Keeneland will spotlight a significant offering Monday when a yearling colt by Uncle Mo out of Grade I winner Marley’s Freedom enters the sales ring during the September Sale’s first session as hip 34 through the VanMeter Sales consignment.
The colt represents a pivotal moment for Cicero Farms, owned by Ron and Barbara Perry, whose $35,000 purchase of Marley’s Freedom at the 2015 Keeneland September sale has yielded remarkable returns — including two generations of GI Ballerina Stakes winners.
“I want to be sure he has the best opportunity to be a superstar,” Barbara Perry said of the decision to sell. “Plus, it’s what I promised my husband I would do. I did tell him, if he let me keep Marley, I would sell the first boy. I should probably couch that with, ‘But it has to be at the price I want.'”
Perry’s initial attraction to Marley’s Freedom stemmed from an unexpected source — her love of turf racing.
“I had wanted a Blame filly for a while,” she explained. “The Blame fillies were running very, very well on the turf. And I love turf racing. I am learning to love dirt racing, as well.”
Despite Perry’s turf aspirations, Marley’s Freedom never raced on grass throughout her 18-start career. Instead, she became a six-time graded stakes winner on dirt, highlighted by her 2018 GI Ballerina Stakes triumph.
“It was very, very cool,” Perry recalled of their first Grade I victory. “I remember saying to [trainer] Bob [Baffert], ‘I don’t know how to pick a horse.’ And he said, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘I bought a turf router that became a dirt sprinter.'”
When Marley’s Freedom attracted significant interest as a broodmare prospect, the Perrys faced a decision about selling or keeping her. Barbara was adamant about retaining the mare for their breeding program.
“My husband was very excited about having people talk about our horse and selling her at auction,” Perry said. “And I had a meltdown on him. I said, ‘You need to prove to me that whatever we would sell that filly for, it would make a difference in your daily life.'”
For Marley’s Freedom’s first mating, Perry selected Quality Road.
“I asked Bob to critique Marley and he said, ‘If she had more leg, she’d be perfect,'” Perry explained. “So one of the reasons I picked Quality Road was because he was slightly taller than her and had a nice leg underneath him.”
The resulting foal was Hope Road, now a 4-year-old filly who has developed a special bond with the Perrys — partly due to circumstances created by the pandemic.
“During COVID, we drove across country in our SUV with the cat,” Perry said. “We spent a whole month there so we could be with Marley and her baby. I have pictures of my husband sleeping with Hope in the stall as a foal.”
Despite their attachment, the Perrys initially planned to sell Hope Road at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, where she RNA’d for $575,000.
“She didn’t ship well to Saratoga, so I didn’t think she showed that well,” Perry explained. “She was thin—she had lost weight. Everyone had told me, ‘If you don’t get what you think she’s worth as a broodmare out of a Grade I winner, you shouldn’t undersell her.'”
The decision to retain Hope Road proved fortuitous. She won two graded races last year and placed in three consecutive graded events this winter and spring before capturing her own GI Ballerina Stakes victory by two lengths on August 23. The achievement marked just the third time in the race’s 47-year history that a daughter of a Ballerina winner had claimed the prestigious event.
“I am normally a super statistical person and if I would have looked at the fact that Marley is the third mare in 47 years that’s produced a filly to win the Ballerina, and the first one in 20 years, I am pretty sure I would have said, ‘Oh no,'” Perry reflected. “And to have it be the same trainer and same owner, that didn’t happen with the other two. That’s unbelievable.”
Marley’s Freedom’s broodmare career continues to flourish. Her daughter Freedom Song (Medaglia d’Oro), now three, will join the Cicero broodmare band next year following an injury as a yearling. The 11-year-old mare produced a Violence colt this year and was bred back to Not This Time.
Perry describes the Uncle Mo yearling heading to auction as “well put together” with substantial bone structure.
“He has a big body, but he has substantial bone underneath him. He’s got really nice legs on him. He’s a typical Uncle Mo. He moves very, very well,” she said. “To me, he looks like a lot of the nice Uncle Mos that I see that are good, quality racehorses.”
The sale won’t be easy for the Perrys, who have developed deep connections with their equine family.
“Ron might have to lock me in the women’s restroom,” she said with a laugh. “It’s going to be pretty difficult because it’s going to be like selling part of the family. But we have already told [consignor] Headley [VanMeter] that we would be happy to stay in for a leg.”
Perry acknowledged that managing a potential stallion prospect presents challenges beyond their expertise.
“What happens after he wins that first big race? I don’t know all of the things that those guys who consistently go to the Derby know,” she explained. “These guys do this for a living. I am not competition for them.”
Instead, Perry remains focused on her primary goal: establishing Marley’s Freedom as a blue-hen mare, pointing to Blame’s own dam Liable as inspiration.
“If you take a look at the big blue-hen mares, in time, thank you Mr. Tesio, you will find they end up being the ones that produce more blue hen mares,” she said.
Perry has developed a meticulous approach to breeding decisions while balancing her work at Commercial Energy.
“I spend hours, days, of obsessing over female family pedigree and how it matches up,” Perry said. “My goal is always to breed a good racehorse, a graded stakes racehorse.”
While the Uncle Mo colt may soon have new connections, Perry maintains there are two mares that will remain permanent fixtures at Cicero Farms.
“I don’t think I could ever sell Hope,” she said. “Hope, Marley and I might be in the same little nursing home together.”
The Keeneland September sale begins Monday with the first of two Book 1 sessions starting at 1 p.m. Book 2 sessions Wednesday and Thursday begin at 11 a.m. Following a dark day Friday, the auction continues through Sept. 20 with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.
