Pair of Young ‘Guns’ Sell at KEESEP for Tarrant

Trainer Amy Tarrant, who operates her own Ocala-based breeding and racing operation as Hardacre Farm, enjoyed one of her biggest successes on the track to date with homebred Pomeroys Pistol (Pomeroy), and will look for the star of her broodmare band to provide another big score in the Keeneland September sales ring next week. The bay took a trio of graded stakes races in 2011 and finished second in both the GI Prioress S., and GI Test S. en route to earnings of almost $575,000. Her first foal, a filly by Smart Strike, sells with Brookdale Sales as hip 153 Monday. 
   Tarrant founded Hardacre Farm in 1999, and began training her own horses in 2003. At the 2004 Keeneland September sale, she went to $75,000 for a Point Given filly who would later be named Prettyatthetable. While she never made it to the races, Prettyatthetable’s first foal was a $195,000 earner, and her second was Pomeroys Pistol. 
   Tarrant elected to keep Pomeroys Pistol as a cornerstone for her fledgling broodmare band–which is currently made up of about a dozen head–but the nature of the business has led her to offer up the mare’s first foal. 
   “We always knew that our best horses would go to the sales–at least right now,” the Vermont native said. “We have enough that we breed right now that might not do well in the sales, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t run. Even though I’d love to keep her, it doesn’t make sense for me to do that at this point. It’s good to have somebody else have her and build our reputation as a breeding operation. I’ll always be racing–I might stop when I’m 100–but it’s nice for people to know that we’re building up our broodmare band and that it’s getting nicer all the time.”
   Tarrant said the decision to send Pomeroys Pistol to Smart Strike for her first mating was merely a case of breeding the best to the best. 
   “I do what probably all the other breeders do–I look at all the different nicks, and they were just a very good pairing,” she explained. “I thought, ‘Well, she’s my best mare right now, so I really need to breed her to one of the best stallions.'”
   Of the Smart Strike filly herself, Tarrant offered, “She was a little bit small at first, but she’s grown a lot. She’s a chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail, which is kind of an unusual look. She’s very well put together with a very strong back end. She’s got a huge walk on her and her throat’s good, so she should appeal to any buyers who are looking for a racing filly. Hopefully whoever gets her will do a good job with her.”
   Pomeroys Pistol is currently in foal to Malibu Moon. 
   Brookdale will also offer a More Than Ready colt on behalf of Hardacre. The son of Tarrant’s multiple graded stakes-placed race mare Habiboo (Unbridled’s Song) sells on Thursday as hip 697. Tarrant has already done quite well selling out of the now 13-year-old, a $210,000 KEESEP yearling herself in 2002 who is a half to MGISW and promising young Darley stallion Street Boss (Street Cry {Ire}). Her first foal, a filly by Forest Wildcat, sold for $340,000 at the 2008 September sale; while Sheikh Mohammed’s bloodstock advisor John Ferguson went to $725,000 for the mare’s Bernardini colt at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. The Bernardini colt, named Transparent, was a decisive winner of last year’s Curlin S. at Saratoga, only to be DQ’d to fifth for interference. 
   “He’s a beautiful colt,” Tarrant said of hip 697. “He’s at least as good as the Bernardini we sold a few years ago. He’s just a beautiful-looking individual. I don’t know if we’ll get the Sheikh’s support on him–I’m sure that helped us last time. But he’s just a lovely individual and he’ll be one of the nicer ones in that sale, I’m sure. We’re hoping we can hit a home run with him.”
   Habiboo is back in foal to More Than Ready, who Tarrant says she’s a big fan of in part because of the exploits of future Hardacre broodmare Ready Signal, who took a pair of stakes on the Gulfstream Park turf earlier this year. 
   “To me, he’s one of the nicest stallions out there,” she said of the WinStar resident. “I already thought he was wonderful, and then Ready Signal sort of promoted that feeling because she’s been such a lovely horse for us.”
   Tarrant, who has worked with the Seitz family for years, is pleased to partner with Brookdale again here. 
   “We’ve been friends for a lot of years,” she revealed. “Fred Seitz actually consigned my filly Bold World (Fortunate Prospect) when I sold her [for $180,000 at the 2002 Keeneland November sale]. She was our star–she won six stakes races in [over the course of seven races] and was a really nice filly. I met Joe, his son, through Fred. From then on Joe and I have been fast friends and I now use him for all my consigning. Everybody knows them–Joe’s very honest and conservative, so you’re happy with what you get. So if he’s excited, you know you’ve got something really good there.”
   While Tarrant says she will focus her attention on the pair she’s selling at KEESEP rather than add to her stable, she did pick up a trio of fillies at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga for a total of $750,000. 
   “I’m focusing on fillies now just to shore up my broodmare band,” she explained. “I always figured that if they can’t even run, they’ve got residual value if they’re well bred… Plus I get enough of the boys of my own that don’t sell, so I can run them.”