Bodemeister Colt Tops Weanlings

This past summer, the principals at WinStar Farm traveled around and inspected weanlings from the first crop of their Empire Maker stallion Bodemeister. Farm CEO Elliott Walden and his team were rightly impressed, but noted that most breeders of Bodemeister's best representatives were waiting to sell at next year's yearling sales. 

“I'd said of the top 30 we ranked, most or all were going to be sold as yearlings because they were so nice,” said Walden. 

So Walden decided to send through some of WinStar's best Bodemeister foals at the November sales, “so that people knew what kind of stock he was getting,” he explained. 

It was mission accomplished during yesterday's fifth session at November, where a WinStar-bred colt from the farm's Grade I-winning mare Awesome Humor (Distorted Humor) brought $230,000 to lead all weanlings and co-top the session. Taylor Made consigned the colt as Hip 1327. 

“He was just a really good colt,” he said. “I didn't really want to part with him because I thought he'd make a good yearling. He was one of our best foals.” 

The colt is one of 18 Bodemeister foals to sell at Keeneland so far. The group has averaged $122,167 off Bodemeister's introductory fee of $30,000. 

It's interesting to note Bodemeister's median is even higher–$132,500–which is sometime of a rarity and typically indicates across-the-board quality. 

“He's getting good, athletic types that have a really good look to them,” said Walden. “They're well-balanced, have good movement, have a sharp color–they look like classy horses.” 

Walden said another good WinStar-bred representation of Bodemeister goes through the ring today as Hip 1939. Craig and Holly Bandoroff's Denali Stud consigns the son of the GII Adirondack S. third Magic Appeal (Successful Appeal), a full-sister to the Grade I-winning juvenile J P's Gusto. 

“We put them on separate days because we expected them to sell well and we wanted people to showcase them,” said Walden. 

Campaigned by Zayat Stables and later with partner Mike Moreno, Bodemeister roared into the 2012 Triple Crown picture under the tutelage of trainer Bob Baffert. He dominated stablemate Secret Circle (Eddington) by 9 1/2 lengths in the GI Arkansas Derby in his fourth career start, and later ran one of the better losing races in GI Kentucky Derby history. In the Derby, he sprinted through :45 1/5 and 1:09 4/5 fractions before being overhauled by I'll Have Another (Flower Alley) late. He also finished second to that foe in the GI Preakness S. before sustaining a career-ending shoulder injury. 

“We've bred about 10 mares a year to him, and are just very high on his chances,” said Walden. “I think it's interesting to note that the right people are buying them: Chris Baccari, Gerry Dilger bought the one today, Debby Oxley, Mike McMahon. Some really good judges of horses are buying them.” 

It's safe to say that Bodemeister hasn't been hurt by the success of his barnmate at WinStar, Pioneerof the Nile, who shares a similar profile: by Empire Maker, owned by Zayat Stables, trained by Baffert, ran second in the Derby, etc. 
Pioneerof the Nile is the sire of five first-crop stakes winners, including the graded winners Cairo Prince, JoJo Warrior, Midnight Storm and Vinceremos, as well as this year's standout juvenile American Pharaoh. 

“I think it definitely helps,” said Walden. “Pioneerof the Nile is obviously his own stallion, and the bottom side of their pedigrees are different, but any time you have a son come out and do what he has for Empire Maker, it certainly helps his other sons.” 

The two stallions previously stood in the same general range at WinStar–Bodemeister stood the 2014 season for $30,000, Pioneerof the Nile for $20,000–but due to the latter's success, WinStar boosted his 2015 to $60,000. 

“We just couldn't be happier with the year Pioneerof the Nile's had,” said Walden. “Coming into this year he had Cairo Prince, and since he's just had horse after horse pop up. Maybe the best one was the horse who didn't win a graded stakes–Social Inclusion–who beat Honor Code and finished third in the GI Preakness. Even though we did raise his stud fee rather aggressively, we're going to limit his book to 120 mares, and the breeder response has been great. So we feel like we priced him fairly.” 

Walden also provided an update on WinStar's newest addition, the treble Grade II winner Fed Biz (Giant's Causeway), who was retired yesterday to the farm at a fee of $12,500. 

“We're just real excited about him,” said Walden. “He's a horse that reminds me of Distorted Humor when we got him. They're both multiple graded winners who, while they didn't win Grade I's, had Grade I talent. Both are track-record setters at seven furlongs, and as a $950,000 yearling, Fed Biz is a beautiful horse. We think he has a chance to be here for a long time.”