Breeders' Cup: Tyler's Tribe, Slammed small-crop-state starters
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The foal crop in Iowa averaged 177 per year from 2016 to 2020, according to statistics from The Jockey Club. The New Mexico foal crop averaged 430. From those relatively small groups, Iowa and New Mexico each has a Breeders’ Cup runner this year, just the second in their respective histories.
Iowa-bred Tyler’s Tribe is unbeaten in five starts, all in his home state, with four open-lengths stakes victories as he prepares for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Keeneland.
“The people who talk down about the Iowa program, this is a direct answer to that,” said the gelding’s breeder, Derek Merkler. “I think if he continues to be successful, he represents Iowa as something that has a legitimate racing industry and can be a source of great horses that can leave Iowa and be successful in other places.”
Tyler’s Tribe is from the first crop of Kentucky stallion Sharp Azteca. Merkler and his mother, Maureen Merkler of Clifton Farm, who is listed as co-breeder, do have a farm in Kentucky. However, Derek Merkler said that each year the family sends three or four mares back to Iowa to foal in order to take advantage of breeder incentive programs.
Tyler’s Tribe will become just the second Iowa-bred Breeders’ Cup runner. The first was Topper T, who finished eighth in the 2018 Juvenile at Churchill Downs.
Slammed’s start in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint will make her the first New Mexico-bred to run in the Breeders’ Cup since the longshot Rick’s Natural Star was last in the 1996 Turf at Woodbine. Slammed, winner of the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America at Keeneland, was bred by trainer Todd Fincher and Brad King; she now races for King, Stan and Suzanne Kirby, and Barbara Coleman. Slammed’s dam, New Mexico-bred Hennesey Smash, won 7 of 8 starts, including four stakes, and was trained by Fincher as a homebred for Coleman.
Slammed is from the first crop of Marking, a multiple graded stakes-placed son of Bernardini who stands at Fred Alexander’s A & A Ranch in New Mexico.
“It’s a really big deal for our state,” Alexander said. “He’s off to a fantastic start.”
The majority of expected Breeders’ Cup starters were bred in Kentucky, the epicenter of the North American Thoroughbred industry, with a large contingent of international hopefuls bred in Europe, and Chain of Love venturing from her birthplace in Japan. Japan-based runners won two races in last year’s Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar.
Maryland’s breeding program will be represented by defending Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Aloha West.
Moira won this year’s Queen’s Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, and the Ontario-born filly now comes south for the Filly and Mare Turf. In addition to sizeable contingents bred in California, Florida, and New York, the Breeders’ Cup might have starters bred in Louisiana or Pennsylvania.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.