No matter how often he turns up another bargain, Mike Slezak will insist on one thing. He doesn't buy “cheap” mares. He just buys them at low cost.It's the difference between inherent and relative value. Slezak has so far been largely confined to the lower reaches of the market. But he is always, absolutely seeking quality.Back in February he found himself appraising a 9-year-old American Pharoah mare at Fasig-Tipton. She was out of an 11-time winner (once in Grade III company) but had herself failed to break her maiden in seven starts, across ages two to four, managing just a couple of modest placings on turf. Moreover, she was not just empty, but had missed the previous year as well. But her Early Voting filly, across town the previous September, had joined a good breeze-up program for $45,000.“Jesse Hoppel,” Slezak specifies. “So that was somebody who could maybe jump a horse up, get you a serious sales 2-year-old. It wasn't one of those unknowns, ABCD EFG Farm, where you don't know if it was a buyback or would end up in Russia or the Philippines. That horse was 100 percent going to Florida and would get every opportunity to make something of herself. So that gives you a little extra boost of confidence.”Because there were already plenty of positives about Lipstikliesnlovers. Slezak liked the idea of American Pharoah, as a broodmare sire: early days, naturally, but he remembered the early books assembled by the Triple Crown winner. There could only be good blood filtering through his first daughters.“She was a big, pretty physical, too, with real presence to her,” Slezak adds. “And out of a legitimate race mare in Cherokee Queen (Cherokee Run), who had four other foals of racing age. All winners, and two of them black-type horses.”Which, in turn, suggested continued vitality in a family cultivated through three generations by J. Mack Robinson.“I like those deeper families that have been curated by top breeders,” Slezak says. “I guess, for me, at this stage of my life, I have a soft spot for families where I see multiple generations of Phipps or Strawbridge or Godolphin, breeding to daughters and granddaughters. You know there's a foundation of class, and of breeding racehorses to run. It gives you a sense that this is a good tree to be picking an apple from. And with the dam seeming an above-average producer, it made me feel, okay, there's still something percolating in this family.”Especially when Cherokee Run's full-sister had produced the dam of a star as recent as Domestic Product.Miss Monica | Benoit“So there's a lot going on, on this page,” Slezak says. “You just had to sort of gulp, and hope, about those repro issues. Because while that scares you a little, it also makes you think, okay, she could actually be in our price range. Because you've always got that calculus in your head: what can you accept versus what can you not?”And that's an equation Slezak has had to refine, with a combination of skill and courage, during his unusual transition from entertainment pundit to bloodstock agent. As he shared with TDN earlier this year, the man who made his name with American Idol debrief shows had discovered that the patient, painstaking tempo of his parallel passion, for racing and breeding, actually satisfied deeper affinities.And, crucially, he showed genuine flair for the challenge, initially on his own behalf; and then, gradually, for friends who became clients; and vice versa. Mares dredged from the basement of the market were upgraded by the likes of GI Belmont Derby winner Trikari (Oscar Performance), GI Kentucky Oaks runner-up Drexel Hill (Bolt d'Oro) and GI Just a Game winner Classic Q (Classic Empire). On this occasion, he was working with one of his earlier supporters in Dr. Maurice Casey, hoping to find a “steal” heading into the breeding season. They had plenty of back and forth before the sale, narrowed down a shortlist of three. Then one of them was announced a cribber–and one of the remaining pair was Lipstikliesnlovers, who happily fell through the cracks at just $4,000.“I think when you're shopping for four- and low five-figure mares for regional programs, you try to talk yourself off horses,” Slezak remarks. “Doc Casey and I have a similar mindset: 'Listen, if we don't buy a horse at this sale, it's okay. There'll be a digital sale around the corner. And a host of claiming races.' You have to be really prudent when your budget is smaller. There's a lot of horses you can buy, sub-$10,000. So if you're going to pull the trigger on one, you better make sure you feel really, really good about her. But with this mare, we couldn't talk ourselves off of her.”Slezak believes in a spectrum of value at every level of the market. Sometimes, candidly, he sees people spending giddily beyond his resources and wonders why.“That's just how my brain is wired,” he says. “I'm always looking to pay the minimum amount. I like to think that I put in as much hard work for my $4,000 client as I do my $40,000 client. Because today's $5,000 client, if you do your job correctly, should be tomorrow's $50,000 client–and maybe five years from now could be a $100,000 client.”A few weeks after buying Lipstikliesnlovers, and sending her to Drain the Clock, Slezak texted Hoppel. The reply assured him that the Early Voting filly was a nice big sort who would hopefully come together for OBS April.“And there was a little buzz on her before the sale,” Slezak recalls. “Her breeze was great. And then boom, she brings $850,000 to Three Amigos, and she's going to Baffert. You get that tingling feeling. 'Oh my God, what if she's one of the ones?' So then you start getting the workouts, and they're looking pretty good–and we already started getting calls before her debut.”Surfacing at Del Mar last month, under the name Miss Monica, she won by half a dozen lengths to become a 'TDN Rising Star'. The calls duly increased, along with the offers, and one proved sufficient for Casey and his partner in the mare, Chris Gracie. As a result, those making contact since Miss Monica added the GI Del Mar Debutante Stakes last Saturday have been informed that they are too late: the mare had already been sold privately.She had done her job; so had Slezak. Perhaps this was his most gratifying coup yet. Naturally he began this journey in a fairly tentative, experimental spirit. Resolutely modest, he had to persuade himself before he did anyone else. But his credibility and self-belief have an ever-widening base. Just a few days before the Debutante, the GII Charles Town Classic success of Willy D's (Lookin At Lucky) upgraded his dam Boston Mine (Mineshaft), purchased off the track in Ohio for barely a couple of grand. The very next day, Grazie (Modernist), co-bred with Kaylee Platt, returned from a 10-month layoff to destroy an allowance field at Saratoga. Even since Saturday, Slezak has been delighted to see Lennox the Grey win the GIII Old Dominion Derby, having recommended his half-sister as a $16,000 Penn National claim for longstanding client Kaz Hill Farm in 2020.“It's crazy exciting,” Slezak admits of his growing record. “I come from a pretty different background. I didn't grow up on a farm. I grew up calling in bets from the payphone of my high school, using my dad's account, and religiously filling my brain with as much pedigree information as possible. Later in life, I've tried to become a better judge of the physical. But it's definitely not a typical path for a bloodstock agent.“So yeah, you do have to prove yourself. And the number of hits in the last year or two really feels like proof of concept. That's a great feeling, because this is a business where even if you do everything right, sometimes you still get it wrong. And it's not like I'm buying 300 mares a year with unlimited budget. So to get horses like this coming out of my work feels amazing.”The big challenge, now, is not to become a victim of his own success. He doesn't want to become only the guy who can buy you a good mare for peanuts.“It has crossed my mind,” he replies with a chuckle. “What could I do if somebody said, 'Hey, here's a $300,000 budget'? I've bought some mares in the low six-figure range, but I haven't had an opportunity like that yet. However weirdly, I have to say that even with a seven-figure budget, I still think I'd be looking for value. Because I just can't help myself. But yeah, someday I'd love to shop Book 1 with as much opportunity as I do Book 5, or $4,000 claimers at Finger Lakes–which will always be appealing to me.“I'm an optimist at heart. I do believe that the harder you work, the luckier you get. I hope that the people I buy for can continue to have these success stories, and upgrade their programs, even if they can't always afford to hold onto horses once these explosive updates happen. Meanwhile this shows that if you are strategic, and methodical, you really can find that needle in the haystack.”The post Miss Another Hit For Slezak appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.