”
Oxley said the 27-year-old Darling My Darling's continued success is meaningful for their operation, the breeding arm of which is based at their bucolic Fawn Leap Farm just outside of Midway, Ky.
“It's special because she was so special,” said Oxley. “She's pensioned at the farm. [Farm manager] Laurie [Gimmon] takes very good care of our horses.”
Darling My Darling's last foal is a 2021 filly named Lovely Darling (Flameaway), who is unraced. Oxley has retained her and will breed her next year, although she and her team haven't finalized their mating plans yet.
Oxley has also retained a couple of the other members of the family, with the obvious star being Heavenly Love. She sold that mare's unraced 2-year-old colt by Nyquist, now named Domestic Policy, for $250,000 to Mike Ryan at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale. Heavenly Love doesn't have a yearling and is back in foal to Nyquist, but she does have a Feb. 11-foaled Gun Runner filly–a full-sister to Sierra Leone–that has Oxley excited.
“We're planning on racing her. She is very precocious, strong-headed, and a little bossy, so I'm struggling with naming her. Heavenly Love is such a beautiful name, but this filly needs to have a name that has a little bit of a kick to it to match her personality. It's a work in progress. So far the ones I've come up with are beautiful, but she needs something a little more tough. We're excited about her. I didn't breed a Derby winner, but right now I'd settle for breeding an Oaks winner!”
Debby Oxley's Darling My Darling at age 27 | Sarah Andrew
Or perhaps a Breeders' Cup Classic winner? Sierra Leone could make it happen and is training well at Belmont in preparation. Whether or not Forever Young, who reportedly ships from Japan to the U.S. Oct. 22, gets his nose in front of his “cousin” this time, Oxley said it's gratifying to have two grandsons of her cherished Darling My Darling competing at the highest level of the sport against each other.
“We're just a small operation,” said Oxley with a modesty which belies the couple's success in the sport. As everyone in racing knows, it's a feat of outrageous proportions just to get a horse to the starting gate in races like the Derby and Classic. The odds of one mare's descendants making it to the gate together in the same year in America's two greatest prizes have got to be astronomical. Surely no one will begrudge great celebrating in the Oxley household if a grandson of her regal mare takes home America's richest prize Nov. 2 at Del Mar.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
