$68,500 in Mares, Four Derby Starters

By Lucas Marquardt 
If everything goes well this week, breeder Machmer Hall will be represented by not one, but two 
GI Kentucky Derby starters Saturday: the GII Risen Star S. winner Intense Holiday (Harlan’s Holiday), and the GIII Sam F. Davis S. winner Vinceremos (Pioneerof the Nile). Machmer Hall, the nom de course of Craig and Carrie Brogden and Carrie’s mom Sandy Wilwerth, has already bred two Derby starters. Their first, Join in the Dance (Sky Mesa) (seventh), came in 2009, followed by Vyjack (Into Mischief) (18th) last year. 
Maybe what’s most impressive is that Machmer Hall purchased the dams of those Derby starters for a combined $68,500. Join in the Dance’s dam cost $14,000 privately; Vyjack’s dam a mere $4,500 at auction. The big outlay, as it turns out, came for the dam of Intense Holiday, the Unbridled’s Song mare Intensify, who was acquired for $30,000 at the 2009 Keeneland November Sale while carrying her second foal by Forestry. 
The mare had pedigree–she was a half to MSW and MGSP Her She Kisses (Dehere) and MGSW Crafty Shaw (Crafty Prospector)–and had the looks, too. She sold for $650,000 at the 2005 Keeneland Yearling Sale. But at the nadir of the bloodstock market, she slipped through the cracks at November. 
“She was a beautiful mare and we thought she’d be a lot more expensive, but she was in foal on a May cover to an unfashionable sire,” explained Carrie Brogden. “She was selling without reserve, and I told Craig that I really, really wanted her. We were in the back walking area when she was in the ring, and they were staggering–$22,000…$23,000. I looked up at Craig and said, ‘That mare’s going to bring a lot less than you thought!’ Before he could say, ‘She is?’ I was sprinting up to bid on her.” 
Intense Holiday was the mare’s first foal for Machmer Hall, and rewarded the connections’ faith in his dam, bringing $380,000 at the 2012 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. That was the most for a Harlan’s Holiday yearling that year. 
“He was always just a big, framey, nice colt,” said Craig Brogden. “My broodmare manager, from the time he was three or four months old, told me, ‘This is our Derby horse, Craig. This is our Derby horse.’ And he was right. He got better and better as he got older, and had a nice, big, easy walk. When [Starlight Stable’s] Frankie Brothers came out to inspect our yearlings, he told Carrie that this was our best horse, and he ended up buying him.” 
Machmer Hall sold a Lookin at Lucky weanling half-brother at the 2012 Keeneland November Sale for $100,000, and has a yearling full-brother to Intense Holiday who will sell at Keeneland September. A full-sister to the Grade II winner was born three weeks ago. Intensify is booked back to one of the late Harlan’s Holiday’s best runners, juvenile champion Shanghai Bobby. 
Meanwhile, Machmer Hall paid even less for the dam of Vinceremos–Kettle’s Sister (More Than Ready)–getting her off the track in 2008 for $20,000. From a stakes-placed half-sister to the recently deceased champion Safely Kept, Kettle’s Sister had a Tiz Wonderful colt named Dr. Chase who is a winner. Vinceremos, her second foal, made $140,000 at KEESEP for Machmer Hall before selling to Twin Creeks Racing for $340,000 at last year’s Keeneland April Sale. WinStar co-owns the colt. 
By that time, Twin Creeks had purchased Kettle’s Sister privately, but, interestingly, not because of any advanced knowledge of Vinceremos. Twin Creek manager Randy Gullatt had called the Brogdens early in 2013 looking for late-foaling mares for their New York-based stallion Mission Impazible, and wound up buying Kettle’s Sister. Sportingly, when he later realized how good Vinceremos might be, he offered the Brogdens a chance to retain an interest. 
“[Randy] actually called me from the stands at Keeneland April and said [Vinceremos] had just worked amazing, and asked if I wanted to stay in for half of the mare,” said Carrie Brogden. She declined, knowing the mare was on her way to New York and wanting to stay loyal to Kentucky’s breeding program. “And the rest is history,” Brogden said with a chagrined laugh. 
In the end, Brogden said Machmer Hall’s success wouldn’t be possible without her mother Sandy’s support. “The farm, and all the dreams wrapped up in it, wouldn’t exist without her,” she said.