Icabad Crane to represent NYTB in Real Rider Cup
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G’Day Mate Stakes 2/17/2011 (NYRA/Adam Coglianese)
By Sarah Mace
Accomplished New York-bred runner Icabad Crane[2] will proudly sport the silks of his sponsor, New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. (NYTB), when he joins nineteen other off-track thoroughbreds competing in the inaugural Real Rider Cup on Sunday, September 17.
The jumping competition will take place at the Plantation Field International Horse Trials in Unionville, Pa., one of the East Coast’s premier three-day events. Proceeds will benefit Plantation Field and the Retired Racehorse Project (RRP).
Bred by Gallagher’s Stud, Icabad Crane had an outstanding career on the racetrack. He placed in multiple graded stakes, including a third-place finish in the 2008 Preakness. In 33 career starts he earned $585,980 from seven wins, seven seconds and nine thirds.
The 12-year-old Jump Start gelding has also already left his mark on the eventing world. Ridden for owners Graham and Anita Motion by two-time Olympic gold medalist Phillip Dutton in the 2014 Thoroughbred Makeover, Icabad Crane won the title of Most Wanted Thoroughbred. Owner Earle I. Mack, who campaigned the gelding on the flat, transferred him to the Motions for $1 upon retirement at age eight with the idea that he would have a second career in eventing.
At Sunday’s Real Rider Cup, four teams of five riders each will compete over a show-jumping course of approximately a dozen 2 1/2-foot fences, and the scoring will be based on time and penalties. In addition to Icabad Crane, Sunday’s Real Rider Cup will feature retired runners Twilight Eclipse and Eighttofasttocatch.
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Real Rider Cup NYTB silks
Icabad Crane will be ridden by Lauren Baker Cannizzo, who has retrained many Thoroughbreds for careers in jumping and eventing. The riders in the Cup come from all quarters. Others piloting their OTTB mounts over the fences include flat jockeys Rosie Napravnik, and 12-time leading Delaware Park jockey Mike McCarthy, former jump jockeys including Sean Clancey and a variety of OTTB trainers and coaches and exercise riders.
While the Real Rider Cup is the brainchild of Phillip Dutton, Icabad Crane’s NYTB connection is the product of a chance meeting at the Saratoga yearling sales last month. Anita Motion was chatting with Lauren’s husband, Jeffrey Cannizzo, executive director of New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. at the auction.
As Motion recounted to the DRF, “[Jeff] had asked about the [Real Rider Cup]. He mentioned that Lauren had a background in show jumping, and I asked if she would be interested in riding. He loved the idea, but we hadn’t asked Lauren yet! We were not thinking of using Icabad at that time, but based on Lauren’s experience and the connection of New York Breeders and Icabad being a New York-bred, it was a great fit.”
Motion also explained that Dutton will do double duty at the Trials, riding in the main event at Plantation Field and advising Cannizzo and several other riders.
Endnotes:- [Image]: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/icabad-crane-300x240.jpg
- Icabad Crane: http://www.equibase.com/profiles/Results.cfm?type=Horse&refno=7443130®istry=T
- [Image]: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/NYTB-silks.jpg
Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2017/09/15/icabad-crane-real-rider-cup/
New York-bred yearlings average over $250,000 in Book 2 at Keeneland
[1]By Sarah Mace
Over the three days of “high-volume” horse-trading that comprised Keenland’s second book of yearlings on Tuesday through Thursday, New York-breds came away with an impressive average price of over $250,000 and low buyback percentage of 11.67%
Keeneland’s Book 2 this year, by virtue of a “tweaked” format for the marathon auction’s opening week, was billed as containing “top-quality” or “upper market” yearling offerings that would carry the momentum of Book 1’s single session of “elite” yearlings through the first week of the sale.
After scratches, 12 New York-bred yearlings passed through auction ring and 10 sold – all but one of them bringing six figures. The average New York-bred price was $252,400 and the median came in at $180,000. Tuesday’s first session of Book 2 saw the New York-bred star of the sale to date: a $750,000 Into Mischief yearling[2] bred by Pine Ridge Stables and bought by Shadwell Estate Company. The other standout of the day was a $400,000 chestnut colt by Giant’s Causeway[3] bred by Chester and Mary Broman.
Each of the following two days of Book 2 had a New York-bred star. On Thursday, before the sale went on its traditional Friday hiatus, Hip 1068[4] a filly by Bodemeister went to Mathis Stables from the consignment of Gerry Dilger’s Dromoland Farm for $400,000. Wednesday’s standout, like the Giant’s Causeway colt who brought $400,000 on Tuesday, was product of Chester and Mary Broman’s breeding program, Hip 788[5], who brought $230,000
Hip 1068[6] was bred by Tom Ryan et al’s SF Bloodstock, LLC. The bay January filly sold previously as a weanling for $140,000 at Keeneland’s November sale to Villa Roja Bloodstock. She is the first foal out of Bryan’s Jewel, a stakes-winning Kentucky-bred mare by Rockport Harbor from the family of champion older horse Left Bank. SF Bloodstock bought Bryan’s Jewel in 2014 for $300,000 at the Fasig-Tipton fall mixed sale and resold her in foal to Speightstown at Keeneland November in 2016 for $580,000.
Hip 788[5], the Broman-bred, is a dark bay or brown filly by Pioneerof the Nile foaled on April 17, 2016. The buyer, Ralph M. Evans, campaigned multiple graded stakes winner and multiple Grade 1 placed New York-bred Upstart, who stood his first year at stud in 2017 at Airdrie Stud. Sequel Bloodstock was the consignor.
The filly’s dam is Spritely, a multiple stakes winner and Grade 1-placed Kentucky-bred runner by Touch Gold, whom Chester Broman purchased for $850,000 in the Edward P. Evans Dispersal at the 2011 Keeneland November sale. Spritely’s two winners include Pauseforthecause, a Giant’s Causeway filly who broke her maiden first out at Saratoga on August 4. The mare has a weanling colt by Super Saver and was bred to Curlin this year.
At Keenland, the yearling auction will run in continuous sessions through September 23 following Friday’s dark day.
Endnotes:- [Image]: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/keeneland-logo.jpg
- $750,000 Into Mischief yearling: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2017/09/13/kee-yrlg-2017-book-2-opener/
- a $400,000 chestnut colt by Giant’s Causeway: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2017/09/13/kee-yrlg-2017-book-2-opener/
- Hip 1068: http://apps.keeneland.com/sales/Sep17/pdfs/1068.pdf
- Hip 788: http://apps.keeneland.com/sales/Sep17/pdfs/788.pdf
- Hip 1068: http://apps.keeneland.com/sales/Sep17/pdfs/1068.pdf
Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2017/09/15/book-2-17-kee-yearlings-wrap/