Englishman Adds Validity to Fifth Avenue Bloodstock

If you had seen Bob Edwards celebrating in the box seats during the marquee Aug. 29 card at Saratoga Race Course, you might have assumed that one of the runners from his e Five Racing Thoroughbreds had just hit the wire first in one of the day's major stakes. 

But no, Edwards had a more removed connection to one of the day's stars—nevertheless, one that left him just as moved. In the name of Fifth Avenue Bloodstock, Edwards bred Englishman  and sold him nearly three years ago as a weanling. He has watched proudly as the colt has won back-to-back grade 1 races at Saratoga for Lee and Susan Searing's C R K Stable. The colt romped by 5 3/4 lengths in the June 6 Woody Stephens Stakes (G1), setting a 7-furlong track record of 1:20.40. He proceeded to win the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes (G1) by 3 3/4 lengths, just missing that time at 1:20.71. 

"I was as excited for that horse to win as a breeder as I am an owner," Edwards said. "I was excited; I was in the box, Walker Hancock (of Claiborne Farm) high-fived me after the win; he was sitting in front of me. All my buddies were cheering. ... I was excited. I mean, it validates my breeding program, and validates how we kind of pair up (horses) and figure out what we're trying to create." 

The e Five Racing Thoroughbreds stables is best known for campaigning millionaires like 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) winner New Money Honey , who went on to take the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T), the following year; Rushing Fall , who counted the 2017 Juvenile Fillies Turf among her six grade 1 wins; and 2017 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) winner and divisional Eclipse Award champion Good Magic  , who, campaigned in partnership with breeder Stonestreet Stables, was a classic-placed grade 1 winner the following season. 

Edwards also raced graded stakes winner Zindaya —out of whom he bred Carl Spackler🔥  , a multiple grade 1-winning homebred. Zindaya and New Money Honey are still part of the broodmare band for Fifth Avenue Bloodstock, housed at the former Indian Creek Farm—now Heartwood Farm, still under the guidance of key Indian Creek management members Sarah Sutherland and Juan Aguilar. Edwards said his "magic number" is about a dozen mares in the band. He keeps it streamlined and generates the resources to reinvest into the business by selling some key mares; for example, Rushing Fall brought $5.5 million from Coolmore at the close of her career, at Fasig-Tipton's The November Sale in 2020. 

"We treat it like a sport, but run it like a business," he said. 

He also sells mares after three or four foals if they have not yet knocked it out of the park. This was the category that Englishman's dam, In It for the Gold , eventually fell into. The daughter of Speightstown was a $225,000 2015 Fasig-Tipton October yearling purchase by bloodstock agent Mike Ryan, who does e Five's scouting. She won once and was third five times from seven starts. 

"Primarily (we keep) mares that we've run through our system," Edwards said. "If there was something special that maybe got hurt on the track or didn't live up to their potential, that's something I love as a breeder because you know the horse. You know if they were precocious as a 2-year-old and just didn't get the opportunity, or if something happened, but there's some running in that horse, and you hope it passes through. (In It for the Gold) was a runner, good breezes, really good at the training facility, and she just couldn't stay sound for us. So I kept her because her pedigree was phenomenal, and she looked like she had potential."

In It for the Gold delivered her first foal, a Nyquist   colt, in 2019. Golquist  went on to win once from 16 career starts. In 2020, she delivered Fee , an Into Mischief   filly who won four times from 20 starts. Then she delivered the Gun Runner   colt Thought Control  in 2022. E Five did retain him, and while he has been slower to develop, he has won twice from four starts to date, taking an allowance optional claiming race in his most recent outing May 10 at Gulfstream Park. 

But prior to that, In It for the Gold was bred to first-season stallion Maxfield  , a multiple grade 1-winning son of Street Sense  , as he debuted at Darley in 2022. 

"Commercially, I love first-crop stallions," Edwards said. "I think there's always some buzz around them—and we did what we did knowing that we were probably going to sell (the mare) in November." 

The resulting foal, who would be Englishman, arrived in February 2025. And indeed, Fifth Avenue sent him to the 2023 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, alongside In It for the Gold, both in the Indian Creek consignment, hoping that the foal, well thought of on the farm, would help to advertise the mare.

"Everyone on the farm liked the baby," Edwards said. "They said, 'Look, the baby's nice. Maybe we put them together. You can max out what you can get for the mom as well, just because they can see what she's throwing." 

In It for the Gold, who was back in foal to Authentic  , was purchased for $75,000 in the name of Country Life Farm. Her Maxfield colt was purchased for $240,000 by Avocet Bloodstock. About 10 months later, the colt was brought back to the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. He was purchased for $400,000 in the name of Mayberry Farm for the Searings. April Mayberry works to identify and purchase yearlings for the stable, along with C R K's bloodstock adviser David Ingordo, the husband of trainer Cherie DeVaux. 

"David has done a great job for me," Lee Searing said in Saratoga, reflecting on the family stable's success this year, with runners such as Remember Mamba  and Supercharger  also in the DeVaux barn "Cherie and David had a plan, and I don't know that you could execute a plan better than they have so far. She's had tremendous success." 

Meanwhile, Edwards will continue to enjoy watching Englishman's success—with no seller's remorse. 

"It's a validation," he reiterated. "You have to have a short memory in this sport. If you have buyer's or seller's remorse, you're going to be sad all the time."