August 2022 Member of the Month: Gail Peyton

Gail Peyton, of Forging Oaks Farm, is the featured TOBA Member this month.

ith the help of Reiley McDonald’s Eaton Sales, Gail Peyton’s Forging Oaks Farm has forged ahead as a successful breeding operation. Most recently, Consumer Spending, bred by Peyton and her late husband Jim, became the 100th graded stakes winner for More Than Ready. On June 9, the sophomore filly notched her third blacktype triumph in the June 9 Wonder Again Stakes (G2T) at Belmont Park.

Consigned to the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Select Yearlings Showcase, the gray/roan youngster sold for $200,000 to Northway Bloodstock. Now racing for Klaravich Stables, Consumer Spending broke her maiden in her second start, winning Laurel Park’s Selima Stakes next time out. She faced a stiff test Nov. 5 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) at Del Mar, ultimately finishing a credible sixth to Pizza Bianca.

This spring, the filly avenged herself on Pizza Bianca in the Memories of Silver Stakes at Aqueduct before trouncing four rivals in the Wonder Again. “She’s very, very good,” McDonald commented, “but I don’t think we’ve seen how good she is yet—well, maybe we did the other day. It’s gratifying to have watched her grow up and to have sold her and to have given Gail so much fun watching her career.”

The Peytons built a strong bond with McDonald. “I started to work for Jim Peyton about 13 years ago,” said McDonald. Though Jim Peyton had previously campaigned graded stakes winners like Passified and Ticker Tape, the sport wasn’t providing him with the “kind of pleasure” he wanted. McDonald went on, “So he decided to sell all of his horses with a plan to come back and reinvest in a commercial breeding band. So, we then delved back into the market over a period of three years and purchased another 15, call it another 16, mares and, you know, they had a great commercial run.

“Jim was a very, very good businessman, very bottom line-oriented,” continued McDonald. “He said, ‘I want to basically develop a broodmare band and I want to be able to trade and I’d like to attempt to break even. And if we can build our assets and try to break even with cash flow, that’s my goal and I’d like to have some fun. I’d like to see beautiful horses on my beautiful farm.’”

McDonald noted, “Everything we did was based on conformation and look.” McDonald added, “We looked for size, balance, and athleticism, and to an extent, correctness.” Forging Oaks bred a handsome son of Street Sense-Shimmer, by Pulpit, who topped the last day of the 2018 October Sale at Keeneland by selling
for $500,000. At the same sale in 2019, Forging Oaks offered a Candy Ride yearling, whom McDonald said had “a great attitude.” Withdrawn from the 2019 Saratoga Sale due to an accident that left a gash in his neck, the colt went under the hammer for $560,000.

After Jim’s passing a few years ago, Gail continued the operation, though she recently sold the farm and horses. A few mares and youngsters will be offered later this year. “I get a big kick out of it when they break out,” said McDonald. “Sadly, Jim didn’t get to see the two horses top the sale, but he did the matings. He
took the money. He bought the mares. And Gail had the satisfaction of selling them, of topping the sale.”

Forging Oaks bought Consumer Spending’s dam, Siempre Mia, at the 2017 Keeneland November sale for $185,000. At the time, the daughter of
Scat Daddy, whom McDonald dubbed “absolutely beautiful,” was in foal to Malibu Moon. Her More Than Ready filly inherited good looks.

“McDonald said, “I do remember that she was very, very pretty and very athletic and had a really huge walk on her, much like her little weanling sister.” That full sister to Consumer Spending hammered for $240,000 at the 2021 Keeneland November sale. In foal to American Pharoah, Siempre Mia sold to St. George Stables for $390,000 at this year’s Keeneland January sale.

“Gail was thrilled with Consumer Spending,” McDonald related, “and the fact that she went to the Breeders’ Cup, and she was glued to the television. She took a lot of pleasure in that, and I think it really made her feel sorry to be selling the farm, but it was something that had to be done and she really did like watching to see whatthe progeny were doing on the track.”