William Austin Nicks, the Indiana horseman who randomly obtained the Rich Strike dam just days before that dark horse won the GI Kentucky Derby in May, scored another winner’s dam won a future Class I on a tight budget when he bought Tanquerray (Good Journey), in the pony Machiningfor $2,000 at the Fasig-Tipton sale in February 2021. The mare was followed into the sale round at that auction by its lustful craving by Machining, who sold for $8,000. Given back at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic in October, the film aspired to bring in $40,000. Now named Leave No Trace, the GI Spinaway S winner longs for the full sister over the ring at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October 2019 sale next week as the hip 231 with Taylor Made Sales Agent shipments.
Nicks admitted he deals in the lower end of the mares market and was very brief about the appeal of Tanquerray last February.
“She looks cheap,” Nicks said of the now 13-year-old mare. “I’m not going to tell you I knew she was going to throw a student who won the first prize, because no one did. But she looks cheap. She has a pony to race, Unconquered Lea (Lea). He earns $40,000 and has good speed stats, a horse of the allowance type. She is a big, good looking mare. And in the pony to Machininghe’s standing for $10,000 or $7,500 or whatever, and I bought the mare for $2,000, so why don’t you buy her? “
When asked if he saw a future First Class mare at the sale, Nicks said, “I didn’t even look at her. I pretty much just mess with mares. I bought and sold some ponies myself. I usually do whatever I can to make money in this business because it’s so hard. But I don’t mess with a lot of longing. “
Nicks quickly added a partner on the mare.
“I texted Randy [Haffner] and I said, “Oh my god, I stole this mare,” Nicks recalls. “And he looked at her and we made a deal with her. We both split her and that way we could split the prize among the Indiana breeders easily. That’s part of our deal. So we both bred her. He raised her and he bred the mare back to his stallion, Notional, and got a pony this spring and brought her back to Notional in a pretty early cover. . “
As Leave No Trace wins its Saratoga debut in July and with Notional’s impending departure to Ohio, Haffner is looking to downsize.
“After our first win at Saratoga was when we decided to buy her,” Nicks said. “[Haffner] sold quite a few horses trying to downsize. I mentioned to him something about buying her and sticking her in this sale before he won the race and he just wanted to sell her privately. So Randy Klopp, who trains a number of horses for me, and Roger Speiss, who has a herd with Randy, and I ended up buying only 5 of Randy’s horses for an average discount, so to speak. . “
Initially, the partners planned to race with 5 people, but Leave No Trace’s victory in the GI Spinaway S. September 4 changed that plan.
“We bought her to race,” Nicks said. “The only reason we were interested in the idea of selling her was because it left a trail. Since she won we thought it would be a good time to put her in the sale and if we can sell her we would love to and if she doesn’t deliver what we expect , we’ll bring her back and run her. “
Nicks optimistically enters the October sale with a hunger for a perfect update.
“She’s doing great,” he says of desire. “We got to know her and we X-rayed her and everything was perfect. She is a really tall chubby person. So she’s in the middle of an explosive growth spurt right now and is growing up instead of growing up like we’d like to see her. So she’s a really tall chubby with a lot of scope. But I think she will be fine. I think she would fit everything else down there. “
Talking about a Level I production mare naturally leads to Gold Strike (Smart Strike), a mare Nicks acquired just five days before her son won the Kentucky Derby.
“It was just a crazy deal,” Nicks admitted with a laugh. “I deal with thoroughbred mares downstairs and MC Roberts had that mare and he’s been trying to get her as a pony for a few years and he’s had no luck. He called me one day a week before the Derby and he said to me, ‘This mare has a 2-year-old who won a huge $30,000 last year at Churchill. “And that’s all he said. The horse is rated III at Turfway, so it has some sort of black, but all in all. [Roberts] told me this horse won a group at Churchill last year. “
He continued, “I deal with a lot of older mares that are hard to come by in a herd. I’ve got pasture folks who will either cross them or they’ll cross them on Quarter Horses where they can do AI. So your older thoroughbred mares that people don’t really want to mess with because they’re so hard to get ponies, there are Quarter Horses who can AI and race away from them. They will try them. That’s why I got her. Then I found out who he was talking about. It was a shock.”
Rich Strike famously pulled into the Derby the day before the race and Nicks recalls, “He was 21 or 22 years old and I said, ‘He’s never going to get in.’ And then he won the damn thing. It’s just crazy. “
The 20-year-old Gold Strike Company hasn’t produced a single pony since Rich Strike, but Nicks hopes next year will be an exciting one.
“We bred her with Munnings May 25th and we checked on her on the 16th and everything is fine,” Nicks said. “We checked her again on the 21st and it was gone. I think it’s too hot – the first two weeks of June this year, the heat index is 120. We’ll try again, hopefully in February. We’ll get her under the lights early next year. The vet was looking at her very hopeful.”
Nicks, 27, who follows his father in the horse business, rents a ranch in Sellersburg, Indiana and has been raising horses since high school.
“[Dad] trained for 10 years,” says Nicks. “And then he quit training and we started renting out a big farm and I started raising mares for people. I came across some stallions and bred my own. Then I go to Keeneland and buy cheap mares for $1,000 or $2,000, take them home, take pictures of them and post them on my Facebook page and sell them for a profit. And anything I don’t sell, I keep the pony and make registered Indiana crosses. My dad started renting out the farm when I was in my sophomore year of high school. I would leave school early as a child and take a mare to Lexington to be bred. That’s all I did. I have never had a job. “
Nicks and partners will be offering Leave No Trace’s full sister sale during the October Fasig-Tipton sale next Monday. Auction continues through Thursday with bidding starting every day at 10am
