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PB HORSE TO RACE ON PREAKNESS UNDERCARD
Palm Beach Daily News (FL)
May 2007
Author: STEPHANIE MURPHY, Daily News Business and Real Estate Writer
Estimated printed pages: 2
Mending Fences is no nag, a season of unexpected racing successes has proved.
The dark bay colt owned by Linnette Miller of Palm Beach has won more than $200,000 this year.
The winnings could increase today, during the Preakness Day undercard program. Mending Fences is entered in the $250,000 Dixie Stakes at Pimlico, a nine-furlongs Grade II race on turf for 3-year-olds and up.
No one really saw it coming, said Adam Boalt, an advertising executive who grew up in Palm Beach and has followed 5-year-old Mending Fences because of the horse's parentage - Forestry and Mended Heart - and recent triumphs.
About two and a half years ago, Miller and her husband, real estate developer Robert Miller, acquired the colt in a claiming race for $15,000. The previous owner had paid $290,000 but wanted to part with the colt after a poor performance in his first race.
Linnette Miller, who heads Farnsworth Stables LLC of Palm Beach, saw Mending Fences' potential and was rewarded earlier this year.
In February, he ran a very close second to Grade 1 winner English Channel at Gulfstream.
"The performance of Mending Fences at that race showed us he had the promise of so much more," Miller said. "Then, out of nowhere, he won the $200,000 John B. Connally Breeders' Cup (on April 7). When he took first, I literally fainted. He is really coming into his own, putting on a remarkable performance that we never expected."
Mending Fences has won five of his last seven races, her husband said.
"Putting him with a different trainer made all the difference," he said.
He credits trainer Marty Wolfson with the horse's new track record but doesn't discount Mending Fences' distinguished breeding. Forestry (Storm Cat, Shared Interest) was the $1.5 million sale-topper at the 1997 Keeneland July Yearling Sale.
And Storm Cat has a pair of formidable great-grand sires: Triple Crown-winner Secretariat and Northern Dancer, winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. Canadian-bred Storm Cat went on to become the most successful sire of the 20th century.
Mending Fences is Forestry's No. 1 runner in 2007, according to the Stallion Register. Lifetime earnings are $231,400.
With his heritage and latest wins, Mending Fences is becoming more valuable, recently drawing an offer of $500,000, the owners said.
Linnette Miller got involved in horse breeding only a few years ago, with the purchase of Farnsworth Farms in Ocala.
"It has become quite the family affair. We are becoming known in this community as the group of screaming women in the crowd, cheering for our horses," she said.
There could be more to cheer for in the future, given the likelihood that Mending Fences will become a standing stallion, Robert Miller said.
The horse "really came into his own this year," he said. "Marty (Wolfson) said if he has a good year the rest of this year, ultimately he'll be a stallion."