As an integral part of the team that purchased champion male sprinter Straight No Chaser and 2024 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Seize the Grey for MyRacehorse, Roderick Wachman has had an outstanding year of results as a bloodstock consultant.
Other recent successes include being the co-breeder of multiple stakes winner Provocateur—now a stallion at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds in New York—and his half brother, the current 3-year-old Rodriguez, who won the Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) impressively by 3 1/2 lengths April 5 at Aqueduct Racetrack.
In fact, Wachman's resume received two major updates April 5, as his Kingswood Farm consigned the dam of Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Journalism—the grade 2-winning Uncle Mo mare Mopotism—when she sold to Don Alberto for $1,050,000 at the 2019 edition of Fasig-Tipton's The November Sale.
Wachman also is among the founding members of Light Up Racing.
The 55-year-old native of Dublin, Ireland, lives in Versailles Ky., with his wife Jordan and daughter Olivia. He sat down with BloodHorse to talk about his career—past, present, and future.
BloodHorse: How did you get your start in the horse business?
Roderick Wachman: I entered the horse business in 1987, right after secondary school, as we call it, at 18 years of age. A family friend had gotten me a job working for Russell Jones of Walnut Green in Chester County, Pennsylvania. I got on a plane to Philadelphia and spent the summer living in Russell's attic, or the top floor of his house, and working on the farm by day.
After that, I went back to college at Leeds University in England. During college, I did yearling prep during the summers ... and for the next few years after that, I basically I travelled the world working for great horse people and meeting lots of people who still pop up in my life occasionally, you know.
BH: When did you come back to America?
RW: 1994. I worked for Fred Seitz for 2 1/2 years at Brookdale Farm. Fred was a great boss. I learned a lot there. Fred had a wonderful expression that I still use often, and that is, "Talk is cheap." He would have said it when people said I'm gonna do this or I'm going to do that at the sales and things like that. I still think of it today.
My time at Brookdale basically taught me the American system and how it works. At 18, I wasn't really ready to absorb it, but I was ready the second time.
BH: What are the main differences between what you learned in other parts of the world vs. the American system, as you call it?
RW: American horses are much more handled than they would be, for instance, in Australia. In Australia, the horses basically live outside. Mares live outside in fields even late in pregnancy. They spend very, very little time in stalls.
Every continent does things differently. In Europe, they keep horses in a lot more because of wet weather and short days in the winter. In Kentucky, we generally have great draining ground so it never stays wet for too long.
It's a generalization, but American dirt horses are bigger, stronger horses than turf horses. They tend to have a more robust physique and stand over more ground. They have to be. I've always felt like dirt horses are more like human sprinters than distance runners.
BH: Who else have you worked for in America?
RW: My next memorable stop was with John Stuart at Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services. I was with John for four or five years, and that was a great experience. John is a wonderful salesman, created a lot of stallion shares, seasons, and had a pretty good-sized consignment back then, he and Peter Bance. I met a lot of people there, and it was a very enjoyable place to work. I suppose you could say I was the farm manager. It was a small operation, but we got the job done and at a pretty high level, getting horses ready for the Saratoga sale and stuff like that.
And then I leased a farm out Harrodsburg Road in Jessamine County, near Nicholasville, Ky., called Kingswood Farm, from late 2001 til 2014. I did all that, boarded horses for people, bred and sold, and did it all.
I still consign at the sales under Kingswood Farm when I consign, which is becoming fewer and farther between. But my business name would still be Kingswood Farm for breeding or anything like that.
BH: When did you start working for MyRacehorse?
RW: I went to work for MyRacehorse, consulting for them, in the spring of 2021. I went in on a 1-year contract and I stayed 2 1/2 years.
Basically, I was the head of bloodstock all over the world. They had a small division in the UK and a small division in Australia that always looked like it was gonna grow, and has.
By the way, I believe MyRacehorse is the best ownership initiative ever.
Basically, I went in there to put processes and strategies in place for bloodstock acquisition and management, systems that would have great integrity and stand the test of time. I handled bidding, did valuations, and made the decision what would be bought.
I would say that giving the 2,570 owners of Seize the Grey and 946 owners of Straight No Chaser the racing thrills of a lifetime has given me a great deal of pleasure as being a big part of the selection process.
BH: MyRacehorse purchased Straight No Chaser for $110,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. That was a home run purchase given he is now a $2.6 million earner, champion sprinter, and has a deal to stand at WinStar Farm upon retirement.
RW: Yes, that was a great sale. We went to Maryland to buy four or five 2-year-olds, and I was working with Phil Hager and Nick Hines. We bought four horses, and two are graded stakes winners, including Straight No Chaser. We went with basically a small budget and we were looking for athletes to send to young trainers who would be highly communicative in the process of training a horse for MyRacehorse.
Duke of Love was the second one I mentioned who came out of that Maryland sale. He won the Prince of Wales Stakes, the second leg of Canadian Triple Crown and another graded race.
BH: What were the keys to the purchase of Straight No Chaser?
RW: The system in place at the time was Nick and Phil would work the breezes and provide me with a short list of horses, both of them would. So I had two short lists, and the short lists were 30-plus horses each.
All of these horses were bought with regional markets in mind. Straight No Chaser was a California-bred, and he was bought for that market.
All three of us loved Straight No Chaser. He was early in the sale, and we went a little over budget to secure him. His breeze was good. Physically, he was a very nice individual, and he was from a really good consignor in Paul Sharp. Paul is a top fellow.
Whenever buying horses for a syndicate like that, they've got to vet very well. You can't take much risk in terms of veterinary. I want to buy a horse I think will be sound and productive and have a good disposition.
BH: How do you approach judging disposition?
RW: Well, the guys would have had notes if he was worked up before a breeze. You can see disposition at the barn too, whether they're relaxed or tense. Temperament is a very, very important thing for racing. That was one of Seize the Grey's biggest assets, his disposition.
BH: Talk us through MyRacehorse's acquisition of Seize the Grey for $300,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale.
RW: So the Saratoga sale, we were shopping for a couple horses and again, budget is important here. We didn't have a huge budget, and MyRacehorse was buying for themselves, without partners, and at $300,000, there might have been another bid, but that was pretty much it.
BH: That's impressive because at $300,000, you're buying in the middle, or even the lower half of the Saratoga market. Congratulations are in order for hitting on two stallion prospects for MyRacehorse at very reasonable price points in a short time. (Seize the Grey has begun his first year at stud at Gainesway Farm for an advertised fee of $30,000.)
RW: Absolutely. In this instance, Seize the Grey was a pretty nice colt, but he was an April 20 foal. He was more immature than a lot of the competition at Saratoga, and therein lies the reason for his value. I am by nature a value shopper. I trade horses.
He had a good pedigree. I rated Arrogate maybe slightly higher than the market did at that time, and Joe Moran of My Racehorse and I both agreed he was a nice horse. Seize the Grey was well put together. He had a touch of length to his pasterns, and that comes from his broodmare sire Smart Strike. You could say they were slightly soft pasterns, but they strengthened up in time.
When buying racehorses, all of them have to have a good shape, good balance, and good movement. If you do this for long enough, you can see very quickly if a horse really takes your eye or not. There's a process to looking at horses, but some of them just jump out at you.
I made Joe work the whole sale by himself and I did the same thing, and then we got together and pooled our lists and went back through together. I was educating Joe at that stage. It was part of my job. Joe was going to be the man to run the show in time.
BH: You found value again when you purchased the dam of Provocateur and Rodriguez—the winning Cherokee Run mare Cayala—for approximately $28,000 at the 2011 Tattersalls December Mare Sale.
RW: A partner of mine previously had pinhooked her from a weanling to a yearling. She broke her maiden at Hollywood Park but later got exported to Germany and then was being sold at Tattersalls, on a Monday, if my memory serves me right.
The previous Saturday, her half sister Goldrush Girl finished second in the Golden Rod at Churchill Downs. This was 14 years ago, largely pre-social media, but we were aware of the Golden Rod result, and that's why she got bought, to bring back to America, breed her, and trade her. I'm opportunistic. If you're a trader of horses, art, or whatever it might be, you have to be opportunistic.
BH: Having accomplished your mission for MyRacehorse, what does the future hold?
RW: Moving forward I'd rather be buying horses for people rather than consigning them. I'd like to find some clients to buy horses, but I've been shy by nature. But I do feel I have a fair bit to offer. I've bought good racehorses and good broodmares. It's a pleasure to help people. There are a lot of people I could help.
When I'm buying horses for people, I never put myself first to pat myself on the back. It would be my nature to let everybody else take credit. When I was growing up the people I admired most were what I would call quiet achievers, and I would say that would be me.
A friend once told me, "Roderick, come out of the shadows."
I'm trying.
It's unhealthy, but I signed up for a Twitter account last year.
BH: To wrap things up, please talk about Light Up Racing, a program that has energized some in the industry at a challenging time.
RW: Light Up Racing has a strong industry following. It was started as a grassroots movement to engage, educate, and empower the Thoroughbred community to advocate for racing and breeding. There's a lot of information there to fight the negativity being hollered at us.
BH: Are you optimistic about the future of the industry?
RW: The horse industry is like the three little pigs at the moment. The big bad wolf is filling his lungs and blowing. I would say we all have to make up our own minds which house we have built and whether significant renovation is required. I think the answer is very much there, but you only offend people if you put it bluntly.
Racing is a fantastic game and I think the euphoria and the visceral pleasure that winning a race gives you is almost impossible to replicate with anything else in life. It's up there with the day you get married or the birth of your first child. It gives you a buzz you just can't get in everyday life, and I think that's how racing should be selling itself, not in dollars and cents.
