-the following article was originally published in the Jan. 13, 2016 edition of the TDN
Jacob West, who became Three Chimneys Director of Bloodstock earlier this month, signed the tickets on three Empire Maker mares, all during the Tuesday session of the Keeneland January Sale, on behalf of New York-based owner and breeder Mike Repole. Picking up Flying Train (hip 423) for $230,000 earlier in Tuesday’s session of Keeneland January,
West stood in the doorway of the pavilion as he put in the winning bid of $300,000 for Team (hip 624) and was back at it just three hips later to take home Thisonesforricky (hip 627) for $180,000.
“These horses were purchased on behalf of Mike Repole and they will all be bred to Uncle Mo,” West said. “Mike’s team is Jim Martin and Eddie Rosen. Eddie’s the pedigree guru and Jim Martin’s the racing guru. He’s the one that tracks all the race records and I’m the one who does all the physicals. At the end of the day, Mike’s got the call, but we are the ones that kind of work together. Jim and Eddie do all the heavy lifting.”
The Repole team was specifically seeking Empire Maker mares because leading 2015 freshman sire Uncle Mo’s first starter and winner was Repole homebred Outwork, who is out of an Empire Maker mare.
“Uncle Mo’s first winner is out of an Empire Maker mare, a horse by the name of Outwork, who broke his maiden here at Keeneland [Apr 23],” West remarked. “They thought really highly of him. He had some juvenile issues, but he’s coming back. He’s back with Todd [Pletcher], so he’s back up and going and they are really high on him.”
Consigned by Ashview Farm LLC (Bryan & Gray Lyster), agent, the multiple stakes-winning Flying Train is actually a buy back of sorts for Repole. He purchased the bay for $100,000 as a yearling at the 2009 Keeneland September sale and later lost her to the claimbox. Out of MGSW Flying Glitter (Glitterman), the 8-year-old is carrying a foal by champion and 2007 GI Kentucky Derby hero Street Sense (Street Cry {Ire}).
“She’s an Empire Maker mare with a Street Sense in the belly, so you would think there will be a two-turn dirt horse to try and go win a Classic race,” West commented. “That’s what Eddie Rosen loves. Her half-sister [2013 GIII Schuylerville S. dead heat winner] Bahnah (Elusive Quality) sold for $285,000 [Monday], so it’s a live family. That’s what kind of drew Eddie to her. Mike actually used to own Flying Train..”
The family and foal she is carrying are not the only things that attracted West to Flying Train, however.
“She’s got a great physical,” he said. “She’s a big, strong Empire Maker mare. She’s really atheltic. She had a foal sell the hip before for $225,000 and there was a lot of the mare and the sire in the foal, so it looks like the best of both worlds. That is what we are hoping for with Empire Maker and Street Sense on the foal she is carrying.”
The most expensive of the trio at $300,000, Team, who was consigned by James B. Keogh (Grovendale), Agent XV, was sold in foal to Malibu Moon. Her first foal is a yearling filly by that sire’s 2013 GI Kentucky Derby-winning son Orb.
“She’s a young Empire Maker mare in foal to Malibu Moon,” West remarked. “We are looking for two-turn horses that can go win Classic races and we kind of figure with Empire Maker and Malibu Moon we can get that. It’s an extended cross of Orb because Orb is a Malibu Moon out of an Unbridled mare and Empire Maker is by Unbridled.”
West added, “She’s a good size mare, had all the right pieces. She’s an athletic mare. She checked the pedigree box for Eddie, had the family, and Malibu Moon was obviously a factor.”
Thisonesforricky was consigned by Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services LLC as part of the dispersal of Steven Marshall’s Black Rock Thoroughbreds LLC (click here for more on that dispersal). The 7-year-old is half-sister to GISW Leave Me Alone (Bold Badgett), who is the dam of “TDN Rising Star” and GI Spinaway S. runner-up Tap To It (Tapit).
“She’s an Empire Maker mare again and has a live family,” West commented. “Tap To It is under the first dam. She’s got a lot of talent. I know she didn’t get to display it here in the Breeders’ Cup, but we know what she was up at Saratoga. These young Empire Maker mares are hard to come by.”
Thisonesforricky is carrying her first foal by Marshall’s GISW Violence (Medaglia d’Oro). That foal, as well as the Street Sense and Malibu Moon, will become part of the Repole racing stable.
“Violence was a really good 2-year-old,” West said. “Mike has a lot of horses with Todd [Pletcher] and I know Todd was very high on Violence when he was there. They have been selling good too. They look like him, big, athletic horses. So, you have to be excited about that.”
West’s new position at Three Chimneys Bloodstock came after seven years as Buyer Account Manager for Taylor Made Sales.
“It happened at the first of the year, just kind of heading up the director of bloodstock [at Three Chimneys],” West said of the transition. “Mr. [Goncalo] Torrealba and the board of Three Chimneys have a lot of forward divisions and they wanted to bring me in under their wing to help grow what they have.”
