Hibiscus Announces Vintage 2010

We’re very pleased and excited to kick off Vintage 2010 with a graduate of the OBS February Sale.  That’s a prestigious sale and it’s produced a lot of successful stakes winning horses.  We decided we wanted to hit the ground running this year and we had Linda and her team in Florida well in advance.

We’ve been working with Linda Rice for years now and we’ve gotten to the point where we each know what the other likes and dislikes in a horse.  Linda is not only a member of our team but also a good friend and I don’t think anyone was more delighted when she won the training title in Saratoga last year.  She beat out Todd Pletcher with probably one tenth of value of the racing stock.  She won that meet on sheer training ability and hard work and that’s why we’re proud to have her on the team.

At OBS she had selected a very impressive Read the Footnotes that went early in the sale.  That horse ultimately sold for more than our budget so we immediately moved on to the Touch Gold.  I really like the Touch Gold because he’s so well-bred.  His pedigree reminds me a lot of Salt Water Reign’s.  He’s from a nice very successful open company sire and a well-bred black type mare.  As a matter of fact, the Touch Gold colt is stronger than Salt Water Reign on the bottom side of his pedigree.  Wild Again is a much more successful broodmare sire than Ruhlmann.

I think we bought this horse right and I think we got away with it because he worked in 10.3.  I’ve been doing a lot of research and the horses that work bullets at the sales have a very high incidence of breakdown when compared to the ones that work moderately.  The buyers at these sales continue to buy speed, speed, speed but I’m becoming less and less open to paying a lot of money on the horse that works one tick off the bullet only to have to deal with issues down the road.  Now that doesn’t mean that we want a horse that works in 13.1 either.  There seems to be a correlation to talent and durability in horses that put in their sale breeze around the median.  In this particular sale the Touch Gold was within one tick of the median and that’s right where we wanted to be.  And since everyone was spending their money on the faster times we were able to get this colt at a good price.

Furthermore, as you can tell by looking at him, and Linda said right away, he’s got a good sturdy look.  He’s not thin boned.  He should hold up and that’s another reason why I happen to like him.  Breakdowns and nagging injuries are no fun.  I really wanted a sturdy horse that had an easy go of it through the sale process.  No one can predict the future but we have reason to be optimistic with this colt.

 He’s on a farm in Ocala right now cooling out from the sale.  We have to remember that it’s still only February.  Linda will get him going when the time is right and we look forward to getting him to the races.  It’s funny but as every year as soon as we buy a horse the very first question that everyone asks is if he’ll be ready for Saratoga.  Follow this link for more information.

                                                                          - Mike Oliveto, CEO Hibiscus Stables

Vintage 2010 Spotlight: Touch Gold Colt

Touch Gold Colt - Part of Vintage 2010. This exceptional colt was acquired out of the OBS February Select sale. He's by leading stallion Touch Gold and a Wild Again mare. Touch Gold has sired G1 winning multi-millionaire Ferrari Pisa ($2,717,940). Touch Gold has also sired Seek Gold (G1 Stephen Foster), Composure (G1 Santa Anita Oaks), Midas Eyes (G1 Forego), Mass Media (G1 Forego), and Sweet Hearth (2-year-old champion in Italy). Touch Gold has also sired other memorable stakes winners such as Sugar Swirl, Sharp Susan, and Medallist. Touch Gold is by leading stallion Deputy Minister. Statistically Touch Gold has an astonishing Comp Index of 2.23. In simple terms this means that offspring of Touch Gold earn 2.23 times the offspring of other stallions bred to the same mares.

At the time of this writing Breeders Cup Classic winner Wild Again is listed as the #16 ranked broodmare sire in the nation and is the sire of mares of 74 stakes winners. Over the past nine years he's been ranked 20th, 21st, 23rd, 44th, 31st, 25th, 33rd, 59th, and 56th respectively on the national broodmare sire list and is the broodmare sire of millionaire Pyro (G1 Forego) and of millionaire Macho Again (G1 Stephen Foster and 2nd in the Preakness, Whitney, and Woodward, etc).

Pedigree   Video

Wild Again has sired Breeders Cup Sprint winner Elmhurst, two-time winner of the G1 Santa Anita Handicap and now stallion Milwaukee Brew, G1 Suburban Handicap winner and #1 ranked first-crop stallion Offlee Wild, G1 Belmont Stakes winner and stallion Sarava, multiple G1 winner Shine Again, multiple G1 winning millionaire and stallion Wild Rush, and Canadian Champion Older Mare Wilderness Song among many others.

Our colt's dam, Tuff Chick, is a stakes winner and is G3 placed. She's a nice relatively young mare who's only twelve years old and has produced only three other registered foals of racing age of which two have already won.

Our colt's second dam, A Mean Fit, is a sister to stakes placed Sugar Hill Chick.

Our colt's third dam, Say What You Mean, is stakes placed and has produced G3 winner Gerrie Singer who has won 19 times and stakes placed Sugar Hill Chick.

At the OBS sale this colt worked an eighth in 10.3. He’s got a nice long easy stride and he moves over the ground effortlessly.  Trainer Linda Rice said that he is a nice mover and what’s noteworthy is that he galloped out exceptionally strongly.  He has the look and movement of a horse that wants to go a route of ground and our expectation is that he’s going to be a two-turn horse.

His conformation is very correct as one would expect from a Select Sale graduate and he vetted well.

This colt was hand-selected by Linda Rice and fits our standard profile for state-bred runners. He's by an established leading open company sire and a young well-bred mare. He, in effect, is bred for open company yet is eligible for state-bred purses. He's a registered New York-bred and will run on the Belmont/Aqueduct/Saratoga circuit. He's eligible for the New York Breeders Futurity, the Aspirant Stakes, the NATC Futurity, the OBS Championship Series, and The Breeders Cup. He is trained by 23% winning (and 2009 Saratoga leading) trainer Linda Rice.

                                                                                     - Mike Oliveto, CEO Hibiscus Stables

Hibiscus Stables Contest:  Name the Touch Gold Colt

Hibiscus Stables is running a contest and accepting name suggestion for the Touch Gold colt.  If you have any ideas for a name, simply submit it via email, along with a short explanation of why you chose the name.

If one of the names submitted is chosen as his officially registered name, the person submitting the name will win their choice of any product at the Hibiscus Stables Store: http://www.zazzle.com/hibiscusstables 

To enter this contest, just email info@hibiscusstables.com with your name choice before March 15th, 2010!. Good luck!

D.A.'s Trivia Corner - Northern Dancer

See below for answers.
                                                                                      - Doris Ann Hayes, Hibiscus Stables

Answers to Trivia: 

1.   Answer: C. Nijinsky was either first or second in 13 races in Ireland and England and was the English Triple Crown winner. He was originally named Nijinsky after the famous ballet dancer: The II was added after he entered stud in Kentucky. In 1986, Ferdinand won in America while Shahrastani won in England. In 1985, a yearling by Nijinsky sold for $13 million (Seattle Dancer-a half-brother to Seattle Slew) a record that stood until The Green Monkey. 

2.   Answer: B. Danzig produced 188 stakes winners and most importantly gave us Danehill the first Thoroughbred in history to sire 300 Stakes winners.

3.   Answer: D. Deputy Minister was Canadian Horse of the Year in 1981. He sired Go For Wand, Dehere and Touch Gold. He’s the Grand-sire of Silverbulletday and Ghostzapper.

4.   Answer: A. Storm Cat. His offspring include Giant’s Causeway, Bluegrass Cat, Hennessy, Tabasco Cat etc.

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