September 2015 Members of the Month: Pam & Marty Wygod

Pam & Marty Wygod

This summer, Pam and Marty Wygod’s homebred Prospect Park has gone from prospect to proven racehorse. Most recently, the three-year-old colt finished third to Om – the first horse to beat American Pharoah – in the September 6 Del Mar Derby (gr. IIT), after defeating that horse by 4 ¼ lengths in the August 9 La Jolla Handicap (gr. IIIT) at Del Mar.

In 2015, Prospect Park (Tapit – Quiet Romance, by Bertrando) has proven his mettle. He finished second in the San Felipe Stakes (gr. II) and fourth in the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I), both behind Dortmund, then wound up second to Gimme Da Lute in both the Affirmed Stakes (gr. III) and the Los Alamitos Derby (gr. II). Prospect Park has won or placed in nine out of 11 starts, earning $426,570, and will run next in the October 24 Twilight Derby (gr. IIT) at Santa Anita.

Prospect Park has been a problem child for the Wygods. “Well, I don’t think it’s that he suddenly found his footing on the turf. It’s just that he’s a difficult horse to train,” observes Marty Wygod. “He, on two occasions now, has gotten congestion just before a race, like the Santa Anita Derby, and then, according to the vet, he’d be all cleared up and he’d have a normal temperature…and then we’d run him and he’d run dull and after the race, he’d get quite sick. That’s happened to us twice and it set us back quite a bit. I think he showed what his talent was like when he won the La Jolla, and then he ran 15 lengths poorer in the Del Mar Derby.”

Erratic health or no, Prospect Park is a product of the Wygods’ stellar breeding program. His dam, Wygod homebred Quiet Romance, also foaled 2004 Santa Anita Oaks (gr. I) winner Silent Sighs and multiple grade II winner Proposed. Currently in foal to Curlin, Quiet Romance has a promising two-year-old full sister to Prospect Park named Love Quote and a Tapit weanling.

The Wygods, who reside in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., first bought into this family by purchasing Quiet Romance’s second dam, Chilean-bred group I winner Viga, for $72,000 at the 1986 Keeneland November sale. They once stood Quiet Romance’s sire, Bertrando, and her broodmare sire, leading regional stallion Pirate’s Bounty, at their River Edge Farm near Buellton, Calif.

Adding to their diverse portfolio, the Wygods own interests in multiple stallions. To the cover of Storm Cat, their multiple grade I winner Tranquility Lake produced two grade I winners: After Market (now standing in Turkey) and speedy miler Courageous Cat, who currently holds court at Questroyal North in Stillwater, N.Y. “At a mile, he could only be beaten by the very, very best,” Wygod observes. “The first year, we stood him at Lane’s End, but it didn’t work well with his full brother being there, After Market. So Will Farish thought the smartest thing to do was move into New York, and he’s had full books every year since we’ve moved him there.” Courageous Cat’s first crop has already yielded stakes winner School Board Prez.

The Wygods also own part of grade I winner Twirling Candy, whose first crop is off and running this year. “He was an outstanding racehorse and great physical specimen,” enthuses Wygod, “and I remember when Will Farish and I tried to buy him, we negotiated and purchased half the horse to stand him at Lane’s End.”

Over the past few years, the Wygods have whittled down their operation. “So all of our broodmares and our family trust broodmares

[numbering 20 in total] are at Lane’s End in [Versailles], Ky.,” says Wygod, who estimates his total number of horses at 60. “It all started back then in the early ’60s,” Wygod recalls. “My main breeding, though, has taken place over the last 15 years in Kentucky, but most of our foundation broodmares came from families that we raised [from] maybe three generations ago, and [we] were very selective and kept certain ones and kept culling our broodmare band and came up with some great producing mares.”

Those great producers include the dam of Wygod-bred champion Shared Belief. “We must have sold $25 million worth of horses through public auction and privately, so you always sell some good ones and regret it, obviously,” he admits. The ones the Wygods have kept, however, include Breeders’ Cup-winning full siblings Sweet Catomine and Life Is Sweet, out of 2009 Broodmare of the Year Sweet Life. The sisters’ two-year-old half-sibling by Bernardini, the filly Symbolic Gesture, will start soon, while the latter’s juvenile three-quarter sister, Miss Catomine (Bernardini – Sweet Catomine), should excel around Santa Anita’s two turns. As Wygod quips, “We’ve been very lucky. The breeding gods and the racing gods have been very good to us.”

Congratulations to Pam and Marty Wygod, TOBA’s September member of the month!