Triple Crown Dreams – Take Two

(Posted on Tuesday, March 1, 2016)

On Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, my Triple Crown dream hopefully started anew. To bring you up to speed, last year I attempted to breed my Thoroughbred mare Lilly Bear, in hopes of delivering a future racing star this spring. Unfortunately, due to bacteria issues and a final diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease, Lilly was unable to get pregnant. Instead, Lilly got to enjoy a year of semi-retirement from the world of show horses, and she didn’t have to deal with being a pregnant momma just yet. Fast forward 12 months. In January, Lilly received a diagnostic endoscopic examination of her uterus, and the veterinarian gave the go ahead to try breeding her again. Lilly is now 10 years old, which is considered elderly for starting to breed in the Thoroughbred industry. Since she’s never had a foal, my mentor — Virginia Thoroughbred owner and breeder Robin Richards — recommended I choose a younger stallion then I had previously. Taking her advice, I decided to look at grey stallions only. In my book “The Calm Before the Storm,” the fictional Genuine Storm is grey. I decided on Tritap. He’s a 7 year old grey Thoroughbred, standing at Heritage Stallions in Chesapeake City, Maryland. Tritap has a great pedigree. His dad is Tapit, the number one sire in America for 2014, 2015 and 2016, whose stud fee is $300,000 (which is a bit out of my range). Tritap’s dam is Victory Road. Her sire is Ikari, who is a son of 1977 Triple Crown Winner Seattle Slew. During his racing career, Tritap ran nine times, with two firsts and four seconds for total earnings of about $155,000. Tritap during his racing career: (Courtesy Heritage Facebook Page) Tritap in retirement: (Courtesy ThisIsHorseRacing.com) Tritap’s stud fee is $2,500, foal stands and nurses. This means I don’t pay the stud fee until Lilly gives birth and the foal stands and nurses. Tritap’s first season of breeding was last year, and so he’s considered unproven – which means no one knows yet how his babies will perform. The first crop of his foals is being born this spring. His first filly born a few weeks ago will be a grey (they are born black or brown and lighten with age). Note the bay momma in the backround. My Lilly looks very similar. I am hopeful Tritap has strong grey genes! I’ll find out next week if Lilly is indeed pregnant. Stay tuned.

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