SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 2019 TDN Q & A: MARK TAYLOR DEBERNARDIS, WOLFE EARN ECLIPSE AWARD FOR TDN WEEKEND ON ABEL TASMAN Christie DeBernardis and Patty Wolfe have earned the Eclipse Award for Audio/Multi-Media Internet for their piece chronicling the journey of Cozmic One, first foal of champion Zenyatta, from the racetrack to the show ring through the Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) and the careful eye of 17-year-old show rider Isabela de Sousa. The entry appeared first online in the July edition of TDN Weekend, a publication of Thoroughbred Daily News and can be viewed here. The story of Cozmic One is told by DeBernardis, who came up with the idea, wrote the text, took the pictures and interviewed de Sousa on camera, and Wolfe, who shot and produced the video of de Sousa, in which the young rider extols the By Lucas Marquardt opportunity of second careers for retired racehorses and the Headlining the Keeneland January Sale this year is the 2017 success of Off-the-Track Thoroughbred (OTTB) programs. Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old filly, Abel Tasman (Quality (Click to continue to p5) Road), who sells as hip 288 during the auction=s opening session this coming Monday. We went out to visit the mare at Taylor Made Farm last week and to talk to Mark Taylor about the six- IN TDN EUROPE TODAY time Grade I winner=s selling points. OP/ED: NATIONS NEED TO WORK TOGETHER Kevin Blake makes the argument that a protectionist TDN: You found out, I'm assuming, kind of late in the year that approach is not the way forward in the face of Brexit. you're going to have Abel Tasman in the consignment. How did Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. that come about? MT: Well, we've had a great relationship with the Cleary boys out at Clearsky, as well as China Horse Club, for a number of years. China Horse Club bought a really nice mare off of us a few years ago, named Embellish the Lace (Super Saver), and got to know them better through that. This year we actually partnered on a race horse with them, Sassy Sienna (Midshipman), and we've sold yearlings for them. We sold a really nice War Front colt in 2017 in September. They're doing big things in the business and we've been fortunate enough to develop a good relationship with them. There was a comfort level there. The Cleary boys, we knew their father and we've been friends with them and selling horses with them. They sell mostly their own at the yearling sales, but we help them out and anytime they need our two cents worth, we're always involved with those guys. I think that's how it came to fruition, and I think everybody knows selling these kind of mares is something that Taylor Made puts a lot of emphasis on and that=s our bread and butter. 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 Saturday, January 5, 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 Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Social Media Strategist Justina Severni Looking back: July 4, 2018. 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WORLDWIDE INFORMATION TODAY’S GRADED STAKES International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN EST Race Click for TV [email protected] 6:00p San Gabriel S.-GII, SA TJCIS pps TVG European Editor 7:00p Sham S.-GIII, SA TJCIS pps TVG 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 12 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • JANUARY 5, 2019 TDN Q&A: Taylor on Abel Tasman (cont. from p1) TDN: She's a unique mare in her talent. She=s a Grade I winner at two, three and four. Talk about her accomplishments on the racetrack and what she was able to accomplish, first as a 2-year-old with Simon Callaghan and then with Bob Baffert. MT: She's just one of those very rare versatile horses that have so much talent, that you can't really pigeon hole her. It's very hard to beat her, because if she goes with you, you're in trouble, and if you go out and she sits back and relaxes, you're at her mercy. She's going to run you down in the stretch. Physically, what I love about Abel Tasman is when you breed to Quality Road, you're hoping to get one that looks like her. She's very similar to him in that she's got tons of length. She's got this beautiful, elegant, long neck. Bob Baffert actually alluded to that in the one interview I saw. "Got that neck." Beautiful deep shoulder on her. Very long, mare just covers a lot of ground. Good hip and she's roomy. It's the way I call it. She looks like one of those mares that can carry a lot of foal. That's what I like to see in mares. Abel Tasman | Coady Photography TDN: What has her progression been like on the farm since the Breeders= Cup? MT: She's been at Clearsky, where she was raised, with Barry Robinette. He runs the Cleary boys= farm out there. I really like the way she's going since the Breeders= Cup. She was obviously light coming in off the track. Tight, fit and been running all year. But if you can see her transition from then until now, I think she's put on right at 100 pounds. You think about this mare when she gets pregnant and what she's going to look like next summer. She is just going to be awesome. And she's just now starting to kind of let down and think, maybe it's time to be a mom now. She's getting turn out time and just getting into that routine. So, it's been really cool to see her, the way she's transitioning, starting to head into the breeding season. TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 12 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • JANUARY 5, 2019 TDN: Quality Road had a huge 2018 and has really established MT: We=ve gotten significant interest. She's definitely on the top himself as a top sire, particularly of females. buyers= radar screens. The one thing that I'm trying to convey to all of the buyers that have interest is that this isn't a situation MT: Quality Road is a horse that I think a lot of people always where China Horse Club or the Cleary boys are just trying to buy believed in. He was such a fantastic racehorse himself. He set one another out. I think they're both there and they're genuine track records, is very versatile, was fast, he could stretch out to a sellers. I think everybody knows that she's a very valuable mare, mile and an eighth. Everybody believed in him and I think it took and she's not going to be cheap. But you're not going to be him a while to just get over the hump, as it does with some of battling where one side or the other says, "Oh, I'm just going to these great sires. He's showed great promise early, but then in go there and I'm bidding with 50-cent on the dollar or whatever, 2018 it was just, "Wow." I think he's clearly one of the very, very and I'm going to buy everybody out." We saw a little bit of that best stallions in North America, and he gets respect from around in November, where partners were buying other partners out. I the world. I mean, he's had really good horses in Europe, so I think that we're dealing in this situation with two very genuine think that's maybe what differentiates him a little bit, is that he's sellers and she's going to have a fair reserve and that's what I've a superstar in America, but he's had horses go over to Europe been trying to communicate to everybody that's called me so far. and run very well, Japan. So I think he's truly an international sire. Even though Abel Tasman never got to run on the grass TDN: The stockmarket has been schizophrenic, to say the least, herself, I think her pedigree opens her up to where she can be over the past month.