On the heels of announcing that their superstar stallion Curlin will remain at a fee of $175,000 for 2020 and the addition of MGISW World of Trouble (Kantharos), Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm released their full list of stud fees for next breeding season.
Their new addition World of Trouble will stand for an introductory fee of $15,000. Three stallions will see changes in their fees for next season with Kantharos (Lion Heart) getting an increase from $20,000 to $30,000. Violence (Medaglia d’Oro)’s fee will be decreased from $40,000 to $25,000 and Maclean’s Music (Distorted Humor) will also have his fee stopped from $25,000 to $20,000.
The rest of the roster will retain the same LFSN fees they had in 2019 with Army Mule (Friesian Fire) at $10,000; Bayern (Offlee Wild) at $15,000; Flintshire (GB) (Dansili {GB}) at $15,000; Good Magic (Curlin) at $35,000; Kitten’s Joy (El Prado {Ire}) at $75,000; Midnight Lute (Real Quiet) at $15,000; Secret Circle (Eddington) at $5,000; and Stormy Atlantic (Storm Cat) at $10,000.

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It was the rodeo that brought Billy Love to town, but he’s staying in Ocala for the Thoroughbreds. The Pennsylvania native will offer his first consignment during the open session of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s October Yearling Sale Wednesday with eight horses selling under his Love’s Equine LLC banner.

“I made my way down here through rodeoing, at the rodeos in the wintertime,” Love explained. “Someone that I competed with is in the Thoroughbred industry, Clovis Crane, and he hooked me up with Ali and Brandon Rice from RiceHorse Stables four years ago. I started working under them. They’ve been great mentors for me for the past four years.”

Love worked his way up in the Rices’ operation and, with each step, discovered he wanted to get more involved.

“I went from being a ground worker to then going on to being a barn manager and now I’m riding and galloping for them as well, starting horses,” Love said. “From there, I went to investing in horses and then getting my own company with an LLC. And now I’m out here with my first consignment.”

Of the eight yearlings he’ll send through the ring Wednesday, Love said, “I have a couple of my own down here that I own a piece of and then I have six others that I’m consigning for some other clients as well.

“I am very confident in them,” he continued. “We’ve had a lot of action. People seem to be happy with what they see and the X-ray reports are good. We are taking everything up there to sell. We’re not going to hold anything back.”

It may be Love’s first yearling sale, but he said it was the work done ahead of time that will be the key to success.

“It’s all about preparation,” he said. “So I’m glad I did all my homework with the horses with the prep we did ahead of time because the results are showing. It’s like you do your homework for your college and you go and pass or fail your test. It’s the same thing here. If you show up with horses who aren’t prepared, they aren’t going to present themselves well.”

Even as he prepares to send his first yearlings through the sales ring, Love is looking ahead to restocking with weanlings for the 2020 yearlings sales.

“Next week, I am going with Brandon to [Fasig-Tipton] Saratoga [Fall Sale] to purchase some weanlings for next season,” Love said. “Brandon and Ali and Brandon’s parents, Bryan and Holley [Rice], they’ll be helping guide me through the whole process of buying. They’ve all been great help mentoring me through the whole process to make sure I’m taking all the right steps, since they’ve been doing it their whole lives.”

Love’s original goal was to partner up on six weanlings to pinhook next year, but he’s already starting to think about upping that number.

“I set a goal to have at least six for the next season,” he explained. “And to have, maybe not 100% ownership, but I wanted to have partners on some. I’ve already found that I have at least three horses that I have partnerships with and it seems like the numbers are getting to where I want, so I might up my goal to more than that if there is a feasible dollar value.”

His initial consignment this week at OBS has also been good for the 33-year-old’s business.

“Through this sale, I’ve already picked up five clients for next season to be selling for,” Love said.

While it was the rodeo that led Love to Ocala, he is now squarely all-in on the Thoroughbreds.

“I’ve gotten so involved with Thoroughbreds–I feel like with this or rodeo, you have to be all-in or nothing,” he said of the transition. “I know this will be my career. In rodeo, I competed in riding bulls and bucking horses, so that’s not necessarily a life-long career. It’s more a young man’s sport. You can train horses for a very long time. Especially with the consignments and building a reputation, I can be selling at yearling sales across the country. I’m definitely going to stick with the weanlings-to-yearlings and it’s probably something that I’ll do for a long time. I really enjoy it.”

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   A 1-for-51 Delaware Park trainer is facing a one-year suspension for allegedly faking news of a bowed tendon in an unraced colt and ,when the owner asked the trainer to find a new home for the 3-year-old, trainer Gerald James instead allegedly took possession of the Thoroughbred, changed its registration with The Jockey Club and raced it with a new name under his personal ownership.
Delaware Park chief state steward Fritz Burkhardt told TDN via phone Tuesday that officials were tipped off to the alleged swindle by the horse’s breeder and true owner, who recognized the identity of the colt after skimming race entries and result charts and recognizing the pedigree.
James, 38, was penalized with a one-year suspension in an Oct. 8 ruling issued by the Delaware Park board of stewards that cites “false ownership/hidden ownership” in the heading and “alleged theft” in the ruling’s text.
According to Burkhardt, James trained a string of horses at the just-concluded Delaware meet for JD Farms, whose principal owner is Jim DiMare. One of them was a homebred named Wise Twitter (Cyber Secret).
At some point late in the summer, Burkhardt said, James communicated to DiMare that Wise Twitter would not be able to race.
“”He told the owner that the horse had a bowed tendon, but the horse didn’t really have a bowed tendon,”” Burkhardt said. “”[James] said the horse was not able to run; that it had a career-ending injury.” DiMare asked James to place the injured horse into a new off-track home.”
“”Then [James] changed the name and he ended up entering the horse in Virginia,”” Burkhardt said. “”The horse had never run, so [James] just changed the back of the [foal] papers. And there wasn’t any name on the papers because the [owner] bred the horse.””
The new name chosen by James was Actspectation, which was also the name of one the most successful and celebrated horses in the Virgin Islands in the early 2000s.
Burkhardt said James scratched Actspectation from that Sep. 7 $40,000 maiden-claimer on closing day at Colonial Downs and instead chose to run the colt on the third-from-last day of the Delaware meet.
In a $40,000 maiden-claimer over seven furlongs on the turf at Delaware Sep. 30, Actspectation went off at 113-1 odds, was four wide on both turns, and finished 10th, beating only one horse.
“”Then the real owner of the horse called to complain, and he put us on the case,”” Burkhardt said.
According to Burkhardt, when James was confronted with the allegations, “”he gave us a wild story that didn’t ring true for us” that was based on James saying “he changed the name because he didn”t like the other name.””
TDN could not locate a working phone number for either James or DiMare, and Burkhardt said privacy regulations prohibit the stewards from giving out licensees’ contact info.
Asked if James had appealed his suspension, Burkhardt said, “”Not yet, no. He just got [the ruling] this afternoon. He”ll probably contest this, I imagine.””
According to Equibase, James has been training since 2008, with a 5-for-167 lifetime record and $123,587 in career earnings.
Asked if JD Farms was pressing criminal charges, Burkhardt said, “”As of yet, I don’t know. They came in here [Tuesday], took all their [foal] papers, and sent a van to take all their horses away.””

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