Tales from the Crib: Long Range Toddy

Apr 25, 2019 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Willis Horton Racing’s homebred Long Range Toddy has taken the Oaklawn Park road to the Kentucky Derby (G1), reminiscent of Horton’s champion Will Take Charge in 2013. That stands to reason, since Oaklawn is the home track for the 79-year-old native of Marshall, Arkansas.

Six years ago, Will Take Charge won the Smarty Jones, flopped in the Southwest (G3), rebounded to win the Rebel (G2), but did not contest the Arkansas Derby (G1). After unplaced efforts in all three jewels of the Triple Crown, Will Take Charge did just that in the second half of the season. He wrapped up an Eclipse Award as champion three-year-old male with victories in the Travers (G1), Pennsylvania Derby (G2), and the Clark H. (G1) over older horses, as well as a near-miss in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).

When accepting the Eclipse Award, Horton became the star of the show with his folksy humor. Previously the head of his family’s homebuilding company, and enjoying his 7,000-acre cattle farm, the affable Horton was celebrating his greatest success on the track since his co-owned Lemons Forever upset the 2006 Kentucky Oaks (G1). Horton was soon back on the Eclipse stage after Take Charge Brandi, Will Take Charge’s “niece,” was named champion two-year-old filly of 2014.

You might say that Will Take Charge’s success played a role in the birth of Long Range Toddy because his pedigree includes both of that champion’s parents, but in his case as grandparents.

Long Range Toddy’s sire, 2012 Florida Derby (G1) winner Take Charge Indy, is an older half-brother to Will Take Charge. Both were produced by multiple Grade 1 heroine and $2.4 million-earner Take Charge Lady, who was voted Broodmare of the Year. Take Charge Lady is also the granddam of Take Charge Brandi as well as Omaha Beach, one of the biggest threats that Long Range Toddy must overcome in Derby 145.

Long Range Toddy’s dam, Pleasant Song, is by the same sire as Will Take Charge – Unbridled’s Song. Pleasant Song, a $700,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Horton, won three times on turf. Her own dam was a classy turf performer, the Storm Cat mare Pleasant Temper, whose seven career stakes wins include the 1999 Jenny Wiley (G3) and Ballston Spa (G3).

By the time Pleasant Song visited Take Charge Indy in the spring of 2015, Will Take Charge was just beginning his own stud career at Three Chimneys Farm. The Midway, Kentucky, nursery had bought a 50-percent interest in Will Take Charge ahead of his 2014 racing season, and campaigned him in partnership with Horton until his retirement.

Long Range Toddy was himself raised at Three Chimneys. Foaled April 12, 2016, the dark bay was a nice type without being particularly remarkable, as Chris Baker, Three Chimneys’ chief operating officer, recalls.

“As a foal-weanling-yearling at Three Chimneys, Long Range Toddy was always a pretty straightforward and uncomplicated colt,” Baker said. “Not the biggest, strongest or flashiest sort but a solid, well-proportioned, athletic colt with no remarkable physical or temperamental faults.

“Even though there was nothing about him early on that suggested he would one day run in the Kentucky Derby, he was easy to recommend to the Hortons as a colt they should race because he fell into that middle category of most young horses that aren’t superstars but aren’t duds either – you’ve got to try them to see what they are made of.”

Case Clay, Three Chimneys’ chief commercial officer and also Horton’s adviser, added that Long Range Toddy maintained a similar profile throughout his early education.

“He was broken at Eddie Milligan's farm in Texas,” Clay said, noting that the colt was “straightforward and uncomplicated, without showing any early flashes of major promise, but at the same time, doing nothing wrong, so let's see what he's made of.”

By that point, Pleasant Song had already been sold. She produced three foals before Long Range Toddy, none of any consequence, and accordingly was offered at the 2016 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Machmer Hall secured her for only $22,000, but in a fascinating plot twist, she changed hands again immediately. As Meredith Daugherty reported in the Blood-Horse on March 20, 2019, Pleasant Song was purchased privately by Elise Durbin, a fan of the mare who brought her home to Alabama to train as a show horse.

Meanwhile, Long Range Toddy turned out to be made of pretty good stuff. Like so many Horton runners, he’s named after a family member (daughter-in-law’s nephew). The Steve Asmussen trainee won three straight at Remington Park, from his maiden romp to stakes scores in the Clever Trevor and Springboard Mile. By winning the latter, Long Range Toddy outperformed Will Take Charge, who had been second in the 2012 Springboard Mile.

Wintering at Oaklawn, Long Range Toddy came up a neck shy of emulating Will Take Charge in the Smarty Jones. He fared much better than Will Take Charge in the Southwest, finishing third, and like the future champion, Long Range Toddy upset a hot favorite in the Rebel – with the same jockey, Jon Court, astride. In this case, Long Range Toddy got up in time to beat Bob Baffert’s Improbable in the first Rebel division. The second Rebel division went to Omaha Beach, the relative of Long Range Toddy’s sire, Take Charge Indy, underscoring the influence of their common ancestress, Take Charge Lady.

Hitherto very consistent, Long Range Toddy threw in the only poor race of his life when sixth behind Omaha Beach in the Arkansas Derby. Perhaps the slop wasn’t to his liking, but in any event, it was an uncharacteristic effort from a colt eligible to bounce back in Derby 145.

There was a silver lining for Horton: he’s still invested in Omaha Beach’s family. Although he’d sold champion Take Charge Brandi for $6 million, as the 2015 Keeneland November sale topper, he still owns Omaha Beach’s full sister, Take Charge Tressa. The $1.25 million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling didn’t race, but her first foal by Tapit, the juvenile Take Charge Glenda, is nearing her first work. Take Charge Tressa also has a yearling filly by Tapit, and a colt (born February 9) by Curlin.

“The Take Charge Lady family has been very good to Mr. Horton,” Clay summed up.

Whether Omaha Beach stars again, or homebred Long Range Toddy steps up, Horton’s breeding operation could have reason to cheer on Derby Day. 

Photos courtesy of Three Chimneys Farm