Grade 1 winners Next Shares and Bordonaro are the newest additions to Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farm near Georgetown, Ky.
A Richard Baltas trainee, Next Shares raced from 2 to 8 and compiled a record of 7-5-5 from 41 starts with earnings of $1,891,971. The gelded son of Archarcharch out of the stakes-placed Evansville Slew daughter Two Dot Slew raced for multiple owners over the years. He was most recently campaigned by a partnership group that included Debby and Richard Baltas, Michael and Julia Iavarone, Jerry McClanahan, Jeremy Peskoff, Ritchie Robershaw, and Mark Taylor.
Next Shares won or placed in 11 graded stakes, which included victories in the 2018 Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes (G1T), 2019 San Gabriel Stakes (G2T), and 2019 Seabiscuit Handicap (G2T). Last year, he was runner-up in the Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1T). Baltas intentionally aimed Next Shares for the 2018 Old Friends Stakes at Kentucky Downs because the winner was guaranteed a spot at the retirement farm.
"We're so thrilled to have both of these wonderful athletes," said Old Friends founder and president Michael Blowen. "Richard really loved Next Shares and wanted to win the Old Friends Stakes because it gave him the option of sending him to Old Friends, and (Bordonaro's trainer) Bill Spawr, who trusted us with Amazombie, is a very special old friend."
Buck Pond Farm bred Next Shares in Kentucky and sold him as a yearling during the 2014 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearling Sale for $87,000 to Michael Foster. He would be offered as a racing prospect during the 2017 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale where bloodstock agent David Meah picked him up for $190,000.
Bordonaro, a 20-year-old gelded son of Memo out of the Rajab winner Miss Excitement, goes to Old Friends through the United Pegasus Foundation in Tehachapi, Calif. The gelding raced as a homebred for Fred Carrillo and Daniel Cassella from 4 to 6 and won six stakes, including the 2006 Ancient Title Breeders' Cup Stakes (G1) and consecutive runnings of the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) at Oaklawn Park in 2006-07. He captured his first graded win in the 2005 Vernon O. Underwood Stakes (G3) at the now defunct Hollywood Park.
A California-bred, Bordonaro had his best year at 5 when he won three of five starts—adding the Sunshine Millions Padua Stables Sprint Stakes to his victories in the Ancient Title and Count Fleet Sprint—and placed second in the Bing Crosby Handicap (G1). He would make a good showing in the TVG Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1), where he finished fourth and just missed placing when a head behind Nightmare Affair.
Bordonaro retired with a 10-1-2 record from 20 starts and earned $938,128.
