“Dual Threat Just Like His Sire,” More Than Looks New at Lane's End

It was the 2019 Keeneland November Sale and David Ingordo was busy buying mares for a Lane's End partnership. One of the prospects he landed on was Ladies' Privilege, a stakes-winning daughter of Harlan's Holiday in foal to More Than Ready, but he ended up getting outbid when Hinkle Farms went to $575,000 for the maiden mare.

Ingordo didn't think much more of it until two years later, when he was out inspecting yearlings at Hinkle Farms ahead of the Keeneland September Sale.

“I went through all their yearlings and the last yearling to come out was a More Than Ready colt,” recalled Ingordo. “Mr. Hinkle was like, 'Well you've got to buy this one because you made us pay so much for the mare.' I'm a big presence person with horses and he had it even as a yearling. He's from the Halo line. He reminded me a lot of that Sunday Silence look–the head, the body. He's got a really good hind leg and hind end. He made it easy to like him and he was very athletic. We bought him for a really fair price and the rest is history.”

New to the Lane's End Farm stallion barn for 2025, More Than Looks is a horse that Ingordo always thought had the potential to be something special and the dark bay went on to become just that over his two years on the racetrack. His career culminated in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile when he gave Ingordo's wife, trainer Cherie DeVaux, as well as owner Victory Racing Partners their first Breeders' Cup win.

As a 3-year-old, More Than Looks's biggest scores came in the GIII Manila Stakes and the Jefferson Cup Stakes, the later being one of colt's more impressive performances according to Ingordo as he got the win in his characteristic come-from-behind fashion.

“You don't see horses anywhere, but especially American turf horses, have the kind of turn of foot that More Than Looks had,” said Ingordo. “It was the kind of race that caught everybody's eye.”

That race gave DeVaux the confidence to send More Than Looks to his Grade I debut at the Breeders' Cup, where he closed from last to sixth in the Mile to finish only a few lengths behind winner Master of The Seas (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}).

The More Than Looks team was riding high going into their colt's 4-year-old season, but then a stall accident delayed his 2024 campaign.

“We had him all set up to run in the Mile at Keeneland that spring and he got a freak injury,” Ingordo recalled. “I happened to be sitting on the bucket reading the Form and I saw this leg go over the webbing. All credit goes to Cherie for getting the horse back to the races. We never let him out of the barn. We took care of him. She told the owners, 'Look, I have a three-race plan that will culminate in the Breeders' Cup.'”

DeVaux had to navigate a few weather-related obstacles, but her plan eventually played out as More Than Looks collected two runner-up performances in the GI Fourstardave Handicap and GI Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes ahead of the GI Breeders' Cup Mile.

In that final career start at Del Mar, More Than Looks came flying to get the win over Grade I victors Johannes (Nyquist) and Notable Speech (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}).

“Everybody has asked me how much I bet and it was a lot,” Ingordo acknowledged with a chuckle. “I was very confident once I saw them coming down the backside. He defeated a very good bunch of horses–international horses–and he just bam, did it. I think it was one of the more impressive turf races I've watched in a very long time.”

The ability that More Than Looks displayed in that Breeders' Cup victory is what Ingordo said makes him an exciting stallion prospect.

“The turn of foot that he showed in that race is something a stallion has to have. You have to have speed and if he can impart that on his offspring, he can emulate his sire More Than Ready in being a top stallion. He ran on the turf, but I don't think he's limited to it at all. I think he'll be dual threat just like his sire was.”

Sara Gordon

The son of the late international supersire More Than Ready is one of five Grade I winners on grass who have retired to stud in Kentucky in 2025.

“I think the market is more accepting of a turf horse, especially when they have a pedigree that looks to go either way,” noted Ingordo. “He's out of a Harlan's Holiday mare who is out of an Empire Maker mare. Those are dirt sire influences.”

More Than Looks's stakes-winning dam and her multiple graded stakes-winning full-brother Takeover Target (Harlan's Holiday) both performed on grass, but their family also includes Critical Eye (Dynaformer), a multiple Grade I winner on the main track.

More Than Looks will stand for $15,000 in his debut season and Ingordo said his book is shaping up in a way that should get the new stallion's career off to a fast start.

“When people come to see More Than Looks and he comes out of the stall, he grabs people's eye. There have been two other people who have said that he reminds them of Sunday Silence and I never tell anybody what I thought, so it's kind of interesting that people who have good opinions think the same thing. He's fully syndicated and we're getting a good book of mares. People are supporting him and we're getting the kind of response that we'd like to have.”