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MAMA DIDN’T RAISE NO FOAL

17 Nov 2024
LAHAINA LUCK, IMPROBABLE LUCK’S MOM

Who is the dam of Improbable Luck?
Her name is Lahaina Luck, and she lives at Cypress Creek Equine. This is the same farm where Improbable Luck was born and raised. They go back over 75 years and are a premier horse farm. This year, they sold a horse for $1.7 million. For context, the average sales price for a thoroughbred in 2024 is $76,779. They have bred horses who have qualified for the Kentucky Derby for three years straight. People will spend their careers just trying to win one Derby qualifying race. It’s safe to say they know a good horse when they see one. Their broodmare band goes back generations. It is a fact that mares are the key to a thriving horse farm. You want to keep your best mares to be successful. Lahaina Luck is one of their homebred mares.

Lahaina Luck is a mystery. Here is what we could find. She raced once and was retired. She is well-bred. Her sire is a champion named Uncle Mo. Her dam, Royal Lahaina, was a darn good horse. She won a Grade-2 at Aqueduct. (Note: The top-level races are graded 1-3 in horse racing. Grade 1 is the highest. That means Lahaina Luck’s dam won a near-top-level horse race.) These are stats and facts. We still had a lot of questions. We wanted to know what Lahaina Luck was like. After all, mares pass on many of their traits to their foals. Does the apple fall far from the tree? We also wondered what Improbable Luck was like as a foal. It was time to go to the source. We reached out to Cypress Creek and spoke with Susan Finney, who runs the farm alongside her husband, Ryder, to learn more.

Susan’s passion for mares and foals is inspiring. (Note: A foal is a baby horse that is less than one year old. A mare is a female horse. Foaling is the process of a female horse or mare giving birth to her new foal.) Susan makes sure that this goes off without a hitch. She is a master at her craft. She oversees 50 to 100 horses a year and ends up foaling 30 to 35 foals every season. That’s a lot of horses. She was there the day Improbable Luck was born. She was also on the ground floor when it came to his breeding. Susan takes care of Lahaina Luck daily. We could speak to no better source. Remember the name Susan Finney. She is young, driven, and brilliant. That’s the trifecta you want to hit in horse racing to leave your mark.


SUSAN FINNEY

Thanks for talking to us today, Susan.
Of course! When you emailed me and asked me about Lahaina Luck’s foal, I knew who you were talking about. I have such a memory of him. My Facebook profile picture for two years was a picture of me and that foal.

This astonished us. Susan is in charge of so many horses. She takes care of hundreds over a single year. What were the chances that she would have made our horse her profile picture?

You have been around special horses. Did Improbable give you any indication that he could be a special horse? And what makes a special horse?
I love a smart horse. A horse that will not fight with you over getting prepped. I think the most important thing is a calm horse. Like a lot of times, my boss will say, “Hey, why don’t you prep these horses, and let’s see how it goes.” And what he means by that is prep them, and let’s see how their mind is. Do they want to go that extra lap in the field on a 90-degree day? Or do they want to drop their head, put their ears forward, and walk? And I felt like Improbable Luck was the type of horse that never fought. He would always do what was asked of him. And I think that says a lot about a horse and a horse’s character. A horse with a good mind is just as important as the horse’s physical attributes, and I felt that this Improbable colt was very smart. He would never fight with you on anything.


LAHAINA LUCK AND IMPROBABLE LUCK

Can you give us an example of this with Improbable Luck? Do you have any memories?
Sure. We prep horses for November sales. We have to teach them to have blankets on, which you and I would not think is a big deal. But some horses have a meltdown over getting blankets put on in November. You know, to make sure their coat lays down and all that stuff for the November sales. Normally, the first time you put a blanket on a weanling, it takes two or three people because they are flipping over backward in the stall. They are so scared. And I remember when I put a blanket on Improbable Luck, and he just stood there like, “All right. Nice!” And I remember looking at Ryder and going, “I really like this colt.” And he says what my boss says, “You can’t keep them all.” And if we can take this opportunity to sell him as a weanling to make room for the others, then we need to do that. But I remember him. I really enjoyed having him.

Was Improbable Luck similar to his dam, Lahaina Luck?
Yes. He acts just like his mom. Cool, calm, collected. I guarantee that when he goes into the paddock for the first time, it will be just like another day for him. He might get a little excited, but I don’t think he’ll be real worked up. You won’t see him not letting the jockey get on or trying to flip over. I think he’ll be calm. And that’s important in having a racehorse. You want a horse that’s not going to waste all this energy in the paddock. That’s half the battle.


LAHAINA LUCK AND IMPROBABLE LUCK

Talk about the horse’s dam.
Lahaina Luck is special. She is a homebred. She is a very big, pretty mare. She is a bossy mare. She is always the head of the herd. She’s mean to other mares, but she’s so sweet to people. And what I mean by mean to other mares is she’s head of the herd and is not afraid to bully anybody around. But she’s also very loving. Just take a look at this picture I took of her embracing Improbable Luck as a foal.

 

Does she have any quirks?
She loves to eat. I’ll tell you something that is really annoying. She loves to eat off the ground. You know, I like to feed all my mares on fence feeders. It makes it easy. That way they don’t spill feed on the ground and waste it. They get all their supplements. So, I tie the fence feeders to the fence. She refuses. She will bump, bump, bump that feed tube off the fence until she gets it on the ground, and she wants to eat all her feed every day. So every morning, every evening, I’m putting the feed tub back on the fence because I can’t tie it anymore because when I tie it to the fence, she’ll pull the fence off the board. It’s the fence board. And I’m like, okay, well, I’d rather just, like, feed off the ground than repair fence boards all day. So, that’s a funny little quirk about her. She loves to eat on the ground for whatever reason. She also loves to splash in the water and throw it on herself, which is funny. She’s got little quirks like that, but she’s a very easy keeper.

What would you say is her best attribute?
With Lahaina I just know that when she foals, she is just so calm to be around. Like, she is just so calm with people around her. And probably that’s because she has lived there all of her life. She’s not in any new environment. She knows who I am. She knows that I’m not going to take the foal away from her. And it just creates such a calm, foaling environment where my dogs can come in the stall. I bring my dogs to work. She’s not aggressive towards my dogs. And that can happen. So, her best attribute is that she’s an easy mare to foal. Just meaning, she trusts the people that are with her. And that’s a credit to her because I have had plenty of mares that have bit my arm, that have bit me on the way out, or that have tried to kick me. And it’s just being protective of their foal. And that can happen and vary from year to year. But she is always such a sweet, sweet mare.


ROYAL LAHAINA

You said she is a homebred. Did you also own her mother?
Yes. We had the mare who produced her. Royal Lahaina. Her mom was very talented, you know? Royal Lahaina was a grade two winner at Aqueduct. I think she even placed in a grade three and multiple listed stakes. Her mother was talented.

They bred her to Uncle Mo and got Lahaina Luck, who looks as beautiful as her mother but just didn’t get the opportunity to show that she could run. But they had the right idea. They thought, “Let’s breed Royal Lahaina to Uncle Mo, and I bet we’ll get a pretty foal with a lot of talent.” And that’s what she was. She was beautiful. She was stunning. I think they were expecting $800,000 for her in Saratoga. But then she got sick and couldn’t get on the plane to Saratoga. So they ended up keeping her. She was a beautiful yearling, but it just didn’t work out. And it just didn’t work out on the racetrack, which you see a lot.

Let’s discuss Lahaina Luck’s racing career. She only raced once and finished 5th. Can you talk about her career?
Lahaina Luck had a soft tissue injury after her first start, which was it for her. But some of the best broodmares are unraced.

Why did you decide to breed her to Improbable?
She is a really pretty mare. She’s a big mare. Kind of like a tank. We bred her to Improbable because we’re hoping the City Zip will give her a little bit of speed. When you look at her as a broodmare, you’re trying to create a powerful couple. And she’s got a really big, pretty walk on her. And we’re hoping that the City Zip side would give her speed.

What is next for Lahaina Luck?
She’s young. She’s only, like, eight. Improbable Luck is her first foal. She’s in foal to Omaha Beach on a really early cover, and it’s going to be a filly. I am looking forward to her. You know, I just really like this mare, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of her foals.

And we’re looking forward to seeing more great things from Susan Finney. We get a feeling that she will have a hand in a lot of great horse careers. If horse racing is a game of dreams, why not dream one of those great horses is ours.

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