Hibiscus Announces Vintage 2009

We’re extremely pleased to announce the roll out of Vintage 2009.  Remaining true to our business plan we continue to move the stable forward in terms of quality.  This year, as with 2008, we limited our purchases to Select Sale members.  There isn’t any question that from a standpoint of conformation and pedigree these Vintage 2009 offerings are by far our best ever.

The first member of Vintage 2009 is a strapping Grand Slam colt, acquired out of the Fasig-Tipton Calder sale, as part of our New York-bred program with Steve Klesaris.  Grand Slam is a leading international sire who stands at Ashford Stud in Kentucky and is currently ranked #27 on the national sire list.  Grand Slam has sired, among many others, G1 Japan Dirt Derby winner Café Olympus ($2,244,819), G1 Breeders Cup Sprint winner Cajun Beat ($1,159,100), multiple graded stakes winner and now stallion Limehouse ($1,110,433), multiple graded stakes winner Strong Hope ($767,460), multiple graded stakes winner Fire Slam ($687,271), graded stakes winner and now stallion Alke ($619,385), and G1 Kings Bishop winner Visionaire.

Grand Slam was sired by leading stallion Gone West who has sired more than 95 stakes winners including Zafonic who was the champion 2-year-old colt in England and France, champion 3-year-old colt in France, and winner of the G1 Two Thousand Guineas. Gone West has also sired Speightstown who is a champion sprinter and winner of the G1 Breeders' Cup Sprint. Other notable offspring are Commendable, winner of the G1 Belmont Stakes, Da Hoss, twice winner of the G1 Breeders Cup Mile, G1 winner and now stallion Came Home, G1 winner and now stallion Johar, and G1 winner Lassigny among many others. Gone West's other sons at stallion include Elusive Quality who's the sire of G1 classic winner Smarty Jones, and G1 classic placed Proud Citizen who's the sire of multiple G1 winner Proud Spell.

Our colt's dam is by Storm Creek who's a son of Storm Cat. Our colt's second dam has produced multiple graded stakes winner Feline Story ($435,265).

This colt has the pedigree of a horse that you’d expect to see racing at Keeneland, not in restricted company against New York-breds in New York.  We love having the 3x3 cross of Mr. Prospector and Storm Cat. One rarely sees that in any New York-bred.

The story behind the acquisition of this colt is interesting.  Trainer Steve Klesaris attended the Calder sale buying for his high-profile client Jeff Puglisi.  Jeff routinely spends between $100,000 and $400,000 or more on his horses.  This colt was on Steve’s list of horses to purchase for Jeff.  Ultimately the horse was a last-minute withdrawal from the sale and Steve moved on to other horses and Jeff only bought one from that sale.  When we saw that it was a quality New York-bred and a Calder horse we contacted the consigner and purchased the horse privately.  The average price per horse sold in this year’s Calder sale was $235,000.  In 2008 it was $344,000.  Steve said, “To be able to acquire this horse and add him to our program, a Calder horse, it’s a no-brainer.”  Being able to run this horse against New York-breds is almost not fair.  Follow this link for more information.

The second member of Vintage 2009 is an exquisite Tale of the Cat filly out of an A.P. Indy mare, acquired out of the Keeneland April Sale, as part of our California program with Ron Ellis.  According to The Blood Horse stallion register Tale of the Cat is currently the #24 ranked sire in the nation and was the #7 ranked sire in 2008 nationally. Tale of the Cat has sired G1 winning millionaire Lion Heart who has himself gone on to become a leading stallion. Tale of the Cat has also sired G1 winning millionaire Tale of Ekati (2008 Wood Memorial winner), multiple G1 winner in Australia Glamour Puss, G1 winner My Trusty Cat, and recent G1 winner and millionaire Gio Ponti among countless other graded stakes winners. Tale of the Cat is by leading stallion Storm Cat.

At the time of this writing A.P. Indy is listed as the #23 ranked broodmare sire in the nation and is the sire of mares of 37 stakes winners. Over the past three years he's been ranked 17th, 12th, and 20th respectively on the national broodmare sire list. As a sire A.P. Indy is ranked #12 on the 2009 national sire list, was #9 on the 2008 national sire list, and he stands for an astounding $250,000. No horse in The Blood Horse Stallion Register stands for more! A.P. Indy sits at the very top of the stud fee list! A.P. Indy has sired the greats Mineshaft, Bernardini, Rags to Riches, Golden Missile, Aptitude, and Stephen Got Even, all of whom are millionaires, among many others. There's nothing wrong with having those names just a couple of notches up the family tree.

Our filly's dam, Mymich, is a stakes winner and is G2 placed. She's a nice young mare who's only nine years old and has produced only one other foal and it is already a winner at two.

Our filly's' second dam, Dixie Ghost, is a G2 placed and multiple G3 placed runner and has produced Salute the Sarge who is a G2 and G3 winner and is multiple G1 placed. She's also produced Chelokee who is a G3 winner and is G1 placed. She's also produced the stakes winning first dam Mymich.

In discussing the acquisition of this horse Ron Ellis said, “With this filly’s pedigree all we need to do is win a stake with her in southern California and she’ll be worth $300,000 or $400,000 as a broodmare.  She’s got an excellent stride and with A.P. Indy in her pedigree I think she can get two turns.”   She’s got excellent conformation; we all know how picky Ron is when it comes to conformation.  She’s got the pedigree to match.  She’s the complete package.  Follow this link for more information.

                                                                          - Mike Oliveto, CEO Hibiscus Stables

                                                                                     - Mike Oliveto, CEO Hibiscus Stables

Back From the Edge of the Abyss - Sextant

On September 20th, 2007, Sextant won her career debut going 6 furlongs on the turf at Belmont Park with a Beyer Speed Figure of 70.  Trainer Linda Rice wheeled her right back on nine days rest to run in an open company stakes at The Meadowlands stretching out to two turns where she was beaten by 4 lengths by an eventual G1 placed filly named Grace and Power again with a 70 Beyer Speed Figure.  I immediately knew that this sweet little chestnut daughter of Orientate was going to win some New York-bred stakes races and, who knows, perhaps was G3 material…or better?  We had a really good one in the barn.  She was still only 2-years-old.

Then just as quickly as she made her presence known it all came apart.  She developed a throat infection that left her arytenoid partially compromised.  There was little question at that point that her stakes career was over before it started.  One of the most important parts of a Thoroughbred’s anatomy is its throat.  If it can’t breathe it can’t run.  I was heartbroken.  I remember vividly the freezing cold February morning that I learned of the news.  I had been to Belmont earlier in the morning to watch her breeze.  She went very well and we were all very excited as it appeared that she was on the road to recovery.  I was pulling into my driveway when my cell phone rang and it was Linda breaking the news to me that despite the excellent breeze Sextant had bled and the throat paralysis had been discovered.  Linda was so upset she told me she wanted to cry.  One of the first things they tell you in this business is to not get emotionally attached to your horses.  I’ll be the first to admit that it’s easier said than done.  Sextant is a peanut in stature and as sweet as a kitten.  She’s an adorable little filly but when she gets on the racetrack, man does she love to run.  With most horses it’s a competition thing.  They want to win.  With Sextant I think it’s more of a playful thing.  She just loves to get out on the grass and run like a puppy let lose in a field.  She just happens to be faster than all the other horses.  When I learned of her throat I was more upset for the horse than I was for myself.  I was angry because I felt that the horse was now not going to be able to achieve her full potential.  I felt the horse was shortchanged, cheated, screwed…you name it.  Like a professional athlete who’s injured in his rookie season.  This guy could have been league MVP but he’ll never see that recognition now.

After the diagnosis the situation got more frustrating because every time it appeared that Sextant was over the hump something else would happen.  She’d develop a cold and have mucous.  Then she’d bleed through lasix.  Then she’d develop a quarter crack.  Then it would start all over again.  Every time she was close to a race something else would go wrong.  It seemed that she’d never make it back to the races at all.  Linda felt the mounting pressure and managed to get her to a race during the summer.  Sextant was severely under trained and short on works and it showed.  She ran a very dull 7^th beaten 8 lengths with a career low Beyer Speed Figure of 61.  Linda tried to train Sextant through all of her maladies pointing to a race at Saratoga and then pushed back to Belmont.  In the fall it became clear that a return before the turf course closed for the winter was not going to be possible.  I’m always one to give anyone, a person, a horse, whatever, every chance in the world.  But I’ll be the first to admit that I thought it was time to throw in the towel and retire the girl.  It was Linda who pounded the table, so to speak, and told us emphatically that Sextant could still compete given the proper amount of time to get right and train back correctly.  It’s in situations exactly like this where having the trainer own a percentage of the horse pays us back in spades.  By Linda recommending that we ship Sextant to Florida and be turned out for the winter she would now begin to incur bills for her percent ownership of the horse.  She was literally putting her money where her mouth was in demonstrating her belief in Sextant.  That was all we needed to hear as the partners voted unanimously to implement Linda’s plan.

Fast forward to April 22, 2009 and the rest is history as Sextant returned from her winter layoff to convincingly handle a field of colts in a $35,000 claiming race at Gulfstream Park. Yes it was only a conditional claimer but that had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was all about getting this horse one more chance to prove her talent; one more chance to prevail; one more chance to stand in the winners circle. I was at OBS for the sale and had to watch the race on a small TV in the corner of the cafeteria. I was leaning on the counter of a betting window and had my back to the room. I was in a zone mentally and had just about zoned out the rest of the room. When she crossed the wire in front I heard an eruption behind me and was surprised to see so many friends high-fiving. What a great demonstration of support from so many great people. Linda was standing to my immediate right and we both turned, looked at each other and gave each other a huge hug. All I could say was, "Great job. Great job." Although everyone was elated with the win, Linda and I shared a kind of bond with this one because it was the two of us who were on the front end of this project fighting what seemed like an uphill battle for eighteen straight months. Seeing so many friends there with smiles, handshakes, high-fives, fists, and hugs all around was a wonderful feeling. It was great to see two of our newest friends Wendy and Shawn sharing the win with us. Just when I thought we were done congratulating each other a long arm reached through the crowd for a handshake. I looked up and it was Ray Flynn. He shook my hand and simply said, "Congratulations." I suppose that I didn't expect to see Ray there because Ray is part of Steve Klesaris' team and Sextant is part of our program with Linda. Ray had no vested interest in the outcome of this race and his support was strictly as a friend. For some reason, realizing that he was there pulling for us along with everyone else was more meaningful to me than anyone else. I think the thing that was most heartwarming of all was a phone call that I received on Saturday after I was home from Florida. I was in my car on the way to get a cup of coffee at the local deli and I received a call from Dr. Patty Hogan. Dr. Hogan had operated on Sextant eighteen months earlier and we had consulted with her a few times along the way. I probably hadn't spoken to her in seven months. She called to tell me that she saw that Sextant had won and to congratulate us. We all would like to thank all of our friends in supporting us on that meaningful day. We'd also like to thank all of the partners for their patience and trust in Linda. We mostly would like to acknowledge Linda for her perseverance, blood, sweat, and tears in pulling Sextant back from the brink. Finally, how could we possibly be more proud of Sextant? She's truly a great horse and we can't wait for her to return to Belmont Park. We haven't seen her since she shipped out last Fall and she's been missed. 

                                                                                     - Mike Oliveto, CEO Hibiscus Stables

D.A.'s Trivia Corner - It's Kentucky Time!

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

Answers to Trivia: 

1.   Answer: A. Whirlaway (1941) and Assault (1946) went on to win the Triple Crown.

2.   Answer: C. He sired 3 winners: Chant (1894), His Eminence (1901) and was 30 years old when Sir Huon won (1906).

3.   Answer:  B. Donerail paid 91-1. Giacomo wasn’t even close at 50-1.:

4.  Answer: D. They won most notably on Whirlaway, Citation, Northern Dancer and Majestic Prince.

5.   Answer: A. Mary Lou Whitney’s horse finished in 1:48.64.

6.   Answer: B. Graff designed a perpetual silver trophy  that is very much like the Derby Trophy. It is housed at the Kentucky Derby Museum and each year the winner’s name is inscribed upon the original. The winner of the Oaks receives a set of 12 sterling silver mint julep cups.

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