Mage Adding to Runnymede's Legacy in Classics

Three ingredients are required for a young Thoroughbred to become a successful racehorse, according to Romain Malhouitre, president of Runnymede Farm near Paris, Ky. A horse needs the right pedigree, to grow up on quality land, and be surrounded by a dedicated team of farm workers.

In its 156-year history, Runnymede has been skillfully blending these ingredients to produce a steady stream of elite runners that include four Kentucky Derby (G1) winners bred and/or raised on the farm, a Preakness Stakes (G1) winner, two Belmont Stakes (G1) winners, and four horses the farm bred that are enshrined in the National Museum and Racing Hall of Fame.

This year's Kentucky Derby winner Mage  is the most recent star to emerge from Runnymede's pastures, which is home to the classic winner's dam Puca . The mare is a graded-placed stakes winner by Big Brown   and owned by Grandview Equine, a partnership created and managed by veteran owner/breeder Robert Clay.

"Without the team of 18 people here, we wouldn't have anything to talk with you about," said Malhouitre. "Someone has to take the temperatures of the foals, someone has to foal the mares, and someone has to worry about them when they are sick. The breeders, the grooms, the vets, they all deserve the credit."

Brutus Clay, chairman and CEO of Runnymede (owned and operated by his family that hails from a different branch of the Clay family as Robert), said the farm controls but a small fraction of a racehorse's life but it's a critical part.

"What you can control makes it all the more important. You have to have that attention to detail and execute on those things," he said. "It is really gratifying when horses like Mage happen because in our business, we're wrong more than we're right. So when it does work out, you're a bit surprised—wow, did that just happen? And you never take it for granted."

Mage this year became the farm's fourth Derby winner and will try to add the Preakness May 20 at Pimlico Race Course. The son of Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa's second-crop sire and 2017 champion 2-year-old colt Good Magic   was among the easier foals to care for during his early days at Runnymede.

"He is a horse that always took care of himself. He was a self-controlled character," recalled Malhouitre. "He was never getting bullied, so he was a force but a calm force in the field. He never created problems in the field. He never really stood out as a big man with a lot of character.

"I spent a bit of time with Mage the Tuesday before the Derby and watched the videos and watched him prepare. He seemed like a horse that takes everything in stride; always calm and collected. He is measured in everything he is doing. What I've seen the last two weeks is very much in line with what I saw when he was a kid," he said.

Runnymede consigned Mage at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale where he attracted a lot of attention. The colt, born in mid-April, was among the chronologically younger horses on the grounds and was naturally medium-sized but he possessed his dam's good conformation and balance and strongly favored his sire in muscling and strength. The night before he was to be offered, he banged up a leg and developed some swelling. Robert Clay told BloodHorse after the Derby he thought he might end up taking the colt home and adjust the reserve some. As it turned out, the colt's price more than exceeded what his reserve had been envisioned originally. He sold for $235,000 to a pinhooking group called New Team. Good Magic's first sales yearlings averaged $152,312 that year.

Becky Thomas' Sequel Bloodstock would resell Mage at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale for $290,000 to Gustavo Delgado Jr.'s OGMA Investments. Ramiro Restrepo's Marquee Bloodstock picked out the colt, signed the ticket, and stayed in as a co-owner with Sterling Racing and CMNWLTH, a microshare partnership venture. The colt is trained by leading Venezuelan trainer Gustavo Delgado Sr., who secured his third grade 1 win in the United States with Mage's Derby.

Mage has a black-type-performing half sister named Gunning , who is by Gun Runner   and the first foal out of Puca. Grandview held on to the filly and now races her with trainer Ken McPeek. She is knocking on the door of a stakes win with a second in the Dig A Diamond Stakes at Oaklawn Park and a third in the Audubon Oaks at Ellis Park. Gunning is entered in the Skipat Stakes going six furlongs Saturday at Pimlico Race Course, where she will be ridden by Flavien Prat and is 6-1 in the morning line.

Malhouitre said all of Puca's foals are a little different from one another.

Gunning, he said, has a bit more scope and stretch than most of Gun Runner's progeny. The mare also has a 2-year-old full brother to Mage that is bay and has more scope, longer legs, and a longer stride than Mage, who is a chestnut that is more compact and muscled by comparison. Puca has a yearling colt by Mckinzie   that foaled in May 2022.

"(The Mckinzie colt) has the scope of his dam and the class of his sire. He is a beautiful young horse and will be a very nice individual," he said. "They all have the mare's temperament. They are all very good horses to be around. They are quiet and measured and know when it is time to do what's required of them and when it is time to just be a horse."

Puca was bred back this year to Good Magic.

Clay and Malhouitre said no secret lies behind Runnymede's long-term success, though they acknowledge the quality of the calcium-rich soil it occupies and the well water it uses is beneficial for developing bone and muscle.

"Good horses always come from good land," Malhouitre said. "Look around us—Machmer Hall, Claiborne, Stone, Raceland—I guess it is one of the secrets of the farm."

As important is the sense of stewardship everyone who works at Runnymede feels toward the farm's legacy.

"When I started here, I didn't have to rewrite the books. You try your best and put the horse first. We raise the horses outside as much as they can; that is the mojo for a young horse to have the fresh air and run around to build the bone, you want them moving all the time. You try not to complicate things too much," he said.

"Runnymede has been passed down for generations and there are many chapters to its story. We're working hard to be sure we're not the last one," Brutus Clay added. "There is good fortune involved so we feel quite blessed to be in this situation to be working with breeders like Robert and Case Clay with Grandview and so many others."

Runnymede will still breed mares late into the breeding season, unconcerned about the timing that might trouble more commercially-oriented breeders because Clay and Malhouitre know plenty of high-quality runners are May foals.

"Usually May foals are good horses, and we are in the business of breeding good horses," Malhouitre said, noting that the farm has finished foaling out all its mares for the year. "It is like Christmastime now; we have all the babies on the ground and the dream is alive."