Senkovich Hopes Success Multiplies

Joe Senkovich's American Equistock has already enjoyed a banner 2017 thanks to the graded stakes winning exploits of Multiplier (The Factor) and the operation will look to keep the momentum going when it returns to its more traditional role as seller at next week's Fasig-Tipton July Selected Yearlings Sale.

“Our primary focus is the yearling sales,” Senkovich explained. “We've done it for a long time. We've just been doing it quietly–we're a very unassuming group.”

American Equistock will send three pinhooking prospects and one homebred through the Fasig July sales ring with Paramount Sales.

For Senkovich and his wife Karen, their nearly three-decade involvement in the racing industry was mostly a matter of geography.

“Just living in Ocala, Florida,” he said when asked how he first became involved in the game. “I was in the construction business and we raised our children in Ocala. [Racing] was something that I wanted to do for a long time.”

Among the graded stakes winners who have passed through American Equistock hands over the years are GI Breeders' Cup Mile winner Singletary, Grade I winner Wild Fit and Seize the Day, who carried the farm's colors to a third-place finish in the 2004 GIII Hollywood Prevue S.

From a limited number of horses in training, American Equistock had success in the sophomore ranks this spring when Multiplier won the GIII Illinois Derby. A $62,000 Keeneland November purchase in 2014, the gray colt RNA'd for $220,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September sale.

“We don't race that much, but Multiplier was a horse that our friends at Hunter Valley and Ted Campion had bought,” Senkovich commented. “I went to look at him at the sale and I was actually going to buy a different horse from the same consignor because my trainer, Brendan Walsh, he really wanted this other horse. We tried to buy that horse and we couldn't and so Multiplier went through the ring and when I found out he went through the ring [unsold], I went back there and I looked at him and I said, 'Why was I looking at the other horse?' I just loved him to death and we bought him. The rest is history.”

After his Illinois Derby victory, Senkovich sold Multiplier to Wachtel Stable, George Kerr and Gary Barber. He went on to finish sixth in the GI Preakness S. and 10th in the GI Belmont S.

Asked if it was difficult to sell his graded stakes winner, Senkovich said, “No, because we are very resolute in our game plan. I've always felt like, if it's reasonable, you have to sell, especially colts. Because if they don't work out, you have nothing and if they do work out, it's great because the next guy makes something and the next guy makes something. And that's the way our business should be. If it was a filly, I probably would have kept her because of the broodmare prospects.”

American Equistock maintains a broodmare band of about eight head.

“We've tried to upgrade our program over the years–it just takes a long time,” Senkovich said. “For the most part, the mares that we're buying, we are trying to buy ones that match up with younger sires. We have mares in foal to Nyquist and California Chrome and Runhappy–the ones that we think people are going to want. I've sort of gotten away from the traditional, 'Let's breed to this sire because he's proven 10 years in a row,' because sometimes people say, 'We can't afford them.' But the whole program is trying to be in the moment–what's the hot ticket right now?”

In addition to its commercial broodmare band, American Equistock looks to pinhook between 15 and 20 weanling-to-yearlings a season.

“We don't have a big outfit or staff,” Senkovich said. “We are sort of boutique and we look at every individual as an individual. Probably the greatest thing is that we have a good resource base of looking at horses and what they've sold for. Do we make it all the time? No. We make mistakes, but we look at every one of them and ask, 'Is this a money maker?' and if the answer is no, we take if off the list. Even if we reach out to buy a yearling to pinhook, it's got to be something that everyone is talking about, the buzz horse. Everybody is doing it, so it's not a big secret.”

American Equistock's yearling sales season will kick off at Tuesday's July sale with hip 16, a filly by Uncle Mo purchased for $75,000 at last year's Keeneland November sale. The July offerings also include hip 96, a homebred by Warrior's Reward; hip 222, a son of Take Charge Indy purchased for $45,000 at Keeneland November; and hip 254, a colt by freshman sire Shanghai Bobby.

“We are happy with them,” Senkovich said of the group. “We put a lot of faith in Pat Costello. He is my partner on all that we do with Paramount Sales. Pat and I have been friends forever and the horses stay at his farm. He's got an equity interest in the horses, so you couldn't have any better person because he's got skin in the game.”

He continued, “I've learned over the years, some people put horses where their clients want to go. I just tell Pat, 'Let's analyze them and see where they're going to go. And he says, 'This is where we need to go.' That's why he's one of the top consignors in the world, because he knows where to go. So I think we're going into this sale with the horses in the right spot. Now whether they make money for us remains to be seen, but that's where they belong.”

Senkovich thinks his operation has plenty to look forward to for the rest of the yearling sales season as well.

“We have an outstanding Scat Daddy colt–he's probably the best colt we've ever had,” Senkovich said. “And he couldn't come on the heels of any better world-wide recognition as part of Scat Daddy's last crop and following a Royal Ascot for the history books. And we're walking into the [Keeneland September] sale in the fall with probably the best horse we've ever had. Also in this crop, we have a Pioneerof the Nile, we have an Arch, an Uncle Mo and a Union Rags. I try to buy all the hot horses that we can.”

Following on from a strong series of juvenile sales, Senkovich sees reason to be optimistic about trade at the upcoming yearling auctions.

“Living in Ocala and being around all the [juvenile] pinhookers, I think they had a good year–and I think that's great because they are the hardest working people in show business these guys down in Ocala. And then, I think that there is a sentiment in the country that the economy is good and the stock market is strong, interest rates are still low. So people are not hearing any negatives. Overall, whether you're a farmer or a president of a bank, when sentiment is good, people are spending. And people are buying cars and houses and boats and everything else and that transcends down to our business. The economy is good and I think the sales will be good.”

The Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale will be held Monday evening beginning at 5 p.m. The Yearling sale takes place Tuesday beginning at 10 a.m.