By Jessica Martini
Jonathan Thorne was able to acquire That's Ok (Not For Love) for just $12,000 in 2008 and the now 11-year-old mare is enjoying her greatest success to date with stakes-winning 2-year-old Mirai (Trappe Shot). Thorne will offer the mare's yearling filly by Overanalzye during next week's Fasig-Tipton October Fall Yearlings Sale as hip 628 through the consignment of James Herbener, Jr.
“I sent her down to Kentucky a couple of weeks ago,” Thorne said of the yearling. “She's a nice horse, good sized and obviously we always liked Mirai and he's proven to be a good horse.”
That's Ok obviously turned heads as a juvenile, selling for $700,000 at the 2007 Fasig-Tipton Florida sale. The mare, who is a full-sister to Grade I placed Forever Partners and a half to stakes winner Pal's Partner (Rakeen), was unplaced in two starts for Darley and was offered again at the 2008 Keeneland November sale.
“I remembered her from the 2-year-old sale when she sold for $700,000,” Thorne said of the mare. “She obviously had some talent, she worked in :20 and change or something like that, but her racing career just didn't work out for the best. She is a gorgeous horse with a lot of size and I love Not for Love as a broodmare sire and as a sire in general. I just thought she would hopefully pass that on to her kids and she seems to have done it at least with Mirai.”
The mare's price tag in 2008 was a pleasant surprise.
“I was a little surprised to get her for that [$12,000], but she was not in foal,” Thorne noted. “I thought she would be a little more, but this was 2008 when everything tanked. That was a terrible year for selling broodmares, but a good year for buying them.”
Mirai, That's Ok's fourth foal, sold for $55,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling before Steve Young bid $280,000 for the colt as a juvenile at this year's OBS March Sale.
“I always liked that horse,” Thorne said of Mirai. “Trappe Shot was a little slow with his first 2-year-olds, but he was my favorite horse. Steve Young, who bought him as a 2-year-old, loved him as a yearling, too. I thought he would bring a little more than he did, but it was a tough in-between sort of year.”
Racing for Robert LaPenta and Madaket Stables, Mirai debuted with a 3 1/2-length win at Saratoga Aug. 18 and returned to add a two-length tally in the Oct. 2 Bertram F. Bongard S.
Thorne is the ninth generation to live at his family's Thorndale Farm in Millbrook, New York. While he grew up on the family farm, he admitted it was one horse in particular that cemented his love of racing.
“We've had a farm here in New York for about 200 years and in 1980, when I was six, we started breeding Thoroughbreds. I kind of grew up in the barn,” Thorne explained. “The first good horse that we raised was [1987 GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. winner] Notebook. He was my favorite horse and he's the root of all the problems–blame it all on him,” Thorne laughed.
Thorne served stints at Gainesway, Eaton Sales and Derry Meeting Farm before going out on his own at Thorndale, where he bred 2009 GIII Florida Oaks winner Don't Forget Gil (Kafwain).
Thorndale Farm's commercial broodmare band currently numbers eight head.
“I want to always have about 10 or 12, but I want good ones,” Thorne explained. “If I like them and they don't vet, I'll race them.”
The Fasig-Tipton October sale runs from Oct. 24 through 26, with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.
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