Glennwood's Perfect Blend for Success

As the first foals of 2017 hoist themselves gawkily out of the straw, how many have been brought into the world in order to be racehorses–and how many merely to be yearlings? If the ratio is ever to improve, more people need to start thinking like the Gunther family at Glennwood Farm, a relatively small operation that nonetheless seems able to see the bigger picture.

The problem is that to do so requires not just imagination, but skill, patience and enough appetite for risk to sometimes go against the tide. The Kentucky farm's key matriarchs have almost all been bargains unearthed by its proprietor, John Gunther, while Glennwood also has an increasing stake in mixing turf and dirt bloodlines, with a dozen mares–around a third of its roster–nowadays boarding in Europe. Few other studs will risk such adventure, when they can just flock inanely round the latest fast-buck sire. But nor, by the same token, will many produce such a consistent parade of stakes performers. And that, in the longer run, should surely generate more sustainable business than any number of sales-toppers that blow out on the track.

“My view is that you try to breed the best racehorse you can,” Tanya Gunther explains. “We have to breed and sell commercially, too. But if you lose sight of that first principle, to me you lose sight of the programme. After all, the first thing that will ruin your commercial chance is a mare that's had a couple of donuts. I do go to the sales sometimes and see people all over the early 2-year-old types. But for the Classic races, you want horses to be bred to go a mile or more. To me, it's a bit of a head shake. It doesn't tie together.”

Sure enough, over the past five years, Glennwood has sent some of its best producers to top turf stallions in Europe–and kept some of the resulting foals in training there, too. As such, it may only be a matter of time before European breeders, many themselves infatuated with commercial speed, observe parallel dividends to those achieved by Glennwood in North America with the likes of First Samurai (Giant's Causeway), Stay Thirsty (Bernardini) and, in partnership, Stevie Wonderboy (Stephen Got Even). Those to reiterate the merit of the Gunther approach in 2016, meanwhile, included Tamarkuz (Speightstown) in the GI Dirt Mile at the Breeders' Cup, and the tragic Stradivari (Medaglia d'Oro), who emerged almost overnight as one of the most talented 3-year-olds around before breaking down.

And Glennwood already has a standard-bearer for 2017 in Mo Town (Uncle Mo), a leading early contender for the Kentucky Derby after an impressive score in the GII Remsen S. at Aqueduct in November. Prior to that stakes debut, the Coolmore partnership had taken a stake in the colt with trainer Tony Dutrow and his Team D Stables.
Mo Town is the first foal of Grazie Mille (Bernardini), herself homebred from Molto Vita (Carson City)–a typical gem discovered by John Gunther as a $24,000 weanling at the Keeneland November Sale of 2000; she subsequently won a Grade III sprint and was twice placed at Grade I level. Grazie Mille was sent to Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie) in his second season at stud, when his fee was $35,000. (He is now standing at $150,000.) Tanya Gunther thought so much of the resulting foal that she felt dismayed when he raised no more than $200,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

“Luckily we'd liked him enough as a foal to send the mare back to Uncle Mo,” she says. “So there is a sibling on the way.”

With a Canadian father and English mother, and having herself worked for 10 years in London, Gunther brings a suitably cosmopolitan perspective to her work as general manager of the farm. But both daughter and father also honed their instincts in the world of investment banking, and the former's decisions reflect a corresponding depth of research.

“Obviously we give a lot of thought to the physical, and to pedigree,” she says. “But I also follow statistics a lot. I create my own spreadsheets and am a bit of a geek that way. I spend a lot of time on the matings, I go back and forward, round and round. By and large you're still trying to get a good physical out of the mare. But they aren't all good enough to breed to the likes of Galileo (Ire) or Tapit, so we try to be a bit creative.”

After putting in the analytical groundwork, Gunther suggests matings to her father. Describing him as “a gut guy and a trader at heart”, she knows to expect much sparring back and forth before a final decision is made. But the flair that both share is transparent in the development of Glennwood's European colony.

“One of the first mares we sent over was already inbred to Mr Prospector and we didn't want to repeat that sire line close up in the pedigree again,” she explains. “We do like inbreeding, to a degree, but your gut feeling will tell you when you need to diversify. Obviously it's Northern Dancer heavy in Europe, with less Mr Prospector and far less AP Indy. In terms of grass breeding, also, I think everyone even in America would agree that there are superior bloodlines in Europe. We are trying to breed at the top of the game, so whether with dirt or turf lines, you want to go to where the best stallions are. But we'd been coming to Royal Ascot to enjoy top turf racing for years before embarking on this plan, and dad's always been looking for the odd mare at the Tattersalls December sales. So while we've more in Europe now than ever before, it's not an entirely new thing.”

Among those mares to have been expatriated is the dam of Tamarkuz, Without You Babe (Lemon Drop Kid). She is an unraced daughter of Marozia (Storm Bird), at $50,000 another coup for Gunther's father at the Keeneland November Sale in 2003. By all accounts, there had been some oversight regarding the vendors' reserve. As Gunther puts it: “Someone came running up to Dad afterwards and basically said: 'Oops!' So it was our good fortune on the day. It just shows that you do need to be there, that you can never assume how much a horse will make. Dad reads a catalogue furiously, and targeted her as one of his top picks. I guess I shouldn't speak for him, but if it's a pedigree he likes, sometimes they don't always have to be the most correct – so long as they're physically appealing, well balanced, and look racy.”

A few weeks previously, Marozia's yearling colt by Fusaichi Pegasus had been sold in the same ring. Named Andromeda's Hero, he proceeded to finish second in the GI Belmont S. But Marozia had barely started. Aside from Without You Babe, she then produced another Belmont runner-up in Stay Thirsty, who subsequently included success in the GI Travers S. among a string of Grade I wins and podiums.

Sadly, the inclusion of Marozia among Glennwood's European pioneers did not pay off, as she died before producing another foal. But her daughter, more eligible than ever after Tamarkuz rounded his career off in such style, has been collecting some extremely glamorous escorts. Her son by Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) was retained at 650,000gns at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, and is now in training with John Gosden, while she is in foal to Oasis Dream (GB) (Green Desert) and booked next to Dubawi (Ire) (Dubai Millennium {GB}). She also has a filly at foot by Kingman (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}).

Wildwood Flower (Langfuhr) is another precious vessel in Europe, more precious certainly than anyone realised when she failed to meet her reserve as a foal at just $20,000. She was unbeaten in three starts as a juvenile and Grade II-placed at three, before retiring through injury and eventually producing GI Florida Derby winner and Materiality (Afleet Alex) and GI Kentucky Oaks runner-up My Miss Sophia (Unbridled's Song). My Miss Sophia went on to be Grade I-placed on turf, proving herself something of a “crossover” horse on the track. Gunther notes that Wildwood Flower is by a Danzig sire and that there are corresponding turf footprints in all the mares picked out for European service: Marozia, for instance, was by Storm Bird out of a Roberto mare and raced on turf herself.

Wildwood Flower, meanwhile, has a Galileo filly and is carrying another foal by the champion, who has also had consecutive dates with Posset (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB})–a sister to Midday (GB) bought as an unraced 3-year-old for 625,000gns at the Tattersalls December Sale in 2014.

Galileo or Dubawi hardly take a lot of finding, but that is the point of the European venture–to integrate some high European blood into Glennwood families. It is sooner at the other end of the roster that the trademark Gunther knack is critical. The farm's full-sister to Stradivari, for instance, is expecting her first foal by Munnings (Speightstown), quietly grafting his way up to a fee of $25,000 after four seasons at $10,000. That serves as an apt complement to the fact that it was 30 years ago this September that Gunther's father found Stradivari's granddam for just $7,500 as a yearling.

For this 350-acre Versailles farm, no less than for bigger operations, necessity is often the mother of such invention.

“The last couple of years we have been reducing the herd size a little,” Gunther says. “The yearling sale market has become tougher. With a physique that takes the eye, it used to be that someone would take a chance. But these days, it seems you have to tick all the boxes: if a mare's a bit light on her progeny record, forget it; if the stallion isn't sexy, forget it; if the vetting isn't 100%, forget it. You can't support those starter mares the way you once could.

“But it's always hard to cull. Possibly we're not the most disciplined in that respect! As we all know, good horses can come from anywhere. And we do love the racing, too. Whenever we go to the sales I feel as though it's a no-win situation–at least for me, personally. If you don't reach your reserve, you're disappointed; but if you do, you often ask yourself why you're selling at all, because generally it'll be a horse you like. Nevertheless it's part of life. We do take most of them to the sales and, to a degree, let the market dictate who comes back.”

One mare, however, is becoming nearly inviolate in that respect. Having herself failed to reach her reserve at the sales, Take The Ribbon (Chester House) went on to win a Grade III and to be placed at Grade I level. Her arrival in Europe is instructive of the whole project–sent across the ocean, as she was, specifically to be mated with Fastnet Rock (Aus) at a time when the Australian migrant was little known in the US. The debut success of the resulting foal last March duly represented a cherished milestone for Glennwood, not least as Take These Chains (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) was anointed as a 'TDN Rising Star'. (Along with Mo Town and Stradivari, this remarkable farm duly had three of its graduates accorded that status in 2016.)

“Take The Ribbon put so much heart into her racing and she's putting that into her offspring too,” Gunther says. “I haven't been able to bring myself to sell any of her more recent foals, and I'm really excited about her Dansili 2-year-old recently sent to John Gosden. Sometimes you're going to leave money on the table. But you've got to live the dream a little, and my dream isn't the sales ring. I guess you'd say it's a means to an end.”