Q & a with Mark Toothaker
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SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2019 BAFFERT >HAPPY= WITH DERBY WORKERS SPENDTHRIFT=S 1-2 Two members of Bob Baffert=s Triple Crown team, GI Santa SECOND-CROP SIRES: Q & A Anita Derby winner Roadster (Quality Road) and juvenile champion Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}), worked Saturday WITH MARK TOOTHAKER morning in preparation for the May 4 GI Kentucky Derby. Roadster worked six furlongs from the gate in 1:13.60, while Game Winner went five furlongs in 1:00.80. Jockey Martin Garcia was aboard both >TDN Rising Stars=. AI=m really happy with them,@ said Baffert. AThere=s always a lot of anxiety this time of year getting ready for the Derby, but so far, so good.@ Baffert, who is responsible for five Derby wins and a pair of Triple Crowns (American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018), also has Improbable (City Zip) on the Triple Crown trail. IN TDN EUROPE TODAY by Kelsey Riley TOO DARN HOT WILL MISS GUINEAS In 2018, Spendthrift Farm ended the year with the top two on G1SW and English highweight Too Darn Hot (GB) (Dubawi the list of first-crop sires: Cross Traffic and Goldencents. This {Ire}) is no longer under consideration for the G1 QIPCO 2000 year, the pair are pulling away from the pack of second-crop Guineas trainer John Gosden revealed on Saturday. Click or cumulative sires, and each is represented by a top 3-year-old; tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. Cross Traffic by his Breeders= Cup-winning daughter Jaywalk; Goldencents, by GII Louisiana Derby winner By My Standards. We talked with Spendthrift=s Stallion Sales Manager Mark Toothaker about the pair. TDN: How gratifying is it for the farm to launch a pair of successful stallions that is dominating their crop right now? MT: It's a very competitive world that we're in for these stallion prospects and for Cross Traffic and Goldencents to have been 1-2 on the freshman sire list last year, and to be able to continue that on the cumulative second-crop list this year helps us because breeders look at that. It helps us on getting the phone to ring, and it's easy for us when we call folks to talk to them about bringing their mare over here to breed, to be able to show them the success that we're having. And I think it really helps us moving forward as we're out looking at other stallion prospects to be able to bring into the fold here at Spendthrift. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Sunday, April 21, 2019 Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN News and Features Editor Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Amie Morosco Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Littleprincessemma (Yankee Gentleman), the dam of Triple Crown winner American Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew Pharaoh (Pioneerof the Nile) and GISW Chasing Yesterday (Tapit), enjoying a quiet [email protected] evening at Summer Wind Farm with her 2019 Tapit filly. | Christie DeBernardis Social Media Strategist Justina Severni Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes DERBY/OAKS WORKERS ABOUND 5 [email protected] There were a plethora of GI Kentucky Derby and GI Kentucky Marketing Manager Oaks workers across the country, including Code of Honor Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen (Noble Mission {GB}), Signalman (General Quarters) and Director of Information Technology Restless Rider (Distorted Humor). Ray Villa [email protected] Bookkeeper Terry May HOMETOWN HERO TAKES CT CLASSIC 7 [email protected] West Virginia-bred, Charles Town specialist Runnin’toluvya WORLDWIDE INFORMATION (Fiber Sonde) proved best in the GII Charles Town Classic. International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 11 • THETDN.COM SUNDAY • APRIL 21, 2019 Spendthrift Second-Crop Sires cont. from p1 they're his biggest attributes. TDN: Let=s start out with Goldencents, who was the second TDN: Are you seeing any qualities of his or of Into Mischief that leading first-crop sire last year and currently holds a narrow you think are being particularly passed on? advantage over Cross Traffic. MT: The thing that we heard from everyone on Into Mischief as MT: We wound up breeding 180 mares to him both of his first those horses hit the track was, "I don't know what Into Mischief two years here. And once the foals got on the ground, breeders has, but he has IT." These horses, they want to win. It doesn't couldn't have been happier. His numbers have stayed matter what level they're performing at, but they just seem to tremendously good all the way through and when the first find the wire first. And that's what we're seeing with horses got to the racetrack last year, then that's when all the Goldencents with these winners coast to coast, and even a excitement started. And he had so many winners and a couple winner over in Dubai. They've got the ability to perform at a of stakes horses off the bat. We kept looking for that big, graded very high level. But they also want to win races, which is so stakes horse to pop up, as he had had a couple of horses that important in this game. had broken their maidens very impressively. And then here comes By My Standards, winning the Louisiana Derby and that TDN: And Cross Traffic? was kind of the missing piece that we were looking for: a top horse headed to the Kentucky Derby from his first crop. MT: Cross Traffic was a horse that a lot of farms had on their radar. I know the word `freak= gets used a lot, but he really was. TDN: Describe his conformation. He was a horse that could maintain a tremendously high cruising speed. He was able to go six furlongs in 1:08 and still be able to MT: Physically, he's a beautiful horse; he's got great bone. He go a mile in 1:33. When he won the Whitney, he beat two has a great hip on him, and that seems to be what we're seeing horses that would go on to win the Breeders' Cup Classic. on the foals. They are horses that are very durable, very sound, Cont. p4 and they're horses that are winning all over the country. I think TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 11 • THETDN.COM SUNDAY • APRIL 21, 2019 Spendthrift Second-Crop Sires cont. Cross Traffic | Spendthrift Cross Traffic had a lot of ability, and this raw talent that you don't see every day. And we were fortunate enough to be able to land him. We were able to get a very good book of mares to him his first year, and breeders liked the foals. And like a lot of young horses, we had to fight and claw for every mare in year three. But once these horses got to the track and started training, we started getting a lot of calls out of Ocala that, "Hey, I've got a Cross Traffic I really like." TDN: And his conformation? MT: A lot of the Unbridled's Songs are heavy-made horses. Some of them are very big horses. He's a nice-sized horse at 16.2, but he's a little bit of a lighter frame-type horse, and he=s passing that on to a lot of his progeny. They look like they're going to be sound horses with a high cruising speed like he had. They're very efficient movers. What we loved about Cross Traffic's pedigree was the brilliance that you get from Unbridled's Song. But what we liked about his mother is that she was a two-time Grade I winner that Richard Mandella trained. She was a hickory mare that was very sound and very durable. And we were hoping that the combination of the brilliance of Unbridled's Song with her ability to be able to stay sound on the track would set him up to be a very successful sire. And the success is being proven out every day on the track. TDN: I believe that both of these horses were involved in your >Share the Upside= program. How has that helped you develop successful stallions here at Spendthrift? Cont. p5 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 11 • THETDN.COM SUNDAY • APRIL 21, 2019 Spendthrift Second-Crop Sires cont. >HONOR= RECORDS FINAL KEE DERBY WORK MT: >Share the Upside= is our cornerstone program here at Spendthrift. What it does is ensure us two good books of mares. Breeders are able to make a two-year commitment on most of the stallions. It gives people a feeling of ownership with the horses. They're out there promoting the horse out on the street to other breeders, that, "Hey, I'm involved on Cross Traffic, I'm involved on Goldencents." It feeds off of itself. This program has helped us to be able to get so many of these young horses off to a good start.