EQUINE
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Simplifying the Road to the Derby BY LOUISA BARTON
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| MAY 2022 | OCALAMAGAZINE.COM
With Simplification being sired by Not This Time, one must ask, can he get the distance for the Derby? Meric. He did not vet for the sale because he had some sesamoiditis, so the First Finds team decided to buy him and keep him with a plan to race him. That decision has definitely paid off as we get closer to the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby. Bobo says that sesamoiditis is very typical of young horses and, in her opinion, it is just growing pains. Simplification’s trainer is Antonio Sano,
and he is like family to Bobo and her husband. Actually, Sano calls Bobo his sister and she could not be happier to be on the Derby trail with him. Simplification, Bobo says, is getting better and better and his bullet works show just how sound he is now. With Simplification being sired by Not This Time, one must ask, can he get the distance for the Derby? With his dam Candy
Photos courtesy of Louisa Barton
ami Bobo entered the thoroughbred racing industry only 11 years ago after spending the early part of her career training quarter horses and being involved in website development. Bobo is Ocala-based with her husband, Fernando de Jesus, and together they operate First Finds, a smaller boutique pinhooking operation. Pinhooking is an old Kentucky tobacco term used when a speculator would buy a farmer’s young plants and later identify them with a pinned note at market. Buying the plants low and selling high would return a substantial profit. In terms of thoroughbred auctions, pinhooking yearlings describes the practice of buying yearling horses at auction or privately, overseeing their breaking and training, and eventually re-selling them as 2-year-olds in training. The same practice can be done with weanlings to resell as yearlings, but they are only brought along, taught some ground manners and prepped by their consignors as they are not old enough to be trained under saddle yet. Bobo owns one of the top contenders for the Kentucky Derby this year, a Florida-bred horse by the name of Simplification, who was the winner of the one-mile Mucho Macho Man Stakes at Gulfstream and runner-up in the Holy Bull Stakes. Bobo had another Derby horse during her career, 2012 Florida Derby winner Take Charge Indy, the first thoroughbred she ever bought. She has also had many multiple graded stakes winners and Grade 1 winners, but Derby points are not easy to earn and being in the top 20 horses out of tens of thousands on the Derby trail is never easy. Bobo originally bought Simplification by private sale from Tristan and Valerie de
