Recio Hopes His Instinct Proves 'Wise' at KEEJAN

Mike Recio and Arika Everatt-Meeuse's South Point Sales Agency presented its first major consignment at the 2015 Keeneland January sale and the duo are back for more at this year's renewal with a 32-head draft. One of the highlights of the consignment is a mare Recio privately purchased with partners named Whisper Wisdom (Rockport Harbor), a half-sister to GI Cigar Mile H. winner Connect (Curlin).

“When I go to sales and do lists for people and shop for other clients, I like to follow close relatives to horses I like and Connect was a horse I loved at the Fasig-Tipton July sale,” Recio explained. “My friend Chris Brothers bought him for a client I did a lot of work with when I was at Hidden Brook, Paul Pompa. I knew the horse would be going to Eddie Woods and would be in good hands, so I started following Whisper Wisdom. She was racing out in western Canada. I stayed close with Eddie Woods and Chris Brothers and spoke with them about how Connect was doing. Eddie was pretty high on him and Eddie is spot on when he tells you if he likes a 2-year-old or not.”

Connect proved both Woods and Recio right, winning the Curlin S., GII Pennsylvania Derby and the Cigar Mile and earning over $1.25 million thus far in his young career. However, Recio had so much faith in the Curlin colt that he privately purchased Whisper Wisdom, a winner of 3 of 23 starts mostly in the Northland Park claiming ranks, just about a month prior to Connect's debut in December 2015. He bred the now 6-year-old mare, catalogued as hip 215, to Palace Malice, another son of Curlin.

“I purchased her privately before Connect had even run with the goal of selling her,” Recio said. “We bred her to Palace Malice playing the Curlin angle. Actually, I love Palace Malice. I was underbidder on him with Jake Ballis when he sold at the Keeneland April sale. It was kind of a perfect match for me and my partners on that mare and Connect has done the rest. He's coming into his 4-year-old year as one of the top older horses.”

The University of Louisville alum continued, “She was always coming to January. She was never going to November. I wanted to make her a standout. I knew Connect was going the Pennsylvania Derby/Cigar Mile route. Timing is everything and it just worked out perfectly.”

Recio will also offer another former claimer who got a big catalogue update this year in Punkin's Pride (Bluegrass Cat), a half-sister to MGSW Lightstream (Harlan's Holiday). Owned by Steve Klesaris and Tom La Marca, who campaigned the mare for most of her career, the 5-year-old won a claiming race at Parx in her career finale in March of 2016 and retired with a total of three wins from 15 starts.

“I happen to see Lightstream break her maiden really impressively and I called up Brian Lynch to see if I could get a price on her,” Recio recalled. “Brian is a dear friend that I have horses with and Steve is a friend through acquaintances through the years. I called Steve [about this mare] and he said, 'Let me know what you can do with her.'”

The bloodstock agent added, “You have to strike while the iron's hot. She had actually won just prior to Lightstream breaking her maiden so as soon as Lightstream won and got the really impressive number, we decided to send her to Kentucky. We felt her value had the potential to go up and up so we went through the options. We will set a modest reserve and see if we can achieve that or more. She will be on the market to sell, but we will just see how the sale goes.”

Catalogued as hip 88, Punkin's Pride is offered in foal to MGISW Tonalist.

“We ended up settling on Tonalist and his mares have done well so we are excited,” Recio commented. “We liked his race record. He could do it all, being a son of Tapit and having the flexibility to win at all kinds of distances, plus the soundness he had. The Tapit and Storm Cat cross has been successful, so her being a Bluegrass Cat, it nicked well.”

Both Whisper Wisdom and Punkin's Pride sell during Book 1, but South Point still has plenty to offer in Book 2 with a pair of juvenile colts by top sires that were bred on Southern Hemisphere time by Doug and Felcia Branham.

Hip 1167 is a Pioneerof the Nile colt out of the unraced Lion Lemon 'n Lime (Lion Hearted). The other colt, Hip 1169, is by Distorted Humor and out of Virginia Bee (Virginia Rapids), making him a half-brother to GSW Cherokee Queen (Cherokee Run) and SW Indian Legend (Cherokee Run).

“They are actually a rare offering,” Recio remarked. “They are both very, very nice colts. I have a good client Doug Branham of Hurricane Hills and he had a couple of mares that were open at the end of the year that had nice pedigrees. Rather than sit on them, our goal was to breed them on Southern Hemisphere time when stud fees are reduced in hopes of getting fillies we could race and breed out of.”

Recio continued, “We happened to get colts out of both of these. They couldn't be by better stallions or look better. They have great size despite being behind most 2-year-olds. It's a good opportunity for a South American buyer to potentially buy them or an Australian. At the same time, if you have the patience it would be a great opportunity for someone in the U.S. to race two nice colts by nice sires. If you have patience in your program, you just break them a little later and point them towards their 3-year-old campaign.”

The Keeneland January sale gets underway in Lexington Monday at 10 a.m.