©2016 Calvin L.
Carter. All rights reserved.
Classic
Champion Thoroughbreds, LLC is thankful and pleased to announce that Rodney
Richards, trainer of the 2016 Kentucky Derby prospect American Dubai, will join
our team scouting horses for sale at auction.
At the recent
Fasig-Tipton Fall Yearlings
October Sale,
Richards picked from our Classic Champion
Thoroughbred Profile® shortlist Hip 293 as a young colt he really liked on day
one of the three-day sale.
A bay colt by Curlin out of
Party Chatter by Pleasant Colony, Hip 293 brought the hammer down for $350,000
as the day one sale topper. A half-brother to MSW/GSP
Rock Candy, Hip 293 was consigned by VanMeter-Gentry Sales and purchased by
agent Justin Casse for Joe Minor’s JSM Equine. Here’s the video
of the sale:
On
day three, Richards’ best pick of the day was Hip 1034, which also sold as the $350,000
sale topper. A bay colt by Bernardini out
of Desert Gazelle by Smart Strike, Hip 1034 purchased by Stonestreet Stables
from the consignment of Brookdale Sales, agent. Here’s the video
of the sale:
Overall,
Fasig-Tipton cataloged 1,250 yearlings for the October sale and I created a
shortlist of 23 colts that had an A+ or A Classic
Champion Thoroughbred Profile®
Grade Index. Of those, six colts sold for over $100,000. Here’s a look at those
horses:
Richards
liked all of the above mentioned colts, but hips 293 and 1034 were his two best
of the sale picks.
“Those
two colts had the ideal body type characteristics and beautiful, fluid stride I
look for in young Thoroughbreds,” said Richards. “Both colts have a lot of
similarities and could develop into a classic runner.”
A third-generation
Oklahoma horseman, Richards has always been around racehorses. His great-uncle
Horace Hines was a trainer and his uncle Kenneth Richards was a jockey turned
trainer, as was his dad, Jerry Richards. While his uncles stayed in Oklahoma,
his father rode and trained on the West Coast, primarily at fair meets.
Born in
Claremore, Okla., in 1966, Richards is part Native American. He graduated from
Haskell Indian Junior College in Lawrence, Okla., now a four-year institution
known as Haskell Indian Nation University. He ran track while in college and
played football, his love for the latter a natural result of growing up in
Sooner country.
Richards first
made his living breaking young horses for others, but friends encouraged him to
take up training and he took out his license in 2003. Like the two generations
before him, Richards raced primarily Quarter Horses, traveling to Remington
Park, Arapahoe Park and Blue Ribbon Downs. He also saddled a few Thoroughbreds
in those years.
Richards now
maintains a public stable of about 15 head and is the primary trainer for
Richard Keith’s growing stable of young horses. He met Keith when the latter
was searching for a new trainer for his then-three Thoroughbreds; a mutual
friend introduced the two. Not long afterward, in 2013, Richards and his
father, Jerry, traveled to the Ocala sales, marking the first time he selected
horses for Keith. They brought back two, including the filly Giacomo Belle, who
has two wins and a second in nine starts.
The next time
Richards returned to the Ocala sales, Keith came along, with the goal to select
Derby-caliber horses. With the help of Lexington-based bloodstock agent
Fletcher Mauk, the team selected American Dubai, among others, at the 2015
March sale.
“You want to
spend smart money at the sales. You don’t want to just ‘buy horses,’ ” Richards
said. “American Dubai caught my eye. He’s got the body type I like.”
While American
Dubai is Richards’ first attempt at reaching the Kentucky Derby, he is not—or
not yet—the trainer’s top earner. That distinction goes to King’s Water Lilly,
winner of the 2009 Enchantress Stakes. The filly compiled a 3-4-3 record in 16
starts for earnings of $238,884 in her three-year career for owner Oscar
Aguilar’s 4 Eagles Racing Stables.
Richards and his
wife, Starlyn BigRope, a three-quarter Apache, make their home in Mescalero,
N.M., near Ruidiso. The couple has two children, a four-year-old Chasen Rope
and one year old MorningStar.
*****
The
Keeneland November Breeding
Stock Sale
begins this Tuesday, November 8, and continues through November 20.
The
Classic Champion Thoroughbred Profile® is a powerful sales analytical tool that
helps buyers make
the best decisions and investments when purchasing horses at auction. In
addition, it also
a powerful tool that helps horse owners and breeders take the guesswork out of breeding
their horses.
If
you would like the team of Classic Champion Thoroughbreds, LLC to help you make the best
decisions and investments at auction or, if you are making plans to breed your
horses for next year, please feel free to contact us at Classic Champion Thoroughbreds,
LLC.
(Parts of this blog were
compiled, with permission, from a Keeneland news
story about Rodney Richards.)
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