Lord Greystoke

At the OBS March sale Lord Greystoke worked a very nice quarter in 21.3. He covers ground in effortless fashion and he looks like he’s mowing the lawn with sweeping motion, great extension, and his head down. He galloped out the three eighths in 34.4. View Lord Greystoke OBS breeze video

His conformation is very correct, he vetted well, and he’s got the look of a true Steve Klesaris athlete.  Recently, he’s been breezing like clockwork at Delaware Park and we expect him to make his debut sometime in October.

William Thomas, also named by Doris Ann, has his name taken directly from American history.  You didn’t know that along with horseracing you can also pass a few college courses by reading the Hibiscus newsletter.

Yonaguska was a famous Cherokee chief.  Yonaguska had an adopted son who was destined to succeed him as chief and become the only white man ever to serve as chief of the tribe.  That son’s name was William Holland Thomas.  Since our horse is a son of Yonaguska he was named William Thomas.

This impressive colt is by leading stallion Yonaguska and a Distorted Humor mare. According to The Blood Horse Stallion Register Yonaguska was the #1 freshman sire and the #1 sophomore sire (6 stakes winners and 12 stakes placed runners) nationally. He’s currently the #8 third crop sire in the nation.  Although it’s still a bit early in Distorted Humor’s stud career to have any meaningful broodmare sire numbers, he’s ranked #4 on the 2008 national sire list, was #3 on the 2007 national sire list, and he stands for an astounding $300,000. No horse in The Blood Horse Stallion Register stands for more!  Distorted Humor sits at the very top of the stud fee list along with immortals A.P. Indy and Storm Cat!  Distorted Humor has sired the greats Funny Cide, Flower Alley, Hystericalady, Commentator, Distorted Halo, and Any Given Saturday, all of whom are millionaires. 

William Thomas cooling down after a breeze

There’s nothing wrong with having those names just a couple of notches up the family tree.  William Thomas’ second dam, Accommodating, is a G1 placed and G3 placed runner in France and has produced Flag Support who has produced a G2 winner.   The third dam, Siala, aside from producing Accommodating is a half-sister to a G2 winner.  The fourth dam, Stoyana, produced a multiple G2 winner and G1 placed horse named Sadjiyd. View William Thomas pedigree.

At the OBS March sale William Thomas worked an eighth in a rock-solid 10.1 and galloped out a quarter in 21.2 and three eighths in 34.2. View William Thomas OBS breeze video.

He’s got a nice easy stride and he does it the right way. His conformation is very correct, he vetted well, and he, too, has the look of a typical Steve Klesaris athlete with the pedigree to back it up. Recently, he along with Lord Greystoke, has been breezing like clockwork and we expect he too will make his debut sometime in October.  It will be very interesting to see which one of these colts will break his maiden first.

William Thomas (l.) and Lord Greystoke

Update from Hollywood Park

Although we haven’t yet made our trip to the west coast to check in our operation in that region we’ve been receiving extremely positive news from Ron Ellis with regard to our 2-year-old filly.  Kat Scratch Fever (Forest Wildcat filly) is doing extremely well and is progressing through her training.

When we purchased her from the OBS March sale her vet exam and her physical condition were so good that Ron assessed that he’d be able to go on with her training and aim for a debut in May.  He brought her to Hollywood Park and breezed her a few times but it became clear that she wasn’t really ready  and needed to be turned out for a bit of growing up and maturity.  We gave her the summer off and she’s come back better than ever.

Kat Scratch Fever, this time named by Mike, was named right out of head-banging rock and roll.  As soon as I saw Forest Wildcat and Scratch Paper I knew that Cat Scratch Fever was a logical name.  We even contacted Ted Nugent’s people and received permission.  Unfortunately The Jockey Club has a strict rule about naming horses after copyrighted material.  As such we simply changed the “C” to a “K” and we were in.

This lovely filly is by top stallion Forest Wildcat and a G3 winning and G3 placed mare. Forest Wildcat is a leading stallion and is currently ranked 21 on the national sire list. He's already produced numerous graded stakes winners and is producing stakes winners per foal at an astounding 8.3% rate. Forest Wildcat is by leading stallion Storm Cat (2008 stud fee $300,000). Our filly's dam, Scratch Paper, is a G3 winning and G3 placed mare who's already produced Rich Young Ruler, a stakes placed runner. Scratch Paper is by Notebook, who's currently listed on the national broodmare sire list. The second dam, Deluxe Flight, along with producing Scratch Paper, has produced stakes placed First Class Kid.  The third dam, Heavenly Flight is a half sister to G3 winning and G2 and G3 placed A Thousand Stars and has produced eight winners including Henschel, a G3 winning and multiple G2 and G3 placed runner.  The fourth dam, Heavenly Body, has produced two dams that have themselves produced no less than four offspring that are among them multiple G2 winners and multiple G1, G2, and G3 placed. View Kat Scratch Fever pedigree.

At the OBS March sale this filly lit up the training track working an eighth in 10 flat on a day when the bullet went to another Forest Wildcat filly in 9.4. View Kat Scratch Fever OBS breeze video.  She's a fluid mover who does it all the right way with her head down and a nice extended reach. She galloped out the quarter in 21.2 and the three eighths in 34.4. She's very correct from a conformation standpoint. Ron Ellis will be the first to admit that he's extremely picky when it comes to conformation and this filly is no exception. She vetted clean as a whistle and her knees are closed meaning that she's mature enough to go on with her training. We expect that she'll be to the races in a short period of time as Ron likes to get them going.

For those of you that believe in nicks, sons of Storm Cat bred to Notebook mares have produced a rock-solid 10% stakes winners and 5% graded stakes winners.

She’s been at Oakmont Training Center for the past few weeks and Ron has her jogging half-miles and galloping miles.  Ron has her scheduled to come in to Hollywood Park on October 1 and estimates that she could be breezing by mid-October.  Ron said, “When she worked at OBS she went an eighth in 10 flat.  The people at Oakmont say that she’s very green.  So you can imagine if she can breeze 10 flat when she doesn't know what she's doing she could go even faster once she learns what to do

We’re extremely proud to have such fine prospects that meet all the criteria so impressively.  The pedigrees are absolutely phenomenal.  The breezes are elegant and effortless.  The conformation is outstanding.  And the vet exams are exceptional.   I continue to be astonished that we were able to land these horses for our program within our price range.  We couldn’t have possibly expected to do any better.

To learn more about purchasing partnership opportunities for these horses, visit our Offerings page for complete details, pedigree and to watch their videos.

If you have any questions or would like more details about Vintage 2008 please contact us at
1-877-WIRE-2-WIRE or email us. We look forward to hearing from you.

                                                                                    - Mike Oliveto, CEO Hibiscus Stables

Iron Curtain Storms to Victory on the Final Day of Saratoga

Many Hibiscus partners and friends were on-hand for the last day of racing at Saratoga to see Iron Curtain rumble down the stretch to notch a victory.  In this month's issue of the newsletter, we take a moment to share some photos from that special day.