Forrester Focuses on Quality Over Quantity with FTKNOV Offerings

When Susan Forrester first got into the business of selling Thoroughbreds, she dreamt of presenting a full shedrow at the Kentucky sales. However, she soon realized that did not fit with her very hands-on approach and shifted gears to offer consignments that, while small in number, were laden with quality. The lifelong horsewoman brings just that to the Fasig-Tipton November sale with five weanlings in her consignment that she calls the “best of the bunch.”

“When I first started I did have a few great, big consignments, but that was short lived,” Forrester said. “I brought 10 to Fasig October and I have five for November. That is a number I am more comfortable with. I can manage them better and I can give my clients 110%.”

She continued, “I am very hands on. I exercise all my yearlings myself. I watch every weanling walk in the mornings when they are getting ready for a sale. If I have to clean stalls, I clean stalls. If I have to groom horses, I groom horses.”

Forrester raised each one of the five weanlings in her consignment at her Glenridge Farm outside of Midway, Kentucky, which was the birthplace of dual Classic winner Real Quiet.

“I went through and picked the best of the bunch,” Forrester said. “They are all very, very nice or I wouldn't have put them in that sale. Hopefully the market will support them and we can cash in on the fact that they are nice individuals.”

One of her more popular weanlings is likely to be Hip 65, a full-brother to GIII Schuylerville S. heroine Catherinethegreat (Uncaptured). A $170,000 OBSOCT yearling purchase by John Oxley, Catherinethegreat romped by 10 1/4 lengths second out at Gulfstream June 23 and scored a decisive victory in Saratoga's Schuylerville July 20. With that success, she became the first graded winner for her freshman sire (by Lion Heart), who was quite popular at this year's 2-year-old sales. Their dam Classy City Lady (Carson City) was also scheduled to sell Sunday evening, but was a late scratch.

“The breeders decided to put the full-brother to Catherinethegreat in the sale and see if they could benefit from that filly's success,” Forrester said of the colt, who was bred in Florida by Wendy Christ and Kathy Haines. “The colt is extremely nice. He's a big colt with a lot of body and a lot of leg. He is just a really nice individual. He is a nice weanling and he is going to be a dynamite yearling. We are going in very positive.”

She added, “I think the fact that Uncaptured has been successful at stud will help, but Catherinethegreat's success is probably going to help more than anything.”

Forrester also offers a colt from the first crop of GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf victor Hit It a Bomb (War Front). Bred by Forrester in partnership with JLC Horses, Hip 49 is out of the MSP Smart Strike mare Whiletheiron'shot, a half-sister to MSW and GI Kentucky Oaks-third Sneaky Quiet (Seeking the Gold).

“He has been a nice baby since day one,” Forrester said. “Spendthrift did come out and photograph him and he was in their early advertisements of [Hit It a Bomb]. He's nice, he's correct, he's big. I hope he is what the people are looking for when we take him over there in November. He would make you want to breed back to that horse.”

Another standout in Forrester's group is a colt from the second crop of Grade I winner Strong Mandate, who also proved popular in the sales ring this year. Bred by Forrester and Equus Farm, Hip 96 is out of I'm Fantabulous (Forestry).

“The Strong Mandate is to die for,” Forrester said. “He is big and I don't have words for his body, it's so nice. There is a lot of horse there. He is nice.”

A pair of fillies round out the consignment, Hip 54, a Bodemeister filly out of SP You're Kidding (Lemon Drop Kid); and Hip 60, a daughter of Munnings who is the first foal out of Brandyafterdinner (Afleet Alex).

While Forrester has spent the last few decades in the Thoroughbred business, she got her start with saddle horses.

“I started out with saddle horses in Georgia,” she explained. “I had a friend that lived up here in Kentucky and I came to visit. We were in saddle horses together. I ended up staying. I was in the saddle horse business a little bit up here, but ended up changing over to Thoroughbreds. I started when I was about 20-years-old and I'm a bit older now. It's been quite a while.”

Forrester foals about 30 to 40 mares a year at her farm, half of those mares belong to hers and the other half belong to clients.

“I probably have a few more horses than I need to have, but it is a mix of clients, my own and partnership horses,” Forrester said. “It is a nursery, I foal, I breed. I used to sell primarily weanlings and made an extremely good living. When the bottom started falling out of the market, I tried to regroup and go to yearlings because the weanling market wasn't quite as strong. Now I am getting back into selling weanlings. I really enjoy it and I do well in it. I'd rather get my money there and hopefully somebody makes a little bit of money off me and comes back to the well and we keep going around like that.”

The Fasig Tipton November Sale gets underway Sunday at

3 p.m. at Newtown Paddocks.