New Owner Update: Bourbon Lane 2yo Partnership

This being a race horse owner thing is pretty fun -- especially when your horses are doing well. As many of you know, after much research, I decided to invest in the 2016 Bourbon Lane Stable 2yoPartnership earlier this year. I don’t own a large percentage of the three juveniles that make up the partnership by any means, but still, the check I wrote to become a partner was big enough for me to take the undertaking very seriously. Several months in, I wanted to take this opportunity to provide an update on how things are going.

Paz the Bourbon, a $150,000 purchase at the OBSMarch Two-year-old Sale, has been the star of the partnership so far. A half-sister to Grade 3 winner, Vinceremos, and a daughter of promising Twin Creeks/Sequel Stallions first-crop sire Mission Impazible, Paz was one of the big reasons I jumped at the chance to become an owner this spring, and she has not disappointed.

A good looking filly with a very sweet disposition, she has already started four times for trainer Mark Hennig, and has performed well every time. Unfortunately, she has yet to find clear sailing in any of her races, but still she has twice been a fast-closing second in a pair of maiden races, and in between them, she became stakes placed when finishing third in the Lynwood Stakes at Belmont Park. All three of those races came on the dirt, but it was in her fourth start, and in her turf debut, where she finally visited the winner’s circle.

The impressive victory at Belmont Park on September 10 under Javier Castellano was not only thrilling, but enough to believe that Paz the Bourbon deserves another shot in stakes company next out. That likely will come in one of two races on October 2, also at Belmont. The Grade 3 Miss Grillo would represent her first try in open company, and her initial attempt around two turns. It would also entail taking on some very talented fillies.

Considering how well she has taken to turf, though, and the belief that she really wants a route of ground, it might just be worth taking the shot a week from Sunday. If not the $200,000 Miss Grillo, the $150,000 Joseph A. Gimma, for New York-bred fillies at seven furlongs on the dirt, would be the other option on the same card. It sure is nice to have such a versatile filly.

While I really liked what I saw in the first two juveniles of the partnership before investing, I had no previous knowledge of Pray for Bourbon. I knew a third purchase was coming, but I did not want to risk getting shut out before the third was acquired. Purchased for $50,000 out of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Two-year-old Sale, she is a Kentucky-bred daughter of Harlan’s Holiday. Out of a Songandaprayer mare, Pick and Pray, Pray for Bourbon was also sent to trainer Mark Hennig’s barn.

One day after Paz broke her maiden, and also at Belmont, the most recent addition to the partnership made her career debut. The result was solid. Under Junior Alvarado, she found a nice position a bit behind the pace, and along the inside in the large field of 12. Coming out of the turn, she ran a bit greenly, but kept trying down the stretch to get up for third in the middle of the racetrack. Hopefully she learned from the maiden special weight experience, and is a real threat to win in her next start.

The only male of the partnership is Bourbon Country. Also by the deceased Harlan’s Holiday, a sire I always liked, he was purchased at the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale for $145,000 this March. His dam is Uninhibited Song, by Unbridled’s Song, making him a half-brother to the nice three-year-old turf filly, Thundering Sky, who is stakes placed in New York this year. Trained by Eddie Kenneally, Bourbon Country finished fourth in his first and only race, which came at Churchill Downs in June.

It looks like that maiden can be called a key race, as two of the entrants, Bitumen and Not This Time, have already come back to win graded stakes. Unfortunately, this update on my first several months as an owner is not all good news. Bourbon Country did suffer an injury preparing for a start at Saratoga. He had surgery at Rood and Riddle on July 29 for a condylar fracture. Thankfully, it went well, and he has been doing well in his recuperation. I still look for good things for him.