Breeder Hopes to Revive Rescued Mare's Career
Oct 22, 2015 20:53:52 GMT -5
Post by racinggal on Oct 22, 2015 20:53:52 GMT -5
There's so much bad press about racing that I wanted to share this. I love how much he loves his mare and that she has this forever home.!
Breeder Hopes to Revive Rescued Mare's Career
By Glenye Cain Oakford
Blood Horse
Every catalog page at a horse auction tells a story, and the story behind Hip 1225's page at the Fasig-Tipton October sale is a particularly interesting one.
The American Lion colt's dam is Valeriena, an Unbridled's Song mare whose own dam, Aintjustwhistlin', is by noted broodmare sire Dixieland Band. Both mares were among a large group of neglected horses seized from Ernie Paragallo's breeding operation at Center Brook Farm in a 2009 raid by New York state police, along with representatives of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Columbia-Greene Humane Society. And that's the reason that Hip 1225's catalog page, which is sprinkled with black type farther back in the pedigree, suddenly goes quiet under those first two dams.
Valeriena's current owner, breeder David Hager II of Idle Hour Farm near Paris, Ky., is hoping to revive the family's fortune. He came by the now 13-year-old mare in late 2009, after she had spent months at Winfields Farm in Canada recovering from starvation.
"Winfields bred her to their first-year horse Weather Warning," Hager said. "And this fellow purchased her and sent her and some others to me to quarantine them for a shipment going to Dubai and then vanning to Iraq. They were going to race the foals. There were some complications, and in the end part of the shipment went and part of the shipment stayed here and had to be foaled out, and she was one of the ones that stayed to be foaled out."
But Hager said the client, whom he declines to identify, became delinquent on payments for the horses that remained in Kentucky. Eventually, Hager offered them in a sheriff's sale at Idle Hour.
"I ended up buying six of the horses myself," he said. "Two of them were Valeriena's daughter by Weather Warning and Valeriena, in foal to Monarchos. Valeriena, I just felt so bad for her, because I knew she'd been starved and rescued once, and I basically rescued her again after this guy abandoned her at my farm.
"When she came to me, she had exhibited signs of a horse that had been starved," he added. "They engorge themselves. They don't want to stop eating, because they don't know when it will be the last time they'll eat. We put her on a normal routine, and after a couple of years, she realized that she wasn't going to starve anymore.
"She's gray, like Unbridled's Song, but she looks more like her dam's sire, Dixieland Band," Hager added. "She's kind of short-legged with a tremendous, massive body. She's as wide as she is tall. What I've been breeding her for is to try and put a little more leg on the foal, I've gotten some great babies. She just throws a great individual."
Valeriena had some bad luck with her early foals. Her Weather Warning filly, named Weather Band, looked promising when Hager put her in training but then fell ill and died of pleurisy. Her next foal, a Monarchos filly, brought $35,000 from Mandy Pope at Fasig-Tipton's 2012 October sale and also showed talent when Pope put her in training with Tom Amoss. She finished third in her debut after getting caught in a speed duel and then, after working for her next start, she died of a heart attack.
"I was just crushed," Hager said.
Before she fell into Hager's hands, Valeriena is listed by The Jockey Club's Equineline as having been bred to two other stallions—Adonis and Griffinite—but there's no further indication of whether those foals were ever born or, if they were, whether they survived. Hager hopes that the 2015 American Lion colt might become a breakout horse for the mare, whose only foal currently at the track is a Ready's Image colt named Chart Room that Hager bred and sold for $27,000 at the 2013 October sale. Now 3, he's placed several times.
"I bred her next to American Lion, and it's a terrific cross," said Hager, who is offering the colt through the Four Star Sales consignment. "He's from the same family as Weather Warning, and I knew how good that Weather Warning filly was, so I went right back to that source. And I got this colt. He is an absolutely stunning individual. He is an Unbridled's Song on Tiznow legs, a big, massive, gray horse but is more rugged-looking than a typical Unbridled's Song."
Hager first entered the Feb. 19 foal in Fasig-Tipton's July sale but bought him back on a $37,000 hammer price.
"I was disappointed, but I realize why they didn't buy him," Hager explained. "He was so immature, so unready for that sale. Now, it's a night and day difference."
And Hager hopes the colt will finally bring good luck, and maybe some black type, for Valeriena and her family. If he doesn't, there's another chance to come: Valeriena has an Overanalyze filly this year.
"I hope somebody picks him up and turns him into a good racehorse so that it helps this mare pay her way at the farm," said Hager. "I make sure I tell everybody on the sale grounds that the first and second dams and the first dam's full sister were all rescued off of Ernie Paragallo's farm so that they understand the reason for the blankness.
"Maybe my mare will change that blankness and complete the story," he added. "It's been a bad story, and I'm hoping it will have a good ending."
But Hager is unlikely ever to let Valeriena go, even if her foals don't become big winners.
"This mare is so sweet, I have to keep her," Hager explained. "But it would be really helpful if she comes up with a runner to help me pay for her existence at the farm. This mare is the type that when you wean foals from other mares, she'll stand there and let the foals stand in line to nurse off of her. She takes care of everybody. Some mares that are a little bit gunshy in the field, they hang out with her, because she lets them hang out with her. She's just one of those lovable mares. I want to keep her for the rest of her life, because her personality is so great."
Breeder Hopes to Revive Rescued Mare's Career
By Glenye Cain Oakford
Blood Horse
Every catalog page at a horse auction tells a story, and the story behind Hip 1225's page at the Fasig-Tipton October sale is a particularly interesting one.
The American Lion colt's dam is Valeriena, an Unbridled's Song mare whose own dam, Aintjustwhistlin', is by noted broodmare sire Dixieland Band. Both mares were among a large group of neglected horses seized from Ernie Paragallo's breeding operation at Center Brook Farm in a 2009 raid by New York state police, along with representatives of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Columbia-Greene Humane Society. And that's the reason that Hip 1225's catalog page, which is sprinkled with black type farther back in the pedigree, suddenly goes quiet under those first two dams.
Valeriena's current owner, breeder David Hager II of Idle Hour Farm near Paris, Ky., is hoping to revive the family's fortune. He came by the now 13-year-old mare in late 2009, after she had spent months at Winfields Farm in Canada recovering from starvation.
"Winfields bred her to their first-year horse Weather Warning," Hager said. "And this fellow purchased her and sent her and some others to me to quarantine them for a shipment going to Dubai and then vanning to Iraq. They were going to race the foals. There were some complications, and in the end part of the shipment went and part of the shipment stayed here and had to be foaled out, and she was one of the ones that stayed to be foaled out."
But Hager said the client, whom he declines to identify, became delinquent on payments for the horses that remained in Kentucky. Eventually, Hager offered them in a sheriff's sale at Idle Hour.
"I ended up buying six of the horses myself," he said. "Two of them were Valeriena's daughter by Weather Warning and Valeriena, in foal to Monarchos. Valeriena, I just felt so bad for her, because I knew she'd been starved and rescued once, and I basically rescued her again after this guy abandoned her at my farm.
"When she came to me, she had exhibited signs of a horse that had been starved," he added. "They engorge themselves. They don't want to stop eating, because they don't know when it will be the last time they'll eat. We put her on a normal routine, and after a couple of years, she realized that she wasn't going to starve anymore.
"She's gray, like Unbridled's Song, but she looks more like her dam's sire, Dixieland Band," Hager added. "She's kind of short-legged with a tremendous, massive body. She's as wide as she is tall. What I've been breeding her for is to try and put a little more leg on the foal, I've gotten some great babies. She just throws a great individual."
Valeriena had some bad luck with her early foals. Her Weather Warning filly, named Weather Band, looked promising when Hager put her in training but then fell ill and died of pleurisy. Her next foal, a Monarchos filly, brought $35,000 from Mandy Pope at Fasig-Tipton's 2012 October sale and also showed talent when Pope put her in training with Tom Amoss. She finished third in her debut after getting caught in a speed duel and then, after working for her next start, she died of a heart attack.
"I was just crushed," Hager said.
Before she fell into Hager's hands, Valeriena is listed by The Jockey Club's Equineline as having been bred to two other stallions—Adonis and Griffinite—but there's no further indication of whether those foals were ever born or, if they were, whether they survived. Hager hopes that the 2015 American Lion colt might become a breakout horse for the mare, whose only foal currently at the track is a Ready's Image colt named Chart Room that Hager bred and sold for $27,000 at the 2013 October sale. Now 3, he's placed several times.
"I bred her next to American Lion, and it's a terrific cross," said Hager, who is offering the colt through the Four Star Sales consignment. "He's from the same family as Weather Warning, and I knew how good that Weather Warning filly was, so I went right back to that source. And I got this colt. He is an absolutely stunning individual. He is an Unbridled's Song on Tiznow legs, a big, massive, gray horse but is more rugged-looking than a typical Unbridled's Song."
Hager first entered the Feb. 19 foal in Fasig-Tipton's July sale but bought him back on a $37,000 hammer price.
"I was disappointed, but I realize why they didn't buy him," Hager explained. "He was so immature, so unready for that sale. Now, it's a night and day difference."
And Hager hopes the colt will finally bring good luck, and maybe some black type, for Valeriena and her family. If he doesn't, there's another chance to come: Valeriena has an Overanalyze filly this year.
"I hope somebody picks him up and turns him into a good racehorse so that it helps this mare pay her way at the farm," said Hager. "I make sure I tell everybody on the sale grounds that the first and second dams and the first dam's full sister were all rescued off of Ernie Paragallo's farm so that they understand the reason for the blankness.
"Maybe my mare will change that blankness and complete the story," he added. "It's been a bad story, and I'm hoping it will have a good ending."
But Hager is unlikely ever to let Valeriena go, even if her foals don't become big winners.
"This mare is so sweet, I have to keep her," Hager explained. "But it would be really helpful if she comes up with a runner to help me pay for her existence at the farm. This mare is the type that when you wean foals from other mares, she'll stand there and let the foals stand in line to nurse off of her. She takes care of everybody. Some mares that are a little bit gunshy in the field, they hang out with her, because she lets them hang out with her. She's just one of those lovable mares. I want to keep her for the rest of her life, because her personality is so great."
