By Christie DeBernardis
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.–Aron Yagoda will be the first to tell you that he doesn't keep any of his horses long enough for them to carry his purple and white silks to a graded stakes score. The longtime owner prefers to claim and resell after a couple of races or pinhook.
However, it is Yagoda's resale policy that has connected him to a Grade I contender at Saratoga Saturday in GII Woody Stephens S. victor American Anthem (Bodemeister), who will be one of the favorites in the GI H. Allen Jerkens S. (formerly the King's Bishop).
“Tom McGreevy picks my pinhooks and my partners [Jon and Len Green of DJ Stables] and I bought him for $180,000 from Book 1 of Keeneland September,” said Yagoda, while watching horses work over the Saratoga main track Thursday morning. “We made a list of sires and what we thought we would pay for them. Bodemeisters were very popular at the sales and we had a limit for his foals of $200,000. I try to stay away from a lot of the bubble sires for pinhooking at the higher dollar level. I try to stay with either the proven sires or first-year sires that have a lot of hype behind them.”
Out of a half-sister to champion Banshee Breeze and from the first-crop of 2012 GI Arkansas Derby winner Bodemeister, American Anthem sold to breeder WinStar Farm and China Horse Club for $435,000 at the OBS March sale after breezing in :10 1/5.
“He was the most expensive horse [consignor] Pat Hoppel ever sold,” Yagoda said. “I thought we would be in the $300,000 range, but he became one of the now horses at the sale. He was vetted 17 times, which is actually much more [than it appears], as the different vets represent multiple clients.”
The New York native continued, “The day of the sale, he had a little bit of a belly ache and he came off of a lot of people's lists. We bought him from WinStar and WinStar with China Horse Club actually bought him back. After the sale, we kept him for two weeks and got him right, then WinStar honored their sale and the rest is history for them.”
A debut winner at Del Mar for Hall of Famer Bob Baffert in December, American Anthem finished a close second behind MGISW Gormley (Malibu Moon) in the GIII Sham S. next out Jan. 7. Going a bit off form when stretched out for the GII Rebel S. and GI Santa Anita Derby this spring, the dark bay rebounded when cut back in trip for the GIII Lazaro Barrera S., coasting home to a 1 3/4-length victory May 13, and followed suit with a decisive score in the Woody Stephens at Belmont last time June 10.
“Tom picks a lot of good horses [including two-time champion Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro)] and he is my closest friend,” Yagoda said. “Any of those can turn out to be good and it happened to be him in this case.”
Under McGreevy's guidance, Yagoda and his partners purchase eight to 10 yearlings per year and resell them at the 2-year-old sales the following spring, preferring to stay in the $200,000 or less price range.
“I try to start at the Keeneland sale,” Yagoda said. “The bigger catalogues give me a better chance to find something for a good bargain. It is hard to do that at Fasig July or Saratoga where every horse is being looked at multiple times.”
He continued, “They are all there to sell, but sometimes they don't. After OBS June, you run out of sales and then you have to sell privately, which is tough, or sell on the racetrack. None of them are bought with the intent to end up in either of our silks.”
If a pinhooking prospect does not sell, Yagoda will keep it and race it with the hope of selling it later. He currently has 15 horses in training, spread between New York, Delaware and Ohio.
“I try to claim fillies, race them once or twice, and sell them as broodmares and broodmare prospects,” Yagoda said. “I have one colt, Asset Allocation (Tiz Wonderful), who was a leftover from pinhooking last year and he just won at Delaware the other day.”
Yagoda is a very hands-on owner, meticulously studying the condition book, pedigrees, sheets and past performances, looking for the perfect spot for a horse or his next investment. He hand picks all of his claims and also consults trainer Linda Rice, who conditions his New York string.
“Linda and I work really well together,” Yagoda said. “We go over it and try to pick something we can both live with and go on from there. We always have a plan. I don't just open the paper and say let's claim this one. I look for pace, bias and trip. I look for subtleties others may have missed.”
When not at the track, Yagoda is hard at work as Executive Vice President of Streit's Matzo, which was founded by his great-grandfather Aron Streit in 1925, but his career in racing can also be seen as continuing the family business.
“This is my 30th year owning horses, but my grandfather and my dad owned horses,” Yagoda said. “I'm the third generation of horse owners, but I have the bug the worst. I have win pictures going back to the 1940s with my grandfather's horses. In fact, I try to reuse the names of some of his old horses and I try to win on certain dates he won.”
While Yagoda tries to keep his family's racing traditions alive, he is also carving out his own path in the Sport of Kings and that may lead him to being able to say he pinhooked a Grade I winner Saturday afternoon.
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