Iron Orchard scored her third win in a row (by a nose) in the Frizette. (Susie Raisher)
Iron Orchard puts a perfect record on the line in NetJets Juvenile Fillies
A closer look at Breeders’ Cup
Grade 1 winning juvenile filly Iron orchard learned early in life how to stay the course. Authentic’s daughter lost her mother when she was just four months old, but persevered through tragedy to show that tenacity on the track and put together three flawless starts to begin her career.
Bred and born in New York by Marty Zaretsky’s Pine Ridge Stables, Iron Orchard is out of the dual-stakes Brethren mare Onebrethatatime and was born on April 22, 2023. The foaling was routine and uneventful, and about a month later the filly and Onebrethatatime were sent to Kentucky to have the mare re-bred. The two returned to Pine Ridge shortly after, and that’s when things got even worse.
“They came back and everything was mostly normal, but then the mare started getting sick,” said Kenny Toye, farm manager of Pine Ridge Stables. “She kept deteriorating and passed away. You have to deal with the mare’s death, but you have to focus on what you can save.”
The clock started ticking for the filly, who cried out for her mother and would never get an answer. Toye and his team immediately took action and contacted Laura Phoenix’s Heavensent Nursemares to find a surrogate for Iron Orchard. Fortunately, the farm had a nursing thoroughbred named Spiteful Love who was ready for a foal, and the two were introduced within 24 hours of Onebrethatatime’s untimely death.
“It is a very stressful time for the baby, and the most critical moment is when the mare and baby are introduced,” Toye said. “Their connection was quite immediate and simple. You think, ‘Why would a baby accept a new mother?’ To see that happen is magical, it sticks and it’s very powerful.”
Iron Orchard thrived under her adoptive mother, and despite concerns that a filly undergoing such an ordeal would be behind in her development, she impressed enough as a weanling to sell for $140,000.
“You couldn’t even see that there was any kind of division,” Toye said. “Around the summer, consignors come to look at our breeding stock and we decide who is ready to sell as a weanling and who will have to wait. She was a physical standout. We entered her in the (Keeneland) November sale knowing that anything could happen and that we would scratch her if necessary. It never happened and she continued to improve every day.”
The filly would then be sold to Bill Childs and Mark Stanton for $500,000 at this year’s OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training and sent to trainer Danny Gargan’s barn to begin her racing career. A winning debut against the first auction company this summer at Saratoga Race Course led to a successful stakes debut against fellow bred New Yorkers at the Spa’s Seeking the Ante, and a top-level win at Belmont at the Big A’s Grade 1 Frizette on Oct. 4.
With her score in the Frizette, part of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Dozen Bonus Series, Iron Orchard earned her way into the NetJet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. While Gargan will still be the one to saddle her at Del Mar, a new owner will try to claim the flower blanket after she was sold to KatieRich Stables for $2.5 million in a special online auction through Fasig-Tipton in mid-October.
“To even get them to the next day is a miracle. So many things can go wrong, and for this filly to make it to the races, period, is a miracle,” Toye said. “When she was in Grade 1, she would prick up her ears when horses passed her, and to see her digging like that gives you chills.”
Now Iron Orchard faces her toughest task yet on the track and is here thanks to her dedicated adoptive mother and a team that surrounds her with equal care and attention, both on the farm and on the track.
“There are so many things you can say to describe the feeling, but knowing that it is the result of our efforts as a team gives us a lot of confidence in what we do,” Toye said. “We know how special it is to go to the Breeders’ Cup and knowing that she came from the farm and that we had that special time with her makes you emotional.”
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