Sikura, Lunsford Strike for Smart Filly

A filly by Smart Strike lit up the board at Keeneland Sunday when Hill ‘n’ Dale’s Donato Lanni bid $700,000 to secure the yearling on behalf of a partnership of farm owner John Sikura and Bruce Lunsford. The dark bay filly (hip 1482), consigned by KatieRich Farm, is out of stakes-placed Distinctively (Awesome Again), a daughter of champion Heavenly Prize and half to graded winners Good Reward (Storm Cat) and Pure Prize (Storm Cat). 
“She has a wonderful pedigree,” said Sikura. “Donato loved the physical horse and I consider him one of the very best judges in the world of a physical horse.” 

Sikura and Lunsford campaign the Bob Baffert-trained Fascinating (Smart Strike), who was second in last year’s GI Del Mar Debutante and third in the GI Chandelier S. and is expected to return to the races shortly. 

“We try to buy a top filly every year,” Sikura said of his partnership wiith Lunsford. “This filly fit the criteria. We’ve been patient all week. Of course, she brought more than we wanted to give, but when you like one, you are supposed to keep bidding. I was saying to Donato that it is one of the frustrations when you bring a really nice horse to the sale, people hem and haw and say maybe we’ll bid again. You can’t judge them that closely. When you really want the horse, when they fit the criteria and look the part, you have to keep bidding. So we chased this filly and we were determined to get her.” 

Sikura acknowledged the end goal was for the yearling to eventually join the broodmare band. 

“Hopefully this filly will add to our group and in the end we’ll have five or six fillies that we’ll retire to the broodmare band,” he said. “Hopefully they will be elite producers; we are looking to have a small, quality, boutique operation.” 
Of his partner on the filly, Sikura added, “Bruce Lunsford said, ‘Go ahead and find something, buy what you like.’ He’s been a gentleman, a good friend and partner and when someone trusts you and gives you full authority to do what you like, that’s a good feeling.” 

Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale has been busy selling this week. 

“The market has been ok,” Sikura acknowledged. “It’s been hit and miss a little bit. The positive for us is that we’ve retained three or four of our very top fillies from our best female families and, if we had brought them to auction, I think they would have been very well received. But there is a difficulty to perpetuate those pedigrees because, as you sell them, you don’t have them. A friend of mine said, ‘You are trying to reinvent the game of selling and keeping.’ I said, ‘That’s good. I’d like to figure out how to do that.” 

Smart Strike a High Water Mark for KatieRich 
Sunday’s $700,000 Smart Strike filly marked the highest sale to date for Larry Doyle’s KatieRich Farms. The operation has been in business for six years and the yearling was a part of KatieRich’s fourth September consignment. 
“We thought she was a better than average Smart Strike, but we didn’t expect that–you never expect that,” Doyle said shortly after the session topper left the ring. 

Despite the success, Doyle admitted, “It was bittersweet. I prefer buying them to selling them.” 
A New York native, Doyle is chairman and CEO of the real estate investment management company Katierich Asset Management. He grew up attending the races at Belmont Park. 

KatieRich purchased the yearling’s dam Distinctively privately three years ago. The 8-year-old mare produced a Smart Strike filly this spring and is back in foal to Street Cry (Ire). 

The farm has approximately 30 broodmares and Doyle said, “I race what I can’t sell.” 
With six years in the breeding industry under his belt, Doyle commented, “I think it’s going very well–days like this make it more fun.” -J Martini