Iron Orchard stands for trainer Danny Gargan during her bath at Del Mar this week. Breeders’ Cup Photo/Eclipse Sportswire
By Mary Eddy/Breeders’ Cup Notes Team
Grade 1-winning juvenile filly Iron Orchard learned early in life how to stay the course. The daughter of Authentic lost her mother at just four months of age but persevered through tragedy to display that tenacity on the racetrack and put together three flawless starts to begin her career.
Bred by Marty Zaretsky’s Pine Ridge Stables, Iron Orchard is out of the dual stakes-placed Brethren mare Onebrethatatime and was born April 22, 2023. The foaling was routine and uneventful, and about one month later, the filly and Onebrethatatime were sent to Kentucky for the mare to be bred again. The two returned to Pine Ridge shortly thereafter, and that’s when things took a turn for the worse.
“They came back and everything was normal for the most part, but then the mare started getting sick,” said Kenny Toye, farm manager for Pine Ridge Stables. “She kept deteriorating and passed away. You’re dealing with the death of the mare, but you have to focus on what you can save.”
The clock began to tick for the filly, who called out for her mother and would never receive an answer. Toye and his team immediately sprung into action, and contacted Laura Phoenix’s Heavensent Nursemares to find a surrogate for Iron Orchard. Luckily, the farm had a lactating Thoroughbred named Spiteful Love that was ready for a foal, and the two were introduced within 24 hours of Onebrethatatime’s untimely passing.
“It’s a very stressful time for the baby, and the most critical time is when the mare and the baby get introduced,” Toye said. “Their connection was pretty immediate and simple. You think, ‘why would a baby accept a new mom?’ To see that happen is magical, it sticks, and it’s very powerful.”
Iron Orchard flourished with her adoptive mother, and despite concerns that a filly who went through such an ordeal would be behind in her development, she impressed enough as a weanling to sell for $140,000.
“You couldn’t even tell there was any kind of rift,” Toye said. “Around the summertime, consignors will come to look at our breeding stock and we decide who is ready to sell as a weanling and who needs to wait – she was a standout physical. We entered her in the (Keeneland) November sale, knowing that anything can happen and that we would scratch her if we needed to. It never happened, and she kept moving forward every single day.”
Iron Orchard wins stakes debut in the Seeking the Ante at Saratoga. Coglianese Photo/Susie Raisher.
The filly would subsequently sell to Bill Childs and Mark Stanton for $500,000 at this year’s OBS April sale of 2-year-olds in training, and was sent to the barn of trainer Danny Gargan to begin her racing career. A winning debut against maiden auction company this summer at Saratoga Race Course led to a successful stakes debut against fellow New York-breds in Saratoga’s Seeking the Ante Stakes, and a triumph at the highest level in the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes Oct. 4 at Aqueduct.
With her score in the Frizette, part of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Dozen Bonus Series, Iron Orchard earned her way into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. While Gargan will still be the one to saddle her at Del Mar, a new owner will look to claim the floral blanket after she sold to KatieRich Stables for $2.5 million in a Fasig-Tipton Digital auction in mid-October.
“It’s a miracle to even get them to the next day. 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 that Grade 1, she pinned her ears when horses passed her, and to see her dig in like that, it gives you chills.”
Now, Iron Orchard is facing her toughest task on the racetrack to date, and is here thanks to her doting adoptive mother and a team surrounding her with equal care and attention on both the farm and the track.
“There’s so many things you can say to describe the feeling, but to know that she came from our efforts as a team gives us a lot of confidence in what we’re doing,” Toye said. “We know how special it is to get there to the Breeders’ Cup, and knowing that she came from the farm and that we had that special time with her, you get emotional.”
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