As an agent, I’ve sold horses for clients and purchased horses for others (including for a lot of you reading this!). As an old real estate guy, I handle these transactions through my escrow account, which makes both seller and buyer comfortable with the sale. Well, last October I had a young in foal mare (to Repent) sold for a good client of mine when the buyer backed out at the last moment. I decided to make good on this transaction for the seller, and ended up buying the mare myself along with my good friend Tom Gamel. You are, after all, only as good as your word.
I loved the mare anyway – a daughter of Catienus named Steve’s Lil Girl, who was carrying her first foal at the time. Now, Catienus, a son of Storm Cat, is probably one of the best-kept secrets in the business for a $10,000 stallion! (Click here to see his stats). This is a horse I have recommended on numerous occasions to clients breeding to race, so he was a positive as far as I was concerned.
I also liked Steve’s Lil Girl because she had raced in California – where I live – and is a half-sister to SW Silent Emotion, and she was in foal to the promising young sire Repent, whose best son, Crown of Thorns, was once a legitimate Derby colt who won the G2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita in 2008. Now, SW Silent Emotion had also produced a nice filly in California named Unspoken Word, a SW who in 2007 had run 2nd in the G1 La Brea! Now, Unspoken Word, like Steve’s Lil Girl, is by Catienus, so that was a big plus, too! And there was more. Steve’s Lil Girl is also a half-sister to the Skywalker mare No Deadline, whose progeny includes SW Cannonball – a son of Catienus! So, Steve’s Lil Girl was a three-quarter sister to two very good SWs. (Click here to view Steve’s Lil Girl’s pedigree)
It just so happens that Cannonball (Click here to view pedigree), an American-raced horse trained by Californian Wesley Ward, is entered in the G1 King’s Stand Stakes tomorrow at Royal Ascot – the first day of that celebrated meet which runs from June 16 to June 20 – and I’ll have a rooting interest in a race that I last saw live in 1994, when I visited Ascot with none other than Tom Gamel!
That’s right, Tom and I were at the Royal Ascot meet 15 years ago in rented top hats and tails, and what an experience that was! The racing and pageantry was unbelievable, but I’ll be frank: the formal garb wasn’t exactly my cup of tea in the middle of summer! But it was an experience that I’ll never forget, and I still remember the Royals entering the course in horse-drawn buggies.
There was one other thing that I’ll never forget about that trip and it was a “where were you when …” moment! In London, Tom and I had decided to stay at the Savoy, and we had taken a two-bedroom suite with the living room in between the bedrooms. Neither of us could sleep, and we had our room doors open. I switched on CNN and there was pandemonium on the news: A white Bronco was being followed by cop cars back home in California! “Turn the TV on, O.J Simpson is being chased by the police,” I remember yelling to Tom in his room. And we were transfixed by the long and slow O.J. chase!
Hopefully tomorrow Cannonball makes quick work of his competition in the 5-furlong grass sprint!