Arrowfield’s Jon Freyer will be back where it all began at the Kentucky breeding stock sales this week trying to replicate the magic that led to his breeding of Switzerland, winner of the Nov. 2 Coolmore Stud Stakes (G1) at Flemington.
Saturday’s stallion-confirming triumph in the 1,200-meter event for the expensive Chris Waller-trained colt culminated five years of preparation and build-up for Freyer, Arrowfield, and the co-breeders of the star 3-year-old, Matt and Jo Cloros.
It was at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale of 2019 that Freyer took the sizeable calculated gamble of going to US$600,000 to buy Ms Bad Behavior , a Blame filly who had won the China Doll Stakes at Santa Anita Park and the Ladies Turf Stakes (G3) at Kentucky Downs, both at a mile on the grass, with the idea of putting her to Arrowfield’s super sire Snitzel .
In the unpredictable world of breeding, the move has gone to plan as well as any could have hoped.
The resultant colt was a stunner who turned heads at the sales, with Coolmore’s Tom Magnier going to AU$1.5 million to secure him at Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2023.
And while a hitch arose when a bone chip discovered after the race helped scupper his hopes in one stallion-maker—the Golden Slipper (G1)—he’s now earned the success in another one that secures his future in the Coolmore stallion team.
It came in imperious style, too, with James McDonald guiding Switzerland to a 2.75-length victory, which sets the scene for perhaps more Flemington straight-track glory when he races on in the autumn, most likely over the same distance in the Newmarket Handicap (G1).
Kentucky Fall Mixed Sales
Back in Kentucky, the sales action starts again in Lexington Nov. 4, with Fasig-Tipton’s one-night gala The November Sale.
Then on Tuesday, the marathon Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale begins, running for nine days through November 13. A grand total of 3,373 lots were entered, including 1,470 weanlings and nearly 1,800 broodmares and broodmare prospects. That is followed by the one-day Keeneland Horses of Racing Age Sale.
“It’s a great place. It’s amazing how many high class racemares you see in one or two days. You can see about 80 group winners. It’s extraordinary,” Freyer told ANZ Bloodstock News down the phone from Lexington.
“If nothing else, it’s a good opportunity to look and learn, though hopefully we’ll be doing more than that.”
Freyer is hopeful of picking up a couple of mares at the sales, while acknowledging that’s always difficult, especially for Australians trading in US dollars. The exchange rate is currently around US$0.66 for an Australian dollar—a touch weaker than the rate of around $0.69 when Freyer bought Ms Bad Behavior.
“We had a good look around on Saturday. There’s a lot of very nice mares and I think it’ll be a good sale,” he said. “There’s a very good catalog here and a lot of very good physicals. We’ll be in there battling to hopefully get something like Ms Bad Behavior, although they’re hard to come by and hard to buy.
“These are very well promoted sales around the world, with buyers here from every corner of the globe. It won’t be easy, but there’s horses there that are very desirable.”
Freyer said it was difficult to predict how hot the market would be. But with the Keeneland September Yearling Sale breaking its record for gross sales at US$427.8 million, it’s likely there will be a knock-on effect.
“It’s hard to know how it will go,” Freyer said. “There’s no great price guideline. The top mares make the sort of money you’d expect them to make. Plus, it’s in US dollars. That makes it harder for Australians to buy, but the reward is there if you get it right.
“Ms Bad Behavior cost US$600,000, but in Aussie dollars it was about $900,000 by the time we got her.”
Dissecting the Breeding
With Switzerland’s group 1 status secured, Freyer could reflect over a Saturday night dinner with Fasig-Tipton personnel about securing his dam.
A 4-year-old at the time, Ms Bad Behavior was out of dual stakes winner Cumulonimble (Stormy Atlantic ), who threw two other listed winners including One Bad Boy (Twirling Candy ), who won his black type at Santa Anita and Woodbine.
“Ms Bad Behavior was just a beautiful mare—a magnificent physical, and she was just a really high class, classic, fast mare,” Freyer said.
“I was very keen on the broodmare sire Blame as a prospect, and I liked the fact she’s out of a very good producer in Cumulonimble. I know it’s often mentioned that she’d thrown another couple of listed winners, but one of those listed winners had won the Queen’s Plate—one of the best races in Canada. So I really liked that.”
Blame, pictured at Claiborne Farm in 2018, has been ascending within the broodmare sire rankings
Freyer was excited about Blame’s third and fourth dams—Special and Thong. He was also heartened that Ms Bad Behavior carried a 6×6 duplication of Thong’s dam Rough Shod, and was inbred 3×4 to Kris S.
“I loved her bloodlines, the fact that she’s inbred to Kris S,” he said. “Also the fact that her sire Blame is out of the same family as her damsire Stormy Atlantic, bringing a double of that Thong, or number five family, which I love.
“So there were a few factors that were appealing. Those things and the fact she was a beautiful, high-class racemare. I did think she’d be a good match for Snitzel, but really she’s the type of mare who could go to anything, and Snitzel’s such a high class sire you could put him over just about anything.”
So pleased were Arrowfield with their first Snitzel colt out of Ms Bad Behavior, they’ve repeated the mating four times now. The 2022 colt was bought by TFI for AU$550,000 at Easter this year. Freyer said the colt born on Oct. 1 last year “might just be the best of the three”, while full brother number four arrived Sept. 30 this year, before the fifth cover between the two happened in late October.
To see the mating have its rich reward through Switzerland’s triumph at Flemington left all at the Hunter Valley heavyweight farms of Arrowfield and Coolmore enraptured.
“It’s terrific, great for the team, and everybody’s very excited,” Freyer said. “He was a beautiful yearling, he’s obviously a top class horse now, and a group 1 winner. We’ll be seeing plenty of him for the next ten or 15 years.”