Breeder Austin Hits the Target With Girvin

But for the toss of a dart, Girvin might not have been foaled and would not be a major contender for this year's Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1).

When breeder Bob Austin attended a party in 2012 hosted by John Phillips' Darby Dan Farm, in which breeders were given the opportunity to throw a dart at a dart board for the possibility of winning a complimentary season to one of the nursery's stallions, he did not have high expectations.

The 20 segments on the dart board contained the names of Darby Dan stallions, with newcomer Shackleford  's name in the bulls eye.

"I threw a dart, hoping to hit the dart board, let alone one of the stallions," said Austin, whose toss landed on Tale of Ekati  , the multiple grade 1 winner who entered stud in 2011 and stands for a $7,500 fee this year.

Austin, who was in the process of retiring after 46 years of operating his Thoroughbred farm, had already booked his four mares and went shopping at the 2013 Keeneland January sale so he could use the free nomination. For $30,000 he landed on Catch the Moon, an unraced Malibu Moon   mare in foal to Colonel John consigned by Paramount Sales. A 2009 model, Catch the Moon is from the extended female family of Monique Renee, a hard-knocking multiple stakes-winning mare who took 29 of 45 starts.

"First, she was by Malibu Moon, who is a great sire and is making a great broodmare sire," Austin said. "When you go to the sales, it's a beauty contest and she was very attractive. And her momma was a stakes winner. In our price range, you are not going to get something out of a graded stakes-winning mare, so we had to give something up.

"She had enough family, she was pretty enough, and she was by the right sire. I thought she would cross well with him, because as pretty as she was, I thought she would have pretty babies and Tale of Ekati is a really pretty horse."

The rest is history.

From the Colonel John mating, Catch the Moon in 2013 produced a colt named Cocked and Loaded, who has won two stakes to date, including the Iroquois (G3) at Churchill Downs.

Bred back on the Tale of Ekati season, Catch the Moon produced an attractive dark bay or brown colt the following year for Austin and co-breeder John Witte. Eventually named Girvin, the colt tops the Kentucky Derby leaderboard and will break from post 7 at 15-1 morning-line odds.

Tommy Eastham, the sales director at Darby Dan at the time of Austin's fortuitous dart toss—and who in 2014 reopened Lagacy Bloodstock with his wife Wyndee—recalled Girvin was intelligent, but also a handful, in a good way.

"He was like a 600-pound lovable puppy," said Eastham, a consultant to Austin, who sold his Little River Farm after 46 years in the business and relocated to Florida in 2014. "He was playful and was always interested in what you were doing and wanted to be involved."

Under the direction of Dan Davidson, who purchased Austin's farm and renamed it Sycamore Bark Farm, the colt continued to progress and was entered by Legacy to the Keeneland September yearling sale. Unsold for $140,000, he then became the rare yearling to be wheeled back a month later into the Fasig-Tipton October sale, where he was purchased for $130,000 by the Grand Oaks operation of Texan Brad Grady, who is in a partnership with Florida pinhooker Bobby Dodd.

Eastham said Grady and Dodd expressed an interest in buying the yearling after his Keeneland RNA, but Austin did not want to sell before the Fasig-Tipton auction because of how well the colt was developing.

"Normally you don't see horses in the development stage, where six weeks are going to make a difference," Eastham said.

Pinhooked back into 2015 Ocala Breeders' Sales April sale of 2-year-olds in training, Girvin trained well, working an eighth of a mile in :09 4/5. But two days after the workout, Girvin injured himself when he stepped on his right rear pastern and was lame.

Unable to send the colt through the ring at OBS, Dodd and Grady considered sending him to the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale, where they felt he would stand out.

"I told Brad he would sell good there, but that he still wasn't 100%," Dodd recalled. "(Grady) said we bought him to sell, but we don't want to take a horse to a sale that is not 100%."

Now trained by Joe Sharp for Grady, Girvin stamped himself as a major classic contender, with three wins and one second from four starts, and earnings of $874,400. His successes include wins in the Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby and Risen Star Stakes, both grade 2. Grady and Dodd have an additional interest in the Derby, having purchased and sold Irap, the Toyota Blue Grass (G1) winner.

Austin said having a horse he co-bred in the Derby fulfills the dreams of any Thoroughbred breeder and is a boost for small breeding entities such as his.

"For any breeder in the world, winning the Derby is their goal," Austin said. "This is the ultimate. We have bred some nice horses, but never one like this. In the Thoroughbred business there are people with hundreds of mares—good mares—being bred to the best stallions in the world, and then somebody comes up with Girvin. It gives hope to all the little folks.

"Every year, something like a California Chrome   or a Girvin comes along that shouldn't make it but does. That's what makes it a great business," said Austin, who still has several horses after Legacy sold Catch the Moon on his behalf to Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings for $240,000 at the 2015 Keeneland November sale.

For Legacy, Eastham said, the benefit of selling a horse like Girvin "is the branding of being associated with good horses. When you start out on your own, you're scared that you're not going to be associated with good horses."