Tony and Pat Smith don’t keep a lot of broodmares in their Hilly Fields Stable breeding operation. They own only one in fact, Ladywell Court.
What a one to own.
Goodbye Brockley, the middle foal of three old enough to make the races for the Smiths’ lone broodmare, delivered a victory in a New York Stallion Series stakes for the second straight year for her owner and breeder with a tight win in Thursday’s $100,000 Statue of Liberty at Saratoga.
Goodbye Brockley, named for an area in southeastern London where Tony Smith grew up, and Luis Saez edged Wegetsdamunnys by a nose in the 1-mile restricted stakes to join her half-sister Lady Joan as Stallion Series winners produced by Ladywell Court.
The Cosmonaut filly is a third-generation homebred for the Smiths, who bought her granddam, the Ontario-bred Deputy Commander mare Commander’s Lady, for $40,000 at the 2001 Keeneland September yearling sale. She won two of 15 starts, placed in the 2003 Wonder Where Stakes at Woodbine, and earned $112,043 carrying Hilly Fields’ brown and blue colors.
“When we had Commander’s Lady, who was a very good horse, we said, ‘Why don’t we get into breeding?’ ” Tony Smith said, “knowing it was going to take two, three, four years and so on.”
Ladywell Court was Commander’s Lady’s second foal. She won two of five starts for Hilly Fields and trainer Phil Serpe, who trains Goodbye Brockley and also trained Commander’s Lady.
To read the rest of the Statue of Liberty recap, download Friday’s digital edition of The Saratoga Special presented by EasyFix Stable Solutions.
