Friedbergs Bring Two to Keeneland

Joe and Carolyn Friedberg have been away from the pinhooking scene for several years, but the couple will return to Keeneland as sellers with a pair of juveniles at Monday’s April 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in Lexington. The offerings are part of Kip Elser’s Kirkwood Stables consignment. 
    “We pinhooked a number of years ago and did it fairly successfully, but then we had some bad luck and quit,” recalled Joe Friedberg. 
    So why the decision to reoffer these two youngsters in the Keeneland April catalogue? 
    “We ended up buying five yearlings last year, which was really two or three more than we intended to buy,” he said, before explaining with a laugh, “The bourbon that Keeneland serves is just too good.” 
    “So we talked to Kip about it and got his advice and said, ‘Let’s take two of these Keeneland horses that appear to be precocious, appear to be 2-year-old racehorses, and let’s see what we can do with them,” he concluded. 
Transplanted New Yorkers, the Friedbergs have made Minneapolis home for the last five decades. Joe Friedberg is a prominent Minnesota attorney and his wife manages the law office. Both are lifelong racing fans who took the plunge into ownership over 20 years ago. 
    “My wife and I had been going to the races since we were kids–since before it was legal for us to go to the races,” Friedberg explained. “We’ve probably been to 35 or 40 racetracks in our lifetime.” 
    “In 1989, I inherited $32,000 and we used $16,000 of it to buy a horse,” he continued. “We paid $16,000 for a 3-year-old filly [Shared Reflections (Pursuit)]. We ran her about six weeks later in a $14,000 claiming race at Canterbury. It was a midweek race and I knew if I went to Canterbury to bet on her, I’d run her odds down to where it wouldn’t be worthwhile, so I bet with a bookie and she won at 13-1 and I paid for the horse. So I thought, ‘Obviously, I should quit my job and get more of these animals.’” 
    Shared Reflections continued to pay dividends. The mare’s first foal was Shires Ende (El Prado {Ire}). Running in Carolyn Friedberg’s name, the bay filly won the 1999 GIII Locust Grove H. and GIII Ashland Mile and was second in the 1998 GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. Shires Ende earned over $460,000 on the racetrack and sold for $280,000 at the 2004 Keeneland November sale. Her full-brother sold for $300,000 as a Keeneland September yearling in 1999. 
At one time, the couple had a broodmare band of 10 horses. “That was a phase of life that we went through,” Friedberg said of their time in the breeding business. They currently have three horses in training with midwest conditioner Richie Scherer. 
    Picking out yearlings is a team effort for the couple. 
    “We go through the horses together and look at a ton of horses based on pedigree and what we think will be reasonable cost,” Friedberg explained. “And then we get Kip to come to really look at them because we’re certainly not experts at picking out horses.” 
    First up for the Friedbergs at Keeneland next Monday is hip 67, a daughter of U S Ranger out of With Golden Wings (Seeking the Gold). A $20,000 Keeneland September yearling, the dark bay is a half-sister to Twin Creeks Racing Stable’s Sound of Freedom (War Front). A $365,000 Fasig-Tipton Florida juvenile last year, Sound of Freedom graduated at Saratoga last August and was fifth in the GII Futurity S. 
    The other half of the Friedberg offering is hip 109, a colt by Exchange Rate. The gray is the first foal out of the unraced Hey Little Sister (Jump Start), a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Smoke It Right (Smoke Glacken). He was a $55,000 Keeneland September yearling. 
    Friedberg is keeping expectations for the auction in check. 
    “I’m optimistic [about the sale],” he said. “I don’t think I’m silly about it. We’re not looking to make a killing. We’re looking to make a small profit on our investment.” 
    The under tack show for the Keeneland April sale gets underway Thursday morning at 10:30 a.m. Selling begins Monday at 4 p.m.