NY-based syndicates continue to ride wave of recent success
[1]
Breeding and racing in New York continues to show advantages to its participants. NYRA Photo.
By Tom Law and Paul Halloran
Three of the more visible New York-based ownership syndicates swept the late pick three last Thursday at Belmont Park, including a pair with New York-breds, and they and others continue to reap the rewards of breeding, owning and racing in the Empire State.
Dream Maker Racing’s Big Bobby and Sackatoga Stable’s Blitz to Win bookended the final sequence, winning a $80,000 state-bred allowance at 6 1/2 furlongs and a $75,000 state-bred maiden at 1 mile, both on the main track. Zilla Racing Stable’s and Acqua Nova Stable’s Boldish filled out the middle, taking an open company off-the-turf 9-furlong allowance worth $92,000.
“We’re very proud to have raced and won with a horse that we bred and being a New York-bred, run for the best purses in the country and have the extra added bonus that if you do breed a horse good enough to be competitive in New York you get the breeders awards as a dividend,” said Dream Maker’s Tom Gallo.
“I don’t think there’s another state in the country that gives you the combination of high purses, running at the best tracks and participating in a legacy brand that’s held to the highest standard of racing in the industry. It’s an achievement that you can really be proud of onward and upward!”
Jack Knowlton, who heads up the Saratoga Springs-based Sackatoga Stable that has raced New York-bred stars Tiz the Law and Funny Cide, took special satisfaction in Blitz to Win’s victory for several reasons. The 3-year-old Speightster gelding was injured in a stall accident as a 2-year-old and Sackatoga was uncertain if he’d even make it to the races.
“Sackatoga Stable was thrilled to get Blitz to Win over the finish line first in the last race at Belmont (Thursday),” Knowlton said. “His win today brought his earnings to nearly $100,000, with only one win. Sackatoga Stable races exclusively New York-breds and currently has 11 in our stable, including yearlings by Constitution and Accelerate purchased in August at Saratoga.
“Trying to follow in the footsteps of Funny Cide and Tiz the Law is most challenging but as Blitz to Win demonstrates, you do not need a champion to be successful with New York-breds and enjoy the sport of Thoroughbred racing.”
Mike Piazza, who started Zilla Racing in 2012, enjoys the same benefits when the partnership races New York-breds. In nine years, Zilla has won 112 races at a rate of just under 20 percent, with more than $5.1 million in earnings, and its best two horses have been New York-breds in Celtic Chaos and English Soul. Celtic Chaos won the John Morrissey Stakes twice and earned $718,011, while English Soul was a two-time stakes winner who banked $345,334.
“The purses are huge,” Piazza said of the advantages of racing in New York. “You’re running for purse money that is higher than even open company races.”
As a New York-based operation, there are additional benefits of running at home.
“We’re located here and we have a team of people here,” said Piazza. “We are able to watch our horses train, get videos and share them with our partners. Everyone knows their horses. It also allows us to be sharper in our assessment of our horses.”
Zilla currently has 20 horses in training, including seven New York-breds, and 200 investors overall. The syndicate buys yearlings and 2-year-olds at auction and is an active participant in the claiming game.
With the overall improvement in the caliber of New York-breds and the racing opportunities that are available, it’s harder to find bargains such as Celtic Chaos and English Soul, both of whom were bought by Zilla as 2-year-olds at auction for $55,000.
“That has changed,” Piazza said. “We used to go to the sale with a budget of $100,000 and knew we would be picking from the top horses in almost all scenarios. Now it can be a struggle to get a top New York-bred for under $100,000.”
Days such as last week’s Empire Showcase Day are especially important.
“It’s the big day for all the connections that operate within the same parameters,” Piazza said.
West Point Thoroughbreds, a syndicate started by Terry Finley 30 years ago, has also reaped the benefits of racing in New York and owning New York-breds.
“The New York-bred program has always been in our thinking,” Finley said. “We have followed the growth and development the program has made. It has played a legitimate part in our growth and success.”
New York-bred Out of the Realm, one of the first horses West Point ever claimed, set the track record for 1 1/2 miles on turf at Hialeah – 2:24.43 – in 1995. West Point also scored big with New York-breds Empire Dreams and Awesome Vision, both multiple stakes winners, who banked $813,751 and $439,286, respectively.
“New York-breds are very nice to have,” said Finley. “You have the option of running against open company or their own kind.”
Finley attributes the current success of the New York program to a positive working relationship between the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. and NYRA.
“The synergies and cooperation are as good as I’ve seen anywhere in the country,” he said. “They’ve made some tweaks over the years, but they haven’t tried to be everything to everybody. They have kept it fair and equitable.”
Endnotes:- [Image]: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/BelmontScenic-NYTB.jpg
Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2021/11/02/ny-based-syndicates-continue-to-ride-wave-of-recent-success/
Mr. Buff retires after 17-win career
[1]
Mr. Buff won 17 races, including 11 stakes, and earned $1,403,536. NYRA/Chelsea Durand
Even a career this good must end at some point. After 48 starts, 17 wins and $1,403,536 in earnings, New York-bred star Mr. Buff will race no more.
The 7-year-old retires with two New York-bred championships – Older Dirt Male of 2019 and 2020 – in six seasons on the track. He won 11 stakes and made every start but two in New York. For now, the chestnut gelding heads to his birthplace, owners/breeders Chester and Mary Bromans’ Chestertown Farm in Chestertown, N.Y.
“It’s sad, but happy too,” said trainer John Kimmel. “It’s hard to find a horse that could win 17 races and retire sound. He’s the winningest horse I’ve ever had. We’ll miss him, but he goes to the farm as a sound horse.”
Mr. Buff foaled at Chestertown (about 50 miles north of Saratoga Springs) in February 2014. The son of Friend Or Foe (who won five races and earned $349,134 for the Bromans and Kimmel) and the Speightstown mare Speightful Affair finished fifth in his debut at Saratoga in 2016 and won his next start at Belmont Park in September.
Mr. Buff won twice more in 2017, but endured eight losses to start 2018 before closing with wins in four of his final six starts – topped by the Alex M. Robb Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct. The success carried over, as he opened 2019 with a victory in the open-company Jazil Stakes at Aqueduct. Later that season, he added the Saginaw, Evan Shipman, Empire Classic and another edition of the Robb while piling up a career-high $455,750.
Awarded his first New York-bred divisional crown after that season, Mr. Buff duplicated the feat in 2020 thanks to wins in the Jazil, Haynesfield and Empire Classic and $307,500 in earnings.
Kimmel loved the success, and the ride the burly chestnut took everyone on.
“He gets better and better all the time. He’s just been an iron horse,” the said in early 2021. “Once we figured out a few things about him, he kept losing his shoes, we’ve been gluing his shoes on for two-and-a-half years now. He’s got white feet, they’re kind of brittle, once he had shoes that didn’t fall off, he’s run a little better and a little better. He can use that big stride to his advantage.”
Mr. Buff opened 2021 with a third consecutive win in the Jazil and another stakes score in the Stymie. That Aqueduct victory would be his last as he followed with a third in the Westchester, fifths in the Commentator and Evan Shipman and a well-beaten eighth in the Empire Classic Oct. 30. Kimmel but pinned some of the dull performances on the inability to use Lasix in New York stakes races starting in 2021.
“He was always a bleeder, and benefitted from the use of Lasix,” Kimmel said. “He’s not gushing, but he’s bleeding like a two out of five and he’s so smart, and he’s such a veteran that I think he can tell he’s going to bleed if he tries any harder. In the morning, he works well. He’s right there with other horses breezing, but he’s treated with Lasix. Without it, running in the afternoon in tougher races, he’s taking care of himself. He’s been too good to us to push the envelope anymore.”
Though he hesitated to single out one race as the most memorable, Kimmel called the 2020 Empire Classic a favorite. Facing six foes, coming off three losses and making his first start in almost three months, Mr. Buff controlled the race from the inside post position and made the lead last 1 1/8 miles while winning by 3 1/4 lengths for Junior Alvarado.
“He had run a couple clunkers against the better horses and hadn’t run in a while,” Kimmel said. “I was real tickled because they were kind of writing him off and for him to come back and show at the age of 6 that he could come back and do that against a pretty good group of New York-breds was something.”
Kimmel tried graded company seven times with his stable star, but Mr. Buff never broke through – finishing ninth in the 2019 New Orleans Handicap-G2, seventh in the 2019 Woodward-G1, 10th in the 2019 Clark-G1, fifth in the 2020 Suburban-G2, Whitney-G1 and Cigar Mile-G1 and third in the 2021 Westchester-G3.
The Bromans bought Mr. Buff’s dam for $80,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky mixed sale in February 2013. Her 12-start racing career yielded two wins and a second in a Grade 3 stakes. As a broodmare, she has produced two winners for the Bromans in addition to Mr. Buff – a full-brother Cain Is Abel and the Scat Daddy gelding Daddy Knows. Miss Buff, a 3-year-old full-sister, has yet to race. The top side of Mr. Buff’s pedigree starts with Friend Or Foe, whose career included wins in the Mike Lee, Empire Classic and Easy Goer stakes plus a fourth in the Grade 1 Whitney in 2011 for Kimmel and the Bromans. His sire Friends Lake also raced for the Bromans and Kimmel, winning the Grade 1 Florida Derby and starting in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby in 2004.
Retirement plans, other than no racing, weren’t quite finalized. Mr. Buff headed to Chestertown with no plans, though his trainer wouldn’t rule out a second career as a stable pony.
“I used to use him with the babies,” Kimmel said. “He’s so big that he’s good at it. He’s over 17 hands and he’d go, ‘Come on, Sonny, this is the way we do it.’ And the 2-year-olds would follow him like, ‘I better pay attention to this guy. He knows what he’s doing.’
“I don’t know if we make him into a pony on the track, but I’m sure he’s sound enough that he could do something. Right now, he’s going to get a break. He’s going to be a happy horse.”
Mr. Buff
Ch. g. 2014, Friend Or Foe-Speightful Affair, Speightstown.
Bred in New York by Chester and Mary Broman. Owner: Chester and Mary Broman. Trainer: John Kimmel.
Career record: 48-17-8-5. $1,403,536.
Champion New York-bred Older Dirt Male 2020 and 2019.
Stakes wins: Alex M. Robb 2018, 2019; Jazil 2019, 2020, 2021; Saginaw 2019; Evan Shipman 2019; Empire Classic 2019 and 2020; Haynesfield 2020; Stymie 2021.
Endnotes:- [Image]: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/mr-buff-the-empire-classic-credit-chelsea-durand2.jpg
Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2021/11/02/ny-bred-champ-mr-buff-retires-after-17-win-career/