Freshman Class Strong at Fasig

Twelve stallions will be represented by their first juveniles to go through the sales ring when the 2-year-old auction season kicks off next Wednesday with the Fasig-Tipton Florida Sale at Gulfstream Park. Leading the way by numbers is Lane's End stallion Union Rags (Dixie Union), who has eight juveniles catalogued in the boutique sale, followed by WinStar's Bodemeister (Empire Maker), who has six.

“They look to be an above-average group of new sires,” said Ciaran Dunne, whose Wavertree Stables consigns juveniles by a bevy of first-season stallions to the upcoming Fasig-Tipton sale. “We're very high on several of them.”

Wavertree will offer a son of 2012 GI Belmont S. winner Union Rags as hip 103. Out of Touched (Touch Gold), the bay colt is a half to graded stakes winner Indian Firewater (Indian Charlie).

“The Union Rags is an absolutely beautiful horse,” Dunne said. “He's an outstanding physical, a big rangy two-turn horse.”

Of the stallion, he added, “We have several of them at the farm. They are beautiful-moving horses, great training horses.”

Union Rags had 77 yearlings sell a year ago for an average of $132,237 and median of $110,000–third on the first-season sires list. The stallion's Classic pedigree should appeal to the typical Fasig Florida bidders, according to Dunne.

“I don't think they come down here with the 4 1/2-furlong Keeneland maiden specials type,” Dunne said of the usual Fasig offerings. “I would think the Union Rags were expensive enough yearlings that they are horses people would have big hopes for going long and going two turns. So this [sale] is probably the best outlet for those kind of horses. They are nice horses. They have a bit of quality.”

On behalf of Vern Dickman's Legacy Ranch, consignor John Brocklebank will offer a colt by Union Rags (hip 135) at Gulfstream next week. Brocklebank admitted he was impressed by the offspring of the Belmont winner he saw at the yearling sales last fall.

“I thought the Union Ragses–when they walked in the room, pretty much every one of them caught my attention,” Brocklebank said. “The one that we bought, he about grabbed me by the throat and shook me.”

Eddie Woods's Fasig-Tipton Florida consignment, which also features several offerings by first-season sires, includes hip 82, a colt by Union Rags out of Shimmer (Pulpit).

“He is a big, strong, bullish colt,” Woods said. “He's not a typical Union Rags, he doesn't have any chrome on him. He's a big, beautiful-moving horse who worked well without working lights out. But he galloped out really big. He just keeps going.”

The Wavertree consignment includes a first-crop offering from Lane's End's The Factor (War Front), who captured the 2012 GI Malibu S.

“The Factor horse is very special,” Dunne said of hip 81. “He is fairly typical of The Factors we saw, but he is out of a Distorted Humor mare and I can see a lot of that in him also. If you sat down before the mating and wrote up what you would get if you bred the mare to this stallion, this probably would be your best-case scenario of what you'd get.”

Woods is also impressed with progeny of The Factor, whose first-crop yearlings averaged $143,499 a year ago.

“The Factors are very nice,” Woods said. “They are all beautiful movers and pretty quick and neat, kind of quiet horses.”

Woods offers hip 143, a bay filly by the track-record setter, at Fasig-Tipton next week.

“She might take a bit of time, but she's a nice filly,” Woods said of the juvenile.

Woods also consigns one of the sale's six offerings by Bodemeister in hip 99. The gray colt is out of multiple stakes placed Tap Softly (Tapit).

“The Bodemeister is a lovely horse,” Woods said. “He's not blazingly fast, but he's got a great attitude and a wonderful disposition.”

Bodemeister, runner-up in the 2012 GI Kentucky Derby after capturing that year's GI Arkansas Derby, led first-crop sires by yearling average at last year's auctions. From 75 sold, his yearling average was $176,580, with a median of $125,000.

“They are nice horses–very laid back, just kind and classy-acting horses,” Woods said of the WinStar stallion's offspring.

Wavertree's offering by Bodemeister is hip 36. Out of Love and Marry (Known Fact), and a half-sister to multiple Grade I placed Riveting Reason (Fusaichi Pegasus), Dunne described the filly as, “beautiful, smooth and elegant.”

Hill 'n' Dale's Maclean's Music (Distorted Humor), a dominatingly fast winner in his only trip to the post, will be represented at Fasig-Tipton by hip 80 from the Wavertree consignment.

“The filly is lightning fast–she's really, really fast,” Dunne said before adding, “He is a stallion who was supposed to get quick horses and it looks like he is going to.”

Wavertree's first-season offerings are rounded out by hip 86, a son of 2011 GI Preakness S. winner Shackleford (Forestry), who stands at Darby Dan.

“This horse was never on the radar to come down here and he breezed his way onto the van,” Dunne revealed. “We've been very impressed with the Shacklefords. They were kind of a mixed bag. We have several of them at the farm and you could never put them in a line-up and think they were all by the same stallion. They are very unimposing sort of horses, but once we started to train them and especially when we started to do a bit of fast work with them, we've been pleasantly surprised.”

Woods's first-crop offerings are rounded out by hip 55, a colt by Claiborne Farm's Algorithms (Bernardini), who won the 2012 GIII Holy Bull S.

“He's really nice,” Woods said of the bay 2-year-old. “Overall the Algorithims are very, very nice. Probably he is a stallion that has impressed me as much as anybody and more so than most. They all have quite a bit of size to them. They are good movers. And they are very, very athletic.”

The under-tack show for the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale begins at 10 a.m. at Gulfstream Park next Monday. The sale commences at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the track's paddock.