Magers and Co. Sell Candy Ride Filly for $475k
Ron Magers is used to reporting the news. Yesterday at Keeneland, the Chicago TV anchor made some, along with a group of partners who bred and sold a striking chestnut Candy Ride (Arg) filly for $475,000.
Hip 92 is a daughter of the Grade I filly Modification (Vindication), a promising young producer who got a big update in recent weeks. Modification’s first foal, Sawyer’s Hill (Spring at Last), parlayed consecutive allowance wins at Del Mar into a good second in the GII Del Mar Derby. Her Candy Ride filly was consigned by Bill Betz’s Betz Thoroughbreds, which co-bred the filly with Magers, Peter Lamantia, Bob Marcocchio’s CoCo Equine and Brent Burns.
A half to the stakes winners Prime Ruler (Orientate), Sky Alliance (Sky Classic) and Classic Alliance (Sky Classic), Modification has already more than earned her keep for Magers and Co. They purchased her, carrying Sawyer’s Hill, for $195,000 at the 2010 Keeneland November Sale. Sawyer’s Hill brought $100,000 as a KEESEP yearling in 2012 –easily the top price for a Spring at Last that year–to return a good chunk of their investment. But the partners really hit it out of the park with the mare’s second foal 12 months ago, when they sold the as-yet unraced Planet (Street Cry {Ire}) to Juddmonte Farm for $725,000.
“He’s with Bob Baffert out in California, and they’re high on him,” said Magers.
Magers, the weeknight anchor for WLS-TV’s top-rated 5:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. broadcasts, has been handicapping the races since he was a high schooler growing up in California. But he didn’t jump into the ownership game until about 25 years ago.
“I got involved in a partnership with some guys, then later went on my own and claimed one,” he explained.
Magers’s first solo venture proved hugely successful. He claimed the filly Lemhi Go (Lemhi Gold) for just $16,000, and watched as she became a graded stakes winner of over $ 330,000.
“That’s when I first met Bill,” said Magers. “He bought half of Lemhi Go, and we sold her first foal [by Gone West] to Prince Ahmed bin Salman for $650,000, and I was in the breeding game. And after that, you couldn’t get me out!”
Magers currently owns 36 horses–including mares, weanlings, yearlings and racehorses–almost all of them with his principal partner Bob Marcocchio.
“Bob was actually the first one to spot Modification,” said Magers. “We like Vindication mares; we have another nice one, too. I think this Candy Ride filly will be a good racehorse, and maybe a really good broodmare.”
Magers is selling seven yearlings in total at September, including a standout colt by Bernardini who goes through the ring today as Hip 337 from the Betz consignment.
“The mare, Temporada [Summer Squall] is part of a female family that I’ve been breeding for three generations,” said Magers. “She just throws runners–honest runners–and she’s never been bred to a fancy sire. We think breeding her to Bernardini could produce a real runner. We’re very excited about this colt.”
The colt is a half to three stakes horses, including the Magers’s MSW Banner Bill (Rockport Harbor) and the near $500,000 earner Third Chance (Kafwain), a five-time stakes winner.
Then on Thursday, Magers and partners send Hip 485, an Unbridled’s Song half-brother to SP Capricious (Tiznow), through the ring. “He’s just a big, good-looking colt,” said Magers.
Magers isn’t just having success selling horses. He and Marcocchio campaign the speedy juvenile filly Unhindered (Stormy Atlantic), a $50,000 FTKOCT yearling acquisition who won the $125,000 My Dear S. in her second start June 28. According to Magers, Unhindered being pointed toward a $100,00 turf sprint at Laurel Park.
Yesterday walking around Keeneland, the smiling Magers, in a polo shirt and slip-on canvas shoes, had the look of a man on vacation. And for good reason. “For me, I don’t mind shutting the news off this week, because all the news is happening right here,” he laughed. “I take a week of vacation and spend it down here each year watching the sale. I just love every part of it.” -L Marquardt