Donegal Assault on Breeders' Cup

Dear Partners and Friends,

One, two, three, four? No, I am not practicing my counting. I am contemplating how many horses we will have in the Breeders' Cup. Here is the run down.

Finnegan's Wake WILL be entered in the Breeders' Cup Turf. As you know, we sold majority interest (along with decision making authority) in Finn and the new owner's have decided to enter this race. This is a three million dollar race with 1.8 million to the winner. That is ONE.

Off her breathtaking performance, PUCA will also go to the Breeders' Cup. A number of Donegal partners had the privilege of spending some quality time with Bill Mott yesterday and he concurs with the decision to send PUCA to a race where a win would also earn her an ECLIPSE award. This is a two million dollar purse with $1.2 million to the winner. A win in this race would also make PUCA a million dollar plus broodmare prospect. PUCA makes TWO.

DANNY BOY will go to the Breeders' Cup Juvenille Turf off his strong second place finish in yesterday's Bourbon at Keeneland. This is a million dollar purse with $600,000 to the winner. The challenge for DANNY is that this race is a flat mile and he would appreciate more distance. We could enter him in the JUVENILE on the dirt, but that is pretty risky as we haven't really established his dirt credentials yet. I am confident we have not seen the best of this horse. His maiden victory is the most impressive race any two year old in the country has run this year. But the race knocked Danny backwards and he is still fighting to regain his original form health wise. DANNY makes THREE.

KEEN ICE is the wild card. Dale Romans believes we should enter KEEN ICE in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Jim Hatchett from Conor Foley's shop agrees. All believe KEEN ICE's next race will be his best. Nothing went right for him (slow pace, bad trip) in the Futurity on Saturday and he was still a fast closing fifth.   The Breeders' Cup Juvenile purse is two million dollars with $1,200,000 to the winner, along with a certain ECLIPSE AWARD. With all that being said, Conor Crawford and his father believe it might be best to hold fire with this promising DERBY contender and run him in the Remsen Stakes November 29 at Aqueduct. That $400,000 race ($240,000 to the winner) is run at a mile and an eighth, and the longer distance would suit KEEN ICE beautifully. As one Donegal friend said yesterday, this is a designer problem. We will see how he trains and breezes and make a decision in a couple of weeks.

I hope it goes without saying that winning a Breeders' Cup race is one of the hardest things in all of horse racing to do. It would be a huge success to even hit the board in a race. That said, we are in the hunt and that is all anyone can ask for at this stage.

If you already have your Breeders' Cup tickets and hotel rooms that is great. If you don't and you want to come, you need to let Alex and Hillary know THIS WEEK that you want to be on the list. We will then coordinate your tickets/rooms to the extent we can.

As owners, you will be entitled to an "all access pass" that gets you into the Wolfgang Puck breakfast each morning of race week at the track for the morning gallops. It is a fun event.

Many have asked about tickets to Bobby Flay's "TASTE" event which is incredible. The Breeders' Cup has already indicated that tickets to this Thursday evening event will be very limited to owners. We will do our best, and then allocate based on percentage ownership.

Two important final notes: First, if you tell us you want tickets, the Breeders' Cup won't finalize the sale until Monday, October 27, which is the day of entries. That is because these are "owners tickets" and they can't sell them until they know you are "owners" of a horse that clears entries. Same is true for hotel rooms. So if something crazy would happen and NONE of our horses got in, you would not be sold tickets or rooms. (This does not apply to those of us who already have tickets and rooms). Second, whether it is the Breeders' Cup, the Derby, or whatever big race, we cannot be responsible if something happens and you cannot attend. It is always fine to let us know that you have extra tickets that are going to go unused, and if we can match you to a buyer we will. But that is always difficult and should never be counted on.

I hope you are all as pleased as we are with the amazing success story that is Donegal 2014. THREE horses almost for sure in the Breeders' Cup. Truly incredible!

Jerry