Tales from the Crib: Domestic Product

Apr 25, 2024 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Tampa Bay Derby hero Domestic Product

Tampa Bay Derby hero Domestic Product (Photo by SV Photography)

Normally a horse representing the high-percentage tandem of Klaravich Stables and trainer Chad Brown would garner plenty of attention, but Domestic Product is entering the Kentucky Derby (G1) somewhat under the radar. While that’s partly because he hasn’t raced since his narrow verdict in the Tampa Bay Derby (G3), it’s mainly because he’s in the shadow of another Brown trainee – Coolmore-affiliated Sierra Leone, one of the Derby favorites.

Yet as racing fans know, sometimes the “other Brown” runner jumps up to beat the better-fancied one, whether in ordinary races or graded stakes. Domestic Product will try to take that handicapping angle to an even higher level on the first Saturday in May.

Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables consistently ranks as one of the most successful owners in the country, with a host of major wins including two Preakness (G1) trophies. The hedge fund maestro has yet to win the Kentucky Derby, but he’s only tried three times in 20 years. His closest result was a fifth by Practical Joke (2017), the sire of Klaravich homebred Domestic Product.

Practical Joke was campaigned in partnership with William H. Lawrence, also the co-owner of many other stars in the Klaravich colors. Bricks and Mortar, the 2019 Horse of the Year, and 2017 Preakness hero Cloud Computing were among their leading lights.

Since Klarman has gone solo, he’s won another Preakness with Early Voting (2022), went very close in the 2021 Kentucky Oaks (G1) with Grade 1-winning millionaire Search Results, almost upset last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) with Randomized, and continued his strike rate with turf specialists.

Brown, who trained those high-profile performers, is likewise in search of his first Derby victory. Always careful to spot his horses where they have a realistic chance, he’s had three of his seven Derby runners crack the superfecta – Good Magic was runner-up to Triple Crown champ Justify in 2018, Zandon placed third in 2022, and Normandy Invasion launched a daring move before tiring to fourth in 2013.

Practical Joke did well to finish fifth in his Derby, considering that the 1 1/4-mile trip was beyond his range. The son of leading sire Into Mischief scored all of his wins around one turn, notably the Hopeful (G1) and Champagne (G1) as a juvenile, and the H. Allen Jerkens (G1) at three. Practical Joke’s class helped him place in several marquee events around two turns, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), Fountain of Youth (G2), Blue Grass (G2), and Haskell (G1).

Klarman, although a small-scale breeder, wanted to support Practical Joke as a stallion. One of the mares he sent to Practical Joke in 2020 was Goods and Services, who would produce the well-named Domestic Product.

Goods and Services never raced, but she had the quality to bring $185,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling. During her early training as a juvenile in Florida, she posted a trio of three-furlong breezes at Niall Brennan Stables before dropping off the worktab.

Yet Goods and Services deserved a chance as a broodmare. Her sire was the brave Paynter, the 2012 Haskell hero and Belmont (G1) runner-up who survived a life-threatening illness later in his three-year-old season. His battle inspired the social media hashtag #PowerUpPaynter, as fans offered prayers for his recovery. Paynter did win that battle, which was voted the NTRA Moment of the Year. He even returned to racing successfully in 2013, and sired 2021 Horse of the Year Knicks Go.

Goods and Services was a half-sister to stakes victress Kenda; they were both out of the stakes-winning Indian Legend, who was in turn a full sister to Grade 3 scorer Cherokee Queen.

On February 22, 2021, Goods and Services delivered her Practical Joke colt at Dell Ridge Farm. Operated by the Justice family, the Lexington, Kentucky, nursery is famous for breeding champion Honor Code (sire of Derby contender Honor Marie), and boarding mares for others, including Gary and Mary West.

Dell Ridge manager Des Ryan remembers the Practical Joke-Goods and Services colt well, both for his aesthetics and his demeanor.

“He was very pretty, had a very nice color to him – a darker, black-looking color.”

Tending to stay “in the middle of the herd, he wasn’t very dominant,” Ryan noted. “But he was a happy, playful type.

“He was a kind of easy-going, happy-go-lucky horse, got on with the other colts in his group.

“He was always a very nice, big, and strong individual,” Ryan summed up. “I can see where maybe he took a bit of time to mature, a little later than the other colts.”

Goods and Services was bred back to Klaravich colorbearer Complexity and sold for $37,000 at Keeneland November in 2021. The resulting filly, now a juvenile, became a sharp prospect for Becky Thomas’s Sequel Bloodstock. Commanding $220,000 at OBS in March, from an agent on behalf of trainer Wesley Ward, she has been named Naive Melody.

Klarman had another smart-looking Practical Joke foal in his same mini-crop with Domestic Product – a filly out of the stakes-winning Strong Incentive. We know her now as Kentucky Oaks contender Ways and Means, and she too made an impression growing up on the farm.

“She was lovely as a yearling, a really pretty filly,” Ryan recalled.

Ways and Means is a half-sister to two other top-class runners for Klaravich and Brown, Highly Motivated and Surge Capacity. Highly Motivated, a Keeneland track record-setter at two, went on to finish a close second to champion Essential Quality in the 2021 Blue Grass. Sidelined after a subpar ninth in the Derby, Highly Motivated came back in top form at four and set another track record in the 2022 Monmouth Cup (G3). Surge Capacity developed into a terrific turf filly in 2023, capping her sophomore campaign by beating older distaffers in the Matriarch (G1).

After beginning their schooling with de Meric Stables in Ocala, Florida, Ways and Means and Domestic Product graduated to Brown’s stable at Saratoga. The four-time Eclipse Award-winning horseman reported his very favorable impressions back to Dell Ridge.

According to Ryan, Brown described Domestic Product as “very nice,” and Ways and Means as “exceptionally nice.”

The two debuted one day apart at the Spa last August. While Domestic Product was a green, non-threatening fifth behind Derby rival Just Steel in his maiden, Ways and Means set the town alight with a sensational, 12 3/4-length rout as the odds-on favorite.

Again odds-on for the Spinaway (G1), Ways and Means was badly hampered early. The misfortune was costly not only because she wound up finishing second, but especially because she sustained an injury that ruled her out for the rest of the season.

Domestic Product didn’t make his next start until Oct. 27 at Aqueduct, where he was a different proposition on the step up to 1 1/8 miles. His 4 1/2-length maiden score earned him a chance at the Remsen (G2), but he faded to a remote seventh behind Derby foes Dornoch and Sierra Leone.

Brown decided to take the blinkers off for his ensuing attempt on the Road to the Kentucky Derby in the Feb. 3 Holy Bull (G3). Domestic Product responded by rallying for second, despite a tough trip and an unfavorable pace scenario. He coped better with adversity than champion Fierceness, who checked in third.

Domestic Product didn’t get any pace support in the Tampa Bay Derby either, and the pedestrian early tempo set the stage for a wild cavalry charge at the finish. Yet he quickened best of all to force his neck in front. The overall time was slow, thanks to the lack of pace, but his fast finish earned a gaudy 125 Brisnet Late Pace figure.

Meanwhile, Ways and Means made it back to the races just in time to qualify for the Oaks. In a measure of his high regard for her, Brown pitched her straight into the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2). It was a tough assignment to make her two-turn debut off a nearly seven-month absence. She almost pulled it off, and probably would have, if not for another troubled passage. Runner-up as the 1-2 favorite, she exited her respectable loss in grand shape this time. Ways and Means could tax her Kentucky Oaks rivals into submission.

Brown is taking an unconventional route by opting to train Domestic Product up to the Derby, rather than compete in one of the final preps. With his last race coming on March 9, he will be resuming from a 56-day break at Churchill Downs.

The art of horsemanship, though, involves tailoring the program to fit the horse’s individual needs. Brown has done just that in his management of Domestic Product, and in any race other than the Derby, analysts would be citing his high percentage of winners running off similar layoffs.

Figuring to get a solid pace set-up at last, Domestic Product is liable to beat the market forecast.

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