Casse Gets Top Yearling Late

With just a few hips left to sell Monday, Justin Casse went to $270,000 to secure the highest-priced short yearling of the KEEJAN session in hip 391, a Lemon Drop Kid colt. Casse was acting on behalf of Joe Minor’s JSM Equine. 
Hill ‘n’ Dale Sales Agency consigned the May 10 foal, who is a half to multiple graded stakes winners Keertana (Johar) and Snow Top Mountain (Najran), as well as stakes-winning and Grade I-placed “TDN Rising Star” Diversy Harbor (Curlin), who finished with a flourish to miss by a nose in Santa Anita’s GIII Robert J. Frankel S. Dec. 27. Both Keertana ($1 million) and Snow Top Mountain ($950,000) sold at this sale in 2013 as part of the dispersal of the late Barbara Hunter’s Brownwood Farm. 

“It was about where we thought it would be,” Casse said of the price. “I think it’s very comparable to the prices that were going in November. We stepped up and bought some nice babies in November and I’d like to say that this horse is as nice as the good ones that I bought. I thought the price was fair.” 

Casse signed for four weanlings at Keeneland November for a combined $605,000. Two of those purchases–a $170,000 Unbridled’s Song colt and a $100,000 son of Ghostzapper–were for JSM. 

“Christina Jelm and I have been working together and helping [Minor] some. This is one we both liked and fell on,” noted Casse, adding, “You’ll see him pop up in a sale later this year. It’s a very good family–it’s still active. The mare [Motokiks {Storm Cat}] has some age on her (20), but she’s got runners that are still running well and very competitively. I think it was the standout physical and pedigree of the day.”