Another foaling year has begun and I truly have learned to go into each season with a “brace yourself” mentality as any long-term breeder realizes it is the only way you can keep your sanity year after year.This season, we continue to tackle the flock to the big-book first years and proven sires while breaking out the crystal ball to try to guess which of the bubble horses will succeed when their progeny hits the track. If any of you have ever participated in Geoffrey Russell's freshman sire contest, you will quickly learn that what you think you know you do not know and it becomes a humbling experience every year with my husband always strutting around thinking he is going to win in October before fading in the stretch!I begin my thoughts with a Frank Taylor story to which I am sure many of you all can attest. I see Frank's name flash on my screen knowing well that I am going to get the full-court press on whatever wild idea he is needing supported that all of his siblings have already shot down in the Taylor Made family tree board meetings.“Carrie, I am calling you because I want your opinion on a horse that we are looking to potentially stand at stud” My eyes instantly roll thinking of the parade of yokes that I normally have to drive out to see when this question is poised by a stallion farm. I arrive to the barn with skepticism and ask to see the stallion prospect I have been called about. Out walks this snow white 16.2hand Adonis with the presence of his super sire, Tapit, and I instantly am transported to that first day at Gainesway Farm when his father retired to stud. That year was 2005 and he was standing for $15,000LF. Literally deja vu. I called Frank before the front gates could even close behind me with a resounding yes! yes! yes! with When Harry Met Sally enthusiasm to Arthur's Ride! Beauty, brains, speed, sire power, family, Champion dam. Machmer Hall mares: A Nite in Cairo (Cairo Prince), Wild Story (Exaggerator), Campaigning (Nyquist), Field of Flowers (City Zip), Hava Nagila Hava (Malibu Moon), and Little Miss Macho (Mucho Macho Man) all slated to be bred to him. Hopefully Arthur's Ride will redeem me from telling Frank “absolutely not considering Giant's Causeway has never had a successful son at stud in America,” when he called me to buy a share in..yes, you guessed it. Not this Time.Arthur's Ride | Sarah AndrewSpeaking of Not This Time, I had an agent call me and to hear the words, graded stakes winner, great pedigree, big, beautiful and reasonably priced in the same sentence is Kentucky broodmare gold. I try to always act coy when I hear of these types and respond “sounds interesting.” Meanwhile, I am literally doing cartwheels in my living room with my phone on speaker. Circle Of Trust (Union Rags) shipped in as advertised, actually even more stunning than I imagined! She is booked to Not This Time on a $250,000 live foal season instead of a comp season on the share that I could have had, but turned down.Every year since he retired to stud, we have bred multiple mares to Into Mischief (one year I booked 20!) In August last year as is the norm, I confirmed five mares from Machmer Hall in texts to one of my best friends and super agent, Mark Toothaker. Come the week after the November sale and I get an unusually sheepish call from Mark telling me he “forgot to submit my seasons and now it is too late; he is full.” I literally went through the five stages of grief at this point: denial (is this a joke?); anger (hung up on him); bargaining (here are all the text messages of me confirming); depression (you sure Ned won't bend?); acceptance (well we better find a NG season). Mark was like, “Carrie, have I EVER forgotten to book a mare for you in the decade-plus we have been doing this? I just don't know what's came over me?”“No.. No Mark you have not.” Sigh.. Not a month later, I get a text that Mark is in the hospital with a brain tumor and going to surgery that day! He literally calls me from his hospital room being wheeled into pre-op and the first thing he says to me is `well, now we know why I forgot your damn mares!'Successful surgery later and lots of relief, I reach out to Devon Bradley who miraculously had a NG season and maiden mare and stakes winner Blind Trust (Artie Schiller), who we bought privately with James Keogh, is booked to him. He will always be my favorite stallion and I will always be his number one fan even with only one mare booked to him. WARM SUNSHINE (2014, Unbridled's Song–Carolina Sunrise, by Awesome Again), will be bred to ConstitutionWarm Sunshine and her sister, Simply Sunny, have been anchor Unbridled's Song mares for our farm. Warm Sunshine is a little itty bitty mare that we bought as a yearling in my never-ending quest for them. We raced her and she had a heart the size of Texas. Her first foal is Grade II-winning colt by the best value six-figure stallion in Kentucky, Constitution.Warm Sunshine is now a multiple stakes producer and hopefully her Midnight Lute filly (Lute Warm) can get a piece of black-type at Turfway this month. Currently in foal to Nyquist, Warm Sunshine is booked back to the sire of her GSW Steal Sunshine (Constitution), along with her full sister, Simply Sunny, in addition to Layreebelle (Tale of the Cat), Miss Southern Miss (More Than Ready) and Corposo (Vino Rosso) (I bought the no-guarantee TCA season for her). STRAWBERRY SENSE (2007, A.P. Indy–Strawberry Reason, by Strawberry Road {Aus}), will be bred to Twirling Candy Strawberry Sense is an oldie but goodie..my Mom just LOVES these grand older mares. I was going through the Keeneland November catalogue and the moment I laid eyes on this quadruple stakes producer, I had a big smile come over me. I knew that I was going to get brownie points for this one. We purchased her for $85,000 in foal to Seize the Grey as a 19-year-old and candidly, that has been good luck for our farm as it is the same age we bought Voodoo Lily in foal to Tale of the Cat.Other great older mares such as Saudia, Life Well Lived, Lady Melesi, Miss Shop have all been purchased as older girls that have retired to the farm after their broodmare careers. Miss Shop and Saudia are both current pensioned babysitters at Machmer Hall and Strawberry Sense will join that band upon her retirement here as her final home. She is the dam of a Grade I Candy Ride filly, Kathy's Song, so we figured breeding her to superstar stallion, Twirling Candy, who I also turned buying a share down in and then realized I F'd up royally when I saw his first crop of 2-year-olds breeze…made great sense!She joins fellow Machmer Hall mares, Mojave Desert (Munnings), Becca's Rocket (Idoitmyway), Life Well Lived (Tiznow) and Shade (Street Sense) all going to this over-achieving son of Twirling Candy by whom we have raised Three Grade I winners! Side note: three of these mares are former Machmer Hall homebreds we bought back as broodmare prospects. EGYPTIAN BRIDE (2008, Pioneerof the Nile–Stopshoppingdebbie, by Curlin), will be bred to Chancer McPatrickEgyptian Bride currently in foal to Arabian Knight and Laid Back Lady, currently in foal to Tiz The Law, are slated to go to Chancer McPatrick and the reason we only have TWO mares going to him is because at 9:01 a.m., get the text from Mark… “Chancer coming to stud at Spendthrift!!!!!” I am like, `great, let me take a shower and then respond.' Get out of shower at 9:30 a.m., look at my phone… Chancer is full!!!! I am like, `what on earth? I was in the damn bathroom and the horse is already booked full!' Luckily, Mark's brain was cooperating with me this time and he held me two seasons even though I had not had time to respond. STUDY HARD (2015, Malibu Moon–Silent Academy, by Royal Academy), will be bred to NyquistStudy Hard, the dam of Grade II winner and current Kentucky Derby hopeful Litmus Test (Nyquist), is currently in foal to McKinzie. We bought her as a yearling for $100,000. With my horse addiction in full swing wanting to buy at every sale, I went and looked at yearling fillies for future broodmare potential and I came upon this incredible physical by Malibu Moon, a full sister to a Grade II winner. I was thinking, `Dang it! I will never be able to afford this filly.' I mean she was a 10. Oh, wait! Ask the consignor for her vet report! Ohhh, I see. She does not vet. Excellent news for a broodmare person. Follow her up to the ring and buy her. I distinctly remember the consignor coming up to me to congratulate me saying, “I cannot believe with 12 vets she did not bring more!”We named her after my mother's mantra in life and what I heard 24/7 as a child even though I really did not practice what was always preached. Study Hard's 2023 Nyquist foal was born and at 146 pounds all Craig sent was “Wowza.”Study Hard is booked back to Nyquist for 2026 and she has a 2025 filly by Twirling Candy that we are retaining for the future Machmer Hall broodmare band and she has already been named Keep Studying. ALANA B. (2015, Animal Kingdom–Surf Club, by Ocean Crest), will be bred back to Patch AdamsAlana B. is currently in foal to Candy Ride and is a young stakes producer we purchased from Darley carrying her first foal.I was at Churchill Downs the day Patch Adams (Into Mischief) broke his maiden by over 10 lengths and it was a `wow' moment for me especially considering that we own his granddam, Life Well Lived, currently in foal to Practical Joke.A multiple Grade I winner with speed, looks, pedigree and a super sire for a father: what more could you possibly want for $30,000 LF? Total no brainer for us to send Alana B. along with Heidi Maria (Rockport Harbor), Synchronized (Omaha Beach), Wolfbane (Union Rags) and Queen Macha (Keen Ice) to him. He is the most like his sire that I have ever seen in an Into Mischief son going to stud. At the Saratoga 2022 sale, there was a Gun Runner colt that was literally the talk of the sale and ended up a $2.3 million yearling who later became Sierra Leone. I was lucky enough to see him again when he was on a freshening at Ashford and he was even more stunning as an older horse, in impeccable condition and exuding class. I have always felt very connected to his family. We bought his dam's three-quarter sister as a yearling for $8,000 from Legacy Bloostock. Even though I named her Forever Darling since we were going to keep her “forever”… sigh….and even though Albert Davis told me “this filly can really run,” we sold her through as a 2-year-old because the horse trader in me prevailed.Forever Darling went onto win a Grade II and become the dam of Breeders' Cup Classic and Eclipse Award winner and Japan's Horse of the Year Forever Young. Just imagine what kind of broodmare she could have been for Machmer Hall!Well the would-have could-have should-haves is part of any breeder's life, so I have always cheered and admired the family the Oxleys developed. The day of his retirement, I texted Robyn Murray that I would like to submit five Machmer Hall stakes mares to this amazing son of superstar Gun Runner: Asawer (Nyquist), Be My Sunshine (Frosted), Orquidias Biz (Fed Biz), Truth Hurts (Tonalist) and Fortuna Mia (Vekoma).As of me typing this, we currently have 85 foaling mares, 10 barren/aborted mares and 15 maiden mares booked to 47 different stallions at 10 different stallion farms with 19 not having been officially booked yet. We always like to try to see who emerges as the up-and-coming have-to-have 2-year-old sires like Yaupon was last year and Tiz the Law the year before him. This year, when I was down in Ocala in January, the buzz stallion from many 2-year-old consignors was Drain the Clock, so we shall see what happens!Hope you have enjoyed reading about our farm as much as I have enjoyed writing these mating articles featured in the TDN every year.The post 2026 Mating Plans: Machmer Hall appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.