Justify Filly o/o MGSP Mare Laseen

Undefeated Triple Crown Winner Justify is off to an impressive start as a sire as his first crop continues to perform exceptionally well. Laseen 21 is o/o Multiple Graded Stakes placed Laseen by Dylan Thomas. The Justify/Laseen cross has produced 5 graded stakes winners along with 6 black type stakes winners. Bred by Hank Nothhaft’s HnR Nothhaft Horseracing, Laseen 21 is offered by Ballysax Bloodstock as HIP 1061.

Laseen 21 filly by Justify click for Pedigree

This large, physically impressive, tall filly was born and raised @Coolmore America. Her large frame portends continued physical development as Laseen 21 fills out her large frame.

Laseen 21 walking video

Kindle 21, American Pharoah Colt, Offered for Sale Keeneland September

A powerfully built, athletic colt by American Pharoah o/o stakes producing mare Kindle by Indian Charlie is being offered as Hip 1053. at Keeneland September yearling sale by Ballysax Bloodstock. If you are looking for a precocious and stunning looking colt, don’t miss out on this one.

Kindle 21 colt by American Pharoah

Bred by Hank Nothhaft’s HnR Nothhaft Horseracing LLC (HnR Horseracing), Kindle 21 is the 5th foal and 5th colt produced by Kindle. After a year off, Kindle is in foal with a filly by Munnings.

Click below for walking video

Click for Pedigree

Kindle’s first foal is Made in America by Tiznow. Campaigned by HnR, Made in America (KY) started 6 times, winning 3 times and placing 2 times. The only time Made in America (KY) didn’t hit the board was his first race. In his last start, Made in America (KY) won the Forego Stakes at Turfway Park.

Kindle’s second foal, a colt from American Pharoah’s first crop created a sensation at the Keeneland Sales. After being sold by HnR for $400K as a weanling, the colt was resold as a yearling for $2.2 Million, the highest price paid for a American Pharoah yearling. The buyer was Godolphin. The colt was exported to Europe, named Confidential Act, and never raced.

The 3rd Kindle colt was sold by HnR as a yearling at the Saratoga Select Sale, bringing $520K. By Pioneer of the Nile, the new owner John Oxley, named hime Palazzi and turned the training over to HOF trainer Mark Casse. Palazzi, a stakes winner and still active, sports a 18 2 3 2 recored with earnings of $320k

Kindle then produced an Into Mischief colt. Retained by HnR for racing, Kindle 20 is now named American Symphony and is in training with Phil Schoenthal towards making his first start.

Passion Play by Lenny Shulman “Bloodhorse Magazine” 12 January 2019

Hank Nothhaft builds a top breeding program from scratch

BY LENNY SHULMAN
PHOTOS COURTESY OF HANK NOTHHAFT

Nothhaft traded venture technology companies for a career in horses

Nothhaft-bred Finest City, winner of the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint

ELEVEN YEARS AGO VENTURE· TECHNOLOGY COMPANY CEO
Hank Nothhaft looked at himself in the mirror and realized that, after three decades, he was los­ing his passion for his work. He needed a new challenge, one that satisfied his all-encompassing, adrenaline-driven, compulsive lifestyle.

               Hello Thoroughbred breeding and racing.

A decade of immersion into every­ thing horses has yielded significant results for the 74-year-old Nothhaft, a native of Pennsylvania who has traveled the world in both his military and civilian lives. Under HnR Nothhaft Horse Racing (the “R” coming courtesy of wife Randie) Nothhaft has bred Breeders’ Cup Champion Finest City, multiple graded stakes winner Daddy ls a Legend , and multiple stakes-winning homebred Grand Prix. He has also campaigned multiple graded stakes winner Living The Life and multiple grade 2-placed stakes winner Kindle, and has specialized in purchasing modestly­ priced stock that has gone on to perform on the racetrack and in the breeding shed.

There were no horses or racing in Nothhaft’s youth in Sharon, Pa ., between Erie and Youngstown, although today that area is littered with race tracks that didn’t exist decades ago. Nothhaft graduated from the United States Naval Academy and served in Vietnam , achieving his MBA in information systems technology after he exited the military. He assumed ownership of a series of tech companies, which

Nothhaft with Finest City at the 2012 Keeneland November Sale

took him from Washington D.C., to Dallas, and eventually to Silicon Valley in Northern California. There, the racing bug  bit him on friends-and-family outings to Bay Meadows.”   We loved that place, and I developed a positive view of horse racing,” noted Nothhaft. “I was going back and forth to England quite a bit , and read all the Dick Francis novels on those trips, and began going to race tracks like Lingfield, near London, and really enjoyed it. ”

Those good feelings persuaded Nothhaft to take up the challenge of trying to survive in the horse industry, initially as an owner .

“I analyzed a bunch of different industries, and I ended up with Thorough-hred racing,” he said. ” I do look back and chuckle at my naivete in thinking I could do what has subsequently occurred.  I love the competition and the immediate feedback you get on your decisions .

“What I find appealing is you can immerse yourself in the data side of it. I always had a dashboard on any company I was running and loved to throw myself into the statistics and analyze the company in as many ways as possible. So when l started looking at pedigrees and bloodlines, I thought,  ‘Wow, that amount of data is perfect for an insatiable appetite like mine.’ ”

Nothhaft did his homework. He attended seminars put on by the Thoroughbred Owners of California, watched BloodHorse videos on conformation, read books, and then went out and raced some cheap claimers in Northern California, seeking to have fun, enjoy the competition, and hopefully break even. ‘The plan didn’t work well, and Nothhaft used the economic meltdown of 2009 to liquidate his stock, learn from his early mistakes, and start over again.

With the benefit of advice from Gary Mandella and Mary Knight, he began buying better Cal-breds. Chalking it up to “dumb luck,” he bought Randie’s Legend at auction for $ 43,000 in 2008 .

She would go on to produce Daddy ls a Legend. But Nothhaft turned the corner when he decided that Pennsylvania offered more opportunity than did the situation in California. He enlisted Carl McEntee to help buy bloodstock and the operation clicked. Nothhaft grabbed Kindle for  $50,000, Be Envied for $37,000, Living The Life for less than $50,000, and Halljoy, who would become group stakes -placed. for $150,000 . All became valued members of his broodmare band, with Be Envied producing Finest City and Grand Prix.

“Hank came to realize that buying more-commercial broodmares was the most productive place to be, and safest to work within,” McEntee noted. “We’ve had good success and have made smart decisions on our breeding selections, which we both spend a lot of time on. ‘There’s luck involved, because this is the ‘Thoroughbred industry, and there are no certainties. But the harder you work, the luckier you seem to get.”

‘Today, Nothhaft’s 10 broodmares produce Pennsylvania-breds after being bred to Kentucky stallions, and he him­self is on the board of the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association.

“One of the side benefits of getting into horses is that I’ve reconnected with my home state,”  he said. “I’ve traveled the world, lived for three decades in California (today he lives in Austin, Texas) , and came back to my roots; in Pennsylvania.  I’ve won the Presque Isle Downs Masters Stakes (G2) twice. Where other guys have Kentucky Derby fever, I want to get a PABRED to win the Masters,” which has never happened . It takes all kinds of people, right?”

Most of the mares Nothhaft owns today either raced for him or were bred by him, the notable exception being Sulis, whom he bought specifically to breed to Silver Train, a stallion Nothhaft bought and stood in Pennsylvania, hut who died after just two years. Having paid $105,000 for Sulis, a daughter of Maria ‘s Mon, Nothhaft proceeded to sell weanlings  out of her for $250,000, $130,000, and $ 220,000 within four years.

Nothhaft with his grandchildren at Golden Gate Fields

Nothhaft with Living the Life UK All Weather Champion and 2 times winner Masters Stakes Gr2

As legendary Kentucky horseman Robert Courtney used to say, that’s how you make money in this business.

Because the Pennsylvania incentive program is going well, Nothhaft said he might increase his mare population to 15, but generally he is concentrating on improving the quality of the band rather than increasing its number.

“Carl and I made a decision not to take the risk of raising them to be yearlings .” Nothhaft said of his early preference for selling weanlings . “At least until now. The yearling market is crazy right now so I’m not unhappy to hold onto them another year because the financial advantage is shifting that way. That hasn’t always been true.” That updated strategy comes in part from the American Pharoah-Kindle weanling colt Nothhaft sold for S400,000 who was pin hooked by Peter O’Callaghan and sold for s2.2 million at last September’s Keeneland yearling auction.

Kindle and Kindle 17 who became the most expensive American Pharoah sold so far at $2.2M

Nothhaft supported McEntee during the latter’s time at Darby Dan Farm and has helped bankroll McEntee’s move to open Ballysax Bloodstock, which now consigns the Nothhaft-breds.

“Carl is all energy and is a hard worker,” said Nothhaft. “In his first year in 2018 he’s had good-quality consignments and gotten good results.
“Hank is an incredibly passionate man who has to have something to d rive him and I’m the same way,” noted McEntee.”He’ll call me at 4 or 5 a.m. his time to talk. He knows only one speed, and that’s 100 mph .”

Nothhaft’s single most notable day in the business came on Nov. 5, 2016. when the Breeders Cup Filly & M are Sprint (G 1) was run at Santa Anita Park. The Nothhaft-owned Living The Life, who had won the Presque lsle Downs Masters in 2014 and 2015 and the All American Stakes (G3) in 2016. was slated to compete against the Nothhaft-hred Finest City, whom the breeder had sold as a weanling in 2012 for $50,000.  ‘·My wife and l and other family members were planning to go from our home in Saratoga. Calif. Nothhaft stated. “Then a week before the race,  Living the Life came up lame and had to be retired. I was so bummed out I had a knee-jerk reaction to give my tickets away. So we watched from home. I bet heavy on Finest City  and when she won. there was an eruption . My phone started going crazy, so there was a lot of recognition of our connection to the horse. But l felt silly watching Gary Mandella accept our trophy.”

In the past, Nothhaft annually compiled what he now calls a “fantasy list ” of stallions for his mares, where he and McEntee would generate a roster of studs that fit his mares although they knew they wouldn’t he able to get to those stallions. Today, it is a different story.

“Now that I have better mares. we know we’re able to get to all the stallions on our list this year.” said Nothhaft. “So we’re not playing fantasy football anymore.” Nothhaft bought back a Pioneer of the Nile-Kindle weanling colt in November 2018 on a final bid of $375,000. He .also kept an American Pharoah-Halljoy year­ling filly who RNA’d for $335.000. Those babies are indicative of the quality of stallions to whom he now sends his mares.

“This is a very faddish industry in my opinion,” he stated. “So going to American Pharoah in his first year-if you pick the right first-year stallion it can be a bonanza when you’re selling the progeny. Certainly American Pharoah was a good pick. So we do use some select first-year or young stallions, we call ‘Living the Dream stallions.’ They don’t have anything running yet, or at least won t before (the progeny) sell.

“As far as more proven stallions, we’re not generally going to the heavy hitters such as Tapit, Candy Ride, Into Mischief, and so on. When I was starting out, I bred to Tizbud. a full brother to Tiznow.  Now, I love Tiznow, who is one of the less expensive studs I go to today, so that highlights where I started and where I’m at. But I’m also smart enough to know the minute you think you’ve got it all figured out, you’re actually really stupid because the gods are about to come down and chop your knees off. So I keep my feet on the ground.”

Said McEntee, “Hank is unlike most business people who come into the horse industry, where they tend to lose all of their previous business acumen. Hank has maintained the smart decision-making that got him to where he is.”

Nothhaft has worked diligently to try and help ensure that the Pennsylvania incentive program remains on sound footing, although that has proven to be a tricky enterprise in the past. ”Pennsylvania has had a great program for years,” said Nothhaft, “except that the state (government) kept coming up short on funds and taking money away from the breeding program for the general fund. As a breeder, you never knew what was going to be there going forward. What we’ve done is put  the program in a trust; while that can still be broken, there is a significant penalty for the state if it decides to take funds away, so we feel more comfortable going forward.

“The number of foals is increasing in the state. There are new sires and brood­ mares showing up, and the quality of the talent you need is increasing. We know New York-bred and Cal-bred races are tough, but Pennsylvania isn’t a lay-up, either. But it does run between 400 and
500 races a year for state-breds, and if you have a decent horse, you can find a level at which to race and have a good chance of earning some money which is attractive.” ‘ The man on the street- which I con­sider myself- who doesn’t have 200 horses can realistically breed Pennsylvania-breds and sell or race them with the anticipation of a reasonable financial outcome. That’s the world I thought I was getting into way back at the start.”

A dose of naivete represent standard equipment for those seeking entrance to the Thoroughbred industry as a business proposition . And the addition of successful business people such as Hank Nothhaft to its ranks swells the legitimacy as well as the feasibility of this world of horses. He has embraced a challenge far too puzzling for most; entered on the ground floor and built a sturdy operation upward despite knowing nothing about its workings when he started. That horses can rekindle this sort of passion in a person of substance such as Nothhaft is a huge positive.

“l have been retired from the tech world for three or four years now, and I thank God every morning that l got involved in the horse business because it so satisfying,” he said. “It is extremely difficult, so when things do go right, the satisfaction and the adrenaline and the good feeling you get is so significant that it’s worth all the effort. “For a small guy like me, you have to work really hard to have something good going on, and when it does, it keeps you in a good mood for a while and you re­ally have to inhale the happy fumes and the success . You have to ride over what I call th e Valley of Despair to keep your self going and motivated if you’re passionate about it.”■

Nothhaft finds thrills in the Thoroughbred Industry

 

INTERVIEW Bloodhorse Daily “MarketWatch” 

Sept 28, 2018

By Meredith Daugherty

twitter  @BH_MDaugherty

Ten years ago, Hank Nothhaft founded HnR Nothhaft

Horse Racing and dove into the world of

Thoroughbred breeding, racing, and sales. Blood-

Horse MarketWatch spoke with Nothhaft about what

sales mean for his operation, how the state of the market

affects breeders, and what the industry can do to

help ensure continued success at all levels.

MarketWatch: How did you get your start in the

industry?

Hank Nothhaft: After graduating from the (U.S.)

Naval Academy and serving in the Marine Corps, I

became a startup technology executive. I ended up

as the CEO of five venture-backed, high-tech-based

startups in the telecommunications business. It’s a

high growth environment; I call it adrenaline-driven.

Looking over the horizon and going from being

the young bull to the old bull, I realized that even if

I wanted to go on forever, I had to be realistic. So I

systematically decided to start a business that would be

a viable alternative to being a CEO that I could run in

retirement and have a lot of fun with. To have the same

sort of thrills I experienced in the business world. So

in 2007-08, I stuck my toe in the water of the industry

and have proceeded from there via the school of hard

knocks, trying not to make the same mistake twice.

We’ve had a lot of tumult in a short period of time

because of the significant financial recession that

occurred in 2008. I got started just before that, and

I had made some calculations that turned out to be

not very accurate, but because I was a financial expert

when the collapse occurred, I took advantage of that

situation to do what I call a “restart round” and push

aside the things I had done incorrectly to try and have

a more successful path. I certainly had the satisfaction

of enough good things happening that my adrenaline

addiction has been satisfied.

MW: Were you familiar with the industry at all

when you made your transition?

HN: I had no direct connection with the horse

racing industry whatsoever when I started, but I get up

most mornings very thankful that I made that fateful

decision to get involved. My wife and I were very casual

fans, so that was certainly part of it. The other part was, I

went to Europe frequently and I was addicted to reading

Dick Francis novels, and I would carve a day out here or

there to go to tracks within easy rail distance from London.

I had a romanticized view of the British horse racing

industry, but as silly as that sounds, it 

did play a part in my decision.

 

Hip 91, 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale

The American Pharoah colt consigned as Hip 91 at the

Keeneland September Yearling Sale

 

MW: Ten years after forming HnR NothhaftRacing, how did you feel

about watching the American Pharoah—Kindle colt that you sold

as a weanling for $400,000 sell for $2.2 million as Hip 91 at this year’s

Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

HN: It was a great time. I derive a lot of satisfaction from those

moments, and it doesn’t have to be a big monetary achievement. I think

the sale was fantastic. I think it was like a Hollywood script that we had

the first yearlings from a Triple Crown winner, and we

had Sheikh Mohammed there for the first time in 10

years. We also had the Coolmore/Godolphin détente in

place and a phenomenal stock market going, a new tax

bill, new players in the industry, a global marketplace …

what could be better than that? The results of the sale

are unequivocally outstanding.

MW: What was special about that colt that you

remember from your time with him?

HN: I paid $50,000 for his dam, Kindle. I had a

tremendous relationship with the horse, spent a lot of

time with her when she was racing, and she was our

first stakes winner. She has the greatest disposition.

The reason I was able to buy her was that she was a

bit short. I moved her to Kentucky because regional

sires are not really commercial, but I breed all my

Pennsylvania mares in Kentucky, and they’re all foaled

out in Pennsylvania.

With Kindle, and a handful of really commercial

mares, I’ve been producing Kentucky-breds, but

mostly I have Pennsylvania-breds. No one knew with

her what kind of foal she’d produce, but she’s a robust

mare. With American Pharoah, I was lucky to have a

couple mares that were good enough to be accepted, so

I bred Kindle to him. From the get-go, she produced

an exceptional foal. Almost perfect. He’s the proudest looking,

most balanced horse, and I love the streak of

lightning blaze on his face. He was the prime candidate

to sell as a weanling. My reserve was $400,000, and it was exactly on

the nose.

I’m so excited for the horse, because I’ve heard rumors that they’ll

ship him to the United Kingdom.  Assuming that’s the case, the top

folks in the Sheikh’s operation will get a good look at him and then

put him in a position somewhere in the world to be as successful as

possible. My great hope would be that he works out as a dirt horse and

that maybe he could be the Sheikh’s Kentucky Derby (G1) horse.

The one thing I realized by selling horses is that they

end up in better hands than mine. People with better

contacts, more money, and better resources than my

own. There couldn’t be anyone that meets that criteria

better than Sheikh Mohammed. When you sell them,

you set in motion a chain of events that could never

have occurred had you retained ownership yourself.

I bred Kindle to Pioneer of the Nile, and I have this

phenomenal Pioneer of the Nile colt. He’ll be in Book

1 of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

I also had Hip 1 in the (September) sale. She was an

RNA, so I have entered her in the Fasig-Tipton October

Yearling Sale (as Hip 624). I want to try to capitalize

on the current market demand for quality American

Pharoah bloodstock. I am confident that given a better

position, she will be a standout in this sale. If not, we

are certainly prepared to keep and race her, as she is a lovely filly.

“When you sell them you set in motion a chain of

events that could never have occurred had you

retained ownership yourself.”

—HANK NOTHHAFT

 

MW: From a breeder’s perspective, what did you

think about the Keeneland September sale and the

quality of the yearlings being offered?

HN: In terms of the sale’s success being a mark

of our industry turning the corner from the market

downturn, the thing that I really look at as a breeder

is, how many horses are being bred? The last numbers

that were available are not super encouraging. We kind

of flattened out more or less three or four years ago,

and we haven’t really turned the corner. Kentucky has

gotten back to where they were 20 years ago, but if

you look at what percentage of horses that represents,

they’ve gone from being 35% of the horses bred in the

industry to somewhere around 55%. That means, likely,

if you look at each state, all the other states have had

significant declines.

I look at those bigger states that have had a tradition

in the horse racing business, and some of them are

at a third of where they were, some have all but

disappeared. So coming out of the sale, I think the thing

is that the industry will have really turned when the

horse population responds or we reduce the amount of

racing that is taking place, because there aren’t enough

horses to feed the engine we currently have.

I think you have to look at the sales and look at the

later books and see how many horses are being sold at

a loss. You have to ask yourself, “Why and how could

this sustain itself if there are people who are breeding

and losing money?” And they can’t continue to do that

indefinitely. I think one of the bright spots can be state

incentive programs like in Pennsylvania, where I’m

involved. You can breed a reasonably competitive horse

there, keep it, race it, and make money and have fun,

or take it to a sale and maybe it sells at a loss, but if

the owners race it, then you can actually break even or

make a profit.

What’s kept me happy and in the game is that I’m

treating this like a startup. I’ve been bootstrapping and

reinvesting what I have back into the business to grow

it, and one of the big things that has helped me do that

is the state incentive program. Relative to my needs,

it’s generated a lot of cash that’s helped keep me in

the game. I can tell you without breeders, there is no

industry. Period.

If the industry wants to maintain the broad racing

schedule they have, they’re going to have to inevitably

produce more horses. Eventually, it has to be profitable,

or at least help people break even, for breeders and

enthusiasts to get into the game. I do know a lot of

people took mares out of service in smaller states, so we

need those to come back in.

MW: Do you think the market can continue the

trajectory it has taken this year?

HN: There are hard-core, central players in the

Thoroughbred industry, and those non-newcomers

are not that affected by the stock market and non discretionary

income. They are to a certain extent, but I

think the U.S. economy is in a sweet spot, and the only

thing that could upset the apple cart in my mind would

be the federal reserve  increasing interest rates too

fast and somehow cutting off this really perfect scenario

we’re seeing in the economy.

My view right now is that we’re solid in the U.S.

I think other countries will adopt more pro-growth

strategies (for) their economies, and that will provide

even more underpinning to the industry. The other

side of the coin, however, is that with breeders, some

other countries have the same problem I proposed that

we have. I think they’re thinking, for example in the

U.K., of putting together a type of incentive program.

Hopefully, breeding numbers start reflecting that

programs are working here in the states.

The top end and the middle market are much higher

than they were. People have got to bid higher for horses

than they would have had to previously. I think what is

true is that people had to bid more money because you

have more money chasing the same number of horses.

The thrill of owning a horse and being involved in the

industry is fantastic. If people were more exposed to it,

many people would want to do it. BH