Nor could those who bought him the fol-
lowing March, for $400,000. Brennan and
Ryan had hoped for more, but the biggest
paydays aren't always with the horses that
ultimately make your reputation. That owes
just as much to the fact that the Phipps
family had entrusted the colt who became
Orb to Brennan three years previously: two
Kentucky Derby winners through his hands
in four years.
Woods, for his part, pinhooked the 2008
winner Big Brown—picked up for just
$60,000 at Fasig-Tipton's Fall Sale and
turned round at the Keeneland breeze-ups
the following April for $190,000. Again, he
has had more spectacular dividends. But
as Brennan says: "When you're right in this
game, and you're really right, you only have
to be right so often. Because those Grade 1
winners carry you a long way."
And the home runs, anyway, are invari-
ably recycled: into the next round of pin-
hook partnerships, and into the facilities.
Both men have developed extraordinary
sites. Over the 240-acre watermelon farm
he took over in 2000, for instance, Woods
