Conor Wixted, Eleanor Dunne and Clare Manning look ahead to the Breeders' Cup after their graduate Bottle Of Rouge won a Grade I at Del Mar in the early hours of Sunday morningIt started out as a pretty ordinary suggestion among friends. 'Why don't we go out and try and pinhook a foal in America?' Now, the Irish-based Conor Wixted, Eleanor Dunne and Clare Manning – otherwise known as Kids In America Bloodstock – are Grade I winners courtesy of Del Mar Debutante Stakes winner Bottle Of Rouge. Bought for $60,000 under that playful banner at Keeneland in November 2023, the Vino Rosso filly went on to realise $100,000 at the September Yearling Sale last year. A job well done on all accounts for the young pinhookers. But little did they know then that they had unearthed something special in the shape of the Bob Baffert-trained Bottle Of Rouge, who could be destined for bigger and better things at the Breeders' Cup given the style in which that Grade I win was achieved at Del Mar over the weekend.Wixted, whose day job is senior bloodstock executive at Goffs, summed up the emotion surrounding the success by saying, “She won second time out and, while we had been keeping an eye on her, I don't think any one of us could have expected her to win a Grade I on her third start. The plan is the Breeders' Cup now so we'll definitely make the trip for that.”He added, “She boarded with Hunter Valley and, while Clare had spent time out in America before, it was only my second time to visit Keeneland so Clare very much showed Eleanor and I the ropes. It was definitely a frustrating process trying to get something bought and the budget kept stretching but we kept on getting beaten. There was a lot of coffee drank and, by the time this filly came up, none of us were in any doubt that she was the one for us. We were blown out of the water on plenty of foals and vetted 12 or 14 – [we] even managed to vet the wrong horse in the midst of everything, so that will tell you how much the whole process tested us. We did stretch a little bit for her and decided to kick on. Thankfully we did.”The Vino Rosso filly was split three ways between Wixted, Manning of Boherguy Stud and Dunne, who boasts the distinct achievement of pinhooking Group 2 winner and Breeders' Cup-placed Miss Amulet alongside her uncle Dermot Dunne.She said, “I have had one Grade I starter before in Miss Amulet, who finished third in a Breeders' Cup race. But this is only Bottle Of Rouge's third start and now she is a Grade I winner so it's surreal.”Dunne bought Miss Amulet for just €1,000 as a foal. Selling the subsequent Group 2 scorer for £7,500 may not have made the young pinhooker rich, but it did provide her with the confidence to plough on and try to repeat the process. And that eye has once again proven correct here with Bottle Of Rouge. Speaking from Keeneland, Dunne recalled, “I can remember Clare, Conor and I having a couple of different conversations before we eventually came out here together. We wanted to add another string to our bow and decided pinhooking out here would be an interesting route to go down. We put in a lot of graft throughout the time we were over here. We were learning as we went along because we weren't well-versed on a lot of the damsires and, essentially some of the sires as well, so it was all new to us. It got to a point where we were due to go home but we still hadn't found a horse. It wouldn't have been a wasted trip regardless and you can't buy a horse for the sake of buying one. But we were in a position to change our flights and stay on and thankfully we found this filly. The rest is history, as they say. Very lucky to pick up Donato Lanni and Bob Baffert at the yearling sales last year. For her to go on and do what she has done for them has been fantastic. They are big players and it's very important to get the results for them.”On what attracted the group to the filly, Dunne added, “She was just very racy. She was a nice-bodied, racy filly who stood up a very attractive type in the flesh. The sire was acceptable at the time. He was pretty high in the first-season sires' table when we purchased her but, unfortunately for us, he fell off the cliff a little. That's why we didn't have mega expectations coming back to the yearling sales with her because we knew the sire was gone a bit cold. But we knew we had a nice individual who should definitely be in a position to get sold. I came out to see her sell and, ultimately, she went down pretty well. You could say that Bob and Donato saw what we saw in her.”Dunne was the only kid in attendance in America for the September Yearling Sale last year as Manning was knee-deep in sales prep while Wixted was otherwise engaged. Nevertheless, the nerves were palpable. Wixted remembers, “I was actually doing a course in Dublin when she was selling and I can remember box-walking in the Talbot Hotel. I was frantically refreshing the results and, when I saw she made $100,000, it was an amazing feeling.”Interestingly, there were no such nerves in the early hours of Sunday morning for Wixted. “I was actually in bed when she won,” he sheepishly revealed. “The race was quite late and I'd a very busy day on Saturday! It's bad, isn't it? I woke up to loads of messages, though. I genuinely couldn't believe it. I definitely won't miss the Breeders' Cup and the plan is for the three of us to make the trip.”Manning did manage to keep her eyes open for the race and capitalised on a few sleeping bookmakers to mop up all of the 33-1 that was on offer for Bottle Of Rouge winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies race back at Del Mar.She concluded, “I'm not going to lie, I was lying in bed struggling to keep my eyes open but, as soon as the race started, I was wide awake. After she won, it took me until well after three in the morning to go back to sleep! Paddy Power were going 33-1 for the Breeders' Cup so I managed to snap up some of that – sure they were probably all in bed as well! I think she won very well and she looks as though she likes coming off a strong pace as she has a turn of foot.”She added, “I just thought if we could go out and buy a foal and make profit, great. For her to have won a Grade I is beyond all expectations. It makes you hungrier to go and try and do it again.”The post ‘I Took 33-1 For The Breeders’ Cup – The Bookmakers Were Probably Asleep’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.