Blue Chip’s Tom Grossman is optimistic about the future of New York

by Dave Briggs

Tom Grossman, owner of Blue Chip Farms in Wallkill, NY, has plenty of reasons to be bullish about the future in New York.

The state has allowed shipped semen for two years now, Blue Chip is home to new stallions Back Of The Neck and Cannibal, whose first crop will sell this year, and the farm has been the long-time home of exceptional trotting stallion Chapter Seven.

“Everyone likes their own cooking, but I’m extremely positive about New York,” Grossman said. “We have a healthy surplus in the Sire Stakes account, which insulates us from anything.

“More importantly, through shipped semen, which worked out perfectly, we and others invested heavily in educating the politicians. I don’t want to tell you what I’ve spent on lobbyists, but I think they generally do understand the economic impact of horses.

“The problem is, obviously, that every three years these [politicians] change and you’ve got to go up the mountain again, but they’ve followed through and they did the right thing on shipped semen, they did the right thing, reasonably, on the Sire Stakes purses and breeder awards. Right now, I feel very comfortable and simultaneously [SBOA of New York president] Joe Faraldo’s done an awesome job with MGM [which operates Yonkers Raceway].”

Blue Chip will sell nine yearlings at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale and another 50 or so at the Standardbred Horse Sales Company yearling sale in Harrisburg, PA.

“Out of 65 yearlings, we’ve decided to take nine or 10 of the best to Kentucky,” Grossman said. “Without sounding like we love everything, they are sort of the ones that are exceptional. Certain families sell better at Harrisburg, but largely [Lexington is] a select sale for us so we feel pretty strongly about all of them.”

Grossman said the decision about which horses to sell in Lexington and which ones to sell in Harrisburg comes down to, “the ones we think could really hook two or three buyers and sell for really big money – those are the ones we bring to Lexington. I still think the upper, upper end is higher in Lexington than Harrisburg. The ones that we think could bring $200,000, $300,000, $400,000, largely those are the ones we’re bringing to Lexington.”

He said a horse Blue Chip is selling on Day 3 of the Lexington sale is an outstanding individual.

“The Chapter Seven out of Friends After Six [Hip #502, Cognac Blue Chip] is one of the nicest yearlings I think we’ve ever produced. The family, I think, is very timely, but the individual is really a 10-plus and we give those out very, very rarely.

“I think he should be in Day 2, if not Day 1. That’s partially our fault. He was always good, but in the last three months he’s just blossomed beautifully. He videoed well, but he’s been better when we turned him out the last few weeks for trainers. I thought he was very, very solid three or four weeks ago, but I like him a hell of a lot more now than I did three or four weeks ago.”

That’s part of the challenge with determining the correct sale for each horse. The cutoff for entries is much earlier in the year before many yearlings have shown what they could be as individuals.

“I think people generally overestimate how much we know,” Grossman said. “We have to put them into different sales, I forget the exact cut off, but it’s a long, long time ago.

“And you can go the other way, too. You can be very high on a horse and put him in Day 1 and there’s a lot of the lower half of the Day 1 sale that would’ve been higher on Day 2 or 3. On Day 1, people want everything to be perfect and there’s so much more to come that they are very dismissive. They think they are going to get something that they don’t get… Every year you sell something on Day 1 that you think would’ve done better on Day 3.”

Grossman also pointed out Hey Livvy’s Walner filly Cruzin Blue Chip, Hip #248.

“It would not shock me if that’s the fastest filly in the country next year,” Grossman said. “For a lot of people that watched [the mare], when she was right, she had more ability than most trotters I’ve ever been associated with. She was fast.”

As for the first crop of Cannibal, Blue Chip is selling two in Lexington.

“Both Cannibals we’re bringing are really, really nice,” Grossman said. “Looks-wise I’m extremely happy with all the Cannibals we’ve bred and I think we’re bringing two nice ones in [Hip #169] Curacao Blue Chip and [Hip #577] Cassandra Blue Chip. They are going to show off the stallion quite well.”

As for what he likes from what he’s seen of Cannibal’s first crop, Grossman said, “they are all medium to medium-plus size and just very sharp looking and extremely – not aggressive, but extremely motivated in the paddock. They are tough horses, I think, which makes sense… Cannibal himself is out of the Arterra family, which has already proven itself as a sire-maker on several occasions. I think they are perfect sized for New York. I think there are certainly going to be several on the Grand Circuit and they are all going to be very forward horses. They are very inquisitive, aggressive, sort of on the bit – not literally, but I think they are going to be those kind of horses.”