Kevin and Kim Nish of KMN Racing are looking forward to a great race weekend in California with not one, but two homebreds entered in stakes races at Santa Anita.

On Saturday, What In Blazes (Straight Fire), a flamboyant-faced 3-year-old colt will make his third career start in the GII San Vicente S. After finishing a close second on his debut, the colt was last seen once overcoming a field of virgin juveniles by almost six lengths last July in Del Mar.

“Which in Blazes was brought up by Jerry Hollendorfer,” Kevin Nish said. “He ran a little short in his first race, just coming out a practice too early, but he made up for it on his next start in Del Mar. We gave him some vacation time and he did really well. trained at Los Alamitos for the past four weeks.

Nish admitted the colt will need to step forward to emerge victorious in Saturday’s Grade II, but explained his reasoning for taking a chance.

“It’s hard to fill allowance races in California and stake races are much more predictable, so we decided to give it a shot against the much more expensive barn stock of others.”

The five-horse San Vicente S. also includes MyRacehorse and Spendthrift Farm’s Forbidden Kingdom (American Pharoah), a $300,000 yearling purchase, plus three other six-figure purchases from Baffert’s highly regarded trainees Doppelganger (Into Mischief), McLaren Vale (Gun Runner) and 2021 GI Breeders’ Cup juvenile contender Pinehurst (Twirling Candy).

On Sunday, a second KMN Racing homebred called Smuggler’s Run (Straight Fire) will be looking to go undefeated in the Baffle S. on grass. The 3-year-old gelding trained by Richard Baltas made his New Years Day debut this year, winning a six furlong dirt contest by 5½ lengths

Regarding the switch to grass, Kim Nish said, “We heard from several people that he might like grass. He has an older brother who is a grass ranked stakes winner and his mother is by Kitten’s Joy, so when the stakes came up and it was time to run him we thought it might be a good place for him.

What in Blazes and Smuggler’s Run are from the first generation of California sire Straight Fire. KMN Racing partnered Dominus’ son during his racing career and they remained owners during his stud career.

“He was a very fast and precocious racehorse and he never got the chance to prove how good he was on the circuit,” Kevin Nish said of the stallion who placed at both in the GI Del Mar Futurity and the GI FrontRunner S. in 2016.

Straight Fire was represented by 10 juvenile winners out of 13 riders in 2021, including two other KMN Racing-owned horses in Zuboshi and Carasynthia.

“Straight Fire has proven to be an early Del Mar winner and that’s where we like to target our horses,” said Kevin Nish. “We like to breed them to be fast and precocious and that’s what he seems to be producing so far.”

“They seem to have big heads on them,” Kim Nish added. “They all seem to be very smart.”

KMN Racing has several Straight Fire 2-year-olds in the pipeline this year that are currently in training at Ocala.

“People who break them tell us they’re exceptional,” Kevin Nish said. “We expect to see some of them come out in June or July to see if we can continue the good run he’s had.”

Shortly after its inception in 2011, KMN Racing enjoyed success through racing partnerships with 2013 GI Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Mizdirection (Mizzen Mast) and Eclipse Shared Champion Belief (Candy Ride{Arg} ). Today they focus on their breeding program by racing the majority of their own horses. With around half a dozen mares in their broodmare group, KMN Racing’s breeding program is somewhat rare these days as they focus almost exclusively on breeding for racing. They estimate that over the past few years 80-90% of their foals will go to the racetrack while only a few will be sent to sales if they can fetch the right price.

“With the way people will pay for horses these days, if you can get a few big ones, that can pretty much fund the deficit of a small operation like ours for an extended period of time and allow us to continue to be participants. “, Kevin Nish explained.

Smuggler’s Run’s dam, Maddie’s Odyssey (Kitten’s Joy), was one of their first broodmares. Selected by advisors Jason Litt and Alex Solis II in 2012, the mare has become a very successful producer for her breeders as the dam of GSW Grecian Fire (Unusual Heat) and Sneaking Out (Indian Evening) as well as MSW Been Studying Her ( Fast Anna).

“She is our foundation mare for our breeding success,” Nish explained. “We’ve had a few others that have produced stakes horses, but ‘Maddie’ consistently gives us stakes winners who have raced well and made big money.”

Maddie’s Odyssey has a 2-year-old filly who was bred on a colt share at Tapit and fetched $500,000 at Keeneland’s September sale this year. She also has a yearling foal Constitution. Nish said the plan is not yet set on whether or not he will see the sales ring. Maddie’s Odyssey was not bred in 2021, but she will visit freshman stallion Charlatan this year.

Blazes’ dam, Western Kitty (Western Fame), has a yearling foal Army Mule in the works and is currently in foal to American Freedom. Nish said this year she returned to California and will be re-bred to Straight Fire.

Kevin and Kim Nish currently live in Florida and won’t be able to race Santa Anita this weekend, but they said if all goes well with the two runners, they’ll be sure to fly in for their next start.