Glen Hill Farm's Craig Bernick had just enough left in the bankroll to try for one more weanling when he bid on Nola Soul (Justify) at the 2024 Keeneland November Sale.With a $2 million budget, Bernick purchased five colts at the 2024 breeding stock sales in the hopes of coming out with a stallion prospect. Nola Soul was the last to be bought and at $220,000, was the bargain of the bunch. This year, he was the first to make the races, becoming a TDN Rising Star, and he is now a Royal Ascot winner.Bernick said that in the four weeks since Nola Soul captured the Chesham Stakes, the response to securing his operation's first Royal Ascot victory has been unlike anything he has ever experienced as an owner.“It's funny,” he reflected. “It's only a listed stake, but people texted me like it was a Group 1. I guess that's Royal Ascot for you. We've won Grade I races and gotten less press and less congratulations. It's kind of like the Kentucky Derby. It's one of the few events that breaks out of the horse world. Everybody knows it.” The road to securing an Ascot victory began with a calculated game plan. Nola Soul was part of the inaugural crop of colts Bernick bought as weanlings in 2024. With so many deep-pocketed syndicates shopping for stallion prospects at the yearling sales, Bernick decided to take a less conventional route.“Most of our best mares are graded stakes horses on turf, so in the aim of producing a stallion, we decided to go to the sales and buy some colts. We've got a great farm in Ocala so we said, 'Why don't we just buy foals?'”Nola Soul was slated to go through the ring early in Book 2 at Keeneland. The Justify colt bred by Glennwood Farm was from the family of dual Grade I winner Stay Thirsty (Bernardini) and Without You Babe (Lemon Drop Kid), the dam of GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile champion Tamarkuz (Speightstown) and G1 St James's Palace Stakes victor Without Parole (GB) (Frankel {GB}). “I think Justify is just an outstanding stallion,” said Bernick. “His statistics are remarkable, especially in Europe with the percentage of stakes horses and Group 1 horses from the number of horses that have actually been tried over there. I couldn't believe this horse was in Book 2. The Gunthers raised a fantastic horse. He was out of a Muhaarar mare, so a little bit of a turf broodmare sire, but definitely a Kentucky pedigree behind him. He was a big, rangy horse with a big walk. He was maybe too much of a turf horse for some of the pinhookers, but he was pretty obvious to us.”When the acquired quintet of weanlings was sent to be raised and broken at Glenn Hill Farm in Ocala, Nola Soul was the lone youngster slated for an overseas campaign. Believing the colt possessed the precocity to thrive in an early campaign, Bernick was also influenced by his rapport with Irish trainer Fozzy Stack. The duo had celebrated top-level success with another progeny of Justify in Aspen Grove (IRE), who captured a Group 3 in Ireland before crossing the pond to claim the 2023 GI Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes.Bernick was on hand at Leopardstown this past May when Nola Soul made his first start, overcoming some greenness to win going seven furlongs and earn 'TDN Rising Star' honors.When the runner-up of that debut, King of Cloughan (IRE) (St Mark's Basilica {FR}), captured the Windsor Castle Stakes less than 24 hours before the Chesham, it reinforced the confidence Bernick had always had in his colt.“He's a big horse, but not a big one that looks like he'd take a lot time,” explained Bernick. “He looks a lot like Justify to be honest. I'm not saying he's Justify. He's got totally different markings and he's bay. But he's big in his proportions and he really reminds you of Justify in how he runs. He's got such a big stride and he does things in such an efficient way that he covers a lot of ground.”Craig Bernick with Aspen Grove after winning the 2023 GI Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes | Sarah AndrewThe Nola Soul team's primary concern at Royal Ascot was how the inexperienced colt would handle the boat ride and the pre-race buzz, especially as the Chesham immediately followed the Royal Procession as the first race on Thursday's card. The atmosphere did get to the juvenile a bit and he required a blindfold to go into the gate.“That's why he was so keen because he was so amped up going in the gate that he kind of blew up,” Bernick explained. “Hopefully we'll get him over some of those pre-race antics and he'll be a little bit more relaxed in his racing. It's hard to say for a horse that's won twice from two starts, but he needs to learn how to run. And if he does, he's going to be pretty dangerous.”Bernick was not able to witness the Ascot festivities in person because of a family vacation in Colorado, but he hopes to be in attendance as the colt's juvenile campaign continues. Nola Soul is targeting the G2 Futurity Stakes at the Curragh on August 22. From there, Bernick said the 2-year-old should make one or two more starts this year, but the Breeders' Cup is likely not one of the races in consideration.“We really want to make sure we have a horse next year because he could be a good horse in some of those really big races if he does things right,” he noted.Among the other four members of Nola Soul's crop, Roll Wave (Into Mischief) may be the next to debut. A $900,000 Keeneland November buy, the son of Grade III winner Eres Tu (Malibu Moon) is in training with Tom Proctor in Saratoga. He worked a bullet four furlongs in :46.59 on June 28 and breezed from the gate on July 4. The other three colts–by McKinzie, Jackie's Warrior and Justify–are also with Proctor at the Spa.Nola Soul wins the Chesham Stakes | Mathea KelleyBernick was back in action during the last round of Keeneland breeding stock sales. In November, he bought a $550,000 Elite Power colt out of a daughter of GISW Miss Shop (Deputy Minister), as well as colts by Munnings, Yaupon and Street Sense. He also purchased a $675,000 Into Mischief half-brother to GISW Cogburn (Not This Time) at the January Sale.“It wasn't as easy to buy,” he admitted. “I think in 2024, we didn't get outbid for a horse. We bought the five we liked. This year the three we liked the most we actually got outbid for. Buying foals to race is a normal thing in other parts of the world, but it's mostly pinhookers here. We got a chance to outbid the pinhookers in 2024, but everybody figured it out last year. I think people that didn't get horses purchased in September because of the prices probably said, 'Well, let's get some of these things as foals.'”Two years into the weanling-buying venture, Bernick said he now actually prefers purchasing racing prospects as foals.“They can be at our farm and in our program for an extra year essentially,” he explained. “They've been through a sales prep, but as a foal, not as a yearling. With a foal that you're going to race, it's not quite a homebred, but it essentially is for us because [the Glen Hill homebreds] come down to Ocala once they're weaned, so it actually works out pretty well. I like buying the foals. We'll do it again this year.”The post Keeneland Case Study: Nola Soul Gets New Glen Hill Venture Off to a Fast Start appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.