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Tales from the Crib: Resilience

Apr 29, 2024 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Resilience as a foal

Resilience as a foal (Photo by Alys Emson/Lane's End Farms)

Resilience has become one of the more poignant stories going into the 150th Kentucky Derby (G1). The Pam and Marty Wygod homebred was a gift to their daughter Emily Bushnell and bloodstock advisor/friend Ric Waldman, and his ascent on the Derby trail was already a fitting tribute to the Wygods’ longtime devotion to the sport.

But when Marty Wygod passed away just several days after Resilience’s breakout victory in the Wood Memorial (G2), his tale evolved into one of legacy.

Although the Wygods hadn’t had a Derby starter previously, the owner/breeders campaigned Breeders’ Cup winners, millionaires, and notable California stallions. Homebreds Sweet Catomine and Life Is Sweet turned a rare sibling double in the Breeders’ Cup; champion Sweet Catomine won the 2004 Juvenile Fillies (G1), and Life Is Sweet followed up in the 2009 Distaff (then called the Ladies’ Classic) (G1).

Millionaire Idiot Proof nearly gave them another Breeders’ Cup title when he was a close second in the 2007 Sprint (G1). He was sired by the Wygods’ successful stallion Benchmark, during the time he stood at their River Edge Farm near Buellton, California.

Benchmark plays a vital, if indirect, role in the creation of Resilience. In 1991, the Kentucky-bred son of Alydar was a $475,000 weanling purchase by the Wygods, via their longtime farm manager, Russell Drake. Benchmark ultimately developed into a multiple Grade 2 winner as a six-year-old. But he’d shown enough promise earlier for the Wygods to buy his yearling half-sister (by Rahy) in 1996 for $250,000.

That half-sister would grow up to be multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Tranquility Lake, Resilience’s grandmother. Tranquility Lake and Benchmark are both out of Winters’ Love, a multiple graded-placed juvenile from the first crop of Danzig. Winters’ Love is herself a half-sister to Caveat, the 1983 Belmont (G1) hero, and second in the series of the late Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens’ incredible five Belmont wins in a row.

Tranquility Lake won seven graded stakes, led by the 1999 Gamely (G1) and 2000 Yellow Ribbon (G1) on her primary surface of turf, but she also landed the 2001 Clement L. Hirsch (G2) on the Del Mar dirt. Her resume features seven Grade 1 placings, including near-misses in the Del Mar Oaks (G1), Beverly Hills (G1), Matriarch (G1), Ramona (G1), and the 2001 Gamely. While turf routes were her specialty, Tranquility Lake had the class to finish third in the seven-furlong La Brea (G1) on dirt.

Retired with more than $1.6 million in earnings from a record of 11 wins and 10 placings from 27 starts, Tranquility Lake is honored every summer with a stakes race at Del Mar. The $100,000 Tranquility Lake S., over a mile on the main track, will be renewed this year on Sept. 2.

Tranquility Lake was a stellar broodmare as well. Married to Storm Cat until that supersire was pensioned, she produced two turf standouts in After Market and Courageous Cat, and a major dirt winner at the Dubai Carnival in Jalil. The Wygods raced Grade 1 stars After Market and Courageous Cat, who was just denied by Hall of Famer Goldikova in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1). Their middle brother Jalil, however, was sold as a yearling to Godolphin for a hefty $9.7 million.

Through the Wygods’ adherence to Storm Cat, who also sired the aforementioned Sweet Catomine and Life Is Sweet, they came to know Waldman.

Initially known for his role at Windfields Farm, managing such stallions as Deputy Minister, Waldman will forever be renowned as the manager of Storm Cat’s book at Overbrook Farm. The demand exceeded the number of mares that Storm Cat would serve, and it was Waldman’s great responsibility to select who got in to visit the patriarch – and who didn’t.

Over the course of frequent discussions about their own mares, the Wygods eventually came to retain Waldman as a bloodstock consultant. The working relationship became closer in time, and a valued friendship was forged.

After Storm Cat was retired from stud duty, Tranquility Lake didn’t have as much success with other stallions. She produced only two live foals between 2008 and 2013, neither of any consequence. More worrisome, they were both colts, like all of her prior offspring. She still had not furnished a filly to continue her female line.

Wygod persevered during the 2013 breeding season. Tranquility Lake lost her foal due that year, and it took time to get her back in foal. Bred to Smart Strike at a very late date, in June, she thankfully conceived, carried the baby to term, and delivered on May 23, 2014 – a filly!

Her long hoped-for daughter, named Meadowsweet, was to be her last foal. Tranquility Lake died two years later. But her matrilineal heritage would now live on, and Wygod’s persistence was rewarded.

“Interestingly, Marty did not like to breed mares late in the breeding season,” Waldman recalled, “but because of Tranquility Lake’s credentials and his determination for her to have another foal, possibly a filly, he decided to breed her well into June in order to produce Meadowsweet.”

The Wygods named her after the flower for a specific reason, as Waldman explained: meadowsweet can be found by the lake on their California property, Tranquility Lake.

Meadowsweet raced exclusively on turf, in a career limited to six starts, before taking up her own role as a broodmare. She won twice, both in photo-finishes that revealed her hard-trying attitude. In her debut sprinting on Santa Anita’s unique downhill course on Memorial Day 2017, Meadowsweet rallied and reached to get her nose in front on the wire. She later captured a 1 1/16-mile allowance in front-running fashion at Del Mar, bravely withstanding every challenge.

“Meadowsweet running a tough one – she’s still battling on,” track announcer Trevor Denman observed.

Next trying the Del Mar Oaks (G1), Meadowsweet chased the pace, grabbed the lead in the stretch, and wound up fifth. She was beaten a grand total of two lengths in a 12-horse field. You can spot her as number 6, in the Wygods’ pale blue and white silks.

Meadowsweet was bred to Quality Road in early 2018, and her first foal, Cloud Forest, broke his maiden at Aqueduct last fall. Her next three foals are all by leading sire Into Mischief – Resilience, his juvenile brother named Capitol Hill, and his new sister born recently.

Since Into Mischief is a great-grandson of Storm Cat, Meadowsweet is replicating Tranquility Lake’s fidelity to that late, great sire. Given Waldman’s history with Storm Cat, the fact that Resilience is heir to his sire line makes his co-ownership of the Derby hopeful all the more meaningful.

Into Mischief’s paternal grandsire, Harlan, came from Storm Cat’s very first crop. Harlan died young, but still managed to sire such top-class performers as Menifee, the 1999 Derby runner-up, and Harlan’s Holiday, sire of Into Mischief.

Storm Cat has become a pervasive influence in modern pedigrees the world over, with several sons establishing branches of his sire line. Triple Crown champion and global sire sensation Justify belongs to the clan descending from Storm Cat’s son Hennessy via Johannesburg to Scat Daddy. Other exponents of this branch are Henny Hughes (by Hennessy) and No Nay Never (by Scat Daddy).

The greatest son of Storm Cat, “Iron Horse” Giant’s Causeway, has his own tribe, especially via his son Shamardal in Europe. But last year’s champion freshman sire, Mitole, widens another avenue as a son of the Giant’s Causeway stallion Eskendereya.

Other Storm Cat sons propagating sire lines include Bernstein, sire of 2014 Breeders’ Cup Mile victor and fine stallion Karakontie, and Tale of the Cat, whose descendants Kantharos and Girvin are keeping his male line going. Storm Cat’s son Forestry is still in the mix with sons Shackleford and Discreet Cat having heirs who could do their part as well. And that’s not even delving into the Storm Cat patrimony in the Southern Hemisphere.

“I don’t care how far down the line you want to go, with the Storm Cat influence, I take a great deal of pride in that,” Waldman said in a recent interview with Jennie Rees on the Kentucky HBPA YouTube channel.

“Probably more pride because I feel like I had something even remotely to do with that. That was the basis of my career…managing stallions and consulting on breeding, so that’s really the whole history of my time here.”

Resilience was foaled on March 24, 2021, and raised at the same farm as the rest of his immediate family – Lane’s End, where grandma Tranquility Lake is buried. Lane’s End also raised Derby rival Fierceness for his owner/breeder, Mike Repole.

The Wygods’ daughter, Emily Bushnell, recounted her memories of what Resilience was like as a baby.

“I remember back when he was a foal, he would come out and look you in the eye like, ‘what’s up,’” Bushnell told NYRA publicity. “He’s just a confident dude and has just done everything right every step of the way. He’s very sure of himself, and I wish I had his confidence.”

As a two-year-old, Resilience was sent to Hall of Famer Bill Mott, who also trained “uncles” After Market (in the beginning of his career) and Courageous Cat. Like them, Resilience sported the Wygod silks as a homebred.

The handsome bay was always the type to need a route of ground, so he didn’t premiere until Sept. 1 in a one-mile maiden at Saratoga. The race was likely to be an educational one for the 12-1 chance, but he endured a troubled trip in sixth behind the impressive Locked.

Resilience took the anticipated step forward next time at Churchill Downs Oct. 1, closing steadily for second to Derby foe Stronghold – and passing Track Phantom. Back beneath the Twin Spires Nov. 12, he was a non-threatening third behind the runaway Nash, again doing his best work late.

Marty Wygod never lost faith in the promising youngster. But he decided to give the colt as a gift to daughter Emily and Waldman, precisely because he had the intuition that Resilience would turn out well.

“It was an unexpected gifting from Marty and Pam Wygod, with whom I’ve been associated for many years, and developed really close friendships with them,” Waldman explained to Rees.

“Marty seemed to pour his soul into making sure that all the right things were done with this horse. Marty was a deep thinker and a deep planner.

“I knew he was a good horse because Marty quoted Bill (Mott), with a chuckle, when he told Bill that he was doing this, and Bill’s words – and it sounds like Bill-speak to me, so I know Marty had it accurately – ‘Why’d you do that for?’

“So that told me he was a good horse!”

Within days of Wygod revealing his intention, Resilience ratified it by dominating a Gulfstream Park maiden on New Year’s Day. Bushnell and Waldman were now in a position to try their luck on the Derby trail.

Resilience shipped to Fair Grounds for the Risen Star (G2) and finished a creditable, even sneaky, fourth. That was the prep of the season, since the top three were Sierra Leone, Track Phantom, and Catching Freedom, and closing in fifth was Honor Marie.

Mott added blinkers for the Wood Memorial, and Resilience exploded to a convincing victory, booking his spot in Derby 150.

Resilience training at Churchill Downs

Resilience trains at Churchill Downs (Photo by Rickelle Nelson/Horsephotos.com)

“I still feel like I’m a steward for the Wygods on this horse,” Waldman said, “and it’s a very deep, meaningful ownership for me.”

“It’s really special,” Bushnell told NYRA after the Wood. “I’ve known Ric since I was a teenager and he loves the sport. He has a strong relationship with my dad, and they work well together. It’s a team approach, and I’m really excited to be on this journey with him.”

Sadly, her father would not live to see them in the Derby. But Marty Wygod was able to watch the Wood in his hospital room, on wife Pam’s phone, and he talked to Waldman for one last time.

“I miss him,” Waldman said. “We’d talk so much on the phone, especially the last few years, and I don’t get the rings anymore from him.

“We would talk for hours, and that’s a void. I don’t have a filler for that void.”

Resilience will provide a focal point for the Wygod family and friends to rally around.

“They’re all improving, but I think we’re improving more than the average Derby entrant,” Waldman observed.

“I just want to see that he can show everybody how good he is.”

Ever the stallion manager, though, Waldman is already absorbed in Resilience’s future appeal at stud.

“He is such a striking horse, he really is. Emily’s going to temper me for thinking so far ahead. I just can’t wait to see his offspring.”

In the meantime, Resilience will try to present him with a Derby trophy. That would be quite an objet d’art alongside Waldman’s tabletop bronze of Storm Cat – a gift from late owner W.T. Young, as the Derby experience is a gift from his friend Marty Wygod.

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