In 2016, a total of 80 Thoroughbreds were bred in New Jersey - just 0.4 percent of the North American foal crop. Remarkably, one of them is Breeders’ Cup-bound Horologist, and while history may not be on her side, time and ability seem to be.
The multiple Graded stakes winner is in many ways a living tribute to a late New Jersey legend, but Horologist also spent part of her early days in the rolling hills of Kentucky and will have locals cheering for her when she competes at Keeneland on Saturday.
When the 4-year-old Gemologist filly skipped to an easy three length victory in the G2 Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park, her connections decided that she had earned her chance at running in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. To date, Horologist, who is now owned in partnership by There’s A Chance Stable, Parkland Thoroughbreds, Medallion Racing, and Abbondanza Racing, has earned $695,439.
Even though in 2020 Horologist has also won the G3 Molly Pitcher Stakes and finished third in the G1 La Troienne Stakes, entering the Distaff was not a straightforward decision. Horologist was not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup as a foal, meaning she had to be supplemented.
In the history of the Breeders’ Cup, only ten New Jersey-breds have competed and only one has won — champion and Hall of Famer Open Mind, who was victorious in the 1988 Juvenile Fillies.
Horologist, who is currently trained by Bill Mott, has changed hands throughout her life, but her success is undoubtedly also a tribute to the late trainer John Mazza. Together with Rosemarie Shockley, Mazza managed Vincent Annarella’s Holly Crest Farm, which bred Horologist as well as multiple generations of her family.
Mazza (left), who planned the mating that resulted in Horologist and trained her for her first 11 starts, died in May at age 82.
Horologist won her first race, a maiden special weight against colts at Monmouth Park in 2018, by an eye-popping 20¾ lengths before going on to win last year’s G3 Monmouth Oaks over champion Jaywalk and run third in the G1 Cotillion Stakes, all while under Mazza’s care.
Although she is a Jersey girl, when she was a foal, Horologist and her dam, Cinderella Time, were shipped to Kentucky and boarded at Sean Curtin’s Moonstone Farm in Paris. Curtin tended the Holly Crest mares while they were being bred to Kentucky stallions.
“I had a long-standing relationship with John [Mazza], who sadly passed away earlier this year,” said Curtin. “John was Holly Crest’s trainer and he also ran the farm division of it as well. For many years, he would send seven or eight mares down to me to be bred to Kentucky stallions. He would leave them with me for five or six months each year. He liked to keep them down here for a while.
“Because he trained for Holly Crest and he ran the breeding side as well, it completely revolved around him. Vincent is the guy behind Holly Crest, but I never dealt with him. It was always John. They trained these fillies, then they bred them, and then they would race their daughters, and they would breed the daughters. All these mares that came down to me were all always closely related.”
‘Very private’
Horologist is the first foal out of the winning Stephen Got Even mare Cinderella Time, and her female family represents five generations of Holly Crest homebreds, going all the way back to stakes winner Countess B B, who was born in 1977 and was also trained by Mazza.
“It was a very private farm, as in they kept the fillies and raced them,” said Curtin. “John did the matings himself, so he would have done the Cinderella Time/Gemologist mating, too. He was all in on it, all the way down to what time the mares would be leaving the farm. He loved to talk about his horses — who was running well and what he had coming up. All that kind of stuff. He obviously really loved what he was doing.
“Cinderella Time came to me as a maiden to be covered by Gemologist. She later went back up to Holly Crest to foal there, and then she came back down with Horologist at foot. She was a great mom, especially for having a first foal. She was very straightforward. She always was.”
Curtin remembers Horologist for all the right reasons, too — namely she was good-sized and she was also easy to work with.
“They came back to me when Horologist was about ten days old and stayed for five or six months,” he said. “Cinderella Time and Horologist were both very easy and straightforward the whole way through. I remember Horologist being a very pretty filly.
“She did look very much like her dad, Gemologist. She had a big hip and shoulder on her. She was built like him. She was always a big strong filly, and she always looked more like Gemologist than her mother. Her half-sister, A P Lucky, looks more like the mare.”
In recent years, Holly Crest began retiring or selling its mares. The downsizing of the operation is what led to Cameron Beatty’s There’s A Chance Stable owning Horologist, as Beatty had become friends with Mazza. Beatty, who eventually brought in partners on Horologist, also owns A P Lucky. The unraced Lookin At Lucky filly is currently in Kentucky with Curtin and is entered in the Keeneland November sale.
Cinderella Time was offered at the Keeneland November sale last year, and she sold to Michael Lischin and Bob Petersen’s Stable for $245,000. She delivered a Twirling Candy filly this year and was bred back to More Than Ready.
“Holly Crest had been winding down over the past three or four years as John’s health was waning,” said Curtin. “It’s a shame because they are really good people. They did a wonderful job. Their horses always looked amazing when they came down here. John just took super good care of his horses, and he was very particular. He would always say, ‘As soon as they get there, call me. Tell me how they look and what you think.’
“He was also always the guy who had a positive, pat-on-the-back last line for you at the end of every phone call. He was just that kind of person. Horologist looks like she’s just getting better and better as she’s getting older, and it would be great if she could win.”