We are pleased to report that Intellectual has found his forever home. One of the exercise riders at In Front Training Center, where Intellectual has been since we made the decision to retire him, fell in love with him there and will be retraining him. For now he will stay at In Front. This arrangement worked out great and was a seamless transition for the grey that we’re very happy about. We’ll be sure to share any pictures or additional information about his next career as it comes to us.
Intellectual worked yesterday morning at Belmont, going a half-mile in :51.55. He will be pointed towards a NY-bred $50K maiden claiming event on Jun. 15 going 1 1/16 miles on the turf—the same condition he scratched from this past weekend. He will make his first start for Miguel Clement, Christophe’s son and long-time assistant.
Intellectual worked four furlongs on Wednesday at Belmont Park, covering the ground in :51.65 (15/21). This was his first breeze back following his brief illness. Plans are to continue to train on and get your gelding back into rhythm. The Clement team will look for a race to target once they feel that he is ready. We will continue to pass along any updates as they come to us.
Intellectual breezed four furlongs in :50.00 this morning at Belmont Park. The move was ranked 66/135 on the day. This work had been pushed back a few days due to inclement weather and unfavorable track conditions in New York. He continues to improve in regard to his level of fitness. With this being his sixth breeze at the racetrack, he is likely to have a few more before he is ready to debut. While the Clement team has not mentioned a target race for him, a tentative spot that may suit him is a New-York-Bred maiden special weight event in the condition book for Jan. 25 sprinting on the dirt at Aqueduct, though we may very well wait for the following condition book in February for his unveiling.
We’re happy to announce we’ve reached an agreed upon name with our partner, Reeves Thoroughbreds, for our Freud x Hoopskirt colt…. Intellectual!
We look forward to seeing him on the track at Saratoaga this summer!
As we had previously mentioned, this weekend our collective teams spent time assessing each member of the New York-Bred Bundle to develop the optimal roadmap moving forward and we have come up with what we think is a very strong game plan. We have selected trainers for four of the five, and will hold off on the last one as we continue to debate some options:
Here are the horse/trainer combos:
Maclean’s Music x Downdraft Filly – This daughter of Maclean’s Music has been a standout at the farm according to Chetley and Nellie, in addition to catching the eye of many trainers who have stopped by the farm. It has been decided this exciting filly will join the barn of Christophe Clement. It’s worth noting the 3-year-old sibling by Nyquist, One Life Live It, has recently jumped on the work tab at Blackwood Stables in Kentucky.
Liam’s Map x Bitter Lemon Colt – The Liam’s Map colt will be trained by Todd Pletcher. This decision seemed like a no-brainer. Not only did Pletcher train Liam’s Map, but he has been very successful with that Lane’s End stallion’s progeny, most notably Liam’s Map’s leading lifetime earner, Grade 1 winner Colonel Liam. This powerful colt seems to have the physical makeup and mental mindset to excel in a program like Pletcher’s.
Liam’s Map also has his Derby 150 hopeful in Deterministic, who was victorious in the G3 Gotham on Mar. 2. It was an impressive victory for a few reasons, including an off-track, six-plus month layoff and the start coming at one-mile off the bench. He’s definitely one to keep an eye on in the upcoming Derby preps.
Volatile x Princess Samurai Colt – This maturing son of first-crop stallion Volatile continues to improve week after week. Once ready, he will join the barn of Danny Gargan, trainer of top Derby contender Dornoch. Danny has been the model of consistency throughout his career from a win percentage and in the money percentage standpoint. He knows how to get those capable of being able to run at two to do so, winning at 20% with 2-year-olds over the last three years.
Freud x Hoopskirt Colt – The grey son of Freud is back in a steady training rhythm after having to have a 30-day respite. Chetley and Nellie thought the time did him very well and from a fitness standpoint don’t think he lost a lot from this break. He will still need to go through some of the motions before getting back into serious work, but that should take too long. It has been decided that this colt will also join the Clement barn.
Complexity x Bares Tripper c. – Your Complexity colt is the one that we have left TBD. At this time we are actually debating the idea of selling him at a 2-year-old in training sale. As with most owners, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing buys a lot of horses and as each horse goes through the process of training, individual roadmaps are created for each horse whether that is to race or sell. In this case, the Complexity colt is one they believe may be best to sell. We are not exactly sure what we have with him yet, and Complexity’s progeny sold fairly well in the first 2-year-old sale of the year, having five six-figure horses including a NY-bred, which sold for $220,000. This could be a good opportunity to take some risk off the table. To be clear, this is not decided yet, and we could decide to keep and race him–we just wanted to share our thoughts and the options that are being discussed. We will learn a lot over the next few weeks and then be more confident in determining the best approach. If we decide to race, he will most likely go to Clement or Gargan, and if we do decide to sell, it will most likely be at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale in Maryland in May. Selling would be a very unique experience for the ownership group as we will take everyone through the entire journey from training up to the sale, the consignment, the showings, and ultimately the auction. If a sale is decided as the best course we will pay out a special dividend of the sales proceeds to all of the partners.
All in all, we are pleased with the progress of the NY Bundle and are still feeling confident we could see a couple of these promising prospects debut at Saratoga this summer. We hope you are enjoying the journey so far, and now that we have trainers named, be on the lookout for the MRH naming contests in the very near future.