Lightning Strikes For Baccari
Hip 413, consigned by Baccari Bloodstock, Agent VI, provided the first sparks at Wednesday’s Keeneland September session, as Japanese agent Teruo Ono went to $925,000 to secure the ridgling half-brother to 2010 GI Spinaway S. heroine R Heat Lightning (Trippi). Baccari paid $300,000 for the bay son of Bernardini as a Keeneland November weanling.
“I kind of felt when we bought him as a foal that he was the kind of horse that if a person gets lucky with him, could become a stallion with that kind of pedigree,” Baccari said. “It’s hard to find that type of pedigree with that really racy look. That’s what separated him.”
He continued, “He had a racier look than most horses with that kind of pedigree do–real racer lines. For me, that’s what I have to buy, because if they don’t sell, I race them myself. So, that’s what I’ve decided–anytime we buy babies, I have to buy what I’d like to put on the track myself or I won’t buy it.”
Baccari said he was not worried that being a ridgling would adversely affect the price of hip 413.
“That kind of goes with the pedigree,” he noted. “With a lot of A.P. Indy-line horses, that’s just part of the territory.”
He wasn’t particularly surprised by the final figure either.
“I kind of felt like if there were two people who decided they wanted to own him, he could bring any kind of price,” Baccari said. “I think they could justify paying that kind of money for him given his upside.”
Hip 413’s dam Yellow Heat (Gold Fever) sold at last year’s KEENOV sale as part of the complete dispersal of E. Paul Robsham Stable. She brought $525,000 from Barry and Judith Becker in foal to Candy Ride (Arg).
A $1.6 million KEENOV ‘13 buy in foal to Bernardini, R Heat Lightning, a Todd Pletcher-trained Robsham homebred, finished second in the GI Frizette S. and GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and annexed the GII Davona Dale S. and GII Gulfstream Park Oaks by a combined 15 1/2 lengths.
Ono, who declined to comment, also bought a $320,000 Congrats filly on Tuesday.