Thoroughbred People: Exercise Rider Kody Kellenberger

Name: Kody Kellenberger   

Occupation: Exercise Rider

Location: Lexington, KY

What are your earliest memories of big races or/and horses?

Watching California Chrome and American Pharoah.

How did you get involved in horse racing?

I started working at RimRoc farm as a groom in Lexington KY moving from Upstate NY where I worked with show horses. Mostly reiners and then hunter jumpers. My first riding job was at Kenny Mcpeek’s Magdalena farm breaking babies.

Which have been the best or/and your favorite horses that you have ridden so far?

That’s hard to pick! I really enjoy difficult/challenging horses two of my favorites from this past year are Markitoff because he was a pain in the morning but would run his heart out in the afternoons and at a very competitive level. Another was Somelikeithotbrown who finished 3rd in the breeders cup Juvenile turf.

Which horses you have ridden have had the biggest characters/personalities?

The ones that come to mind first for me are Markitoff, Shiraz, Sky Chief and Shangroyal.

Which have been the toughest horses you have ridden?

Markitoff, Sky Chief, Mom Genes

If you were in charge of horse racing, what things would you want to fix and what measures would you take to improve the sport/industry?

I think everyone should start from the bottom working their way up. Start as a hot walker and prove yourself to move up.

Five For Fun

Favorite Music/Artists: Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Highwaymen, AC/DC

Favorite Books/Movies/Writers/Actors: The Frontiersman By Allen Ekert

Favorite Type of Food/Restaurant: Good NY Pizza

Tell us something that you are good at, or something that you have done in your life, that might surprise some people: I used to take flying lessons and wanted to be a pilot.

You are having a fantasy dinner party of up to six guests. Who would you invite and why?

Waylon Jennings and the entire cast of the Highwaymen. I’m a big fan of country music especially the outlaw country period of the 70s.

If you are a “Thoroughbred Person”, are involved in our great sport of Thoroughbred Horse Racing and would like to do our Q & A please click Here  – Thank You! 

 

The Great Mare Songbird Gives Birth To A Filly By Arrogate

Congratulations to new mama Songbird, who delivered her first foal, a filly by Horse of the Year Arrogate, five minutes after her due date—Songbird continues, as a broodmare, her near perfect record as a race mare, almost always right on time and knowing where the wire was. She was due on January 27, and delivered just after midnight on January 28. This blessed event occurred at the Sweezey’s Timber Town Farm, in the heart of the Bluegrass. Owned by Mandy Pope, both mama and daughter are doing well. Now, the question is, which stallion will the great mare be bred back to?

Stud Notes: Quality Road’s City of Light Romps In The Pegasus

Can Quality Road get any hotter? Will he become, at the young age of 13, this year’s leading sire? It’s awfully early to prognosticate, but with his son, City of Light, winning the Pegasus S.-G1 on January 25, his get’s earnings went up by four million dollars.

Certainly his book, at Lane’s End in Versailles, Kentucky, has been full for a long time, but if anybody hasn’t taken notice yet, Quality Road certainly looks like the next big stallion, perhaps the rightful heir to the great Storm Cat, the last breed altering sire in the thoroughbred business.

City of Light has a classic Quality Road pedigree, with intense inbreeding to Northern Dancer, through Hero’s Honor and Nijinsky II on his sire’s side, and through Deputy Minister and Somethingfabulous, on his dam’s side. This pedigree is unusual in that it features two own sons of Northern Dancer, Hero’s Honor and Somethingfabulous, so close up in the pedigree, 5 x 4, making him 5 x 6 x 5 x 4 Northern Dancer. It should be noted that his dam, Paris Notion, is by Dehere, one of the most promising of broodmare sires, with his Secretariat dam, Sister Dot.

We must also note that Secretariat’s great blue hen dam, Somethingroyal, appears 5 x 7 x 5 x 3 in the pedigree of City of Light, an amazing concentration of her blood, twice through Secretariat, but also once through Sir Ivor and once through her other son, Somethingfabulous.

This variety of ways back to Somethingroyal is rarely seen in contemporary pedigrees, making it no accident that daughters of Quality Road have achieved at the highest level, as they have that huge heart gene that Somethingroyal bestows upon those in whose pedigree she appears. Clearly, City of Light has this as well.

Quality Road’s $150,000 stud fee for 2019 has begun to look like a bargain, and those who booked their Dehere mares early should pat themselves on their backs. As should Lane’s End, where their belief in this young stallion has paid off more than anyone could have imagined.

We salute Quality Road, who may well be 2019’s leading sire, and who may occupy that coveted spot for years to come.

— Roberta Smoodin

Baffert’s Big Colt Dessman Parks In His First Start at Santa Anita

No surprise that a Baffert maiden, Dessman, won the seventh at Santa Anita on January 19, 2019, by eight lengths. The gorgeous hunk of horseflesh towered over the field, both in racing terms and in looks, weighing 250 pounds more than any other horse in the field (Santa Anita posts weights of all horses), and looking like the proverbial man among boys. Owned by Sheikh Maktoum, Dessman represents the ruler of Dubai’s fondest wish: to win the Kentucky Derby-G1, perhaps the Triple Crown, and to stop being beaten in these most prestigious of races by Baffert trainees. Hence, the fact that he purchased some fabulous horses last year, and gave them to Baffert to train for him. Dessman was a $750,000 purchase at Fasig-Tipton Florida’s February sale of two-year-olds in training.

That’s not the whole story, however. Dessman is a son of Union Rags, who stands for $60,000 at Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, and his story is itself unique. Just this past week, his breeder, Phyllis Wyeth, died, representing the end of a saga that epitomizes love of the horse. Ms. Wyeth sold the beautiful colt for $145,000 at Fasig’s Saratoga yearling sale, and was instantly struck by a rare illness, seller’s remorse. She loved the colt, and thought him the handsomest colt she’d ever bred.

When Union Rags was pinhooked into a two-year-old in training sale, the same Fasig-Tipton February sale (2011) that Dessman was plucked from in 2018, Ms. Wyeth bought the bay colt for $390,000, fighting off other bidders because she had to have him back. Put into the care of ex-Olympic equestrian and hero of a plane crash, Michael Matz, the colt went on to win the Champagne S.-G1 at two and the Belmont S.-G1 at three, among other races, earning over $1.7 million. Ms. Wyeth’s love of her big boy paid dividends and more, and she retired him to Lane’s End when his career was over in 2013. The rest is history, as he has gone on to become a leading freshman sire, leading sophomore sire, and continues to produce top flight runners.

Now, Dessman has made his mark as a Kentucky Derby probable starter if all goes well. In the very week of Ms. Wyeth’s sad demise, her beautiful colt that she couldn’t bear to part with, Union Rags, has had a stand-out prospect debut with brilliance. It’s a story right out of the movies and Hollywood, with a fairy tale ending that has yet to be written.

— Roberta Smoodin

Pegasus World Cup Turf Contender Aerolithe Arrives at Gulfstream

Press Release: HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Sunday Racing Co., Ltd.’s Grade 1-winning mare Aerolithe arrived at Gulfstream Park early Wednesday at approximately 3:15 a.m. to prepare for the $7 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1), North America’s richest grass race, Jan. 26.

The mare’s excellent adventure went from Tokyo to South Korea to Anchorage to Miami. Total travel time, including layovers, was 21 hours and 25 minutes.

“She traveled really well, much better than expected,” said Kate Hunter, Pegasus World Cup Turf field representative for the Japan Racing Association. See XBTV video of Aerolithe arriving.

Aerolithe, winner of the NHK Mile Cup (G1) as a 3-year-old, has placed first or second in nine of 13 career starts, including a victory Oct. 7 in the Mainichi Okan (G2) and a second-place finish June 3 in the Yasuda Kinen (G1). The 5-year-old daughter of Kurofune, a son of Grade 2 winner French Deputy, is trained by Takanori Kikuzawa. Hunter confirmed that Florent Geroux will ride the mare.

The mare will remain in quarantine at Gulfstream for approximately 42 hours.

“She’s going to stay inside the barn until her 42-hour quarantine is finished,” Hunter said. “But once that’s done, she’ll spend the day walking and the trainer, who is also going to be riding her in the mornings, gets in on the morning of the 20th [Sunday], so he will be riding her on the morning of the 20th on the track.”

Hunter said there is excitement regarding Aerolithe’s participation in the Pegasus.

“To be able to bring over a Japanese horse to America, especially with the recent issues with Japanese cargo companies not being able to fly in or out of Japan, it’s a huge get,” she said. “The filly really wanted to go to the Breeders’ Cup but we were denied because of airplane issues. So they [the owners] were really keen on coming to America and giving it a go. She’s a really game filly with good speed and a lot of heart so they were really keen on giving her a chance in the United States.”

Aerolithe is not the only international competitor in the $16 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Championship Series. Kukulkan, Mexico’s undefeated Triple Crown winner who was victorious in the Clasico del Caribe at Gulfstream in December, will return to compete in the $9 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) – North America’s richest race – while Ireland’s Magic Wand will compete in the Pegasus Turf.

 

Shippers Dominate Santa Anita’s La Canada Stakes

From the “a good horse can come from anywhere” file, the La Canada S.-G3 at Santa Anita, run on Saturday, January 12, 2019, proved a total anomaly because of its one-two finishers. Winning the race was Manitoba Wonder Mare Escape Clause, who has been racking up wins at such tracks as Assinoboia and Canterbury, whose race record now reads 28 starts, 19 wins, three seconds and three thirds. Talk about consistency!

And iron-leggedness! Her bank account contains $423,500 for owner/trainer Don Schnell. By little known Canadian sire Going Commando, by Unbridled’s Song, Escape Clause became his first graded stakes winner.

Second was a mare who’s done all her running in New Mexico, at Sunland and Zia, where she has won over $500,000. Interviewed before the race, her trainer, Jeff Mullins, seemed abashed when he discussed K P Wildcat’s chances. He admitted he had no idea what to expect. But the mare acquitted herself admirably, though she was no match for the Manitoba-bred mare, and added $20,000 to her bankroll, well worth the trip from the Land of Enchantment.

Brava to the mares, and bravo to the connections for daring to challenge the Santa Anita royally-bred horses and coming out on top!

 

 

 

 

Pedigree Column: Bellafina

The Santa Ynez S.-G2, run January 6, 2019 at Santa Anita, was hyped as a two-horse race, and commentators noted that they could not separate Bellafina and Mother Mother, as the two were both so talented. Wrong! This wasn’t so much a horse race, or even a two-horse race, as it was a demonstration of breathtaking ability and superiority on the part of the gorgeous Bellafina. She won by 8 ½ lengths, her separation from the rest of the field growing as she neared the finish line.

Even in the saddling paddock and the post parade, Bellafina looked superior, twice the size of the diminutive Mother Mother, and with a huge hip (not surprising with her Malibu Moon dam) and an attitude that indicated she had a big race in her. Not even the Baffert magic could dislodge her from her superiority.

Bellafina’s record is now six starts, four wins, and one second, but her significant loss, fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly S.-G1, may unfortunately be her most memorable race. Heavily favored, she simply did not fire. Nominated for an Eclipse Award for best two-year-old filly, naysayers have negated her chances of winning due to that one major negative appearance. As a winner of over $700,000, her impeccable though slightly flawed record, and her overwhelming victory in the Santa Ynez, this may well be a shame. The filly, owned by Kaleem Shah and trained by Simon Callaghan, was an $800,000 Fasig Tipton March 2018 sale, and it would seem that Shah and Callaghan made a wise purchase. Quality Road, her sire, has continued to come on as a dominant force in the breeding world, as has Malibu Moon as a broodmare sire.

As the leading third crop sire of 2018 and a top ten sire nationally, Quality Road continues to excel, and his stud fee reflects this, having risen for this year to $150,000, and sons like the precocious Klimt are already standing at stud in Kentucky. Both he and his sire, Elusive Quality, however, have rarely been bred to Seattle Slew/A.P. Indy line mares with great success, which has led a leading nicking service to declare Bellafina’s pedigree to deserve only a grade of C.

This grade ignores some basic tenets of breeding to both Elusive Quality and Quality Road. Elusive Quality likes nothing better in his mares than inbreeding to Northern Dancer, with a preponderance of his best runners being 4 x 4 Northern Dancer, especially via Nijinsky II. Quality Road himself exemplifies this cross, as he is out of the Strawberry Road mare Kobla, a great granddaughter of Nijinsky. Royal Academy mares have similarly found success with Elusive Quality, and he is a son of Nijinsky.

Quality Road seems quite specific in his success with Northern Dancer-line mares. He prefers to get his Northern Dancer through Deputy Minister (and his sons like Dehere), Storm Cat (and his sons), Dixie Union (who provides that dose of Seattle Slew through his son, Capote), and of course Nijinsky II. Abel Tasman, his multiple Grade One winning daughter, provides Deputy Minister, while Klimt has a Dixie Union dam, and Hootenanny has a son of Storm Cat as his broodmare sire.

It isn’t unusual to see two or three different strains of Northern Dancer in Quality Road’s best offspring, and Bellafina is no anomaly. She is 5 x 6 Northern Dancer through Quality Road (with, remember, that dose of Nijinsky) and 7 x 5 Northern Dancer on her dams’ side, through Nijinsky yet again, in the dams’ side of Malibu Moon, and through Northern Dancer himself, the sire of Not for Love’s dam, so all of the Northern Dancer comes through mares, insuring that large heart gene. As these columns have noted before, there simply doesn’t seem to be such a thing as too much Nijinsky.

It should also be noted that the great California Chrome is out of a Not for Love mare. Not for Love is by Northern Dancer himself, and his dams’ side is a wealth of genetic material, including Secretariat’s dam, the great Princequillo Blue Hen Somethingroyal, and Buckpasser, with his Blue Hen dam tracing back to La Troienne, adding pedigree power to his Northern Dancer dose. As well, Not for Love seems particularly suited to nicking with Elusive Quality, as he is out of the Hero’s Honor mare, Touch of Greatness, and Hero’s Honor is bred so similarly to Not for Love, being by Northern Dancer, and out of the tail female La Troienne mare, by Graustark, Glowing Tribute.

As long as we’re discussing both Blue Hen mares in Bellafina’s pedigree and the ridiculousness of her C nicking grade, we must note one of the most basic stakes producing crosses, that of Mr. Prospector and Seattle Slew. I’m amazed that both Elusive Quality and Quality Road haven’t received more Seattle Slew line mares with whom to create big winners. Both Mr. Prospector, the sire of Quality Road’s grandfather Gone West, and Seattle Slew, the grandfather of Malibu Moon, are direct, tail female descendants of Blue Hen Myrtlewood, and this cross is a classic, stakes producing combination. Lest we forget, Seattle Slew and his son A.P. Indy add multiple doses of La Troienne themselves, including inbreeding to the great Buckpasser, who makes an appearance in Bellafina’s pedigree, as already mentioned.

One of the other elements that makes an A.P. Indy line mare, such as Malibu Moon, Bellafina’s broodmare sire, such a good nick for Quality Road is that Quality Road’s fourth dam, Dear April, is by My Babu, making Bellafina 6 x 5 My Babu, which also crosses so brilliantly with the Hail to Reason/Turn-to in Seattle Slew. But this is strengthened by what is just off the five-cross pedigree of Bellafina, as her fifth dam, Dusk, was by Olden Times, out of Tropic Star, by Tropique. Hardly household names.

Yet Dusk is double bred Tourbillon, through Djebel, the sire of My Babu, on her sire’s side, and through Tornado on her dam’s, a very unusual sighting of multiple strains of Tourbillon. Tourbillon is important because not only was he the grandsire of My Babu, but was also the sire of Ambiorix and the great grandsire of Klarion. The My Babu/Ambiorix/Klarion combination, which has pretty much disappeared from contemporary race horses, was responsible for many stakes winners, because the three are so similar in pedigree, owing to the appearance of Tourbillon and the great mare Lavendula.

Turn-to, who appears in the Seattle Slew line through his son Hail to Reason, is also closely bred to those three antiques, as his grandmother was also Lavendula. So those two, far off doses of Tourbillon in Bellafina’s pedigree pull the pedigree together in creating this wonderful stakes winning filly.

It’s not unusual to see multiple doses of Somethingroyal and La Troienne in current stakes horses, and Bellafina certainly has those. But the way her pedigree harkens back to early twentieth century genetic relatives just proves once more that history repeats itself, and that researching farther back than the five generations offered in most online pedigrees reveals strengths that cannot be denied.

— Roberta Smoodin

Abel Tasman Thrills Us Again – This Time In The Sales Ring

Champion, current Eclipse Award nominee, winner of six Grade One stakes races, and multi-millionaire Abel Tasman provided all the thrills at the 2019 opening day of the Keeneland January Sale when she sold as hip number 288 for five million dollars, tying a Keeneland January record that stood for 19 years when the beautifully bred Mackie (Summer Squall/Glowing Tribute, by Graustark) fetched the same amount. Bidding opened at three million dollars, then hardly paused until Abel Tasman reached the five million mark. By hot young sire Quality Road, and out of the Deputy Minister mare Vargas Girl, bred by Clearsky Farms and raced by the breeder and China Horse Club, Abel Tasman looked every bit the part of a racing goddess in the ring, calmly eyeing the crowd that had gathered in the sales pavilion to witness this event. Trained, of course, by Bob Baffert, Abel Tasman’s list of superlative achievements goes on forever.

The calm, collected, and cool Coolmore posse led by M.V. Magnier purchased Abel Tasman in the back of the ring, never flinching as the bidding skyrocketed. Lead Keeneland auctioneer Ryan Mahan had the duty of auctioning the champ, and the best horse handler in the world, Cordell Anderson, showed her to perfection.

Taylor Made consigned the champ, and showed her in the back walking ring in a custom made blanket to protect her from the weather, with her name and achievements noted on its sides. Taylor Made should have known that Abel Tasman would show her best self, regardless of weather, since she won in slop and on fast tracks, wherever she raced. The question becomes: which one of Coolmore’s wonderful stallions will she be bred to?

Welcome Back Victor Espinoza!

Beloved Triple Crown winning, Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza returned to the saddle for the first time on January 5, 2019. Before July 22, 2018, this wouldn’t have been news, but on that day, at Del Mar, the horse he was on suffered a fatal breakdown. Espinoza hit the dirt hard, fracturing his C3 vertebra in the process. It was unclear if he would ever ride again, and his depression as he worked his way through the pain of the injury itself, and the process of rehab and physical therapy, was well documented.

Photos of the usually ebullient, clean cut Espinoza showed a bearded, sad individual dealing with what might have been a career ending injury as best he could. Espinoza has been known for his good humor, availability to the press, and charitable endeavors, especially with ill or injured children, so his injury hit the racing community particularly hard.

Espinoza is riding again. He worked his first horse, St. Joe Bay, five furlongs at Santa Anita yesterday for John Sadler, and the joy of the racing community was evident. Commentators on TDN suggested it won’t be long before Espinoza is riding regularly again, though he is still getting regular physical therapy and working out to return to his best form.

Welcome back Victor – You have been missed!Espinoza Returns!