By Sid Fernando
Shortly after the recent OBS sale, I was speaking dogs with agent Donato Lanni. If you didn’t know, Lanni’s had a long history with German Shepherds and has participated in dog sports like IGP (Schutzhund). One thing led to another and he said he’d like to get a Malinois, so I told him the top Malinois breeder in the country is the Ot Vitosha kennel of Ivan Balabanov that happens to be located in Florida about a half-hour from Tampa. “The Ot Vitosha Malinois are outstanding,” I said.
That must have triggered Lanni to switch to horses, because he then delivered this unprompted comment: “You know Game Winner well. We brought two Game Winners last week that were fu#%ing freaks. Oh my God. We bought a colt and a filly, and oh my God, like, I would breed a mare right now to Game Winner.”
That’s some kind of endorsement, isn’t it? The two Game Winners Lanni referenced were purchased for Bob Baffert clients Michael Lund Petersen and the “Three Amigos” partnership of Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman. The former purchased a filly from the American Pharoah mare Sefani for $500,000, and the Three Amigos got a colt out of the stakes-placed Johannesburg mare So Stylish for $250,000.
The filly worked an eighth in :10 flat and the colt went a quarter in :20 2/5, which was a tick off the fastest move at the sale—the 20 1/5 that the $1.8 million Win Win Win sale topper worked. She, like the two Game Winners, will go to the Baffert barn and race in Amr Zedan’s colors.
What’s notable about the Game Winners is that he had four juveniles at the sale work in :10 flat, and another three in :10 1/5, from a total of nine workers, meaning that eight of the nine worked in exceptional times. That’s promising stuff for a stallion whose first crop will hit the track soon, perhaps as early as next month at Keeneland.
GAME WINNER (2016 Candy Ride – Indyan Giving, by A.P. Indy)
B: Summer Wind Equine
O: Gary and Mary West
T: Bob Baffert
Record: 8-5-2-0 $2,027,500
Highest achievement: Champion and Grade 1 winner
Last Auction Price: $110,000
The son of Candy Ride was an undefeated champion juvenile who won three Grade 1 races at two, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and he stands at Lane’s End for $20,000 live foal. It makes sense that he’d pass on that early development, although Gun Runner, another champion son of Candy Ride who wasn’t anywhere near as accomplished as Game Winner as a juvenile, came out swinging with his 2-year-olds, too.
The Gun Runners have proven to be outstanding 3-year-olds around two turns as well, and the same could potentially be true for the Game Winners.
That’s what Jorge Villagomez thinks. Villagomez operates JVC Training and Sales in Ocala, and he breaks and trains all of the young stock of WTC clients Gary and Mary West, who raced Game Winner after the colt was purchased for $110,000 by the Wests’ racing manager, Ben Glass, from the Lane’s End consignment at Keeneland September.
Villagomez has a bunch of Game Winner homebreds for the Wests and is impressed. “They are big and powerful horses, all of them,” he said. “The Wests are careful with their horses, so we don’t work them until they’ve been x-rayed and their knees are closed. We’ve just x-rayed most of them now—last week and some this week. So, we haven’t worked for speed yet, but we’ll start soon. They have been galloping, and they look like horses that want to go two turns.”
Glass, who likes what he’s seen with the Game Winners, said he’d be flying to Ocala next week to watch some of them breeze, and he’d get back to me on what he sees.
Baffert, who trained Game Winner, said: “The two we bought were athletes. Game Winner was a really good horse, I mean really good. He tailed off there at the end, but he was legit. I believe in him, and the two we got worked fast and moved really well. Put it this way: If they’d been by Into Mischief, they’d have brought a whole lot more money.”
These advance reports—inside information, let’s say—suggest that Game winner is a good play at $20,000 this year, both for homebreeders and for those who breed to sell, if a little gambling isn’t too aversive for you.