The road less travelled of G1 producer, Foreclosure N

One of the world’s most travelled pacing stallions, Foreclosure N (Rocknroll Hanover), got his first G1 winner at Gloucester Park last Friday night (Sep 6^th) with the upset harness racing victory of Belly Up in the $215,000 2YO Colts & Geldings Westbred Classic final.

The juvenile pacer was a $40,000 Perth Yearling Sales by his trainers, Greg & Skye Bond, who have more than recouped their outlay with a career record now of 7 starts for 3 wins and 2 placings with stakes earnt being north of $132,000.

Belly Up is one of just a handful of Foreclosure N progeny in Australia with his frozen semen being sold by KTC Bloodstock for $2,000. The son of Rocknroll Hanover has produced 19 winners from 29 starters with extremely limited support to date.

BELLY UP REPLAY

The story behind Foreclosure N is a remarkable one dating back to even before he was born.

His dam, Pleasing Package (Fake Left), was a Group Three winning juvenile for Graeme Bowyer before being sold to Joe Muscara for $150,000 in North America as a three-year-old.

She had a very good career in North America taking a record of 1:50.2 at The Meadowlands in June 2002, which at the time made her the fastest Australian Bred pacer in the world. She retired with $324,710 and 38 career victories.

She was exported to New Zealand in 2006 as part of a significant breeding investment, with Platinum Breeding importing nearly 30 mares which included the likes of Rye Hanover (Western Hanover), the full sister to Red River Hanover and half-sister to Rocknroll Hanover.

The latter was the first consort for Pleasing Package in his first Australasian season at stud, however with the owner falling on hard times, the mare was reclaimed along with one other in a deal which also included a parcel of land to make up some arrears owed to Tara Hills Stud founder, Peter Heffering.

Subsequently, this is how Pleasing Package’s first foal came to be named Foreclosure.

The colt was entered into the 2008 PGGW Yearling Sale at Karaka, however on the eve of the sale was withdrawn due to the colt deemed to having an issue with his ankle by management of the sales company.

Heffering made the bold play to send the yearling colt to North America at a significant expense, one that was to pay dividends in the long run.

Foreclosure N was initially trained by Mark Staecy for whom as a juvenile he won five times, including victories in the NJSS Championship. He paced Freehold’s half-mile track in 1:54.3h – and his Breeders Crown elimination where he set his freshman mark of 1:52.1f.

At three he finished third in his North America Cup elimination and second in his Meadowlands Pace elimination… in both finals he drew PP #10 yet still managed to finish fourth both times, beaten less than three lengths in each by horses such as Roll With Joe and Big Jim.

After the Meadowlands Pace Final, foreclosure was sold for $700,000 to Richard Young, the current owner of Its My Show. He spent 12 months in the care of Chris Ryder before transferring to Ron Burke who managed to get the son of Rocknroll Hanover to pace his lifetime mark of 1:48.4 on two occasions, one of which was the $182,000 American National at Balmoral Park.

He was retired in 2012 with 15 career victories and $806,318 and was sent to Sugar Valley Farms in Ohio where he bred 33 mares and produced 21 live foals. Remarkably, his only North American crop produced 20/21 starters, 16 race winners, 9 in 1:53 or better, 7 $100,000 earners and 1 $500,000 earner in the form of Rosemary Rose.

The daughter of Foreclosure won the Courageous Lady and Hackett Memorial as a three-year-old filly. She has since produced the highly touted daughter of Sweet Lou in Rose, the winner of last week’s $340,000 PA Sires Stakes Final and winner of five races from 6 lifetime starts.

Getting back to the Foreclosure journey, he was subsequently sold to Oakwood Stud in Ireland in March 2015 after producing just one North American crop. Attempts to resurrect a racing career after his one season in the stallion barn were unsuccessful and the son of Rocknroll Hanover was put on the market.

It has proven to be a shrewd investment as history would obviously show that Foreclosure N was a more than capable sire from limited opportunities state side.

“We were kind of looking for frozen semen when we just stumbled across him to be honest,” said Derek Delaney of Oakwood Stud.

“We were in the right place at the right time to be honest with you. We were over there promoting the Stud and sponsored a race at Freehold which was St Patricks weekend.

“We went over to Pennsylvania to The Meadows and we had met Mark Weaver the year before we met at The Jug. He invited us to stay at his place and we were talking over breakfast and low and behold, the horse came up and we started talking about him as a stallion prospect.

“He got injured and was placed in Ohio to stand for a year and was tried again but he just wasn’t right or performing the way he was capable of. They started qualifying a few months later and started to really impress them and we were offered four or five times what we paid for him but he wasn’t for sale, we bought a stallion for back home. It’s easy to buy a colt, but it’s hard to buy a stallion,” he quipped.

In the UK, he has been a gamechanger for lifting the breed and has produced some incredible results on the track and in the yearling sales ring where he still holds the record for the highest priced UK yearling in 2021 with £75,000 paid for filly Oakwood Carmelita in 2021.

“To be fair, the first year he stood he probably done around 45 mares and didn’t produce a lot of live foals, maybe 11 or 12,” said Delaney.

“But from that small crop he bred a lot of good horses like Oakwood Inittowinit who was 2YO colt of the year and horse of the year and Newtown Jody who is still racing now and she was the Irish 2YO of the Year and she was the fastest mare ever bred in the UK or Ireland. She paced 1:55 over here.

“He produced a really high calibre of horse and you could see straight away he was lifting the mares the minute he came along.

“People might think I’m biased saying that, but in the UK and Ireland there has been more breeding coming along and we have three or four professional studs and we have had a few good stallions over the years. But you look at the progeny exported by Foreclosure and they have done a great job of putting us on the map in North America,” he said.

Foreclosure’s progeny have won multiple UK Breeders Crown events and also divisions of the Vincent Delaney Memorial, some of the region’s most prestigious events on the calendar.

As alluded to by Delaney, several of his Irish bred offspring have been exported to the USA and have been very successful to date, with Oakwood Inittowinit leading the way with over $400k banked, and his champion 2YO Filly & HOY in 2020, Oakwood Anabella who started her 3YO career stateside in 2021 with only 2 wins before going on to compete in the Grand Circuit event The Little Brown Jugette.

She was beaten by a head in her heat to the #1 Filly in the division Test Of Faith and finished a game 3rd in the $210,000 Final for Trainer Brian Brown, on her next outing she was super impressive winning at Hollywood Dayton in a new Track Record of 1:49.3 on the 5/8 track.

“She really helped put Ireland on the map and proved we are capable on the big stage. She opened up the export market and improved returns and owners are getting more reward and it has definitely opened up the industry a bit for us,” said Delaney.

“We have a Captain Crunch foal out of her and have her back in foal to Sweet Lou,” he said.

In August 2022, Oakwood Annabella became the fastest UK bred horse in history pacing 1:49.2 around Scioto Downs, a record which has since been matched by another of Foreclosure’s progeny in the talented, Chucrhviewfrankel who achieved the feat in June at The Meadowlands.

Foreclosure continues to serve books to UK breeders out of Oakwood Stud for a fee of £2,200 and is delivering progeny with excellent conformation, power & speed combined with an exceptional nature.

“I’m super proud of what he has achieved and I really really believe the horse is just a class horse to be around, he has a lovely temperament and we have a lot of quality around us now with frozen semen available, but his stock are just different,” said Delaney.

“They are classy, easy to work with and intelligent horses. With that, I have always said he is going to be a great broodmare sire. He has a winner here already by Always B Miki out of an unraced Foreclosure mare, and obviously the good filly in the USA this year, Rose, so the signs are good.

“We could have sold him and cashed in, but we wanted to try and improve the breed and I think he has done it from a racing point of view, and now he is beginning to do it as a broodmare sire which is not an easy thing to do and puts us in good stead for the future,” he said.

Foreclosure’s G1 success on Friday night in Perth ironically came in the only country of the four major pacing constitutions he never physically visited, while in another twist, his country of birth is the only one of the four he has never had progeny to the races.

The Foreclosure story is an incredible one with many chapters undoubtedly yet to be written!

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink