Ellen Caines went specifically shopping for mares in foal to Up to the Mark in the fall of 2024 and winter of 2025 and has watched excitedly the extraordinary success of the stallion's first yearlings in the sales ring this fall. The longtime Oklahoma breeder will look to get in on the action when she presents a pair of yearlings by the 2023 champion turf horse at next week's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearling Sale.“He is, according to mitochondrial DNA, very, very highly rated,” Caines said of her desire to acquire offspring of the champion. “Mitochondrial DNA is the ability for large hearts, lung capacity, everything. He rates very high. How it was stated to me is, he's going to be the next great sire.”Caines credits Jeff Jeans and the pedigree analysis software Pedigree 360 for her reliance on mitochondrial DNA in picking out horses.As for Up to the Mark, Caines said, “He has 46 instances of mitochondrial DNA, which is huge. All of Up to the Mark's come through the Princequillo. And that's awesome if you see it in the pedigree.”Armed with that knowledge, Caines went to the 2024 Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale and acquired the unraced Tis You (Kantharos), in foal to the first-season sire, for $35,000. The mare is out of a full-sister to Well Dressed (Notebook), the dam of G1 Dubai World Cup winner Well Armed.“She looks like a Quarter Horse mare,” Caines said of Tis You. “She's got a lot of heavy body to her. But you can't see what her best attribute is. Her mitochondrial DNA is really good. And I love Notebook. You know, Bill Casner, who's a good friend of mine, that's all his breeding on the bottom side. So that was kind of a no-brainer.”Two months later, she purchased Quiet Place (Tapizar), also in foal to Up to the Mark, for $20,000 at the Keeneland January sale. That unraced mare is out of Ivanavinalot (West Acre) and she is a half-sister to champion Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro).“She herself was a beautiful mare,” Caines said of Quiet Place. “She just reads class, and the pedigree was all there, of course, with Ivanavinalot producing Songbird. I thought if his mitochondrial DNA, his lineage pulls through on this lineage, this could be a really nice racehorse.”Both mares foaled in Kentucky before heading to Caines's Caines Stallion Station farm in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. Quiet Place produced a filly, who will sell as hip 19, and Tis You produced a colt, hip 357. The two make up the entirety of Caines's consignment to the sale and both will be offered during Monday's first session of the four-day auction.Up to the Mark–Quiet Place | Amy BayleThe two will be offered at the end of a yearling season during which Up to the Mark's first foals have been in high demand. The stallion, who stands at Lane's End Farm at a fee of $25,000, had 57 yearlings sell this fall for an average of $192,210. He was represented by a colt who sold at the Keeneland September sale for $1.65 million. A filly by the sire sold for $575,000 at that same auction.“I've been very impressed,” Caines said of those results. “People are seeing what I'm seeing. I'm just going by the catalogue because I've been busy here and I haven't been out there yet, so I'm just going on the physicals and how they match up to my horses, and he's he's definitely put some good, nice babies out there. They are all pretty consistent.”Asked what it was like watching Up to the Mark's yearlings sell so well at earlier sales and knowing she has two of her own to head to auction, Caines laughed.“I'm not saying anything because I don't want jinx myself,” she said. “I'm excited. I mean, I'm really excited. I think I'm offering two really nice horses. And I just hope the public agrees.”Caines stands five Thoroughbred stallions in Oklahoma, including multiple graded stakes winner Airoforce and Arrogates Hercules, an unraced son of champion Arrogate out of Grade I-placed Willet (Jump Start), and graded winner Uncle Vinny. But Caines Stallions is home to more than just Thoroughbreds.“We do a lot of shipped semen for Quarter Horses,” Caines said. “And I actually have a Clydesdale that I'm going to be breeding next year. This year was the first time for that. He's a gentle giant, but you're very conscious of where those hind feet are,” she added with a laugh. “I've been stepped on by these Thoroughbreds, but I may not survive that one.”Caines credits her late husband Conrad, who passed away in 2023, with her entry into the equine world, but she found her passion for Thoroughbreds all by herself.“My husband did halter horses, and he was very, very successful with that,” she explained. “So I started with him doing that, and then I did the under saddle horses, stock horses. I've always loved the Thoroughbreds, and one day I just got tired of all the show horse stuff, and I said, 'You know what? I'm done.' He's like, 'Oh no, you're not.' I said, 'No, I'm done,' and I never went back. It's just blossomed from there.”Up to the Mark–Tis You | Amy BayleCaines has about 20 mares in her broodmare band. She admitted, “The highlight of my year is going to Keeneland and buying new mares.”Caines added that her personal broodmare band can sometimes get limited by her work in reproduction which can see the number of mares boarded at her Oklahoma farm mushroom up to 150.“I just started doing it and I was good at it,” she explained of her repro work. “It's an addiction.”Caines said her plan is to sell what she breeds and she enjoys watching those foals go on to have success for their new owners.“It just tickles me to death that the horses that we breed go out and do well,” she said. “I tell people I make them and I get them here, and then the rest is yours. I just enjoy watching them go on with their careers and do well.”The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Sale will be held next Monday through Thursday with each session beginning at 10 a.m.The post Up to the Mark is OK with Caines: Oklahoma Breeder Brings Two to Fasig-Tipton October appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.