Post by Ripley on Jan 22, 2016 9:51:50 GMT -5
Under Pressure?
We were finally able to catch up with Ripley Marsh after unsuccessfully trying to reach her the last month and a half. The fact that it has taken us so long to reach her, tells you how busy Battle Brook's, formerly Witch Creek Stable, leading lady is these days. She has one child, a massive roster and a fairly small staff compared to most other barns, yet, she is seemingly everywhere at once. Ripley Marsh has been regarded as one of the top influences by several other stables in a series of articles featured in The Gallop. Usually, she's in the limelight and feeling the dig of pressure from all sides. According to the lady herself, however, she feels no pressure at all this season.
Now, how is that possible with a thirty horse roster, a group of the best assembled older males in the country, a relatively consistent group of three year olds and count it ELEVEN juvenile runners? Frankly, we didn't believe her at first, but when we took a stroll around the Battle Brook property, we found no tension, no anger, no frustration.
"We've finally become a team after much drama since Year Twelve," Ripley stated. "Everyone has a job to do which is to keep each and every horse on the property happy and content. We can get past the mistakes and focus our mission on performing our best in races. It's been a tough season since more stables came in last year. We saw the rise of Firestone Racing and Grayson Meadows last year, something that none of us--Battle Brook, Intrepid and Stride of Perfection--have had to deal with in a while. Intrepid Racing finally became the force it always promised to be and Stride of Perfection was a bully in the older horse ranks. For the first time since Year Twelve, Battle Brook wasn't in the fore-front."
We accused her of being modest because even with all of the other barns success, Battle Brook still brought home three Breeders' Cup wins, the winners of the Red and Green Mile series and a Preakness Stakes winner with a horse they bred. She shrugged it off. "I'm not being modest really. From Year Twelve to Year Fourteen we dominated the racing scene, especially on the turf and long distance races with Frozen Motion and Bella Luna. Year Fifteen was a recovery year, a foundation setting year because we'd lost Mastermind, Paranormal Hunter, Bella Luna, Cross My Heart and to some extent The Devil's Hourglass and Supernatural. Granted, three of those retirements were part of my breeding plans, but we still were going to hit a proverbial wall."
We followed Ripley from barn to barn, curious as to how her horses are doing and to see if the pressure was gone like she said. Recent Spring Dawn Treader Cup hero Sun King looked absolutely at ease in his massive stall, spread out over the straw like a king in his palace. Once upon a time, half-brother Mastermind slept in that same stall beside Ripley's office. We asked Ripley what she would do when it was time to retire the amazing runner. "I'll probably cry a little because he truly has been a tremendous horse. Like Frozen Motion, we can count on King to bring his A-game every time. These Sunny babies they never drop the ball and they're so durable. We have Uno Momento with Intrepid and he'll be back, along with Sun King's paternal half-brother, Fire It Up. I don't know if either of them will move in here though. It's going to be hard to find a horse like King."
The runner up in the overall standings of the Mile Challenge, Spotlight Pride, looked handsome as can be despite his consecutive losses in the Eclipse and International Stakes. We needed to bribe him a little to come over for a visit. Unlike Saint and Casualty Of War, Spotlight Pride is a surprisingly gentle stallion. "He's a fierce runner. The losses don't seem to bother him like others. Saint gets pissy if he doesn't win and Sultan is a handful. He'll rear and buck just to be a pita, but Pride just moseys along until we can get him to the track. He'll burn off the negative energy and be fine after that. It's been a bit of a learning experience for him since winning the Dubai World Mile. We lost to Call Of The Wild and Daddy's Overdraft, but we aren't going to make losing a habit. Pride is more than capable of lasting beyond a mile. In fact, we consider his speed an advantage because no one is going to want to run with him and not have a closing kick at the end. Next up is the Wire Finish Cup Turf and I expect you'll see a very good Spotlight Pride for that race."
We had the chance to meet the up and coming Radiation Therapy. Of all the stallions we had the chance to meet, Radiation Therapy blew us away. We've had chances to get to know the others over the years, but Radiation Therapy has been flying under the radar. He's a taller, mirror image of Hall of Fame sire Radiance with terrific muscle tone and an intelligent eye. We spotted him being led in from a daily gallop and the five year old was on his toes like a boxer ready to go another round. "We bought him privately from Nature Blue Stable. He was languishing away in a pasture and it took us a little bit to get him into form. He's almost grade two and quickly climbing. We expect truly big things from him..." She paused to look at the extremely handsome Vagabond just behind Radiation Therapy and smiled. "He's just another complication to my already complicated older stallion roster."
Under The Radar
Compared to Battle Brook's older horse roster, the three year old roster is quite a bit lighter in amount, but not in talent. "We don't necessarily carry the clout we had last year or even in Year Thirteen with our three year olds, but our group is still tough and we're just getting started. It's been hard finding races for our runners because of older runners trying to play catch up and winning over us. Firestorm is in the thick of that, Enrapture, Awestruck, Flying Fashion. If we didn't have to run against older horses, we'd be in far better shape. We still have Artemis' Glory and Notorious. Coveted Faith is really picking it up in her training and she won her first race since November last year. We're taking a bit longer to get Artemis and Note into racing shape than other big barns. We already know we have great three year olds, we don't need minor stakes wins just to win and get to grade two as quickly as possible. The season is very long and we'll be around at the end. For the curious, Notorious isn't even running again until March in the Palm Beach Stakes. Artemis will run the week before in the Spring Cup Grade Three Turf unless an older horse shows up. If so she'll skip and head to the Goldikova Stakes, a prep for the Triple Tiara. We might emulate Taboo, Para and Cross by going for the first leg of the Turf Triple Tiara."
Prospect News
While the season may have just started for the Year Fourteen crop, the Year Fifteen crop is the future of Year Seventeen. Ripley wasn't keen on discussing the youngsters, but we did manage to get a few words out of her on a couple of promising individuals.
"While they're all truly great horses, we have a couple that are shining stars in their early training," Ripley said as she guided us to the yearling and weanling barn. "Unsurprisingly, one of these little stars is Mastermind's first daughter, Cataclysmic. Anyone who has followed racing lately knows that Candid Silver is becoming quite the productive broodmare with her first son Ares and our grade five Ashes to Ashes daughter Pele's Wrath.
Ripley slides the stall open and reveals the prettiest gray filly. She's a medium gray with perfect dapples and she has extremely intelligent eyes. "Mastermind was a very quick learner and she's pretty much a copy when it comes to how quickly she learns. She's going to be elegant and graceful. She already likes to tease the boys and she has quite the attitude if you push her around. We learned quickly that she responds best to asking."
Ripley pets the filly's head before moving on to a pair colts. One is dark bay, the other medium brown. "Ladies and gents, let me introduce you to Bold Trick and Vitriol. Bold Trick is the dark bay and he's extremely friendly. He shoves his little muzzle into all of our hands and even licks Ripley's hand like a dog. "This handsome boy is a son of Red Herring and Silver Tide. We have always been super excited about him considering we raced his sire and his dam has just been a blue hen. Vitriol's a son of Ashes to Ashes and Screaming Mimi. Both matches are the sexiest ones we've thought of in some time and we can't wait to see how they do on the track. Already, they look like very athletic individuals and both seem to love their job."
