Brian Hernandez Jr raced three stages at Churchill Downs on Wednesday. He made it into the winner’s circle in Race #9, but it wasn’t the only exciting event of the day for the winner.
Early that morning, he and his family posed with a bay mare named Unbridledexplosion (Eddington) outside Barn 46 in Keeneland. Hernandez has ridden mares, minus three of the 18 beginnings of her career. Now, he was her new master.
“This is the first mare that my wife and I bought ourselves,” says Hernandez. “We bought a farm in Simpsonville a few years ago and have been doing the layout for the past few years, but we always discuss that one of these years, we will go to Keeneland and buy a mare for Learn different aspects of the game. “
New adventure in the game our whole family loves is always fun!!! https://t.co/jEhNipZ4Y8
– Brian Hernandez (@b_hernandezjr) November 18, 2021
Hernandez and his wife Jamie were in Del Mar for the Breeders’ Cup earlier this month when Jamie was flipping through the November Keeneland catalog while sitting in their hotel one afternoon. She landed on Hip 2759.
“She loves this mare,” Hernandez said. “She really appreciated Mitole and so she wanted a Mitole child. When she showed me her catalog page, I said: ‘Man, I think I rode that mare.’ Sure, I rode her for Ian [Wilkes] for her entire career.”
With Hernandez on board, Unbridledexplosion broke her maidenhood as a 3-year-old at Churchill Downs in June 2014. She finished second in her next six games against the company’s permission before adding two consecutive wins to her record in the spring of 2015– both at Churchill Downs under Hernandez. During his three-year career, which included five tries against the holding company, Unbridledexplosion cashed in 12 of his 18 career starts, raking in more than $200,000 in earnings.
“I always remember her as a mare that really tries,” her rider recalls. “She finished second five different times in some pretty tough allowance races between Keeneland, Saratoga and Churchill. I always thought she was a hard working mare. ”
After retiring from racing, Unbridledexplosion produced an underrated gelding in 2018, followed by a pony of Start up named Unbridled Bomber, who recently broke her maidenhood in Belmont on November 7th. She also has a yearning to be coveted by The best. The mares family includes GISW Declassify (Disambiguation) and GIIISW Life’s a Parlay (Uncle Mo).
Hernandez said: “Jamie has expressed her heart that she wants this mare. “She and her mother are bidding. We agreed on a certain price and we got her below our limit, so we’re all delighted. My wife’s father [Jake Radosevich] signed the ticket. She was deposited by Lantern Hill Farm with Suzi Shoemaker. We have sent her back to Suzi and we will release her. Then we’ll spawn her next year after we see what kind of offspring we get. “
This week’s sale is not the Hernandez family’s first foray into the livestock business. In partnership with Ian and Tracey Wilkes, they bred War front Social Amber to Hernandez’s 2012 GI Breeders’ Cup Classic mount, Fort Larned for the past two years. The 2-year-old, named Gus Gus, is second behind an award winner next at Ellis Park this summer. The yearning foal has been named Justblamethejock.
Hernandez says their three children have been more motivated to jump into the breeding game on their own.
“Our kids all have horses on the ranch and they love them,” he said. “They also love racing, so we wanted to give them a different path with something exciting that they can watch on the go.”
