Manfuso Celebrates First Classic Win

Bob Manfuso has bred a number of good horses at his Maryland-based Chanceland Farm, but the longtime horseman enjoyed his biggest success as a breeder when Cathryn Sophia (Street Boss) romped home first in last week's GI Kentucky Oaks. Manfuso wasn't able to make it to Louisville for the Oaks, but he cheered the filly home while watching the race from Maryland.

“It was almost unbelievable,” Manfuso said of the experience of watching a filly he bred win the Oaks. “I happened to be out at Laurel watching the race with three or four of my buddies and we were all wearing Cathryn Sophia hats. We were on the lower level right there facing the racetrack, and there are usually a lot of people in there. The whole place exploded–including me.”

As talented as the 'TDN Rising Star' is today, Manfuso admitted his early expectations for the filly, who sold to Chuck Zacney of Cash is King for $30,000 at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic September sale, were more moderate.

“I don't know if anybody knows that they'll be that special, that's for sure,” he said. “She was a plain wrapper as a foal, a little bit on the small side. It took her a little while to come around, but she's out of a great family. To be honest with you, what you can't measure on any of them is what I call the wannabe–that love and wanting to be a racehorse and they are competitive and have that extra dimension of, 'Hey, I want to win.' And this filly sure has it.”

Manfuso's connection with Cathryn Sophia's family goes back to the 1985 purchase of the mare Sailing Leader (Mr. Leader) for $11,500 out of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December sale. That mare's unraced daughter Cruising Haven (Shelter Half) produced a pair of graded stakes winners in Royal Haven (Hail Emperor) and Belterra (Unbridled).

Racing in Manfuso's colors, Belterra won the 2001 GII Golden Rod S. and was third in the following year's GI Ashland S. Her unraced daughter Sheave (Mineshaft) produced Cathryn Sophia. The breeder thinks Cathryn Sophia's Oaks win was redemption for her second dam.

“We thought Belterra was good enough to run really well in the Oaks, but she got hurt five days before the race and she couldn't compete,” Manfuso explained. “It's special for her granddaughter to come back and win the race and say, 'Grandma, I'll take care of this for you.'”

Cathryn Sophia is the first foal out of Sheave and Manfuso admitted a trip to Kentucky in 2011 led to the mating with Darley's Grade I winner Street Boss (Street Cry {Ire}).

“I come down [to Kentucky] for the November sale every year to look at the younger stallions,” Manfuso recalled. “I was very impressed with Street Boss and it looked like a good cross. I'd like to say I was really smart, but I think really I was just very fortunate.”

Belterra was bred last spring to another son of Street Cry (Ire), the graded stakes winner Street Magician, who stands at Maryland's Heritage Stallions.

“Yes, indeed,” Manfuso said when asked if the same logic led to that mating. “But also partly because of the gradual improvement of the Maryland breeding program. I was looking to support the local stallions.”

Sheave produced a filly by Denman (Aus) in 2015 and a filly by Bullsbay in 2016.

“The Denman yearling is a very nice filly,” Manfuso said. “The plan would be to sell both of them and she is already entered in the Maryland September sale.”

Asked if either of the youngsters reminded him of their illustrious sister, Manfuso said, “It's tough to say with young horses, but I think they are showing a little bit of her toughness. [Trainer] John Servis likes to say that Cathryn is mean, but I think she is just focused–she wants to say, 'It's my way or the highway.' And the foals have a little of that in them, too.”

The 191-acre Chanceland Farm, which Manfuso owns with Katy Voss, is home to a commercial broodmare band of around 15 head.

“We send them down to Nursery Place [in Lexington] and they've done a great job of getting the mares back in foal,” Manfuso explained. “The last couple of years, we've brought them back to foal in Maryland to take advantage of and contribute to the Maryland program, which has really enjoyed an upsurge in the quality of the product and in the racing in recent years.”

Among the graded stakes winners bred by Manfuso are Wiseman's Ferry, sire of champion Wise Dan, and Gotta Have Her (Royal Academy). This is the second year in a row that Chanceland has been represented on the Derby/Oaks trail. Voss and Manfuso bred last year's GII Louisiana Derby winner International Star (Fusaichi Pegasus). But Manfuso readily names Cathryn Sophia as the best horse he has bred to date.

“To win the Oaks, I'd have to put her at the top of the list,” he said. “She is an exceptional filly. And John has done an incredible job with her from the get-go, he's understood her and handled her exceptionally well.”

Cathryn Sophia may have grown from a plain wrapper to a Classic winner, but Manfuso still sees one similarity to the foal he raised.

“That tongue-flapping, she's had that since day one,” he chuckled. “I'm not sure what it means, but that's been her since the beginning.”