Keeneland to Amerman to Keeneland

by Jude T. Feld

Every September, for the last five years, Team Amerman boards a NetJet in California, bound for Lexington. Upon arrival, they check into the Embassy Suites on Newtown Pike and get a good night’s sleep, because their assault on Keeneland begins at breakfast time.

The only yearling sale frequented by Amerman Racing, the Keeneland September Sale has provided four stakes winners, three graded stakes winners, two Grade 1 winners and eight earners of over $100,000 from 31 purchases, with an average selling price of $167,000.

In 2004, just like every other year, the list of sires that John and Jerry Amerman formulated prior to the trip is discussed over rice crispies and coffee with point man Bob Feld. Barn lists crafted in corporate fashion are distributed and the trio heads for Keeneland. Little did they know that warm September Saturday, what a treat Keeneland’s Director of Sales, Geoffrey Russell, had catalogued for them in Book 2.

“We go barn to barn making a short list like everyone else,” Feld said. “Jerry and I both buy on vibes. We can like the pedigree. We can like the confirmation, but presence is very important to us. We’ve got to feel it.”

Their favorites make the “second look” list and what is left after that is vetted out.

Hip number 796, a daughter of Thunder Gulch, consigned by Winter Quarter Farm as agent for Maverick Productions, Ltd., passed scrutiny and the vet. When she went through the ring, the hammer dropped at $260,000 for the filly now known as Balance.

“John does all the bidding,” Feld said. “It was a little more than we usually pay, but we all gave her high marks. I never tackle John or pull his arm down. Only once in five years have I made a move. Eugene Melnyk was outbidding us for another filly. I thought the price had exceeded good sense. I stood up and started to leave the ring, hoping John would stop. It worked and in the end, it turned out good for us.”

Sent to Darby Dan Farm to recover a bit after the fast pace of the sale, Balance had a few weeks of rest and relaxation before being shipped to Bill Recio at Classic Mile Training Center in Florida for her early lessons.

Team Amerman makes three more NetJet trips to Florida during the winter, evaluating their purchases and homebreds and making notes. The last trip is made in March. It is then that the region and trainer for each horse is decided.

Santa Anita Derby entrant and Kentucky Derby hopeful Sacred Light, an Amerman homebred by Holy Bull out of a previous Keeneland yearling purchase Summer Glimmer, was everyone’s favorite, but Balance, tough and scrappy, had done “nothing wrong” while in Recio’s care. It was decided she would fit like a glove in Southern California and would be trained by David Hofmans.

Hofmans has conditioned some amazing horses in his career, including Awesome Again, Dramatic Gold, Millennium Wind, Northern Afleet, Starrer, Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Alphabet Soup and Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) winner Adoration, also owned by Amerman Racing. It is Hofmans’ patience that has allowed him to develop equine stars but Balance has often made him impersonate Job.

“You live in her world,” Hofmans said. “She tries every time and she wants to train every day. She is the toughest horse I’ve ever trained. Dramatic Gold was difficult but she is a lot tougher.”

The further Balance worked, the more Hofmans liked her and by the time she made her debut, he thought she was a freak.

“I loved her that day,” he said. “I think she paid $19. Looking back, it might have been the best bet of all time.”

Her maiden breaker, a turf sprint down Santa Anita’s hillside turf course, was impressive enough to make Hofmans think she could win the Hidden Light Stakes, going a mile on the turf, a month later.

Balance was up to the task, although her victory was taken away in a controversial decision by the Santa Anita stewards.

“We were hoping she’d get a little black type going in,” Feld stated. It was really tough to see her number taken down when she was much the best, but she got the black type and showed us how classy she is.”

In racing, as in life, necessity is the mother of invention. When Hollywood Park called off turf racing for their fall meeting, the Miesque (G3) was shelved, so an alternate schedule needed to be formulated.

“Balance is not the kind of filly that you can give a lot of time to between starts,” Hofmans said. “I run her more often than any other filly I’ve had. She just trains harder and harder until she runs, that’s how competitive she is. It is in her own best interest to keep her racing every three or four weeks.”

The Sharp Cat Stakes, 25 days after the Hidden Light, was a perfect tune-up for the Hollywood Starlet (G1) 22 days later and Balance did not disappoint, beating last week’s WinStar Sunland Oaks winner Sweet Fourty like a drum.

It was a little different story in the Starlet (G1), as Balance, headstrong as ever, wanted to take off early with Espinoza.

“She just wanted to run and I fought with her too much,” Espinoza said. “I won’t do that again. We were gaining on Diplomat Lady at the end, but I gave her too much to do.”

“She’s been a joy to race but she has caused me a lot of stress,” Hofmans said. “She’s like a wife. You’ve got to do things her way. Even then, she looks at you in a way that says, ?You’re insignificant.'”

Still a handful, Hofmans and Espinoza seem to have found the secret with Balance, as she has been perfect in 2006, winning the Las Virgenes (G1) on February 11 and then capturing the Santa Anita Oaks (G1) on March 12, in a truly incredible performance.

Racing at least five wide all the way around the Santa Anita oval, Balance mowed down an excellent Oaks field including Quiet Kim and seven-figure purchase Wild Fit. It was a race that had to be seen to be believed.

“When I saw where Victor had her going into the first turn,” Hofmans said. “My heart just sank. I didn’t think there was any way we could win from there. Then, to see her take the lead leaving the quarter pole and draw away – It was an amazing race.”

Amerman Racing has purchased two horses at the September Sale who have returned home to Keeneland to capture graded stakes – Siphonic, also trained by Hofmans, who won the Lane’s End Breeders’ Futurity (G1) in 2001 and Chattahoochee War, trained by Bobby Frankel, who emerged victorious in the Central Bank Transylvania (G3) on opening day of the spring meeting last year.

In Saturday’s Ashland (G1), Balance will attempt to add her name to the list of Amerman-Keeneland success stories when she faces an excellent field of three-year-old fillies with Kentucky Oaks (G1) aspirations, including Wait a While, 14-length winner of the Davona Dale (G2) at Gulfstream Park, Itty Bitty Pretty, Santa Anita’s Santa Ysabel (G3) victress and the top two finishers from the Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs, Bushfire and Saratoga Drive.

“I didn’t know how she would ship,” Hofmans stated. “That’s why I sent her so early. She settled into Paul McGee’s barn at Keeneland last week with no problem. She’s been training great and grazing every day. She’s happy, so I’m happy.”

Hofmans arrived in Lexington on Monday evening to supervise Balance’s final preparations and will be here through the weekend despite running Sacred Light in the Santa Anita Derby (G1).

“I’m staying here,” Hofmans said. “I wouldn’t want to subject anyone else to saddling Balance. Sacred Light is a bit studdish but other than that, he is very professional. This filly is a whole different story.”

Could Team Amerman pull off a 2006 Oaks-Derby double?

“We can only dream,” John Amerman said.

It’s all hanging in the Balance.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 8th, 2006 at 9:54 am and is filed under Featured Articles. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.