I put together a fairly cheap collection of weanlings, but now I want just one fancy horse to cheer for. I started at the top of the weanling list. I went past several Justify’s and American Pharoah’s and stopped at this horse:
Arrogate – Goose Lemon Drop by Elusive Quality, $150,000
Arrogate might be the best example of non-precocity. He did not break his maiden until June 5th, but 75 days later won the Travers, and then the BC Classic that fall. Baffert said he was the best horse he has ever seen run. Arrogate’s early death also makes him a controversial sire. His yearlings sold well, averaging $227,000. Most were bred to speed oriented and precocious mares, but my choice is different.
Let me tell you the story of mom:
In 1980 a client of controversial Florida trainer Martin Wolfsen paid $43,000 for a yearling filly by Al Hataab. Wolfsen’s father, Louis, was the inventor of the “hostile tender offer” and also bribed a Supreme Court judge. Hat Tab Girl was a nice allowance horse that won 6 races and $94,000.
One of Hat Tab Girl’s first foals was a son of Miswaki named Black Tie Affair, who won over $3 million and the 1991 BC Classic. Hat Tab Miss had a daughter that was sired by Danzig, and purchased by Katsumi Yoshida, he paid $450,000 for this baby. Black Tie Kiss won $200,000 in Japan in a brief 11 race career.
The first thing Yoshida did was breed her to the great Lemon Drop Kid. That baby was named Kiss the Kid, who $860,000 and was 3rd in the Donn Handicap. Yoshida went right back to LDK, and produced a daughter named Lemon Kiss. Lemon Kiss won a few small stakes and $150,000, but one her first babies was the G1 winner Lochte ($772,000). A few years later they tried mating Lemon Kiss with Elusive Quality, and the Low’s bought the baby for $350,000 and named her Goose Lemon Drop. Later Lemon Kiss was sold in foal to Distorted Humor for over $1,000,000.
Goose Lemon Drop’s racing career never worked out, despite her fancy family. She tried to break her maiden 15 times, but only got a few 2nd’s. She did run two respectable Equibase figs of 84 and 82. She was never in a claimer, and the Low’s bred her to Violence and sold her in foal for $215,000. That baby is now named Vida Yellow and is working at Churchill. The new owner’s Town & Country, bred GLD to Arrogate, and that is the weanling sold Keeneland.
In many ways this is my favorite type of horse. A stamina oriented sire not know for precocity, bred to a stamina oriented female family. Lemon Drop Kid was my favorite horse, so let’s mix him with the fastest horse Baffert has ever seen and see what happens. I am sure the pinhookers did not want to pay up for a son of Arrogate and a stamina oriented family.
Buying A Race Horse 