S.F. Bloodstock Building for the Future

While still in its infancy, S.F. Bloodstock is quickly establishing a formidable commercial broodmare band. Founded by Gavin Murphy in conjunction with Neil Bowden, S.F. Bloodstock has taken advantage of a down market to acquire an impressive global roster of Grade I winners and producers, including the dams of European stars Canford Cliffs (Ire) (Tagula {Ire}) and Mastercraftsman (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), as well as the dam of American champion Forever Together (Belong to Me). Murphy is an Australian working in New York city.


“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything like that,” bloodstock agent Tom Ryan, taking a short break from a busy week in Lexington, said yesterday. “We’re just basically trying to buy quality bloodstock, and we feel that we’ve been able to buy in what has been a suppressed market for the last few years. Hopefully, we’ve bought well.”

Ryan estimated S.F. Bloodstock, which also includes Australian Henry Field, has between 40 and 50 elite broodmares. The group signed for eight mares at Keeneland November this week, and an additional three at Fasig-Tipton last Sunday. Its Fasig purchases were led by Unbridled Belle (Broken Vow), who sold for $900,000, while Gold Canyon (Mr. Prospector) led the Keeneland list at $250,000.

“We feel like we’ve been buying pretty well,” Ryan continued. “Not to say we’ve stolen anything. I think we’ve paid what is reality in today’s market. We bought within our comfort level. We don’t chase things. We have the confidence to appraise things privately and come out where we come out. We’ll buy within our comfort level and where we feel there is some upside.”

S.F. Bloodstock has horses in Ireland, England, France, Australia and America and is flexible in its game plan.

“We’ll sell when the market is right and when the individual is right,” Ryan said. “And we don’t have to sell everything, which is a good way to be. But we look forward to selling, and we’ll be genuine sellers on the day.”

The mares purchased this week will stay in America, and Ryan thinks their foals will have an advantage in the U.S. market.

“One thing I’ve found in America recently is so many of these high-class mares are going out of the country,” the Irishman observed. “If you look at Book 1 and Book 2 in September, there are just not that many first, second or third foals of Grade I winners. They’ve gone to Japan or they’ve gone to England. And the Australians are so strong now, they’re coming in and buying at the highest level, as well. Hopefully, we can keep a lot of the stock at home and keep the market fair.”

S.F. Bloodstock’s European broodmare band includes Starlight Dreams (Black Tie Affaire {Ire}), the dam of multiple Group 1 winner Mastercraftsman, and Mrs Marsh (GB) (Marju {Ire}), the dam of G1 Irish 2000 Guineas winner Canford Cliffs. Both mares are in foal to superstar Sea the Stars (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}).

“Those mares are very exciting,” Ryan said. “Both of them have already produced champions, and they are our foundation mares. We look forward to nurturing them along over the coming years and, hopefully, trading out of them successfully. And we’ll also race a few fillies, too.”

Of the American broodmare band, Ryan said, “We’ve probably got six or seven Group 1 winners and we’re going to continue to try and get that quality of mare. We’ve gotten some older, more proven mares, like Constant Companion, the dam of Forever Together, and younger mares like Diamondrella (GB) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}), who is a beautiful, exciting young mare in foal to Tapit. Just exciting mares that anyone would be glad to own.”

The group is quick to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. Cashing in on the popularity of young stallion Sea the Stars, S.F. Bloodstock sold Love to Dance (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells), in foal to the Arc winner, for $1.05 million at Fasig-Tipton.

“Love to Dance was bought as a long-term mare,” Ryan explained. “But we were approached by Fasig-Tipton, we had four mares in foal to Sea the Stars, and we thought that there had been some very big updates in her pedigree. It wasn’t necessarily on the program, but it was the right conditions. It was exciting to sell the first mare in foal to Sea the Stars--it was exciting to have four mares good enough to go to Sea the Stars last year. We went over there confident that we could sell in that range, and mission accomplished.”

So far S.F. Bloodstock has been able to take advantage of the market as buyers, but soon it will have to deal with conditions as sellers.

“The market also has to work with us now when we’re selling,” Ryan confirmed. “We need to see the market improve. And I think it will improve.”

Ryan keeps up a whirlwind schedule, following the yearling sales through Lexington, Ireland, England and France and returning to his Kentucky home briefly before heading out on a similar tour of bloodstock sales. But he is enjoying the opportunity and thriving on the challenge.

“It’s exciting,” he said. “The other side of it is it’s nerve-wracking, it takes a lot of management. It’s a big effort from everyone to make it work. We’re very focused on keeping a very close eye on things and watching these horses. I see them probably every month and, in Australia, Henry Field does the same. Our farm manager in Australia is Craig Anderson, and he does a tremendous job. We have a good team in place.” (www.thetdn.com)