Barn Tour: 12 for Brian Lynch include Oscar Performance colts

Louisville, Ky.

Mention the name Brian Lynch, and the name of one particular horse comes to mind right away. Oscar Performance is not just a triumphant memory from the 2016 Breeders’ Cup. Now he is siring prospects in Lynch’s Kentucky stable.

“The oldest are 3,” Lynch said, referring in part to last weekend’s Ellis Park Derby winner Tumbarumba. “But I have a nice arsenal of his 2-year-olds. They have different owners. A few came to me because I trained the dad, some have owners that bred their mares to him, and some of them have been purchases that I’ve just bought.”

Those foals sired by the stallion who won the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita could be future standouts in Lynch’s barn. He has more than a few older ones, too. At a sports bar this week to help promote the upcoming meet at Kentucky Downs, Lynch offered a snapshot of his stable in this Horse Racing Nation Barn Tour.

Tumbarumba. The two-time allowance winner stepped up to a stakes challenge Sunday when he and Rafael Bejarano turned a mid-pack run up the backstretch into a three-quarter-length victory in the Ellis Park Derby. Lynch said Jerry and Joan Amerman’s colt probably will stay in the company of 3-year-olds. “He’s either headed for the Oklahoma Derby or a stake at Churchill,” Lynch said, referring to the Harrods Creek. “It’s a seven-furlong stake, $300,000 on the dirt Sept. 23.” The Oklahoma Derby (G3) goes 1 1/8 miles Sept. 24 at Remington Park.

Oscar Eclipse. Another 3-year-old son of Oscar Performance, he won by 6 3/4 lengths in an “a other than” allowance mile on the dirt Sunday at Ellis Park. “He ran just under a 90 Beyer,” Lynch said. “He’ll be headed toward a stake at Churchill.” Owned by Rene and Lauren Woolcott, Oscar Eclipse finished out of the money twice in turf starts last summer before having surgery. “We took a chip out of his hind ankle at the end of his 2-year-old season,” Lynch said. “He’s come back great.” After nine months off, the colt was switched to dirt. He broke his maiden at Churchill Downs and then finished third in a photo finish at Ellis Park before he won last weekend.

Hot Beach. Owned by Dutch Bros. Coffee CEO Travis Boersma, the 2-year-old filly who cost $400,000 as a yearling just broke her maiden on second asking by winning Sunday’s seven-furlong Ellis Park Debutante. It may be too early to suggest she is a Kentucky Oaks (G1) candidate, but Lynch is not lowering the bar. “She’ll be pulling us towards the Pocahontas,” Lynch said, talking about the Grade 3 race Sept. 16 at Churchill Downs that will be the first points prep for the 2024 Oaks. “She was the first stakes winner for Omaha Beach. We’re hoping that she’s potentially in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, so we’re working backwards from there.”

Two of a Kind. He was a juvenile-stakes winner who won his first two races last year. After a nearly seven-month break, the Overanalyze colt bred and owned by K and R Racing Stable and Town Branch Racing consistently puts his number on the board, but he has yet to win in six starts as a 3-year-old. Last month in the slop at Saratoga he finished a weakening third in the 5 1/2-furlong Quick Call. Before it was moved off the main track, the race was supposed to be Two of a Kind’s third consecutive turf start. The grass is where Lynch plans to go for a 6 1/2-furlong sprint next month. “We’re going to the Franklin-Simpson at Kentucky Downs,” he said. The Grade 2 race has a $600,000 guaranteed purse with another $400,000 thrown in for Kentucky-breds such as Two of a Kind.

Highway Robber. He was a debut winner on the dirt in September at Churchill Downs and an allowance winner his first time on the turf last month at Ellis Park. Jim and Susan Hill’s 3-year-old Hard Spun colt stretched to 1 1/8 miles Aug. 5 and missed a 14-1 upset by just a head in the Kentucky Downs Preview Dueling Grounds Derby. “He’ll run in the mile-and-five-sixteenths stakes at Kentucky Downs,” Lynch said, specifying the Dueling Grounds Derby (G3) on Sept. 3 that has a guarantee of $375,000. Since Highway Robber was bred in Kentucky, he also would be eligible for his share of another $375,000 that would be added to that purse.

Anglophile. Get ready for some déjà vu. Owned by LFG Racing, the English Channel colt finished third in the same Kentucky Downs Preview Dueling Grounds Derby as Highway Robber took second. At 12-1 odds, Anglophile lost by only a neck despite running into traffic in his rally from 10th place. “He’ll run in that mile-and-five-sixteenths race down at Kentucky Downs,” Lynch said, again targeting the Dueling Grounds Derby. And still again, Anglophile is a Kentucky-bred, so for all intents and purposes, the purse is $750,000 for him, too.

Fast as Flight. Jim and Susan Hill own the 5-year-old Air Force Blue mare who won July 2 in the Anchorage Overnight, a black-type, one-mile turf stakes that was moved from Churchill to Ellis. “We’re giving her a little breather,” Lynch said. “She’s heading towards the Keeneland meet. There’s a number of stakes she’s going to be nominated for. She’s run through all her allowance conditions, so she’s Grade 2, Grade 3 going a mile to a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the turf.” The Keeneland fall stakes that comes closest to fitting that profile is the First Lady (G1). In her only graded start, Fast as Flight finished fourth March 4 going a mile in the Honey Fox (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

F Five. This 4-year-old Not This Time gelding has raced only four times, going 2-for-2 at Churchill Downs and 0-for-2 elsewhere. Owned by the Ferro family trust, Larry Connor and Bruno Deberdt, F Five’s most recent victory came in May when he stalked the early lead and finished first in a $127,000 allowance race covering 1 3/8 miles on the turf. “He runs in a ‘two other than’ at Ellis Park this weekend,” Lynch said. “He’s a Not This Time that’s just getting better with time and age.”

Quaternion. Sold as a yearling for $190,000, the 3-year-old Union Rags colt owned by Keith Plaisance is a maiden winner who finished third to his stablemate Oscar Eclipse in that allowance race Sunday at Ellis Park. “He’ll run back at Churchill in another ‘a other than,’ ” Lynch said.

Hammerstein, Oscarworthy and Silent Heart. About those Oscar Performance babies, namely a pair of 2-year-old colts who have yet to make their racing debuts. The Amermans bred Hammerstein out of their Chattahoochee War mare Memorial Wall. Lisa Lee was the breeder of Oscarworthy, who is out of the City Zip mare Loya. “Hammerstein is one to look for,” Lynch said. “So is Oscarworthy. And I’ve got a Heart to Heart, a colt called Silent Heart who looks like he can run, too.” Silent Heart is another unraced colt. He was the result of Heart to Heart being bred to Terry Hamilton’s Silent Name mare Mega Monster. All three of these juveniles have had a steady diet of weekly breezes this summer at Ellis Park, each firing a bullet work at one time or another.

Lynch split his horses this summer between his stables at Churchill Downs and Ellis Park, so he has gotten more than a little familiar with those 130 miles of Interstate 64 between Louisville and the track just south of Evansville, Ind.

Remembering his days growing up in Australia, he said, “Two hours? We used to go that far to get a carton of milk in Wagga Wagga.”