Bold World gives newcomer thrills

Amy Tarrant is new to the Thoroughbred business. A native of Burlington, Vermont, she hired veteran horseman Ron J. Taylor to get her into the game, and Taylor did just that - spending roughly one million dollars at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's 2 year-old sales, for 10 horses.

"I have been in the hunter-jumpershow horse set as a hobby, and when my youngest of five kids went off to college, I decided to make it more or less a full-time hobby," Tarrant said. "But the thought of owning racehorses was always there."

Among her 10 purchases is a Fortunate Prospect filly that has the look and style of a potential racing machine. Bold World is her name, and she returned a good chunk of her $475,000 OBS April purchase price by winning her maiden in the $125,000 Susan's Girl division of the Florida Stallion Stakes series.

"I was so nervous before and after her race," Tarrant said. "I could not believe it could happen to me. You know, there are no accidents in this world. I believe in fate or destiny. My introduction to R.J. [Taylor], this whole business, Bold World."

Tarrant is now a Florida property owner. She bought an 18-acre farm north of Ocala, which she named Hardacre Farm (LLC).

"For the turnouts," she said. "You know, R and R when they need it. I bought a yearling at the Ocala yearling sales and eventually want to have a stable of 20. I haven't thought about breeding at this time, but since half my horses are fillies, I will have to address this sometime down the road. As I said, I am a fatalist and believe that things happen in some sort of preordained order."

In the paddock before Bold World ran in the Susan's Girl, Mike Sherman, the breeder of the filly who also had a runner in the race, wished Tarrant and Taylor the best.

"I'd rather have a customer win than myself," he said. "My business is selling horses." Sherman was among the first to congratulate the winners. His own homebred, Lacy Lady, finished off the board.

When the inaugural round of the Florida Stallion Stakes series began in l982, Mockingbird Farm's Valid Appeal was represented with several starters from his third crop. The now 29-year-old pensioner sired his first winners of this series in l988, his offspring Valid Space and Reappeal winning divisions of the series. In the ensuing years Valid Appeal would lead all other Florida stallions in this category, ending his stallion career with 10. The late Baldski, who stood at Farnsworth Farms, is the runnerup, with eight winners. Harry T. Mangurian, Jr.'s Mockingbird Farm and Sherman's Farnsworth Farms were tied on the leading breeder list, going into the second round of this year's renewal of the series. But they're not tied any longer, because Bold World's victory raised Farnsworth's record to 10 wins.

Jim and Sheila DiMare's Rising Hill Farm is home to the freshman sire Adhocracy, who was not high on the breeders' popularity list before this year, when out of his meager crop of ten, five have already gotten to the races.

Now Adhocracy's popularity is rising. Among his five starters are three winners and two horses who ran second. The three winners ran in the Susan's Girl division of the Florida Stallion Stakes. They include Pharmastar, who was 2 for 2 going into the Susan's Girl, and Buck for Par earned part of the purse, with a fifth-place finish.

"Adhocracy's first crop has generated some interest in him for the coming season," said Jim DiMare. "He's a good-looking horse with a respectable racing record but he has to do it on his own. And he is doing it."