Bernie Sams

During a flurry of activity late in the day at Deauville, Group 1 winner Sweet Lady (Fr) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) (lot 188) took the lead, after bringing €2.05 million from Claiborne Farm's Bernie Sams. Sams was acting on behalf of an undisclosed client of the farm. The bay 4-year-old has victories in the G1 Prix Vermeille, G2 Prix Corrida, G3 Prix de Flore and Listed Prix La Camargo to her name. A half-sister to listed winner Toujours l'Amour (GB) (Authorized {Ire}), Sweet Lady is out of dual stakes winner...

A filly by Quality Road helped get the Keeneland September Yearling Sale off to a quick start Monday in Lexington when selling for $1.2 million. Claiborne Farm's Bernie Sams signed the ticket on the bay yearling on behalf of an undisclosed client. The bay filly (hip 8) was consigned by Gainesway and was bred by Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm, which purchased her dam, Princesa Silvia (Medaglia d'Oro), for $1.4 million at the 2016 Keeneland November sale. The mare is a half-sister to champion Saint Liam (Saint Ballado), Grade I...

Flatter (A.P. Indy--Praise, by Mr. Prospector), a successful stallion at Claiborne Farm for nearly two decades, was euthanized May 9 at the age of 23 due to the infirmities of old age, Claiborne announced Tuesday. The bay was a second-generation homebred for Claiborne and Adele Dilschneider and a full-brother to GSW and successful sire Congrats. "Flatter was the kind of sire you'd like to have 10 of," said Claiborne's Bernie Sams. "He was solid and consistent year in and year out. He started at the bottom and worked his way...

He really had to earn his stripes, his farm resorting to pretty desperate measures to keep him in the game as his early books dwindled along with his fee. But he has long since vindicated (as well as virtually trademarked) that farm's management style, evolving into one of the great stallions of our time--a status on which he set a formal seal last weekend with his 100th stakes winner. And his name is... Into Mischief. Or is it? Hang on a minute. Syllable for syllable, you can say exactly the...

War Front is undoubtedly heralded as one of America's top turf sires, but Claiborne's Bernie Sams said he finds any stereotype that the stallion is solely a grass producer is unjustifiable. "I think War Front has been labeled to some extent as a turf sire, but unfairly so because he got his start with dirt stakes winners," he said. "Then a lot of people started breeding to him and taking a lot of them to Europe. He probably is equally as good on dirt as he is on turf, if...

by Brian DiDonato, Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY--A Tapit filly out of GISW Embellish the Lace (Super Saver) topped the opening session of Keeneland's September yearling sale on a $1.25-million bid by Claiborne Farm's Bernie Sams. The bay was consigned to the auction as hip 149 by Bluewater Sales LLC, Agent XVI, on behalf of breeder China Horse Club. While stringent COVID-19 protocols put in place to allow the world's largest yearling sale to be held at all may have dulled some of the electricity typically felt in...

   A Tapit filly out of the 2015 GI Alabama S. heroine Embellish the Lace (Super Saver) caught the attention of a number of high-end buyers, and was ultimately landed Sunday by Claiborne Farm's Bernie Sams, who was bidding on behalf of an undisclosed client of the storied nursery. The bay was consigned to the sale by Bluewater Sales as hip 149 and offered on behalf of her breeder, China Horse Club.     "He's bought a couple mares and he bought a nice yearling filly last year," Sams said...

Since the start of sales season last fall, comments have circulated on how Mastery could be the dark horse in his class of first-crop yearling sires. There are many unknowns about the son of Candy Ride (Arg), as he may have never reached his full potential on the track when an injury forced him to retire prematurely. But his four-for-four career start had garnered talk of Kentucky Derby favoritism after dominating performances in the GI Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity and the GII San Felipe S. Now in the stud...

All week in this ongoing series, we have been talking to stallion managers and others about the difficulties in filling books for stallions other than first-year and premier stallions. In terms of the difficulties of filling books for third- and fourth-year stallions, I would say that we have been lucky this hasn't really been a problem at Claiborne. However, I have seen it be tricky for some of our less-expensive stallions. The different incentive programs that other farms offer have probably hurt us because breeders can breed elsewhere for deep...

In our ongoing series, New Stallions, the TDN is visiting first-year sires around the country and giving readers a chance to take a look at them on video. Today, we're at Claiborne Farm visiting Catholic Boy (More Than Ready-Song of Bernadette, by Bernardini), one of only three North American 3-year-old colts to win Grade I races on both turf and dirt. In accomplishing that feat, he joined Secretariat and California Chrome. Kelsey Riley spoke to Bernie Sams about the 5-year-old new stallion. TDN: Catholic Boy is pretty unique in that...