When Elena and Hollie Crim realized that Bling Away Baby was entered in the Jan. 30 California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Winter Mixed Sale, they knew they had to buy him. That $35,000 purchase, the second-highest price of the sale, completed a circle that originally had been scheduled to begin at that same sale in 2021—except that COVID-19 intervened.
The Crims had their Stormy Atlantic mare Sacred Alibi , carrying Bling Away Baby, pointed to the 2021 CTBA Winter Sale. But the pandemic made it difficult for anyone to know whether sales would proceed as planned. Though the CTBA ultimately conducted a sale that year, the Crims didn’t consign Sacred Alibi.
“We ended up keeping the mare and then had this beautiful baby,” Hollie said. “We absolutely loved him. We still love the mare—she’s one of our favorite mares. She bounces back and forth between our two homes. She’s always a barn favorite.”
The Crims are a mother-and-daughter team of market breeders based in Scottsdale, Ariz. They sell under the name of H & E Ranch and live just a few miles from each other. Each of them keeps some of their horses on their respective properties.
“A lot of our mares travel so much to Kentucky,” said Elena. “Sacred Alibi had been in Kentucky more than she’d been with us. We really didn’t know her until she came to live with us.”
Bling Away Baby, a son of the stallion Too Much Bling , was foaled in Kentucky and raised in Arizona. The Crims primarily sell homebreds at sales around the country, including in California, Arizona, Kentucky, and Florida. They consigned Bling Away Baby to the 2022 Fasig-Tipton California Yearling Sale, where Tari Brocklebank bought him for $27,000.
“It’s hard—we have so many and we have to let them all go at some point,” Hollie said. “We were sad to see him go.”
“He was breathtakingly beautiful,” Elena said.
Hollie said that they have another filly by Too Much Bling who is also good-looking.
“They’re bookends—they’re just gorgeous individuals,” Hollie said.
H & E brought a consignment of yearlings and a couple of racing prospects to the 2024 winter sale, only to discover that Bling Away Baby was also cataloged. He was still unraced, though John Brocklebank, who was offering the now 3-year-old gelding through Andy Havens’ Havens Bloodstock Agency, entered him in a race at Turf Paradise Jan. 30, the day of the sale.
But instead of Bling Away Baby making his racing debut at a racetrack just a few miles from where he was raised, the Crims purchased him for $35,000 at the CTBA Winter Mixed Sale.
“We decided to go for it,” Hollie said. “We know him; we know the family. We’ll see where we’re at in a couple of weeks and go from there.”
“He has the mare’s mind, and his works are pretty good,” Elena said.
The Crims have had luck racing homebreds before. When Desert Dawn failed to bring her reserve at the 2020 Ocala Breeders’ Sales October Sale, they put her into training with Phil D’Amato in Southern California. Now 5, that daughter of Cupid —Ashley’s Glory , by Honour and Glory, is a multiple graded stakes winner and earner of nearly $1 million.
Meanwhile, the Crims continue to breed Sacred Alibi. Since Bling Away Baby, the mare has produced a 2-year-old filly by Gift Box and a yearling filly Vino Rosso . She is scheduled to be bred to Union Rags this year.
“She’s a big, beautiful mare, and so sweet,” Hollie said. “It just kind of feels like fate that we ended up keeping her, fell in love with the baby, fell in love with her, and now she’s one of our favorite mares.”
