Mazzoni Hopes for More Wild at Saratoga

Two years ago, Nancy and Mike Mazzoni brought a filly by Tapit out of their champion juvenile filly She Be Wild (Offlee Wild–Trappings, by Seeking the Gold) to the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale and watched as the yearling sold for $1.15 million. The couple return to the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion next week with another offspring of She Be Wild, this time a colt by superstar Frankel (GB). The Mazzonis offer the yearling through Meg Levy's Bluewater Sales consignment as hip 148.

Despite She Be Wild's success on the racetrack and in the sale's ring, the Mazzonis' initial foray into commercial breeding some 10 years ago was very nearly their last.

“I rode horses as a child–I started riding probably when I was about 10 years old,” Nancy Mazzoni recalled. “I systematically worked my way through buying and selling my own horses, show horses and riding horses, and I came across a stable where the guy had Thoroughbreds on the farm that he raced. And I exercised his racehorses and I guess that was the first start of being entertained with the racing idea.”

Mazzoni followed the horse show circuit to Lexington, where she and husband Mike bought a small farm in 2001.

“A few years passed and we were showing and we went to some of the Thoroughbred sales,” Mazzoni said. “It was actually my husband's decision that we should get involved in the Thoroughbred business since we were here. At that time we had 10 acres and we bought a 50-acre property about five miles from us off of Old Paris Pike.”

The couple began their band with the purchase of three mares, one of whom was Trappings, who they purchased for $50,000 at the 2003 Keeneland November sale.

“We bought Trappings, who was not in foal when we bought her,” Mazzoni explained. “We bought a Storm Cat mare and we bought a Pleasant Colony mare by the name of Narjis Flower who ended up producing a Grade II winner. We bought the three mares, tried to sell a couple foals and it was a complete disaster.”

It was such a disaster, the Mazzonis were ready to call a halt to their fledgling breeding operation.

“I'll never forget we took a weanling filly, Trappings first foal who was a Hennessy filly, to the sale and we were completely disappointed in the results,” Mazzoni recalled. “We brought the filly back home, we were standing in the barn and getting phone calls from people who wanted to come look at the filly because she didn't sell at the sale and, I can't remember who introduced us, but David Ingordo was supposed to come out to the farm and see our horses. He called and wanted to come out, but I was completely disgusted and I said, 'No, we're getting out, we don't want to have anything to do with this anymore.' But David insisted on coming out and from that day, I kid you not, our world changed. He introduced us to people in the industry that have just helped us enormously and since that time, we've stuck with the same people, the same advisors, Ingordo, Meg Levy and our vet Dr. Mike Beyer at Equine Health Care.”

Still the couple made plans to sell off their small broodmare band, retaining only Trappings, who was not in foal, as well as offering the mares' 2-year-olds the following spring.

“We got the 2-year-olds down to Ocala and took them to the sale,” Mazzoni said. “She Be Classy (Toccet–Narjis Flower, by Pleasant Colony) breezed terribly and we kept her and ended up trying to find a trainer for her. We happened to be at Keeneland and my husband went and introduced himself to Wayne Catalano and Wayne accepted that filly. Then a few days later, we got a phone call and She Be Wild had gone through the sale and nobody bid on her. We had a reserve on her at $19,000. So we called Wayne to tell him we had another one, but he was very reluctant to take her. The rest is history.”

Catalano did end up taking in She Be Wild and the filly went on to win the 2009 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies before being named that year's champion 2-year-old filly.

“Even though we knew racing in 2009–we were familiar with the whole process–we had never experienced what it was like to have a horse come down the stretch, screaming your lungs out, and it was such a wonderful time,” Mazzoni said.

She Be Wild's first foal, a filly by Tapit, is one of five mares in the Mazzonis' broodmare band and is currently in foal to Declaration of War. Now named Propositioned (Tapit), her second foal lit up the Saratoga sales ring in 2014 when selling to bloodstock agents Jason Litt and Alex Solis II for $1.15 million–the second highest price of the auction that year.

At the time of that seven-figure sale, She Be Wild was already in foal to Juddmonte's unbeaten champion Frankel. Plans for the mating started with input from pedigree analyst Les Brinsfield, as well as Mazzoni's own personal anaylsis.

“David Ingordo was instrumental in putting all the pieces together,” Mazzoni added. “He got a hold of Juddmonte and he called us and told us she was accepted and I'll never forget getting that phone call. That was one of the most exciting things to hear. I was able to go over to Newmarket over the winter and was able to be overwhelmed by Frankel's presence. When I saw him, I was just so happy that we had made the decision to breed to him because he is magnificent.”

The decision looks even more prescient as Frankel's stud career has taken off at lightspeed. The stallion already counts G3 Princess Margaret S. winner Fair Eva (GB) among his six winners to date.

“The explosion of his progeny has just been incredible,” Mazzoni, who has one of two yearlings by Frankel in the Saratoga catalogue, said. “Who could have anticipated this? We are just thrilled to be in this position.”

The Mazzonis retained She Be Wild's 2-year-old She Be Striking (GB) (Smart Strike), who is currently in training with Richard Mandella in California.

“She is doing really well and [Mandella] thinks very highly of her,” Mazzoni said. “We're going to take it slowly with her because he feels she's quite nice and we're really not going to push her. Hopefully she'll make her debut by the end of the year.”

She Be Wild produced a filly by Medaglia d'Oro this spring and plans for the weanling are undecided.

“A lot of it comes down to what we feel like they would be worth commercially versus what their value would be to us as broodmares,” Mazzoni explained of the decision to race or sell. “It depends on their conformation and size and what the market trends are, but we prefer to keep the fillies so we can keep them in our broodmare band.”

Also through Bluewater Sales, the Mazzonis will offer a Paynter half-sister to She Be Wild as hip 176.

Asked if she sees any similarities in the family, Mazzoni said, “I think they are very intelligent. Trappings's line has always produced very intelligent foals and She Be Wild's foals are twice as intelligent. They are easy to work with. Their conformation has been pretty much across the board. I think Trappings still produces more of a compact type of foal and She Be Wild's foals have been surprisingly lengthier in body structure.”

She Be Wild has given Mazzoni plenty of excitement, from her racing days to her breakthrough sale at Saratoga two years ago.

“They were both thrilling experiences,” Mazzoni said of She Be Wild's exploits on track and in the ring. “Just to go from a little girl selling horses in my backyard to what we've built in our portfolio is a dream come true. And I have to plug my husband, if it wasn't for him supporting my bad habits, none of it would have happened. He was the one who really wanted to start in the broodmare business and I was very reluctant. What those mares have given us is just incredible.”

The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale will be held next Monday and Tuesday, with bidding beginning both evenings at 6:30 p.m.