University Program Celebrating Debut Winner Averly Jane

Sh Sh Shakin didn't want to be a racehorse and when her career path veered toward the show ring, she apparently wasn't going to find a bright future there either. The daughter of Richter Scale  eventually found her place as a rising star in the broodmare band at the University of Kentucky's Maine Chance Equine Campus, known as the North Farm.

As a broodmare, Sh Sh Shakin has produced three foals of racing age that are all winners. Her most recent winner is Averly Jane , who won her racing debut April 15 at Keeneland, where she crushed a field of six other juveniles by 8 3/4 lengths. The filly is owned by Gatewood Bell's Hat Creek Racing partnership group and trained by Wesley Ward, which enjoyed a successful run at Keeneland.

Ward and Hat Creek Racing in partnership with Cheyenne Stables celebrated another first-out winner April 22 when Golden Bell , a 2-year-old by Macho Uno , won in gate-to-wire fashion by 5 1/4 lengths.

Averly Jane rolls right into stakes competition April 28 at Churchill Downs where she's entered in the five-furlong $150,000 Kentucky Juvenile Stakes. She is the 8-5 morning-line favorite.

"Based on her production, Sh Sh Shakin is probably our No. 2 broodmare at the moment," said Dr. Laurie Lawrence, an equine nutritionist and faculty adviser for the U.K. Department of Animal and Food Sciences horse unit. "We have one other mare who has produced a graded stakes winner, but Sh Sh Shakin is now three-for-three with a stakes winner."

Sh Sh Shakin raced as a homebred for trainer Mark Tsagalakis in the name of his M T Racing Stable. The filly was foaled and raised at Endeavor Farm near Midway, Ky., which Tsagalakis co-owns with Terry Nickell. Sh Sh Shakin made five starts at the track and never visited a winner's circle. She was second once and third in three races.

"She had a lot of ability, but she had flat, soft feet," Tsagalakis recalled. "We tried her as hunter and that just didn't pan out either. It wasn't her thing."

Endeavor Farm had previously donated mares to the University of Kentucky and thought this might be an option. Sh Sh Shakin's family had shown ability in elite company. Her dam, Capote's Gift, is a half sister to multiple group-placed stakes winner Elrafa Ah  (by Storm Cat), who is the dam of group 1 winner Mujahid . The immediate family also has produced multiple stakes winners Miami Slick, Cielo Otono , and Elghayoor .

"She wasn't a great racehorse but clearly she has access to the right gene pool," said Lawrence.

The university relies solely on donations of mares and stallions seasons for the Maine Chance Farm program that produces 20-22 foals annually. These foals are typically sold as short yearlings at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale or later in the year at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearling Sale.

Averly Jane sold for $35,000 at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton October sale, making her the third-highest-priced yearling sold by Maine Chance Farm that year. Though she races for Hat Creek Racing, her buyer was listed as Newt Dobbs, which is a name the readers of Larry McMurty's Western novel Lonesome Dove will recognize as one of the workers at the Hat Creek Cattle Co. Another "buyer" at auction of horses that raced for Hat Creek Racing has been Pea Eye Parker, another Lonesome Dove character.

The U.K. program has had several quality runners sell for far less money. Fear the Cowboy , a Cowboy Cal  ridgling out of Maine Chance Farm's top mare Whom Shall I Fear, sold for $1,500 to Alexandro Centofanti at the 2013 Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale. He'd won a couple minor stakes before being offered at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale where he didn't meet his reserve. His failure to sell proved a stroke of luck for owners Raffaele Centofanti and Kathleen Amaya because at 5, Fear the Cowboy blossomed. In 2017 he captured the Skip Away Stakes (G3) and Harlan's Holiday Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park, and the following year he was third in the Santa Anita Handicap Presented by San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino (G1) and fourth in the then $16.3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1). His finish in the Pegasus added $1 million to his career earnings, which totaled $1,774,369.

Sh Sh Shakin's first foal named Chattel  (by Giant Oak ) sold for $2,000 at the Fasig-Tipton October sale. The colt went on to win two of six starts, including the Skidmore Stakes on the Saratoga Race Course turf. He has career earnings of $111,540.

Autista, a filly by Bullet Train , is Sh Sh Shakin's second foal, who sold for $6,000 as a Fasig-Tipton October yearling. She was sent to Japan, where she earned ¥4.457 million (US$41,496).

"I'm always happy when folks who have faith in us do well," said Lawrence. "The stallion farms have been very supportive. They understand if we want the Thoroughbred industry to thrive we have to get young people involved. Everyone is taking the long view."

As important, she added, is the excitement a university-bred and-raised winner generates among the equine program students.

"The vast majority of our students don't come from a Thoroughbred background. They come from a hunter/jumper or Quarter Horse or three-day eventing background and don't know much about the Thoroughbreds," she said. "When they have a horse they can follow, it makes it much more real, and they start thinking, maybe I need to learn more about pedigrees or learn more about the business. That is the best part of the whole thing."

Averly Jane's recent success is also rewarding to Tsagalakis, who is thrilled to see Sh Sh Shakin finally making her mark in racing.

"Dr. Lawrence has been terrific to work with over the years in helping us place horses that needed new homes and I'm glad she was able to take Sh Sh Shakin," he said. "Even better is how well she's doing. I'm just so happy."