Parallel Roads Took Mo Donegal and Nest to the Belmont

Graded stakes winners Mo Donegal  and Nest  have followed parallel tracks since their days as foals on Ashview Farm in Central Kentucky, tracks that will merge June 11 when they both start in the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1).

Their shared history as products of the breeding partnership between Ashview and Richard Santulli's Colts Neck Stables actually begins before they took their first steps on the Lyster family's farm near Versailles, Ky.

Both horses are out of mares that were homebreds of Leonard Riggio's My Meadowview Farm.

Mo Donegal's dam, the winning Pulpit daughter Callingmissbrown , was bought privately from Riggio after she had won two of four starts at 4. Without any black-type credentials as a racehorse, she was an affordable and attractive mare out of a good family.

Callingmissbrown is out of grade 1 winner Island Sand and a half sister to multiple grade 1-placed winner Maya Malibu  and to stakes-placed winner Midnite Poppa .

"We're good friends with Joe Miller, who works with Lincoln Collins as agent for My Meadowview, and he knows we are always looking for a good mare," said Bryan Lyster, who runs Ashview with his parents Wayne and Muffy Lyster and brother Gray. "We put a premium on physicals, and she is a really nice physical. We've also had several Pulpit mares and done well with them, so that was certainly a factor."

Nest is out of A.P. Indy stakes winner Marion Ravenwood , who won four of her 10 career starts and earned black-type by winning the Capades Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack. My Meadowview entered her in the 2017 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale as part of Denali Stud's consignment, and Ashview bought her for the partnership with Colts Neck for $400,000.

"She has a nice pedigree, but at the time she wasn't fully made as a broodmare. Still we paid $400,000 for her. We have stretched beyond that on a handful of mares but that's generally the top end of where we're landing," Lyster said.

Another selling point for Marion Ravenwood was her 2017 colt by Hill 'n' Dale Farms' Curlin  , who the Lysters kept hearing was strikingly handsome. Ashview and Colts Neck first bred the mare to Pioneerof the Nile, but after they got to see the Curlin colt as a yearling in the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, they bred the mare back to Curlin the following year. The colt sold for $375,000 at Keeneland to John Holmes, was named Idol , and won last year's Santa Anita Handicap (G1) for owner Calvin Nguyen and trainer Richard Baltas.

The second mating to Curlin produced Nest, who sold for $350,000 to Aron Wellman's Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Mike Repole at the 2020 Keeneland September sale. She won the Demoiselle Stakes (G2) at 2 and made her 2022 debut a six-length romp in the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. She followed that performance with an 8 1/4-length win in the Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1) and comes into the Belmont off a runner-up effort in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) behind Secret Oath . Nest is raced by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Repole, and Michael House.

Marion Ravenwood is back in foal to Curlin.

With Callingmissbrown, Lyster said they bred her first to Ashford Stud's Uncle Mo   because the mare and sire were compatible physically and Uncle Mo was well-established as a potent source of winners.

"Our breeding regime with nice mares, say in the $200,000-plus range, is to go to proven sires a couple times and then a first-year sire," Lyster said. "We try to take out the unknown first, when you don't know if a young sire is going to make it. After the proven sires, then you can go to a first-year sire because the market has told us that is what they want. You get a bit of a break on the stud fee with the first-year sires and can get well rewarded at the sales."

The mating to Uncle Mo produced Mo Donegal, who along with Nest, was offered during the fourth session of the Keeneland September sale. Mo Donegal sold for $250,000 to Jerry Crawford's Donegal Racing partnership venture. He won the Remsen Stakes (G2) at 2 and after finishing third in Holy Bull Stakes (G3) during the winter at Gulfstream Park, won the Wood Memorial Stakes Presented by Resorts World Casino (G2) by a neck over Early Voting , who won the Preakness Stakes (G1). Mo Donegal finished a respectable fifth in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) and skipped the Preakness in order to be fresh for the Belmont Stakes.

Adhering to the philosophy of sticking with what works, Callingmissbrown is back in foal to Uncle Mo.

Along with being co-bred by Ashview and Colts Neck Stables, raised at Ashview, and sold as yearlings during the same session of the Keeneland September sale, Mo Donegal and Nest also both ended up with trainer Todd Pletcher.

Lyster said no one can predict with any accuracy the foals or yearlings that will become star stakes winners, but he said there are signs.

"On the farm, I can tell you both of them were alphas in respective groups. Both of them were easy to handle and were very athletic," he said. "Neither of them were the obvious superstar, the most beautiful horse you've ever seen, but I do remember about Nest in particular that she had a presence about her that just commanded respect.

"I feel really good about our chances," he continued. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to be disappointed if at least one of them doesn't win, but I'm also smart enough to know I'm lucky to be in the position of rooting for two horses in the Belmont."