Carrie Brogden

Special Me has been the gift that keeps on giving for breeders Carrie and Craig Brogden and Dr. Sandra Fubini of Machmer Hall. Now that the outstanding broodmare is 18 years old, you'd think that her best days are behind her. But with a Grade I winner competing at the top level of the filly and mare turf division this year and an impressive fleet of well-bred, unraced progeny in the pipeline, the mare's fairytale story just keeps getting better. Carrie Brogden famously purchased Special Me, a Maryland-bred daughter of...

So I think this kind of sums up our industry, this attached photo. This weekend my daughter and I went to show her warmblood at WEC Ohio. It was a very successful weekend and we were lucky enough to stay at an Air BnB on a horse farm. They had a book there with the check-in instructions and the history of the horse farm. I was reading the history of it, and I just wanted to share what to them is insignificant as just facts, but to me, it just...

The TDN's popular annual series 'Mating Plans, presented by Spendthrift,' continues today in a conversation with Machmer Hall's Carrie Brogden. Becca's Rocket, 6, (Orb-Idoitmyway, by Unbridled's Song). To be bred to Elite Power. Becca's Rocket is currently in foal to Jackie's Warrior. We bred this Orb filly and after the untimely death of her Unbridled's Song dam in a paddock accident, I vowed to buy this beautiful stakes mare back after her racing career. When she was born, I had such high hopes for her because she was just a...

Today we reach quite a crossroads in the market, between $20,000 and $29,999. It takes a degree of affluence to roll the dice at this level, but you'd do so hoping to reach blood of genuine elite potential. As usual, we've sieved out the new sires, having given them a separate treatment at the outset. Instructively, however, it's a tier dominated by stallions still in the early stages of their careers. And there is an auspicious flux here. One or two, if building on a promising start on the track,...

As 2023 draws to a close, the TDN is asking industry members to name their favorite moment of the year. Send yours to [email protected] My favorite memory of 2023 (other than me bawling my eyes out standing there watching Cody's Wish enter the winner's circle with Cody Dorman waiting for him at Santa Anita, which still makes me cry) was being at Keeneland with Liz Crow to watch our homebred and Liz's purchase Gina Romantica win her second Grade I there at 11-1 odds (I bet her, too!) AND then...

Breeding plans was the topic for the 10th and final panel of the 2023 OwnerView Virtual Thoroughbred Owner Conference, which was held Tuesday, Dec. 5, The Jockey Club said in a release Thursday. Panelists were Carrie Brogden, owner of Machmer Hall Farm; Alan Porter, founder of TrueNicks; and Mark Toothaker, director of stallions at Spendthrift Farm. The panel was hosted by OwnerView's project manager, Gary Falter. Topics for the breeding panel included matings, nicking, conformation traits, inbreeding, broodmare preferences and stallion selection. The first question to the panelists referred to...

When The Jockey Club announced last week that the estimated North American foal crop for 2024 was 18,000, a 2.7% decline from the projected 2023 foal crop, the news was hardly a surprise. By the time the final numbers are in for 2024,the foal crop will have declined in 18 of the last 19 years and this will be the smallest foal crop since 1964. Since 2005, when there were 38,365 foals, the crop has declined by more than half. How big of a problem is this. Why is it...

LEXINGTON, KY - The Fasig-Tipton July Sale of Selected Yearlings will open the yearling sales season Tuesday in Lexington, with bidding slated to begin at Newtown Paddocks at 10 a.m. The 370 catalogued offerings kick off with a selection of 109 yearlings by first-crop sires. Activity at the sales barns was brisk throughout the weekend and continued to be strong on a cloudless, sunny morning in Lexington Monday. "We are into day three of showing," said Kerry Cauthen outside of his Four Star Sales consignment barn. "The first two days...

From this year's class, which freshman sire will emerge on top? And what sire currently flying under the radar will be the year's biggest surprise? With 2-year-old sales season upon us, over the next few days, we will be hearing from some of the experts. NIALL BRENNAN Top Pick: Vino Rosso (Curlin--Mythical Bride, by Street Cry {Ire}). Spendthrift Farm, 2023 fee: $15,000. The Mitoles were popular at the yearling sales and they sold well at the OBS March sale. They look like they will be early types. There will be...

Aloha West (Hard Spun--Island Bound, by Speightstown), winner of the 2021 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, has had his first mare reported in foal. Bashful (Orb), owned by Carrie and Craig Brogden's Machmer Hall, was reported in foal to the 6-year-old stallion who is standing his first season at Mill Ridge for a fee of $10,000, live foal. "We love having teammates like Carrie and Craig Brogden supporting Aloha West, and thankful for quality shareholders and breeders who believe in him," said Price Bell, Mill Ridge syndicate and general manager.

As we approach the opening of the 2023 breeding season, the TDN staff is once again sitting down with leading breeders to find out what stallions they have chosen for their mares, and why. Today we spoke with Carrie Brogden at Machmer Hall. We mate by physical mostly--negative traits to positive traits and vice versa. We try to add speed where there is none and we do not believe in like-to-like matings. We do not use nicks, but we do like successful crosses like Twirling Candy with Unbridled's Song. This...

Stuart Morris, who suffered a stroke on Christmas Eve, has been discharged from the rehabilitation facility where he has been recovering, according to a post from Carrie Brogden on his GoFundMe page. "Stuart and (partner) Patty (Mitchell) are on their way home!!!" Mitchell wrote. "We cannot possibly express the thanks for the support.... financially, emotionally and spiritually. The Thoroughbred horse industry is an amazing place and we all feel lucky to be a part of it." Morris was transferred from UK Hospital to the Cardinal Hill rehabilitation hospital on Dec....