Golden Mischief Takes Breeder to First Breeders' Cup

In harness racing, the Caldwell name is as renowned in international competition and as the breeder of top stakes winners as Phipps is in Thoroughbred racing.

This year, the family takes its first step onto the Thoroughbred world stage as a breeder when Golden Mischief walks into the starting gate as one of the top five contenders in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs.

"Before, when we've gone to the Breeders' Cup, we usually just have fun and hang out. This will be a lot different," said Elizabeth Caldwell, who runs her family's Cane Run Farm with her brother, Danny, and her mother, Fredericka "Rikki" Caldwell, who is the breeder of record of Golden Mischief, a daughter of Into Mischief . "I'm sure we'll be pretty nervous. I'm glad it is the first Breeders' Cup race of the day, so we can get that over with."

Elizabeth Caldwell is a third-generation horsewoman whose equestrian ties go back to her grandmother, Frances Dodge Van Lennep, the daughter of automobile pioneer John F. Dodge. Van Lennep bought Castleton Farm near Lexington in 1945 and became involved in raising and racing Standardbreds because her half sister Isabel Dodge Sloane was racing Thoroughbreds on the flat and in steeplechases, and she didn't want to compete against her, according to Caldwell. Van Lennep produced Horses of the Year Victory Song (1947), Emily's Pride (1948), and Speedy Scot (1963).

David and Rikki Caldwell, Elizabeth's parents, made their own mark in harness racing when they bred Hall of Famer Moni Maker, who retired in 2000 as the richest Standardbred in history with earnings of $5.589 million. The daughter of Speedy Crown was Horse of the Year in 1998-99, Trotter of the Year in 1998-2000, and four-time Trotting Mare of the Year (1997-2000). Moni Maker's dam, Nan's Catch, is also in the Hall of Fame.

In the 1980s, Standardbreds were being bred by artificial insemination, but the semen could not be shipped out of state, so breeders still had to send their mares to where the stallions were standing.

"Our farm was empty during the breeding season, so my parents decided to try a few Thoroughbreds to see what happens," Elizabeth Caldwell remembered. "We had cattle for a while, but they were a handful and a little too much to deal with."

Cane Run has found plenty of success with Thoroughbreds, though the farm never has had more than a few mares at any one time. The family has only two Thoroughbred mares now, having lost Lanai City, the dam of Golden Mischief, in October. They had their first Thoroughbred stakes winner and first graded stakes winner as a breeder in 1996 when Cash Deposit won the Grey Breeders' Cup Stakes (G3) at Woodbine. Raced by Frank Stronach, Cash Deposit was named that year's Canadian champion 2-year-old colt.

The mating that produced Golden Mischief is rooted in a 1997 decision to buy an unraced daughter of Carson City named City Life for $11,000 at the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale. The mare produced five winners out of six to race, including black-type winners Object of Virtue and Urban Guy. At auction, City Life's foals generated $236,500 in gross sales as yearlings.

In the first crop of Gainesway's marquee sire Tapit  is See Rock City, who is a winning daughter of City Life that the Caldwells retained as a broodmare. See Rock City's foals include grade 3-placed winner One More, a daughter of Holy Bull, and stakes-placed winner Big Red Rocket, a son of Summer Bird.

"We'd had a couple of good Carson City mares, and I felt like that was working, so I went looking for another one," said Elizabeth Caldwell, who takes care of the horses, plans all the matings, and preps the sales yearlings for Cane Run.

She found Lanai City, a stakes-placed Carson City daughter out of the stakes winner Loa (by Hawaii), at the 2009 Keeneland January sale, where Caldwell bought her for $15,000 from Bill Reightler. 

"She was open, and it took us another year to get her in foal because it turned out she had Cushings," Caldwell said, referring to an adrenal gland disease that causes the body to produce too much cortisol. Cushings can cause irregularity in the menstrual cycle. "She would get pregnant, but then she would lose it. Once we figured that out, then it was pretty easy to keep her in foal."

Caldwell landed on Into Mischief as a mate for Lanai City while shopping for stallions in the fall of 2012. Spendthrift Farm was one of the last farms Caldwell visited that year.

"I was looking for stallions that were good value with pedigrees that matched up, but I also go look at them to make sure the physicals match up as well," Caldwell said. "The sires really stamp (Lanai City's) foals, and Into Mischief is a handsome individual. I just liked his presence; he had a way about him." 

The son of Harlan's Holiday was standing for $7,500 at the time, but he sired graded stakes-winning juvenile Goldencents  that year and ranked third on the freshman sire list. Caldwell was forewarned Into Mischief's stud fee was getting ready to go up (it would rise to $20,000), so Caldwell quickly signed a contract.

Golden Mischief was the highest-priced yearling sold at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale, selling for $180,000 to Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt.

The Heiligbrodts tried pinhooking Golden Mischief through the Ocala Breeders' Sales' March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale but ended up buying her back on a final bid of $235,000. They sent the filly to trainer Steve Asmussen, who won four black-type stakes and earned $355,830 with her before she was offered as a broodmare/racing prospect during Fasig-Tipton's The November Sale in 2017.

At Fasig-Tipton, Juddmonte Farms' Garrett O'Rourke was looking for potential mates for the farm's retired star Arrogate  and bought Golden Mischief for $475,000. 

"We felt like she was a filly that was good enough to win graded stakes races, but we never put any pressure on Brad," O'Rourke told BloodHorse last month, referring to trainer Brad Cox. "I said, 'Ultimately, that's what we'd like to do, but when you do it and where you do it is entirely up to you.' And he picked his spots all year long with her and pounced."

After capturing two non-graded stakes, Cox got that graded win Oct. 6 in the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G2) at Keeneland. Golden Mischief split horses coming out of the turn and dug in to win by a head over Chalon, who is also in the Filly & Mare Sprint field. 

Golden Mischief heads into the Breeders' Cup as one of four entrants that have won their previous three starts in stakes company and has been assigned morning-line odds of 10-1.

Caldwell couldn't be at Keeneland to watch the TCA. She and her family were at Fasig-Tipton for a Standardbred sale but watched the race on TV. It was probably just as well, she said, because as much as she loves racing, it is nerve-wracking for her to watch.

"I never got nervous showing horses because it was just me, and I could control whether we screwed up or not," she said. "With racing, it is hard to sit back and be at the mercy of the jockeys and the drivers and however the race sets up."

Knowing Golden Mischief and seeing how well she was handled in the TCA by jockey Florent Geroux, however, gives Caldwell confidence the filly will make a good showing Saturday at Churchill.

"As a foal, I remember that she was smart. We find the Thoroughbreds have a much hotter temperament than the Standardbreds, so they require a little bit more work. But she was just so easy to deal with," Caldwell said. "And then at Keeneland, at one point I thought she was done, but he rated her so well. He urged her on and she took off, dug in, and fought through. It's really been fun watching her grow up."