Dean Martini Delivers Birthday Gift to Former Governor
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Photo: JJ Zamaiko Photography, Inc.
Dean Martini and his connections in the winner's circle after the Ohio Derby at Thistledown
Dean Martini's 14-1 upset of the Ohio Derby (G3) June 27 delivered a $300,000 payout to Bradford Rives' and Annie Jessee's Raise the BAR Racing and trainer Tom Amoss but also delivered a nice birthday gift to Brereton Jones, the former Kentucky governor.
Jones and his son, Bret, bred the son of Cairo Prince at the family's Airdrie Stud, and the victory at Thistledown came on the elder Jones' 81st birthday.
"It was nice having a stakes win on his birthday—it was fun," Bret Jones said Sunday.
Dean Martini is out of the stakes-winning mare Soundwave and was a $72,000 sale weanling at the 2017 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Purchased by Glencrest Farm, Dean Martini was later sold to Rockingham Ranch for $220,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale as part of the Four Star Sales consignment.
Soundwave, by Airdrie stallion Friends Lake, was bred by Brereton Jones and went on to win the NATC Futurity at Monmouth Park. She is out of the Jones-purchased Echo Echo Echo.
"She was a bit of an older mare when he bought her; she'd already had Letgomyecho, who was a graded stakes winner," Bret Jones said. "He bought her in foal to Mr. Greeley, and thankfully turned a nice profit on that first foal for us, and it's really been gravy ever since. The family has come up around her and some of her daughters are now producing, and it's one of our favorite families that is starting to reap a lot of rewards."
Echo Echo Echo was a $175,000 purchase at the 2006 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale. Her daughter Letgomyecho (by Menifee) won the 2005 Stonerside Forward Gal Stakes (G2) for Dixiana Farm. Her Mr. Greeley filly sold to Sheikh Hamdan's Shadwell Estate Company for $750,000 and later was stakes-placed in England.
As for Soundwave, her past two foals are by Airdrie sire Creative Cause : a yearling filly and a colt that arrived March 12.
"So much of that family are medium-sized but really well put together; both of the Creative Cause foals fit that description," Jones said. "That's the mold of Soundwave herself, who was a stakes winner. As for Dean Martini, he is also medium-sized and just had everything in the right place."
Thistledown was the right place for Dean Martini to be Saturday. Might Churchill Downs be a good spot for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) Sept. 5?
"Tom Amoss would be the one to answer that question, but he sure seems to be heading in the right direction," Jones said.