Ascendant Farms’ homebred Incantation gives Frank Conversation his first winner last week at Aqueduct. NYRA Photo.

New York-based multiple graded stakes-winning stallion Frank Conversation sired his first winner last week when Don Manuchia’s Ascendant Farms’ homebred Incantation won the first race Friday at Aqueduct.

The 3-year-old colt out of the unraced Lawyer Ron mare Strange Magic graduated in the 1-mile maiden claiming event in his third start for trainer Jim Bond and jockey Jaime Torres. Foaled and raised at Rockridge, Incantation is a half-sister to Ascendant Farms homebred and multiple stakes winner Galaxina. A daughter of Giant Surprise, Galaxina won the Park Avenue division of the New York Stallion Series Stakes at Aqueduct and the New York Oaks at Finger Lakes during her 3-year-old season in 2022.

Frank Conversation, a 10-year-old son of Quality Road, stands for a private fee at Rockridge Stud in Hudson. Out of the stakes-placed Unusual Heat mare Rushen Heat, Frank Conversation retired to Rockridge with a 4-2-4 record in 19 starts, earnings of $520,000 and victories in the Grade 2 Twlight Derby and Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby in 2016.

Frank Conversation also won the 2016 California Derby and placed in that season’s Grade 1 Hollywood Derby and in back to back editions of the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes in 2017 and 2018.

Represented by 63 foals of racing age, Frank Conversation is also the sire of multiple placed runner Four Eyes.

The late Grade 1 winner Combatant’s first foal, a filly out of the Unbridled’s Song mare Sadie’s Song, was born Saturday at Waldorf Farm. Photo courtesy of Rockridge Stud.

The late Grade 1 winner Combatant, a popular New York stallion in his first season, sired his first foal over the weekend.

Sadie’s Song, a 15-year-old daughter of Unbridled’s Song, delivered the filly by Combatant Saturday at Waldorf Farm in North Chatham. Bred by McConnell Racing, the newborn filly is the ninth foal out of Sadie’s Song, who is out of the Storm Cat mare Sharp Eyes.

Combatant, a son of Scat Daddy out of the Boundary mare Border Dispute, bred 85 mares in his first season at Rockridge Stud in Hudson. He died suddenly from colic in Chile in August, just after starting Southern Hemisphere duty at Haras Porta Pia.

The former Hronis Racing-owned Combatant was sold to Brian Levings of Levings Racing to stand at Rockridge in a deal brokered by Matt Bowling of Bowling Bloodstock, Colt Pike and David Ingordo.

Winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in 2020, Combatant retired to Rockridge with a record of 4-5-6 in 30 starts and earnings of $1,062,915. He stood his only season in New York for $7,500 LFSN.

Magic Happens, a winning daughter of Awesome Patriot, is one of two mares involved in Foal Adventure. Emily O’Neil-Hopkins Photo.

By Tom Law

Iain Holmes and Sean Feld were enjoying lunch in Boston one day last summer, discussing a myriad of topics when the conversation weaved its way to investing in the breeding industry on a budget.

“Someone really needs to make an opportunity for people to experience breeding racehorses on a small scale,” Holmes said that day.

That idea was the start of what became Foal Adventure, what Holmes and Feld call “America’s original foal club” and a way for the public to experience breeding and raising a racehorse.

“What you’ll notice, it doesn’t matter if you’re Mike Repole, or the Queen, or a hotwalker, trainer or groom, if you own one-tenth of 1 percent of a horse, when you’re cheering one on that you have a connection with there’s something special about it,” Holmes said last month. “It feels different than when you’re just holding a ticket.”

Foal Adventure offers the chance, for a one-time investment of $75, to purchase a one-year membership in a foal club. The membership features regular email newsletter updates, starting monthly in the winter months with candid photos of the expectant broodmares before coming weekly with pictures showing the foal’s development.

Members will have the chance to meet the foals over the summer and hopefully develop an interest in following them on the path to being raised, sold at public auction and into their racing careers.

“We settled on $75; that’s basically the price of a meal,” Holmes said. “Come join us for a year, cheer the foal on as it runs down and hopefully wins, and you’ll get an experience that you just can’t get anywhere else. So far everyone seems thrilled with the idea and getting a lot of interest and a lot of traction.

“That’s great because broodmares in October and November are pretty boring. There’s not a whole lot to report. They’re eating hay and growing, right? When we start getting foals and making breeding plans, it’s going to get a whole lot more exciting.”

The two mares involved – the 8-year-old Posse mare Lulu’s Partner and 7-year-old Awesome Patriot mare Magic Happens – are both in foal to New York-based sire Mr. Monomoy and expected to deliver foals in March. Feld is the managing partner of Climax Stallions, which owns and stands Mr. Monomoy at Pellinor Lane in West Virginia after starting his career at Waldorf Farm in North Chatham, New York.

“Last year when I had my mare, I sent newsletters to my friends and family,”  Holmes said. “It started being just mine, then suddenly your friends’ mom is on the list, your mom’s friend is on the list. The list got bigger and bigger. And what we were doing was sending cute pictures of foals. So we put some of those ideas together and came up with Foal Adventure.

“It’s a new concept and it’s a bit disruptive, but as people really learn about what you’ll get out of being part of a breeding operation I think people will really enjoy it and have a good time.”

Learn more about Foal Adventure.

Fire At Will, winner of the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland, will stand the 2023 season at Sequel Stallions New York. Breeders’ Cup/Eclipse Sportswire Photo.

Fire At Will, winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf in 2020, will stand the 2023 season at Sequel Stallions New York in Hudson. The 5-year-old son of Declaration of War will stand his first season for $6,000.

Fire At Will will be available for inspection during Sequel Stallions New York’s open house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at 167 Maple Lane in Hudson.

Campaigned by Three Diamonds Farm and trained by Mike Maker, Fire At Will won three of six starts and earned $675,932.

“He is absolutely the fastest 2-year-old I have ever trained on the turf,” Maker said.

Fire At Will bounced back from a troubled trip in his debut at Saratoga Race Course to win the $93,000 With Anticipation Stakes there less than a month later as a maiden over a sloppy and sealed surface. He showed his affinity for the grass with a 2-length victory in the Grade 2 Pilgrim Stakes at Belmont Park before a 3-length tally over an international field in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland Race Course.

Fire At Will, who topped the likes of Grade 1 winner Gretzky the Great and Grade 2 winners Mutasaabeq and Battleground in the Juvenile Turf, was an Eclipse Award finalist in the champion 2-year-old male category in 2020.

Fire At Will returned to the races in 2021 and contested the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes on dirt at Gulfstream Park before a third in the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes on grass in his final start at Keeneland.

Out of the Kitten’s Joy mare Flirt, who sold in foal to Lemon Drop Kid for $500,000 at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November mixed sale, Fire At Will was originally purchased by Three Diamonds for $97,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale. He was offered this month as a stallion prospect via Fasig-Tipton Digital.

“Recent Fasig-Tipton Digital Sale graduate Fire At Will presents a great opportunity to breeders in New York,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning Jr. “He was a brilliant Breeders’ Cup winner at 2 and has an outstanding pedigree. Becky Thomas and her team at Sequel have added another really exciting stallion prospect for the 2023 breeding season.”

Fire At Will is the first foal out of Flirt, who is a half-sister to Pegasus World Cup Turf contender and Grade 1 winner Decorated Invader (by Declaration of War), stakes winner Jubliant Girl and stakes-placed Cabral. Flirt, who is also from the family of top sire Stormy Atlantic, is also the dam of the unraced 3-year-old Mendelssohn colt and $310,000 yearling Sacred Rhyme and a 2-year-old filly by Lemon Drop Kid that sold as a yearling for $210,000.

“This is, perhaps, the most powerful stallion family in the world today,” said pedigree expert Alan Porter.

Grade 2 winner Keepmeinmind will stand his first season alongside Freud, Mission Impazible and Honest Mischief at Sequel Stallions New York. Coady Photography.

Sequel Stallions New York will hold its 2023 Stallion Open House from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Stallion Barn located at 167 Maple Lane in Hudson.

The 2023 roster is led by New York’s most popular sire by number of mares bred in 2021 and 2022, the state’s only son of four-time leading sire Into Mischief, Honest Mischief, who will stand for $6,500 LFSN.  The royally bred, precocious bay is New York’s leading sire of weanlings in 2022 and will continue to be backed by a syndicate led by Sequel, with global powerhouse Juddmonte Farm in support.

New to Sequel’s roster for 2023 is Laoban’s Grade 2-winning and multiple Grade 1-placed Keepmeinmind. An earner of $903,237, Keepmeinmind retires with the full support of the ownership group having already committed 25 top mares, including Better Not Cry, the daughter of $14 million broodmare purchase and Grade 2 winner Better Than Honour (in foal to Medaglia d’Oro) and Grade 1 winner and $1.3 million broodmare Diplomat Lady (in foal to Vino Rosso).

Multiple leading sire Freud and Mission Impazible will stand the 2023 season privately. Freud is New York’s leading sire by lifetime earnings and lifetime number of black-type winners and is the versatile full brother to Giant’s Causeway. He has lifetime progeny earnings of more than $70 million. Unbridled’s Song’s Grade 1-performing millionaire Mission Impazible has progeny earnings of more than $12 million dollars with 46 percent winners.

“We want to give our breeders a chance to be profitable,” said Sequel owner Becky Thomas. “The recent sales in Kentucky have clearly demonstrated breeding in Kentucky does not guarantee a profit. The lower stallion fees, no transportation or boarding costs coupled with the lucrative purse structure NYRA offers and resulting awards will give our breeders the best opportunity.”

The 2023 Sequel New York roster:
Freud Private
Honest Mischief $6,500 LFSN
Keepmeinmind $6,500 LFSN
Mission Impazible Private

Multiple mare discounts are available as well as incentives for repeat breeders.

Hopeful. H. Allen Jerkens and Cigar Mile winner Mind Control enters stud in 2023 at Rockridge Stud in Hudson. Chelsea Durand/NYRA Photo.

Rockridge Stud in Hudson announced its roster and fees for the 2023 season along with a stallion show later this month.

The stallion show will be from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28. A lunch buffet will be serve along with a raffle for free seasons to each stallion at the show (attendance is required to be eligible).

The Rockridge roster for 2023 includes newcomers Mind Control and Tourist.

Multiple Grade 1 winner Mind Control will stand his first season this year, after capping his career with a victory in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile Handicap in December at Aqueduct. The 7-year-old son of Stay Thirsty will stand as a joint venture with Irish Hill/Dutchess Views Farm, Waldorf Farm and Hidden Lake Farm.

Multiple Grade 1 and Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Tourist among the leaders on the North American third-crop sire list in 2022, relocates to New York after starting at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky.

The Rockridge roster and fees for 2023:

Al Khali $2,500 LFSN
A Shin Forward $2,500 LFSN
Disco Partner $4,000 LFSN
Frank Conversation Private
Mind Control* $8,500 LFSN
Slumber $7,500 LFSN
Tourist $3,500 LFSN

*Joint venture with Irish Hill/Dutchess Views Farm, Waldorf Farm, and Hidden Lake Farm

Venezuelan Hug’s first foal, a filly out of the Mizzen Mast mare Flutiste, born Wednesday at Mill Creek Farm. Photo provided.

Graded stakes winner Venezuelan Hug sired his first foal Wednesday when Flutiste delivered a filly at Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater. Venezuelan Hug, a 6-year-old son of Constitution out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Downtown Diva, stands for $2,500 at Mill Creek Farm.

Owned by Sal Spedale’s Spedale Family Racing, the filly is also the first foal for the 5-year-old Mizzen Mast mare Flutiste. Bred by Gerard and Alain Wertheimer, Flutiste was claimed out of her maiden-breaking victory in mid-December 2020 by Spedele Family Racing and Flying P Stable.

“Mr. Spedale is super excited about the next chapter for Venezuelan Hug and is extremely involved with breeding and supporting him,” Mill Creek Farm owner Anne Morgan. “The filly is super cute and feisty, very correct and well balanced.”

Venezuelan Hug raced for Spedale Family Racing and R. A. Hill Stable before retiring to stand his first season in 2022 at Mill Creek. He won six of 10 starts and earned $252,830. He ended his career with three straight victories in stakes company, winning the Millions Turf Preview Stakes in November 2020 at Gulfstream Park West, Sunshine Turf Stakes in January 2021 at Gulfstream and the Grade 3 Canadian Turf Stakes in late February 2021 at Gulfstream.

Flutiste is one of five winners out of the Dynaformer mare Etincelle, a half-sister to stakes winners Take the Ribbon, Flash Forward, Flash Mash, Glinda the Good, Bright Magic and Hot War. Glinda the Good is the dam of champion and multiple Grade 1 winner Good Magic.

Venezuelan Hug is one of several stallions based in New York and other states with seasons for sale in the New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc.’s annual Stallion Season Auction set for January 27-31 on Wanamakers.com.

The auction raises funds that allow the NYTB to carry on its two-fold mission of promoting New York breeding and racing and protecting the welfare of industry stakeholders.

Donations of stallion seasons will be accepted until the beginning of the auction. Please visit nytbreeders.org to view the current list of stallions in the auction and contact NYTB directly at 518.587.0777 or info@nytbreeders.org to donate a season.

Waiting’s first foal, a filly out of Norway, relaxes at Irish Hill Century Farm in Stillwater. Emily Davis Photo.

By Tom Law

Irish Hill & Dutchess Views Stallions celebrated several firsts – naturally during the first week of the year – with the birth of a filly January 6 in Stillwater.

The newborn chestnut – a filly by Waiting out of the Brethren mare Norway – is the first foal by her sire and dam, the first born at Irish Hill Century Farm in 2023 and also believed to be the first foal born in New York this year.

Born at 5 a.m., the filly is “very good sized for a maiden mare. She is well balanced, energetic and has Waiting’s strong hind end,” according to Irish Hill & Dutchess Views’ Moe Scavullo.

Waiting, set to stand his second season for $2,500 LFSN, is the lone son of American Pharoah standing in New York. The unraced 6-year-old is out of the Medaglia d’Oro mare Wait No More, a $1,575,000 topper at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of selected yearlings. Wait No More is also out of champion 3-year-old filly Wait a While.

The 6-year-old Norway is out of the Pure Precision mare Romin Robin, a Grade 3-placed seven-time winner who earned $296,138 in 40 starts.

The NYTB encourages breeders, owners and farm representatives to share photos and information on their new arrivals at nytbreeders.org/foals.