A Comedy in Several Acts

Two days after Taris (Flatter) goes postward in the Oct. 31 GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint, her dam Comedy (Theatrical {Ire}) will go through the sales ring at Keeneland during the first session of the November Breeding Stock Sale. Rooting for both will be West Virginia breeder Mike Di Cola. Di Cola purchased Comedy, carrying a full-sister to the future graded stakes winner, for $24,000 at the 2012 Keeneland November sale.

“I liked her because she was in foal to Flatter,” Di Cola recalled. “I love Flatter as a stallion–at the time he was a $5,000 stallion, which was a bargain. And I knew she had already produced a Flatter, Taris, who was in training with Todd Beattie and they saw a lot of potential.”

Comedy already had a dependable record in the sales ring, with a juvenile by Arch bringing $150,000 at the 2011 OBS March sale and subsequent stakes winner Theatre Star (War Front) bringing $95,000 at the 2012 OBS June sale. At her initial auction, Taris brought $90,000 at the 2012 Keeneland September sale.

“All three of her foals had sold well when I had made the decision to buy Comedy,” Di Cola said. “We bought her as a long-term member of our broodmare band, but then obviously we know what happened after that.”

The “after that” was all Taris. The filly, tabbed a “TDN Rising Star” after her debut win at Aqueduct in 2013, confirmed her quality with a nine-length romp in the GII Raven Run S. the following year. She attracted a final bid of $2.35 million from trainer Simon Callaghan at last year's Fasig-Tipton November sale. Now racing for Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith and John Magnier, Taris was second in last year's GI La Brea S. This term, she won the GIII Rancho Bernardo H. and enters the Breeders' Cup off a third-place effort in the GIII L.A. Woman S.

The first decision Di Cola and partners Antonio Scotto Di Carlo and Michele Fascelli had to make was what to do with Taris's young full-sister.

“When the Flatter filly was born, we had to make the decision to keep the filly or keep the mare, so we decided to sell the filly,” Di Cola explained. “We sold the filly at the Saratoga sale as a yearling. She was a little bit on the small side and we sold her so we could keep the mare. But once Taris won the Raven Run, we had so many offers and the last offer we decided to sell. We got many calls and I turned down many different offers, but the last one was too good to say no.”

The partners sold Comedy to SF Bloodstock, which sells the

11-year-old mare Monday through Select Sales as hip 29. She is in foal to Tapit.

Di Cola still has a yearling colt by Stay Thirsty out of Comedy and the mare continues to pay dividends for the partners.

“As of right now, we are shooting for the 2-year-old in training sale in Florida for the Stay Thirsty colt,” he said.

Taris's full-sister Stoweshoe, a West Virginia-bred, is now two for three, a stakes winner and stakes-placed at Charles Town.

“We sold her to a local owner and she is in West Virginia and so we are making money through the breeding program with her,” Di Cola said.

The trickle down from the private sale of Comedy continues.

“With the money we got from Comedy, we invested in buying other weanlings, mares and racehorses,” Di Cola said.

One of those investments was as part of a pinhooking venture with Machmer Hall, which purchased a colt by Harlan's Holiday for $190,000 at last year's Keeneland November sale. The youngster returned to bring $425,000 at this year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale.

A transplant from Monte di Procida, Italy, Di Cola is a restauranteur in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He has been involved in racing for some 15 years now, starting out in the claiming ranks with his brother, trainer Raimondo Di Cola, before graduating to breeding.

“We have 10 broodmares,” Di Cola said. “Some of them are in Kentucky and we keep some at the farm in West Virginia.”

He continued, “We both breed to race and sell. But we are not in a position to keep high-priced foals. If the foal looks likely to bring a lot of money, then we'll sell. Whenever we have a big horse, you've got to pay the bills. We sell the good ones. Maybe one day, we will be able to keep the good ones, too.”

Selling horses like Comedy is a building block that Di Cola hopes leads to bigger and better things ahead.

“It was a tough decision to sell Comedy, but the offer was too good to say no,” he said. “It was a business call. Like everybody else, we are aiming to win a graded race some day. We've won stakes races, but never graded races. So our goal is to win a Grade I or II one day. And I believe we're going to do it one day.

We have some young mares who look like they have a good future.”

The Keeneland November sale begins Monday at 11 a.m.