Long game starting to pay off for Pope, Whisper Hill Farm

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A little more than a decade ago, Mandy Pope began making major investments in her broodmare band, with the long-range goal of developing an elite homebred racing and commercial operation. Now, that goal is coming to fruition, with Pope’s eye-catching pink silks in the winner’s circle of several graded stakes and others seeking to secure stock from her operation.

Four blue-blooded yearlings bred by Pope – including a son of newly minted Hall of Famer Songbird – fetched seven-figure price tags during the opening week of the Keeneland September yearling sale.

“It’s been great – it’s been wonderful, actually,” said Pope, who breeds and races as Whisper Hill Farm. “We’re very happy. . . . [This was] the whole point of it. It just takes a long time to get it off the ground and going. So, fingers crossed it will continue to do that and we’ll continue with a lot of racing success and breeding success in the future.”

Pope has purchased accomplished runners such as Horse of the Year Havre de Grace ($10 million at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton November sale), two-time Eclipse Award champion Songbird ($9.5 million, 2017 Fasig-Tipton November sale), Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil ($5 million, 2022 Fasig-Tipton November sale), Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty ($4.2 million, 2012 Keeneland November sale), Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Unrivaled Belle ($3.8 million, 2016 Keeneland November sale), and two-time Eclipse champion Groupie Doll ($3.1 million, 2013 Keeneland November sale).

In addition to other well-bred or accomplished broodmare prospects, she also has selected yearling fillies to race and eventually add to her broodmare band and invested in colts, sometimes with partners.

Developing a breeding program is not an overnight process. After selecting a stallion pairing for a mare and waiting roughly 11 months for the foal to arrive, another year and a half goes into raising the young horse on the farm before he or she departs either for an auction or early training. Then, of course, it is time to watch the horse’s career play out on the racetrack, which can affect the value of his or her family.

Pope has played this long game. She boards her mares and foals at Wayne and Cathy Sweezey’s Timber Town Farm in Lexington. The stock she has offered for sale this week has been consigned by Gainesway, as agent. Horses Pope retains to race as homebreds, or those she purchases at auction, head to her Whisper Hill farm and training center in Florida, under the direction of her racing manager, bloodstock adviser, and farm trainer Todd Quast.

“It’s really rewarding to see someone like Mandy getting paid for all these years that she’s invested in these mares,” Gainesway general manager Brian Graves said. “It’s good to see her winning. Obviously, it’s going to take years to get these kind of results, the way she’s doing it, so we’re happy for her.”

Pope’s seven-figure lots in the first week of the Keeneland sale were led by a $1.7 million colt by Into Mischief out of I’ll Take Charge, purchased by Jersey City Destroyers Stable. A Tapit filly out of Lady Take Charge went for $1.3 million to Sinandigan Stable. Another Into Mischief colt, this one out of American Gal, was purchased for $1.1 million by Grandview Equine. Rounding out the quartet, the son of Hall of Famers Curlin and Songbird sold for $1 million, also to Grandview.

This was the second foal out of multiple Grade 1 winner American Gal, a $3 million purchase by Pope at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton November sale. The mare has already been paying back that investment. The mare’s first foal, a Curlin filly, sold for $500,000 at this sale last year to Mike Repole.

I’ll Take Charge, a $2.2 million yearling purchase by Pope who went on to win at the track, and the unstarted Lady Take Charge, a $3.2 million yearling, are both daughters of Broodmare of the Year Take Charge Lady, whose family line Pope has invested in heavily. That involvement is paying dividends.

Out of I’ll Take Charge, Pope campaigns homebred Charge It, who finished second in the Grade 1 Florida Derby in 2022 to become Pope’s first solely owned Kentucky Derby starter. Although the colt finished 17th, he has since won the Grade 3 Dwyer and, earlier this year, the Grade 2 Suburban.

Pope saw her colors in the Derby again this year after Tapit Trice, who won the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes, finished seventh for the owner, in partnership with Gainesway. The colt was third in two other major events for the division, the Belmont Stakes and Travers.

Pope’s other top runners include graded stakes-winning homebreds Graceful Princess – a daughter of Havre de Grace – and Grand Sonata.

“It means a lot more when they’re homebreds,” Pope said. “The homebred thing is so gratifying, because you did that, from buying the mare, to picking out the stallion, foaling and raising them, and getting them here.”

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