Preakness Win by Bodexpress Would Bolster Brick City

Victory by Bodexpress in the May 18 Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course would be an exclamation point on an already booming year for the Brick City Thoroughbreds operation of J.R. and Katie Boyd.

According to BloodHorse MarketWatch data, Brick City has sold 25 of 33 juveniles offered this year for total receipts in excess of $3.4 million. According to J.R. Boyd, who was taking a break May 16 from overseeing Brick City's three-horse consignment to the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, the eight horses that went unsold in the ring changed hands privately. 

"We have had a great year so far, so there's less stress," said Boyd as he relaxed in the barn area of the sale grounds at the Maryland State Fairgrounds near Timonium, Md. "We have had a really good (return on investment)."

While sale returns are important to any consignor's bottom line, success on the racetrack is just as important to the Boyds. They pride themselves on having horses such as Preakness hopeful Bodexpress, whom they helped select at auction and prepare for a racing career.

"Our motto is, if we can produce runners, people will come buy horses and they will trust me to buy whatever I tell them to buy," said Boyd, who credits his stepfather, Florida horseman Robby Harris, and his late mother, Mary, with teaching him horsemanship and business skills. "If I have a horse that's sore or has a shin problem, I let them know up front. If you are going to stay in this business a long time, you have to have trust. We're trying hard to build trust between us and the buyers."

Bred in Kentucky by Martha Jane Mulholland, Bodexpress is a son of Bodemeister  out of the unraced City Zip mare Pied a Terre. The colt, winless in six starts but whose three second-place finishes include the March 30 Xpressbet Florida Derby (G1) at Gulfstream Park, was purchased privately by Boyd for $40,000 after failing to attain his reserve on a final bid of $45,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. 

Offered by Brick City at last year's Midlantic sale, the colt went unsold on a final bid of $37,000 and was then prepared for racing by the Boyds for owners Global Thoroughbreds, Top Racing, and GDS Racing Stable, and trainer Gustavo Delgado. 

Boyd recalled that at the 2-year-old sale, Bodexpress had a minor joint issue that the veterinarian for Global Thoroughbreds and Brick City did not believe would be an issue going forward. But, apparently, it was enough to keep buyers from anteing up.

"At these sales, vets have to do their jobs and tell (potential buyers) everything that is wrong. When you have (money), it's easy for the owner to say, 'I'll buy the next one,'" Boyd said. "I knew he was a nice horse, so I said, 'Put a $37,000 reserve on him because there's no reason to lose money on him.'"

Once in Delgado's hands, Bodexpress began to fulfill Boyd's confidence in him.

"You don't really know you've got a good horse until you work them five furlongs with another serious horse," he said. "It's our job to put the foundation on them and get them where they can handle the racetrack atmosphere."

Global Thoroughbreds has been associated with Brick City since being started three years ago, with the Boyds leasing the owner's farm near Ocala, Fla. The Boyds are part of the Global Thoroughbreds team that selects horses to buy and then prepares them to be resold or put into training.

"Global hired me to run their farm for one year, and then a few people started calling me to train some horses, so we worked out a deal where I lease their farm and they pay me a day rate to train their horses," Boyd said. "They are very good people. They offer everything to sell. Gustavo Delgado handles all the training."

Boyd said Brick City's success this year is not attributable to any change in how horses to be resold as 2-year-olds are purchased as yearlings, but to the economic cycles that many in the equine marketplace go through.

"We didn't spend more money this year, the ball just kind of bounced our way," Boyd said. "We buy the same kind of horses every year, and it's a cycle. When it's your turn, you have to ride the wave and be smart with your money, because when that wave crashes, it crashes hard. We just try to stay on an even keel."

Boyd said one organizational change he has made has been to attract and retain quality personnel, the latest example being Brick City's hiring of Mandy Hamilton to manage the farm. That, in turn, led Brick City to utilize the services of Quincy Hamilton, Mandy's husband and a journeyman jockey based at Canterbury Park who worked Brick City's Midlantic sale 2-year-olds during the under tack show leading up to the May 20-21 sale.

"When you have the right people in the right places, your success starts to skyrocket," Boyd said. "It took me a while to learn to do that and to let the people in those spots do their jobs."

The Hamiltons reside on a farm near Ocala, and the jockey said he typically does not ride the first part of the year until Canterbury opens, providing him the opportunity to assist Brick City with the breaking and training duties.

"It works out really well with my schedule," said Hamilton, who, according to The Jockey Club Information Systems, has ridden more than 1,600 winners. "The first quarter of the year is a time when I'm off for about seven weeks. I wasn't counting on having anything to do other than working around our farm and not even thinking about horses, when my wife, Mandy, said J.R. needed some help.

"Even though I wasn't expecting to go back to work that early, I appreciated the opportunity to come in and get on some well-broken, well-mannered horses that have a lot of class."

Hamilton said the under tack show, in which sale prospects are breezed a quick eighth- or quarter-mile, requires a different skill set than he is accustomed to at the track.

"It's a totally different adrenaline rush," Hamilton said of sale workouts. "You want to rev up that motor and pop the clutch. I'm used to getting on horses where the first time I get on them, they will go three-eighths of a mile and you don't want them to go fast. For the races, everybody has their own style, but it certainly isn't an eighth as fast as you can go. It's still the same concept of taking care of the horse and doing what's best for them. The end result is put your horse first."