Best has rooting interests in the Kentucky Derby and Oaks

Larry Best, who buys, breeds, and races as OXO Equine, has been a Thoroughbred owner since 2017. In less than five years, he has raced a bevy of graded stakes winners, and is now drawing a bead on the Kentucky Oaks with one of those. He also will have a rooting interest in the Kentucky Derby, thanks to the progress of his broodmare band.

Travel Column, who Best purchased as a yearling, got the best of rival Clairiere to carry his colors to victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks, stamping herself as one of the favorites for the Kentucky Oaks. Less than an hour later, Hot Rod Charlie punched his ticket to the Kentucky Derby with a victory in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby for owners Roadrunner Racing, Boat Racing, and William Strauss. Best owns Hot Rod Charlie’s dam, Indian Miss, already the dam of an Eclipse Award champion.

Travel Column, from the first crop of Frosted, is out of the three-time stakes-winning Victory Gallop mare Swingit. She is the dam of Neolithic, whose multiple graded stakes-placings included third-place efforts in the Pegasus World Cup and Dubai World Cup. Best went to $850,000 to purchase Travel Column at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale.

“She is a beautiful filly,” Best said at the time. “I like the cross with Victory Gallop. She looks the part, and I don’t think you can lose in the long term. She’s a good buy at $850,000. I love Frosted and I love Victory Gallop. The physical matched the promise. I expected to go in this [price] range.”

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Travel Column added the Fair Grounds Oaks to her victory in the Grade 2 Golden Rod last fall at Churchill Downs, in which she also bested Clairiere. She finished second to Clairiere in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra and was third in last fall’s Grade 1 Alcibiades.

Upon the eventual conclusion of her racing career, Travel Column could be a strong addition to a broodmare band Best has been building with top-end sale purchases in recent years, with an eye toward supporting his own young stallions. Best’s Grade 1 winner Instilled Regard and Grade 2 winner Instagrand entered stud last month at Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky. Best has strongly supported both, particularly Instagrand, a son of leading sire and emerging sire of sires Into Mischief.

Best’s first major broodmare purchase was 2019 Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Blue Prize, who he landed for a sale-leading $5 million at the Fasig-Tipton November sale just days following that victory. At the 2020 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, Best purchased the two top lots, buying Grade 1 winner Concrete Rose for $1.95 million and the broodmare Indian Miss for $1.9 million. Indian Miss, by Indian Charlie, is the dam of Eclipse Award winner Mitole, who counted the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Sprint and Metropolitan Handicap among his seven career stakes victories. The mare nearly had another Breeders’ Cup winner when Hot Rod Charlie was second to divisional champion Essential Quality as a huge longshot in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. His Louisiana Derby win makes him a prominent Kentucky Derby candidate. His dam was an intended mate for Instagrand this spring, representing a major get for the first-year stallion.

“That’s my strategy – try to get Instagrand going,” Best said. “I really want to give Instagrand a shot. Indian Charlie is a beautiful cross with Into Mischief.”

Concrete Rose, meanwhile, was the first mare confirmed in foal to Instagrand.

Best’s young mare Cambier Parc, who he campaigned to multiple Grade 1 wins, was the first mare confirmed in foal to Instilled Regard. Blue Prize also was to be bred to that young stallion this spring.