Oatsee named broodmare of the year

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Oatsee, the dam of 2011 Preakness winner Shackleford and 2007 Alabama winner Lady Joanne, was named Broodmare of the Year Thursday by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders.

Bred in Kentucky by Bentley Smith, Oatsee went through the 2006 Keeneland January sale and sold for $135,000 to Mike Lauffer and Bill Cubbedge (Belvedere Farm, agent). Four days later, her daughter Baghdaria won the Grade 3 Silverbulletday, and later in the year another daughter, Lady Joanne, won the Grade 2 Golden Rod. By the time Oatsee foaled her 2008 Forestry colt, Lady Joanne also had won the Alabama to earn Grade 1 status.

Things only got better from there for Lauffer and Cubbedge. They kept Shackleford but in 2008 sold Oatsee, in foal to A. P. Indy, for $1.55 million. Shackleford went on to Preakness fame, placed in three other Grade 1 races, and earned more than $2 million. Another Oatsee foal bred by Lauffer and Cubbedge, Afleeting Lady, also placed in the Grade 2 Falls City last year. The A.P. Indy foal, a ridgling bred by Oatsee’s 2008 buyer Leonard Riggio, is 2012 Count Fleet winner Stephanoatsee.

Oatsee, by Unbridled out of the Lear Fan mare With Every Wish, produced an Indian Charlie filly on March 11.

At its luncheon at Keeneland Thursday, the KTOB also honored its Kentucky-bred champions and leading earners under the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund program.

The 2011 Horse of the Year and handicap mare is Havre de Grace. Other state-bred champions are Hansen, champion juvenile male; My Miss Aurelia, juvenile filly; Animal Kingdom, 3-year-old male; Royal Delta, 3-year-old filly; Drosselmeyer, handicap male; Gio Ponti, turf male; Never Retreat, turf female; Caleb’s Posse, sprinter; Tax Ruling, steeplechaser; and Blue Bunting, best Kentucky-bred racing abroad.

In other awards, Darley Stud took home the P. A. B. Widener Award as Kentucky Breeder of the Year, Alex G. Campbell won the W. T. Young Humanitarian Award, and Catesby Clay of Runnymede Farm was presented with the Hardboot Breeders Award.

Leading KTDF earners were Distorted Humor, leading sire; Big Albert, leading runner; Ken and Sarah Ramsey, owners of the year; Mike Maker, trainer of the year; and Claiborne Farm, Seth Hancock, and Adele Dilschneider, breeders of the year. Turf writer Steve Haskin also received the Charles W. Engelhard Award for outstanding media coverage.