It’s not unusual for buyers to travel to Keeneland from around the world in September, but it is a little out of the ordinary for a yearling to fly some 19 hours to be here. For-tunately, Hip 118, a son of City Zip and Distorted Humor mare No Dress Code, seems to be taking it all in stride.

“He is very well-minded,” said Murat Sancal, trainer and representative for owner Omer Halim Aydin. “He’s so easy to handle, so smart. He’s very balanced.”

The colt is consigned by Mill Ridge Sales. His dam, No Dress Code, shipped to Turkey after being purchased by Aydin at the 2012 Keeneland November sale for $110,000. At that time, No Dress Code’s best offspring, a filly by City Zip, had a Grade 2 win in the Santa Ynez but had finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Since then, that filly, Re-neesgotzip, has not finished out of the money and improved to second in the 2013 Turf Sprint for trainer Peter Miller and the Lanni Family Trust.

The colt made it into select sessions at other auction hous-es and is nominated to the European Breeders’ Fund, so why bring him to Keeneland?

“We really like buying and selling at Keeneland. We shop here a lot. We know it’s a good place to sell and buy,” said Sancal.

No Dress Code is the latest in a string of major acquisitions by Turkish buyers. Aydin also purchased Common Hope out of the 2011 November sale for $125,000 just months after she delivered the Candy Ride (ARG) foal who would become Shared Belief. Aydin has a full brother to Shared Belief who could show up in U.S. sales, and a half-brother by Henrythenavigator.

In a time when wagering has declined in much of the world, Turkey has succeeded at getting fans to the track despite

Jet Lag? Turkish Colt a Long Way From HomeBy Natalie Voss

SPECIALSeptember 8, 2014 www.PaulickReport.com

its high takeout. The business is regulated by the Turkish Jockey Club, which is overseen by the Ministry of Agricul-ture. The Jockey Club owns 13 stallions, including Cuvee, Lion Heart, Powerscourt, Sea Hero, Victory Gallop, and Yo-naguska. Most mares are privately owned.

Sancal says that many are hoping the influx of good blood-lines can help build the Turkish Thoroughbred at home and ultimately build a reputation at international classics. With the international goal in mind, many Turkish horses with American pedigrees are growing and training here—at Elmendorf Farm in Lexington and at Churchill Downs. The Jockey Club is working on deals to bring in three more American stallions for next breeding season; Utopia (JPN) is one of them. The other two horses have not been publicly announced.

ASK RAYQUESTION: What do you make of Keeneland’s new dirt track?

ANSWER: The new drainage system is fascinat-ing from a technology standpoint. No idea how

the track is going to play from a potential speed/closer, in-side/outside bias standpoint, but it can’t be worse than the old dirt track. I think we’ll see much better horses coming in for the Juddmonte Spinster (Close Hatches) and other Fall Stars Weekend stakes. Safety is paramount.

PRS

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www.PaulickReport.com Page 2

Stallion SpotlightTapit

By Frank Mitchell

PRS

The leading sire in the country this year, the 13-year-old gray Tapit has gone from strength to strength with each crop of racing age. His first included champion juvenile filly Stardom Bound, and the current crop of 3-year-olds has this year’s Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist, as well as the star filly Untapable, winner of the Kentucky Oaks and Mother Goose.

The volume of the stallion’s stakes winners, which cur-rently number 53, is good, but their quality is excellent, and that is the key factor in propel-ling a stallion into the top-level. As evidence of the quality of Tapit’s stock, his horses on the racetrack include more graded stakes winners and Grade 1 winners than the runners of any other sire this season.

Tapit currently has 12 stakes winners in 2014, and nine of those are graded stakes win-ners.

Since the graded stakes are endowed with most of the money in purses, it is natural that Tapit is the leading sire by earnings, which can be a relatively blunt instrument in gauging stallion success. Not so in this case, however, and Tapit’s stud fee in 2014 reflects the measure of his suc-cess.

The gray son of Pulpit and the Unbridled mare Tap Your Heels stood for $150,000 live foal at Gainesway Farm. The horse has stood his entire career at that farm, beginning with a stud fee of $15,000 as a first-year stallion in 2005.

Tapit was unbeaten at 2, then showed even better form at 3 when victorious in the G1 Wood Memorial, and many of his offspring follow a similar pattern in establishing their form. Nearly all the Tapits have speed, that most indispens-able quality of a racehorse, and most can carry it an ex-tended mile, which allows them to see out the trip even at the graded stakes level.

A good-sized horse whose height and balance place him near the midpoint of the breed, Tapit has been a positive force for qual-ity, early maturity, soundness, class and versatility. If there is a surface that the Tapits cannot race on, it surely has not been invented.

A survey of his progeny’s suc-cess over the last month shows high-class performances over dirt, turf and synthetic with rac-ers age 2 through 5.

And with credentials like these, Tapit has gotten better books of

mares each season, and this year, Horse of the Year Havre de Grace produced a filly by Tapit. Last year, Horse of the Year Zenyatta produced a colt by the leading sire.

Neither of those elite prospects is likely to go to the sales because their owners like to race, but the buyers at sales have become ever more attentive about buying Tapit’s sons and daughters. There are 47 yearlings by Tapit cataloged for the first four days of the Keeneland September sale, and some of them are guaranteed to light up the board.

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www.PaulickReport.com Page 3

Honor RollSweet Reason is not a one-track pony

By Ray Paulick

(2011, Bay Filly, Street Sense – Livermore Leslie, by Mt. Livermore. Consigned by Bettersworth Westwind Farms to 2012 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, purchased by Jeff Treadway for $185,000)

Everyone knows Sweet Reason loves Saratoga. In addition to her 2-year-old maiden and Grade 1 Spinaway victories at the Spa in 2013 the daughter of Street Sense won this year’s G1 Test in sharp fashion.

But Sweet Reason is not a one-track pony. Sandwiched between those races at Saratoga, among other races, was a good second to G1 Ballerina winner Artemis Agrotera in the G1 Frizette at Belmont Park last fall and a huge win over 12 filly rivals in the G1 Acorn at Belmont in June. She’s been as consistent and solid as a racehorse can be, since Jeff Treadway picked her out of the Bettersworth West-wind Farms consignment at the 2012 Keeneland Septem-ber Yearling Sale for $185,000, then turning her over to Leah Gyarmati to train.

“You get lucky and a horse pops up and wins a big race; that happens here and there,” Gyarmati said after the Test. “But, to keep going with it, the consistency, and to develop

on it and have her get better and come back and do it again, it shows how special she is. She might be one of those hors-es that is a once-in-a-lifetime horse for a trainer.”

Sweet Reason provided Gyarmati with her first career G1 victory. It was not the first top-class filly raised at the family-owned Bettersworth Westwind Farms of Bowling Green, Ky. In business for more than 100 years and consigning to Keeneland nearly half that time, Bettersworth Westwind is run by brothers Mike, Brent and Kevin Harris (along with Brent’s wife Beth). Their grandfather, J.R. Bettersworth bred and raised My Juliet, the 1976 champion sprinter in North America.

Livermore Leslie, the dam of Sweet Reason, was purchased by Brent and Beth Harris for $26,000, in foal to Eurosilver, at the 2007 Keeneland January Sale of Horses of All Ages. After Don’t Forget Gil, the mare’s 2006 filly by Kafwain, be-came a graded stakes winner in 2009, Brent Harris started looking for better stallions to breed Livermore Leslie to and struck a foal-share deal with current WinStar Farm stallion seasons director Darren Fox, who was then at Darley. “I had foal-shared the year before with Street Sense (producing stakes winner Sweet Reason) and asked if they would be interested because it’s the only way I could afford to breed to anything that good,” Harris said.

Livermore Leslie produced a 2012 filly by Rockport Harbor the Harrises sold for $115,000 at last year’s Keeneland sale and she was pinhooked by Becky Thomas for $420,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale. The mare has a Midshipman filly, Hip 779, in this year’s Keene-land sale, a colt by Shackleford at her side and is in foal to 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb.

“I really like the Midshipman filly,” Brent Harris said. “She’s really athletic-looking, decent size and has a pretty top line on her.If she’s anything like Sweet Reason, there’s a lot to like.”

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What’s your favorite part of the game?Racing. I like going to the races with horses that we bred or bought and watched develop. When they’re good, l like stepping them up and running in big races. The reason I’m in the sport is because I like big races.

What would you be doing if not running Glen Hill Farm’s racing’s racing and breeding operation?I hate to think about it. I didn’t come over from Ireland

with $100 in my pock-et. All I’ve wanted to do is horses. I’d probably be doing something that sounds great to other people but really boring to me.

Do you have a moment that defines why you’re doing this?I hope we haven’t had it yet. The best moments so far are when my grandfather (Leonard Lavin) gets to the races

with me and we are lucky enough to win a graded stakes and he can be in the winner’s circle. That’s very special.

Best racetrack food?Hattie’s chicken sandwich at Saratoga. I get it at the little booth there when you walk in.

Best horse you ever saw?Probably Cigar. I saw him in Chicago (Arlington Park) and Belmont for the Breeders’ Cup. Goldikova was a pretty good one, too. I watched her run at the Breeders’ Cup and in France.

What about horse racing gives you the most hope?Racing is truly the best part – it’s a great sport. I think there’s an opportunity for people who primarily race, if they could ever get organized, to make the sport better. That’s what needs to happen and I don’t think it’s impossible.

Have you Googled anything lately?Who in the world is Ernie Semerski from Highland Park, Il-linois?

What’s the “go to” app on your iPhone or smart phone?I use the social media apps a lot, plus Equineline, and a bunch of apps for our daughter Cora.

What’s No. 1 on your bucket list?I would like to win the Kentucky Derby when my Grandpa is still alive. That would be the dream.

Getting to know Glen Hill Farm’s Craig Bernick

Back Ring

After the sales follow me to...

BOUR BONJoseph Clay’s

Farm to Table Restaurantand Craft Cocktail Bar

in the heart ofParis, Kentucky!

1.859.987.1662for reservations

www.bour-bon.com

www.PaulickReport.com Page 5

Evolving from a convivial and upscale bar, the Blue Heron Steakhouse opened its kitchen to diners on New Year’s Eve and is a welcome addition to the revitalization of the Jeffer-son Street corridor near downtown Lexington. Located in a renovated historic home, the Keith Clark-operated eatery is serving Tuesday through Sunday.

Along with specialty drinks, the bar offers a wide variety of wines and a selection of over 30 different beers. The menu specializes in steakhouse fare using choice cuts of beef, which accompany a variety of sides that incorporate locally-grown vegetables.

If you and your dining companion are especially ravenous, try the 40-ounce Porterhouse Steak for Two, served Peter Luger style; the waiter made it sound very appealing, but we weren’t quite up to the challenge! Chicken, lamb, and pork are offered, as well as daily specials, which generally include a seafood selection. One of the most popular en-trées, only served on Friday and Saturday, is the slow-roast-ed herb-crusted Creekstone Farm premium beef prime rib. This tender and juicy 12-ounce cut is accompanied by two sides and horseradish sauce on request.

The appetizer menu features oysters, both raw and char-grilled, flown in from the East Coast, and a grilled thick cut of bacon served with tomatoes, sweet onions, and steak sauce. Sounded interesting, but we shared a jumbo lump crab cake that was quite tasty. For dessert, we indulged in the profiteroles with a chocolate sauce—yummy! Inside dining and patio seating are available; reservations are rec-ommended.

blueheronsteakhouse.com185 Jefferson St.Lexington, KY 40508859-254-2491

Around the Town

By The Galloping Gastronome

About

For advertising inquiries pleasecall Emily at 859.913.9633

Ray Paulick - Publisher ray@paulickreport.com

Emily Alberti - Director of Advertising emily@paulickreport.com

Scott Jagow - Editor-in-Chief scott@paulickreport.com

Mary Schweitzer - News Editor mary@paulickreport.com

Natalie Voss - Features Writer natalie@paulickreport.com

Emily White - Weekend Editor emilywhite@paulickreport.com

Frank Mitchell - Contributing Writer

COPYRIGHT © 2014, BLENHEIM PUBLISHING LLC

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Five to Watch

Hip 29 (Filly by Curlin x Leslie’s Lady, by Tricky Creek): This filly is a half-sister to a pair of Grade 1 stakes win-ners. Her half-sister is champion 2-year-old and 3-year-old filly Beholder (by Henny Hughes), a five-time G1 winner, in-cluding the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Distaff, and their half-brother is the promising young sire Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday), who won the G1 Hollywood Futurity and was second in the G1 Malibu. A February foal, this filly is by Horse of the Year Curlin, sire of Belmont Stakes winner and leading 4-year-old Palace Malice.

Hip 72 (Colt by Medaglia d’Oro x Mini Chat, by Deputy Minister): By the sire of Horse of the Year Rachel Alexan-dra, this colt is a half-brother to G1 winner Dixie Chatter (Dixie Union), winner of the Norfolk Stakes at 2. Juvenile class is emphasized by the second dam, champion Phone Chatter, winner of the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Hip 86 (Filly by Fastnet Rock x Misty for Me, by Galileo): This filly is by Australian champion racehorse and leading sire Fastnet Rock (Danehill) and is out of a mare who won three times at the G1 level in Europe, when she was the

top-ranked filly at 2 and 3 on the Irish Handicap. Misty for Me is one of Galileo’s classic winners, accounting for the Irish 1,000 Guineas, and she also won the Prix Marcel Bous-sac and the Pretty Polly Stakes.

Hip 108 (Colt by Smart Strike x My Miss Storm Cat, by Sea of Secrets): A daughter of leading sire Smart Strike, this colt is a full brother to the champion juvenile filly My Miss Aurelia, the winner of three G1 stakes. Their dam is one of the best performers by the Storm Cat stallion Sea of Se-crets, and she has produced two stakes horses from three foals to race.

Hip 143 (Colt by Tapit x Peeping Fawn, by Danehill): This colt is by one of the best stallions in the world and out of one of the best racemares. Peeping Fawn was the leading Eu-ropean 3-year-old filly in 2007, and she won four G1 races, including the Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks. This is her third foal. Peeping Fawn is one of two G1 winners out of Maryinsky (Sadler’s Wells), a half-sister to Better Than Honour (Deputy Minister), the dam of Belmont winners Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy) and Jazil (Seeking the Gold). PRS

A look at some of the sale’s top hipsBy Frank Mitchell

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