Hall of Fame Stakes Part of Big Weekend at the Spa for Bob Edwards

For a man who has been in the racing business for just eight years, Bob Edwards has already enjoyed all the highs one could imagine in the sport; he has won Breeders' Cup races, campaigned champions, and–turning his attention to breeding–he has sold a million-dollar yearling at the boutique Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale. All of those successes will coalesce in the next five days in upstate New York.

At the racetrack Friday, three graduates of Edwards's Fifth Avenue Bloodstock breeding operation will be go postward in the GII National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame S. Across the street five days later, he will send three yearlings through the ring at the Saratoga sale.

In the Hall of Fame, Bat Flip, a son of Edwards's champion Good Magic, looks for his third straight win in his first start since last November. The colt was sold for $350,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale.

General Jim (Into Mischief), an $850,000 Keeneland September yearling and already winner of the GII Pat Day Mile, returns to the turf following a well-beaten effort in the GI Woody Stephens S.

Of the trio, homebred Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) is the only one of the group who will be carrying the colors of Edwards's e Five Racing Thoroughbreds.

“It's pretty impressive, isn't it,” Edwards said of the trio. “It's one thing when you are first starting out and people want to know why somebody who races is selling horses. Obviously, we are selling good horses because we have three in a stakes race. But the breeding pays bills.”

The three graded starters reflect the solid foundation Edwards created along with bloodstock advisor Mike Ryan when he first started buying horses in 2015.

“Mike Ryan picked me out really nice pedigrees,” Edwards said. “So if they didn't run, the idea was always to breed them. That was always Plan B. If they weren't fast horses, they would be great moms. As I had fillies come off the track and turn into mares and then broodmares, we want to keep those bloodlines.”

Edwards points to Krazy Kathy (Harlan's Holiday), the dam of Bat Flip, as a perfect example. The mare, who RNA'd for $345,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September sale, raced 10 times in the e Five colors and earned just over $40,000.

“Krazy Kathy is a horse that I ran up here in Saratoga,” Edwards said. “She didn't do well. She was a serviceable horse, but she's turned out to be a great mare. She has unbelievable babies on the ground. I think I am going to keep one this year out of her and then the one we just had, we will figure out what we will do with that one when it comes around the corner.”

Carl Spackler, a dominant maiden winner at Gulfstream in February, will be looking to rebound from a tough-luck trip as the favorite in the May 6 GII American Turf S. last time out. The chestnut is out of Zindaya (More Than Ready), a mare who holds a special spot in Edwards's heart.

“Zindaya was my first winner, my first win was the Intercontinental at Belmont,” Edwards said. “I sold the first two babies out of her and Sheikh Mohammed bought them both. I switched back between Frankel (GB) and Lopa de Vega. I brought her home this year and sent her to Uncle Mo to change things up.”

Asked how he would like to see the one-mile race develop, Edwards said, “I hope it stays dry. And I hope Tyler Gaffalione comes out of the gate and controls the pace and gets us home with a win with Bat Flip and General Jim right behind him.”

Win, lose or draw, Edwards will move on to the sales arena next week when he offers three horses through the Indian Creek consignment at the Saratoga sale.

“I went at looked at them yesterday and I think these are the three nicest horses I've ever bred,” Edwards said.

Leading off the trio is hip 128, a filly by Good Magic out of Pinch of Grace (GB) (Pivotal).

“She is by Good Magic out of a Pivotal mare, which is kind of an odd cross,” Edwards said of the yearling. “But the Pivotal mare had a lot of leg and it added a lot of leg to this Good Magic and it's one of the nicest Good Magics I've bred.”

Hip 154 is a colt by Into Mischief out of graded stakes winner Seek and Destroy (Verrazano), a half-sister to multiple graded winner Tammy the Torpedo (More Than Ready).

“Seek and Destroy was probably the best Verrazano and she's out of that same family of Search and Seizure (War Chant), which was Tammy Torpedo,” Edwards said. “It's a really strong family. I had a War Front out of her [at the Saratoga sale] last year. I own half of him with Sheikh Fahad with Joseph O'Brien. He's another gorgeous horse.”

Rounding out the group is hip 230, a daughter of Speightstown out of the unraced Antilla (Bernardini). The yearling is from the family of Grade I winner Wickedly Perfect.

“Hip 230 may be my favorite,” Edwards admitted. “I know the Good Magic is everybody's favorite so far, but she's a Speightstown filly out of a Bernardini mare and she's an absolutely stunning horse. She checks all of the boxes for me as a buyer. She wasn't a great race mare, but with the Bernardini bloodlines–they make good moms that was part of the whole package.”

The decision on what to potentially keep and what to sell starts early on with mating discussions, according to Edwards.

“We sit down around the table and talk and figure out how we want to breed the horse,” Edwards said. “What's sexy for us. What is commercial. And we kind of go from there. I will breed to race, knowing I am going to keep the horse. And then I will breed commercial, hoping I sell the horses. Sometimes, it doesn't work out either way. The commercial horse is too nice to sell or something is up on the radiograph and I keep it. Sometimes the breed-to-race is the same way. It's really nice, it's a perfect horse, it might be an opportunity to take some money off the table.”

The Fifth Avenue Bloodstock broodmare band currently has about 25 members, including multiple Grade I winner New Money Honey (Medaglia d'Oro), who has an Into Mischief yearling colt and a weanling colt by War Front.

“I have kept five yearlings that I bred for myself, one of them is an Into Mischief out of New Money Honey,” Edwards said. “It's a really nice horse, a really nice cross and that horse checks all of the boxes, with an A+ airway, super correct body, really nice-looking conformation. He could have brought a lot of money here, but that's what I am keeping. You kind of pick and choose. I am not a big colt purchaser. We buy a lot more fillies than we do colts. We partner up on colts, so to have a homebred colt is something special for us.”

Fifth Avenue Bloodstock had its first seven-figure sale when a daughter of Veracity sold for $1 million at the 2018 Saratoga sale. The operation sold another daughter out of the mare for $900,000 at Saratoga the following year.

Despite the sales success, it's obvious that Edwards's true passion is in racing.

“The money is awesome and it's a lot of fun to sell a horse like that,” he said. “But then I've got to wait a year or a year and a half win for somebody else to win with him–which is equally exciting. But this weekend, my wife's family is all in town. We have two runners this weekend. We are doing a memorial race for my wife's aunt on Saturday, which is really special for us as a family. So, it's a big weekend for us. I would love to see Carl Spackler take it home.”