Consumer Spending Ensures Breeders' Legacy Lives On

Gone but surely not forgotten. One year since the death of More Than Ready, the stallion's legacy continues to perpetuate among the highest levels of the sport through his sons and daughters. The prolific sire, sitting at number 26 posthumously on the general sire list, is responsible for four graded stakes winners this year, including the impressive July 22 Matchmaker Stakes (G3T) captress Consumer Spending .

Becoming the 100th graded stakes winner for More Than Ready last year with her 2022 victory in the Wonder Again Stakes (G2T), Consumer Spending has not only ensured her sire's name would endure in the headlines but that the name of her breeders, Forging Oaks Farm, would also stay remembered.

Around the time of More Than Ready's passing, breeder Gail Peyton sold Forging Oaks Farm, the 169-acre property owned by her and her late husband, Jim. The couple had been prominent commercial breeders for years with the advisement of shrewd Kentucky horseman Reiley McDonald.

"Gail's husband Jim had been in the business for about 10 years prior to my involvement and he had hired me to come in and reevaluate Forging Oaks," McDonald said. "So we sat down and decided to sell everything and then start over. We sold everything on the farm and then started to buy mares again. The Peytons had a broodmare count of 15-20 mares at any given time."

Siempre Mia, the dam of Consumer Spending, fit McDonald's steadfast criteria when it came to purchasing horses for the Peytons. McDonald signed the ticket on the winning daughter of Scat Daddy for $185,000 on behalf of Forging Oaks at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale.

"It was a good clean buy. She was gorgeous," McDonald said. "I told Jim at the time (2017) if we were going to buy mares they had to be beautiful individuals. That was the number one priority because we have to produce good-looking foals and good-looking foals that can run."

McDonald, the chief decision maker behind a majority of the Peytons' mare breeding plans, selected More Than Ready as the ideal mate for Siempre Mia.

"We bred her to More Than Ready because one, they matched up together physically perfectly, two, we wanted a more versatile sire, and three, he was really, really good value here in the U.S as the sire of proven horses who were stakes quality and very versatile," McDonald said. "We would normally breed one to two mares from Forging Oaks to More Than Ready every year. He was in a good price range for a top-notch proven sire."

Trained by Chad Brown for Klaravich Stables, Consumer Spending has bankrolled $737,000 in her 11-start career. The Matchmaker was her second straight graded triumph following her June 17 tally in the Eatontown Stakes (G3T).

According to McDonald, the 4-year-old was a physical standout from day one. The iron gray filly caught the attention of Brown and bloodstock agent Mike Ryan during the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Selected Showcase Sale, which had been combined with the Fasig-Tipton July and Saratoga Sales that year due to Covid-19 pandemic. Consigned by McDonald's Eaton Sales, Brown and Ryan dished out $200,000 under the name of Northway Bloodstock.

"We were excited when they bought her," McDonald said. "It's a great program for her to be in, obviously. We were all very happy with where she was going."

When Jim Peyton died in 2018, his wife carried on the farm for a few more years until the decision was made to dissolve the operation. The lush Lexington property on Newtown Pike and the last of that carefully accrued Forging Oaks stock has since gone under the hammer.

"Forging Oaks and the horses are all gone but it's still nice to see Gail and Jim's name down as breeders," McDonald said.

Consumer Spending, competing at the top of her game as the second half of the 2023 racing season looms, made sure of that.