By Jessica Martini
Three years ago, Saul Marquez brought a one-horse consignment to the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's April 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. Under his Caliente Thoroughbreds banner, Marquez sold the colt by Solomini, purchased for $50,000 the previous September, for $700,000. It was a remarkable first pinhooking success for the third-generation horseman who had moved from California to Ocala just months before, but it has proven to be just the first of many, and the winning has continued from the sales ring right to the racetrack.
That very first graduate became graded stakes winner Wynstock and following him, Caliente Thoroughbreds sold a colt from the first crop of McKinzie–a $260,000 Fasig-Tipton July yearling–for $725,000 at the 2024 April sale. That bay became multiple Grade I winner Chancer McPatrick.
Also at the OBS April sale in 2024, Caliente Thoroughbreds sold Fully Subscribed (Tiz the Law), a $35,000 Keeneland September yearling, for $300,000. The filly won last year's GII Mother Goose Stakes and GIII Comely Stakes and was second in last Friday's GI La Troienne Stakes.
Among the 2025 Caliente graduates are Feminism (Curlin), who topped last year's OBS June sale when selling for $975,000 and Sea Strike (Midshipman), who sold for $650,000 at the OBS March sale. Both have been named 'TDN Rising Stars, presented by Hagyard' after recent debut victories.
“It's surreal,” Marquez, preparing for his second consignment at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training sale, said of Caliente Thoroughbreds' early returns. “Sometimes, I get to thinking, 'How lucky am I?'”
Still the results are born from years–and generations–of practice.
“My grandfather started in Tijuana, Mexico, at Caliente Racetrack,” Marquez said. “Then my two uncles and cousins. I have my father and uncles, their cousins, we are a big family that came from Tijuana. Horsemen, everybody. I always wanted to train. My whole life. Since I was born.”
Marquez's original plan was to train racehorses on the West Coast.
“Training was my goal, but it was very hard,” he said. “I was in California and it's a very small circuit. I worked under my father and my uncle for several years and then I started hustling book.”
Marquez continued, “A friend of mine told me about pinhooking. I looked into it. I was going through a rough time in California and I had nothing to lose, to be honest. Finally, I just said, 'I'm going to go ahead and do it.' We started with one. We got lucky. We bought him for $50,000 and he became a $700,000 horse and a multiple stakes winner.”
Saul Marquez after selling future graded winner Wynstock | courtesy Saul Marquez
From that single-horse consignment, Caliente Thoroughbreds will offer some 60 juveniles at the 2-year-old sales this spring. Thirty-five of them have been catalogued for the Midlantic May sale, which will be held May 18 and 19 in Timonium.
“My help,” Marquez said when asked how he has been able to handle the quick expansion. “I am blessed, that's the only reason I say yes. Because I know the help that I have. They have been with me for a long time. I brought my good help from California. I just have guys in my barn I couldn't do it without. I trust my help and they let me take care of my own stuff and they do what they need to do.”
Marquez, who is based at the Nelson Jones Training Center, said his 2-year-old offerings this year are a mix of clients' horses and pinhooking partnerships.
“A little bit of everything,” he said of the make-up of the horses. “I have clients. I have partners. And I put partnerships together. People have knocked on the door and we've been able to build from there.”
The three-day under-tack preview of the Midlantic sale will be held next Tuesday through Thursday and will feature untimed works.
“I think it benefits me,” Marquez said of the new format. “I think I like the way it's going to be done. I am not going to change anything that I do. I am just going to keep doing what I've been doing. I am going to try to show the best I can there.”
Speed at the under-tack shows hasn't ever really been Marquez's goal.
“My horses don't show that speed at the breeze show like we are used to, but I try to go from less to more,” he explained. “I want these horses to go to the track and be ready. I want my clients to come back next year and buy from me again.”
Marquez said his approach to buying yearlings hasn't changed in the wake of his pinhooking success.
“I don't want to change anything,” he said. “I let the horse pick me. I have a great group of people who I work with at the sale. If there is a horse who checks all the boxes, we try to go after it.”
And he hopes to keep that same status quo in the years to come.
“I know the hard part is coming,” Marquez said. “I've been blessed that I grew quick. But keeping myself there is what I want to do now.”
Even when looking to the future, Marquez can still take time to appreciate what he has accomplished in just a few short years.
“Sometimes I walk into the barn and I think about the clients that I am blessed to have,” he said. “And I am blessed to have all kinds of stallions coming into this upcoming sale. I have proven stallions, I have freshman sires, I have a couple Tapits, and a couple Curlins at the barn. Sometimes, I look around and think, 'Wow. This is my barn?'”
The under-tack show for the Midlantic May sale begins Tuesday morning and continues through Thursday with sessions beginning each day at 8 a.m.
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