Ina Bond and Austin Musselman are the TOBA September Members of the Month.

With Maracuja’s July 24 Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) win, equine and human dynasties united. Maracuja is a tail-female descendant of Canadian standout Victoria Regina, dam of champion Viceregal and leading sire Vice Regent. Her breeders are Kentucky royalty: Ina Brown Bond and son Austin Musselman and daughter-in-law Janie Musselman. The doyenne of River Bend Farm, Ina Brown Bond descends from George Garvin Brown, founder of spirits company Brown-Forman.

“Well, we have had a good week or two,” Bond said. “All of a sudden, you know, the whole stable comes through.” She added, “But when it happens, you’re just on cloud nine and there’s nothing like it.” In addition to the CCA Oaks, River Bend-bred Miles D finished second behind b in the July 30 Curlin Stakes. A $470,000 yearling, Miles D races for Peter Brant and Robert LaPenta.

River Bend also owns Beat the Drums, dam of Curlin winner Dynamic One. The outfit purchased the mare, by Smart Strike and out of champion Storm Flag Flying, at the 2018 Keeneland November sale for $400,000. Bond’s eight-mare broodmare band contains numerous descendants of Personal Ensign. Miles D’s dam, Sound the Trumpets, is a half-sister to Storm Flag Flying. “Pretty much, I’ve been very enamored with the family,” Bond said.

Bond resides in Louisville and maintains a farm in Goshen. She has been a commercial breeder for three decades but keeps her number of horses small. “We’re not a big operation,” she said, “but we’re an honest one, and I’ve loved every minute of it.”

At the 2014 Keeneland January Sale, River Bend bought stakes-placed Patti’s Regal Song, dam of Maracuja. In foal to Malibu Moon, the Unbridled’s Song sold for $325,000. “Janie actually found her, actually, just walking around, looking at horses,” Austin Musselman recalled.

“And then we decided to sell her because she wasn’t producing as well,” he added, “and we had bred her to Honor Code. And then then fate has it that she finally produces a grade 1 winner, and unfortunately, we sold the mare, but still we’re very thrilled to have been a part of this.”

Consigned to the 2019 Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga Select Yearling sale, Patti’s Regal Song’s Honor Code filly sold for $200,000. Named Maracuja, she races for Beach Haven Thoroughbreds LLC. And Bond was thrilled for Maracuja’s win, saying that “we were all just screaming and yelling and happy.” She is hoping to partner with her family on more horses. Musselman concurred, saying, “This kind of puts more wind back in our sails to get back in, and probably mostly in the broodmare arena, and maybe have a few to race.”

Austin Musselman runs hospitality venue Ashbourne Farms in La Grange. “It was my grandparents’ farm and it’s more a cattle farm.,” Musselman said.I really just love the agriculture part of things. My mother had a small broodmare operation; it started when I was really in high school, freshman year, back in the ’80s.” He worked the farm during the summers, mucking out stalls and soaking up knowledge; he also took some TOBA classes. Despite heading into real estate, he never lost his love for horses.

Musselman is no stranger to partnering with close relatives on horses. He noted that he and Janie “had partnered in a few horses with her father, Doug Arnold [of Buck Pond Farm in Versailles], and her brother, Doug Arnold Jr.,” he said. “But buying Patti’s Regal Song marked a change; he called her “the first, kind of, higher-caliber mare that we personally invested in.”

Bond is a noted philanthropist who works with organizations from the Muhammad Ali Center to the Red Cross. On the board of the Kentucky Horse Park, Janie extends her generosity to off-track Thoroughbred organizations, while Austin is involved in conservation efforts across the state. And horse racing has brought the family even closer together. “My wife Janie, like I said, she grew up following Thoroughbreds, grew up on a Thoroughbred farm, would go to Saratoga every summer since she was a child,” Musselman mused, “and it’s a special thing to have her and my mother connect over this love of racing.”