Cre Run Farm

Deborah Mihaloff at the training track at Meydan in March

US Arabian Racing Spotlight Cre Run Farm Embraces International Racing

Cre Run Farm was established by Alan Krishner and his wife Deborah Mihaloff in 1986. Whilst Kirshner focussed on thoroughbreds, as a partnership it was the Arabians, initially under their own names and since 2006 as Cre Run Enterprises that kept Mihaloff enthralled. They chose to prioritise their domestic Arabian racing, with considerable success, winning numerous Darley Awards and producing Grade 1 winners such as Tu For All, Don Condare, Our Machine, Gimme A Break, In Awe, Our Princess and Thess Is Awesome. However, Mihaloff had decided to call an end to her breeding in 2018, with their last crop now four-yearolds, despite still having 25 active broodmares at their farm in Hanover County, Virginia. That is until they leased their Darley juvenile colt, First Classs to Nayef Saad Al Kaabi and he joined the stable of Alban de Mieulle in Qatar.

“I was at the end of my breeding, ” Mihaloff explains. “I thought at the time, I was going to retire, so First Classs is from the second to last foal crop that I bred. I’m going to start breeding again, because of his success and I feel that the broodmares that I have in my pastures are just sitting and doing nothing and they need to produce.

“So we have decided to go ahead and breed two of our mares to Al Mamun Monlau, one to Dahess and one to Our Machine, a stallion that I had bred, but was raced by Bill Waldron. I will be breeding back First Classs’ dam to Dahess and I’m hopeful that this will be starting our international phase three for Cre Run. ” Talking through the reasoning behind the decision she says: “In the past we always supported Delaware Park and that was our first major goal and so there were a lot of horses that we raced at Delaware, that we could have raced internationally and we never did, because we wanted to make sure that Delaware had the quality horses to maintain its’ stature in Arabian racing in the United States. When Delaware Park was not supported by the horsemen in the US and Delaware quit running Arabian races, it gave us the opportunity to rethink our programme in which I felt we needed to come over to the Middle East or to France. Another factor was the lack of races over a distance, all our races are sprints now "

Thess Is Awesome (US) wins the HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Darley Awards Stakes (Grade 1) at Santa Anita in 2016

© Debbie Burt

“That’s what initially started me thinking on leasing First Classs, because quite frankly to lease a Darley Three-Year-Old winner is a big step and people don’t usually do these things, but we really felt that this would give us the opportunity for somebody else to prove our programme for us, overseas – and it worked. It could not have happed it if wasn’t for Alban and Ronan [Thomas], I can’t thank them and Alban's team enough, because this horse was a tough horse. He was gelded because he was a tough horse and I wanted to give Lynn [Ashby, his trainer in the US] the opportunity to have a winner and she did. "

First Classs (US) exercises at the track in Riyadh

© Debbie Burt

“So he got gelded. I wish he wasn’t now, but we do have two full sisters, Iridesse and also Taylors Touchof Class, she’s going to bred for the first time this year.

Speaking of the chance of seeing Cre Run bred horses in Europe this summer Mihaloff says: “Possibly. Ernst has Iridesse, she runs in our name. We’ ve been asking an awful lot of her, sending her over here to Dubai. She did a nice fifth place at Meydan against the boys in the Maktoum Challenge [Round 3], so we’re very proud of her and then we turned around in two weeks and tried her on turf in the opposite direction [Emirates Championship] and she didn’t perform to the best of her ability.

“She didn’t get into Saudi because she was coming from Dubai and she hadn’t been there for 40 days because of quarantine, so she couldn’t accept the Al Mneefah invitation. It was a shame we didn’t get into the Kahayla Classic, we were very hopeful that she would, so we opted for the Abu Dhabi race instead. It took her brother a year to get used to Turf in Doha so it could be that she needs more time to adapt.

Amanda Roxburgh, Iridesse (US), Deborah Mihaloff and Ernst Oertel

© Debbie Burt

Mihaloff confirms that Iridesse will stay under Oertel’s care and it will be up to him how her programme goes from here on in. She also has other horses which she plans to lease in a similar format, explaining: “Amanda Roxburgh is putting together lease proposals for two Al Mamun Monlau four-year-olds that I have, but have not started yet. They ’re impeccably bred and have shown a lot of promise already. We didn’t start them last year because we didn’t have racing at Delaware.

“However, it’s given them the opportunity to become stronger and grow. A National Treasure is out of Treasure Trovee and so is a granddaughter of Hidden Treasure.

A National Treasure

© Cre Run

" Hidden Treasure is also the dam of Treasured Moments [by DA Adios], one of the world’s leading endurance horses right now. So it’s very much a distance line and we’ll see how that does crossed with Al Mamun Monlau.

Winds Of Fortune

© Cre Run

“Winds Of Fortune is out of A Second Wind, a daughter of Nivour De Cardonne, who I saw win the Kahayla Classic and had the honour of standing at Cre Run on behalf of the Late Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.

"A Second Wind is a black-type mare who won the Grade 2 Yellow Rose Arabian Stakes and was also Grade 1 placed. I love the mare. I have a lot of hope for the filly, she’s showing a lot of promise, the colt’s a little more laid back.

Reminiscing over her previous trips to Dubai she says: “My first experience of the Dubai World Cup was in 1999 and then the following year back when Dreams Of Valor and Mr Full Service were running. They were by Sam Tikki, who we owned at that time, unfortunately Dreams Of Valor had to scratch, but Mr Full Service did run. When I watched Nivour De Cardonne win that year, I never thought that I would end up representing him for Shadwell. ”

Mihaloff has strong views on the current situation with Arabian racing in America saying: “Personally I did not feel we should have had the Darleys this year, because of the loss of racing due to Covid and the Delaware Park situation. Even though the horses that won awards were quality horses, and I don’t want to take that away from them, when a horse only gets a couple of races and doesn’t get to be in a competitive situation, I did not feel it was right. I sent congratulations to the winners, but I did not feel the awards were appropriate in those circumstances.

“In the US we have divided our industry because of the tracks. Part of that is because of the local people just want to participate at those tracks and nowhere else, so we were competing against each other for horses, it has caused the demise of Arabian racing in the States as we knew it. There needs to be a standpoint that these tracks do not conflict with each other with their programmes, their needs to be an established circuit so that we can make the most of what’s on offer, but the horsemen need to participate. With them not supporting Delaware Park, it lost us six Graded stakes races, how does that make us competitive on the world stage. As for the rest of the world, the Middle East seems to be leading the way at the moment. You would hope that IFAHR could take a stronger position globally to move the sport forward. ”

Celebrating the Dubai Kahayla Classic win

© Debbie Burt