Impulse Buy Brings Massons to Saratoga

You know how the story goes. You walk through the local mall, intending just to have a look and next thing you know, you have a shopping cart that's more full of things you didn't know you wanted in the first place

Richard and Sue Ann Masson, who operate the breeding and racing operation Green Lantern Farm, and their son Patrick, found themselves at the Park Paddocks for a second consecutive year at the 2015 Tattersalls December Mixed Sales. Twelve months prior, the Massons attended the event for the first time to add to their 20-plus broodmare band, acquiring three mares for a total of 490,000gns. The most expensive of their purchases was the then 6-year-old listed winner Souviens Toi (GB) (Dalakhani {Ire}), who realized 280,000gns carrying a foal by Oasis Dream (GB).

Armed with a similar gameplan, it was back to Newmarket late last fall, and that's when fate intervened.

“My parents and I flew over early to scope out the mares,” Patrick Masson, 26, explained. “We really weren't looking for any foals, but we happened by The Castlebridge Consignment and this filly was out. She really caught my eye, she was gorgeous. So we did the background work and thought she would be a good filly to own.”

As it turned out, the bay filly was their lone purchase at the December sales–a transaction concluded privately post RNA–as they were outbid on each of the “12 or 13″ mares they tried on subsequent to the foal sale. Some 65,000gns (about US$103,064) and nine months later, that purchase is cataloged as hip 3 in Monday's session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearling Sale. Paramount Sales consigns the Irish-bred bay from the first crop of MG1SW Declaration of War (War Front), who made a splash on these shores when a desperately close third behind Mucho Macho Man (Macho Uno) and Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song) in the 2013 GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita.

While weanling-to-yearling pinhooks are anything but unusual, to do so with a foreign-bred acquired overseas is certainly less typical. But Masson is confident that the February foal will appeal to potential buyers on either side of the Atlantic.

“She is just a gorgeous physical with a great big, beautiful walk and she has gotten better and better over time,” he commented. “We think she should stand out at the sale and that she should attract both Americans and Europeans.

He added, “Her dam [Danehill Music {Ire}, by Danehill] was a Group 3 winner in Europe and I absolutely loved Declaration of War as a racehorse and recommended to my parents that we breed some of our mares to him. This filly is big like her sire, she has his body style and has grown up a lot on the Kentucky grass. She is very athletic and reminds me of horses that have gone on to do great things.”

Masson said this is the second horse he has had a piece of, but, “if she doesn't bring what we would like her to, we'll be happy to race her.”

Speaking of that, the Green Lantern racing operation ascended to new heights July 30 just a few blocks down East St. at the venerable racetrack when its homebred A. P. Indian (Indian Charlie) took out the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. (video).

“That was an unreal experience and I can't say enough about the job [trainer] Arnaud [Delacour] has done with him,” Masson offered, adding that Green Lantern has about a dozen horses in training with Christophe Clement and Joe Sharp, in addition to Delacour. “It was a real team effort, from [Green Lantern Farm Manager] Darrell Courtney to Joe Bravo. We're just thrilled.”

But for now, the attention has turned to early Monday evening.

“I really hope she does well,” said Patrick Masson. “I would hope that this sale is better than the 2-year-old and July sales, but that's kind of the way of the world right now. It's my hope that being a select sale–that the upper end of market will be strong and that the middle market will hold up. We'll soon find out.”