Machmer Hall

by Jessica Martini and Stefanie Grimm A filly from the first crop of Jackie's Warrior became the second highest-priced juvenile to ever sell at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale when she brought a final bid of $2.3 million and the four-day auction reached its halfway point Wednesday with double-digit gains over its 2025 renewal. Through two sessions, 314 horses have sold for a gross of $50,655,000. The average of $161,322 is up 13.0% from the same point in last year's Spring sale and is up...

Glen Eden. She says it's every bit as picturesque as it sounds. Two hundred acres across a valley in Chester, New Jersey: hunters and jumpers, 50 stalls, an indoor ring, another two outdoors. And a bunch of kids wanting to ride ponies. Nice, rural, domestic scene, a world away from the blue-collar grit of Aqueduct. Now, to be fair, horses take a ton of work wherever you are and whatever you're doing. "I mean, the sport-horse trainers, just like the racehorse trainers, it's a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week job," Kathy Kunsman points...

With a victory in Saturday's $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup--a fait accompli in the eyes of many--reigning Japanese Horse of the Year and GI Breeders' Cup Classic hero Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) would leap-frog Hong Kong superstar Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) as the world's richest racehorse with over $36 million in career earnings, accomplished in the space of just 15 races. Heady stuff. Unfathomable stuff, really. And to think that the 5-year-old is out of a mare that fetched just $8,000 as a yearling, well, you just...

The first installment in the 2026 OwnerView webinar series was held Mar. 17 and featured a discussion of the benefits and challenges of breeding Thoroughbreds to race, the conference series said via a Thursday press release. Guests included Carrie Brogden, Machmer Hall Farm; Kate Galvin, Godolphin; Len Green, D.J. Stable; and Walker Hancock, Claiborne Farm. The event, hosted by The Jockey Club of America and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, was presented by Bessemer Trust, Keeneland and Dean Dorton Equine. Panel sponsors included the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and Airdrie...

Godolphin homebred and 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Knightsbridge (h, 5, Nyquist--Tyburn Brook, by Bernardini) made his 1-5 odds look like a bargain versus four overmatched rivals in Saturday's GIII Gulfstream Park Mile S. He chased in second beneath Junior Alvarado, took over with ease on the far turn and opened daylight in the stretch to win in style by 11 1/4 lengths. Steal Sunshine (Constitution) was second. Flying Liam (Liam's Map) was third. "I think he's the best miler in the country right now," Alvarado said. "It was...

Another foaling year has begun and I truly have learned to go into each season with a "brace yourself" mentality as any long-term breeder realizes it is the only way you can keep your sanity year after year. This season, we continue to tackle the flock to the big-book first years and proven sires while breaking out the crystal ball to try to guess which of the bubble horses will succeed when their progeny hits the track. If any of you have ever participated in Geoffrey Russell's freshman sire contest,...

More Than Looks (More Than Ready--Ladies' Privilege, by Harlan's Holiday), winner of the 2024 GI Breeders' Cup Mile, was represented by his first three foals Saturday, when a colt and a filly arrived in Kentucky and a second colt was born in Florida. Multiple stakes-winning and multiple graded stakes-placed Eden Prairie (Mizzen Mast) produced a colt, bred by Sampson Racing Stables, at Chesapeake Farm in Kentucky. "We couldn't be more pleased with this colt. He's a strong, good-looking individual," said Chesapeake Farm's Collier Mathes. "The dam's success with More Than...

The first two reported foals for Gainesway Farm's MGSW Charge It (by Tapit) were born Jan. 5, with one arriving at the Brogden family's Machmer Hall in Paris, Kentucky, and the other being delivered at Darby Dan Farm outside of Lexington, Kentucky, the stallion outfit said via a Tuesday release. Machmer Hall oversaw the arrival of a bay colt, the first foal out of SP Six Sense (Violence). A half-sister to SW Xanthique (Into Mischief), out of the GSP mare Qualia (Saarland), Six Sense was a $105,000 purchase at the...

A newly created $25,000 Thoroughbred Hunter Derby will make its debut at the Upperville Colt & Horse Show in Virginia in early June and replace the recent Upperville Thoroughbred Hunter Classic, the planners of the event said via a press release on their website Dec. 31. The Derby will take place Tuesday, June 2 and reflects a growing, industry-wide effort to expand opportunities for Thoroughbreds at recognized horse shows. In recent years, trainers, owners and Thoroughbred advocates have worked to elevate the visibility and competitiveness of the breed in hunter...

1st-GP, $70k, Msw, 2yo, f, 7 1/2fT, post time: 12:50 p.m. ET The produce of Machmer Hall's sensational broodmare Special Me (Unbridled's Song) have earned nearly $4.4 million to date, and KEEPSAKE BOX (Twirling Candy) is set to become her 10th runner when she debuts in the Saturday opener at Gulfstream. Since being purchased by Machmer Hall for just $6,000 at the 2009 Keeneland January Sale, Special Me has thrown seven winners, including this filly's Grade I-winning full-brother Gift Box; Gina Romantica (Into Mischief), a three-time Grade I winner on...

Carrie Brogden of highly successful Machmer Hall fame is a self-described horse addict and she is not shy when it comes to admitting it. Still, the straight shooter with the commercial breeding business outside of Paris, Kentucky, has to make some decisions every fall when it comes to reducing the farm's stock. It is just the way it goes as October rolls around. "I am the ultimate horse sale junkie, just ask my husband Craig, who would be thrilled if we had 30 elite mares on a 250-acre farm," said...

Special Me, the dam of MGSW/GISP Stonetastic (Mizzen Mast), GISW Gift Box (Twirling Candy), MGSW Special Forces (Candy Ride {Arg}) and 'TDN Rising Star'/MGISW Gina Romantica, has been pensioned from broodmare duty by Machmer Hall. Carrie Brogden announced the news on social media Tuesday morning, saying "I broke the news to Special Me that she has been retired as a broodmare and is free to live out the rest of her days in happiness, at Machmer Hall. She loves being a mother and we have let her raise her babies....