Home Cooking Serves Up $500K on Day 1 of F-T Mixed Sale

Grade 1-placed Home Cooking  served up a $500,000 price tag during the Feb. 5 opening session of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale. The mare was purchased by agent Steve Young on behalf of owner/breeder Ramona Bass, who is finding mares to support her first-year sire and grade 1 winner Annapolis  .

"We don't have a set number (we are after), but we are going to support Annapolis for real," Young said. "We don't necessarily have to have a full roster by the start of the breeding season; there will be horses that retire or come up privately on the way. We are methodically buying mares he deserves."

Annapolis stands at Claiborne Farm for an introductory fee of $12,500 this year. He is on the roster alongside his sire War Front  .

Home Cooking (Hip 68) is a 4-year-old daughter of Honor Code  and offered as a broodmare prospect for her racing connections in Michael Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman. The owners bought Home Cooking for $260,000 out of the 2022 Ocala Breeders' Sales March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale where she sped a :9 4/5 eighth-mile during the under tack show.

She traveled to West Coast trainer Bob Baffert, debuted in July, and broke her maiden a month later, going 5 1/2 furlongs with an impressive 9 1/4-length margin win. In her third start, among grade 1 company in the Debutante Stakes, she stumbled out of the gate but dug deep to run second by a head to multiple graded stakes winner And Tell Me Nolies .

"Home Cooking is a wonderful mare; you saw the interesting markings on her face; she's hard to forget," explained Young. "I went to the farm and saw her; I knew who she was then. She was a fast horse at OBS and was unlucky to lose a grade 1 at 2; if she had won that, she would have cost much more. She has the same genes, balance, and mechanics, so I think she was bought at an excellent price."

Young added: "She's a beautiful, fast horse…put in 14 bullet works, two of which had over 100 horses breezing those distances, and was good at everything she ever did."

The bay mare bred in Kentucky by Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey is out of the winning Hard Spun   mare Olympic Avenue, making her a half sister to the Kitten's Joy filly Gold for Kitten , a multiple stakes-placed winner.

While early in the sale, the mare was a clear standout, not only by her markings but by her page, Young noted, "In the last decade, there are a lot of people who would rather be a big fish in a small pond, and she has the quality to sell in any sale. She's a serious horse and possibly the fastest Honor Code that ever lived. The day of the Debutante, she stumbled out of the gate and went :44 1/5 on the lead. "