Classic Potential at the 2-Year-Old Sales

LOUISVILLE, Ky – Being draped in a garland of roses on the First Saturday in May isn't the only thing that GI Kentucky Derby winners Big Brown, I'll Have Another, Monarchos and Nyquist have in common. The other? They are all products of the 2-year-olds in training sales since 2000.

There are a total of three graduates of the 2016 juvenile sales that have earned a spot in the starting gate for this year's Derby. One other came awfully close to making it to the ring and another that will need a pair of scratches to draw into the body of the field off the also-eligible list.

It's pretty hard to mention a 2-year-old sale without Dennis O'Neill's name popping up.

The older brother of trainer Doug O'Neill has quickly become one of the most well-respected judges for evaluating talent at the 2-year-old auctions–boasting a pair of Derby winners on the resume (I'll Have Another and Nyquist) will certainly do that for you–and he's back at it again this year with J. Paul Reddam's GII Blue Grass S. winner Irap (Tiznow), a $300,000 purchase at the 2016 OBS March Sale.

The half-brother to champion sprinter Speightstown (Gone West), consigned by Bobby Dodd at OBS, breezed an eighth in :10 1/5 at the under-tack show.

“I liked his breeze a lot. He breezed really nice,” O'Neill commented of Irap's appeal as a juvenile. “I called Paul [Reddam] and just said that I thought he was a project and I didn't think he's one who would win first time out going five eighths or anything like that. But that if he was patient, he would be a good 3-year-old.”

O'Neill continued, “He's actually taken a little longer to come along than I thought. I think he finally came around in the Blue Grass and figured out what he was supposed to do. We're really excited. Of all the years, I just think it's so wide open this year. I honestly think there are 15 horses that can win it. On sheet numbers, we stack up as good as anybody in there. It's a really interesting Derby, that's for sure.”

The 2012 Derby winner I'll Have Another was a $35,000 purchase from the 2011 OBS April Sale (consigned by Eisaman Equine) while last year's Derby hero Nyquist brought $400,000 out of the 2015 Fasig-Tipton March Sale (consigned by Niall Brennan Stables). Both were campaigned by Reddam and trained by Doug O'Neill.

As for the other pair of aforementioned Derby winners, Monarchos realized $170,000 from owner John Oxley at the 2000 Fasig-Tipton February Sale (consigned by Murray Smith) and Big Brown was hammered down by Paul Pompa Jr. for $190,000 at the 2007 Keeneland April Sale (consigned by Eddie Woods).

“For me, I much rather see them run a little bit [at the under-tack shows],” O'Neill said. “I usually buy one or two yearlings a year. But I think it's just so hard to project how they're going to be when they're 2- or 3-years-old running compared to when they're walking as yearlings. I just like that extra edge of seeing them run. We've definitely been successful–Doug [O'Neill] was saying the other day that we've had 14 Grade I stakes winners in the last 10 years out of the 2-year-old sales. You have to pay a little more–there's no doubt about it–but if you've got clients that can afford to pay a little bit more, it's definitely worth it to wait for the 2-year-old sales.”

Irap, bred in Kentucky by Aaron and Marie Jones, was acquired privately as a pinhooking prospect by Dodd after RNA'ing for $140,000 as a KEESEP yearling. The GI Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity and GIII Robert B. Lewis S. runner-up, sprung a 31-1 upset–his first career victory from eight starts–when holding on by 3/4 of a length over Practical Joke (Into Mischief) in the Blue Grass. Irap was produced by the Canadian champion 2-year-old filly Silken Cat (Storm Cat).

“We bought him for $100,000,” Dodd revealed. “We brought him home and he just went to blooming and turned into a nice horse. Dennis O'Neill, who's a really good judge, picked him out of the bunch and the rest is history. He's a very nice horse.”

Dodd, the farm manager and trainer for Brady Grady's Grand Oaks Equine Training Center in Reddick, Florida, will also be closely watching another runner once the field of 20 is on their way Saturday.

Girvin (Tale of Ekati), the leading Kentucky Derby points earner courtesy of wins in the GII Risen Star S. and GII Louisiana Derby, was purchased by Grady for $130,000 as a Fasig-Tipton October yearling as a pinhooking prospect, but was subsequently scratched from both the OBS April and Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old in training sales after suffering a cut on his right hind pastern that became infected. Produced by the unraced Malibu Moon mare Catch the Moon, the half-brother to graded winner Cocked and Loaded (Colonel John) is trained by Joe Sharp. Girvin was bred in Kentucky by Bob Austin and John Witte.

“He wasn't really a 100% over that little boo-boo yet at Maryland and we gave him four months off,” Dodd explained. “We put him back in training and everything came together like it's supposed to. Of course, nobody has a crystal ball and nobody knows that they're going to get to go to the Derby with one–I'm certainly not that good and I don't know if anybody else is–but thank God it happened.”

Dodd continued, “It's a humbling experience. We're excited about both horses. I'm still kind of processing it, to be honest with you. It's just really exciting. I've been doing this since 1980 and we've sold some really nice horses and had some nice horses, but having horses like this [for the Derby] is very exciting.”

Fast and Accurate (Hansen), an $85,000 OBS April 2-year-old purchase by Dr. Kendall Hansen, punched his ticket to the Derby with a 24-1 upset in Turfway's GIII Jack Cincinnati Casino Spiral S. Mar. 25, his third straight victory. Bred in Pennsylvania by John R. Penn, the gray failed to meet his reserve when RNA'ing for $24,000 as a KEESEP yearling.

“Before he even went through the ring at Keeneland, the Penns contacted me,” leading 2-year-old consignor Ciaran Dunne revealed. “They were always very high on the horse. They were big believers in him and they contacted me and said, 'Hey, can you come look at this horse. If we don't get what we want, we think he's the kind of horse we want to take to a 2-year-old sale.' They obviously saw something in him from a very early stage.”

Consigned by Dunne's Wavertree Stables at OBS the following spring, the gray covered an eighth in :10 2/5 at the breeze show.

“They set their number and didn't get their reserve [at Keeneland September],” Dunne said. “They broke him at their farm in Lexington and sent him down to me around Thanksgiving time. Look, he was a good, honest horse. Every time we breezed him, he performed. He had a little bit of a kink to him like the Tapits and the Hansens have. He wasn't a children's pony by any stretch of the imagination, but he wasn't a bad horse, either. He was just a horse that you treated with respect, and if you treated him the right way, he treated you the right way in return. He came to the sale and worked well. His time wasn't great, but his action was good and he galloped out nicely. The horse garnered a lot of attention for a horse who worked in :10 2/5.”

Fast and Accurate, a maiden claiming winner over the Turfway synthetic at fourth asking Dec. 4 and Gulfstream's grassy Sage of Monticello S. Feb. 20, returns to dirt for the Derby. He was a well-beaten fifth in his lone prior attempt on dirt at Parx last October.

Dr. Hansen and trainer Mike Maker also teamed up to campaign Fast and Accurate's sire, the 2011 champion 2-year-old colt Hansen. Fast and Accurate is out of the Green Dancer mare It's Heidi's Dance, a maiden of four career starts, and half-sister to graded winners Bwana Charlie (Indian Charlie), Bwana Bull (Holy Bull) and My Pal Charlie (Indian Charlie).

“I'd say he actually trained better on the dirt for us than he did on the synthetic,” Dunne said. “We may have been a shade disappointed in his breeze here at OBS thinking he had a shot to go quicker. I wouldn't be afraid of the dirt at all.”

The ultra-game 1997 Derby and GI Preakness S. winner Silver Charm, a $100,000 OBS April graduate (consigned by Hartley/De Renzo), as well as 1995 Derby and GI Belmont S. winner Thunder Gulch, a $120,000 RNA at the Keeneland April Sale (consigned by Jerry Bailey), helped lead to a paradigm shift at the 2-year-old sales, Dunne explains.

“That's the biggest change that we've seen in the 2-year-old market since I've been involved,” Dunne, a native of Kildare, commented. “When we first got into this [Dunne launched Wavertree Stables in 1995], it was all about ready-made 2-year-olds–buyers were looking for horses that they could throw the tack on and go on, but obviously there's been that transition. Now, they come to the 2-year-old sales looking for two-turn horses and that's also what we're looking for to buy as yearlings now. The turning point might have been a horse like Silver Charm. Once [Bob] Baffert got involved and all of sudden people saw that you can come to OBS April and buy a Derby horse, I think it kind of built from there.”

'TDN Rising Star' Untrapped (Trappe Shot), a $125,000 private purchase at OBS April for owner Michael Langford, will look to rebound in Louisville after a disappointing sixth-place finish with first-time blinkers in the GI Arkansas Derby. Master Plan (Twirling Candy), a rallying third in the G2 UAE Derby, remains on the outside looking in this weekend. The latter was an $850,000 OBS March purchase by Al Shaqab Racing, WinStar Farm and China Horse Club (consigned by Eisaman Equine).

Untrapped, the GII Risen Star S. runner-up and GII Rebel S. third-place finisher, worked in :10 1/5 at the OBS breeze show for Jimmy Crupi's New Castle Farm. Bred in Kentucky by Indian Creek and Jonathan Sheppard, Untrapped, a $150,000 KEESEP yearling, is out of the unraced Giant's Causeway mare Exit Three. Johannesburg, Tale of the Cat, Minardi all show up under his third dam.

“He was very straightforward,” reflected Crupi, who also broke and trained GI Florida Derby hero and one of the likely Kentucky Derby favorites Always Dreaming (Bodemeister). “He belonged to Toby Keith, the country singer. They were just selling some horses that year–I sold three horses for them and they all did pretty well, but Untrapped probably was the best.”

Crupi continued, “We had him for about five months. He was really always nice, he was very professional. And that's what you need to go to the Derby–a very nice, professional horse. When you deal with good horses, and they do good, it's very rewarding–like a dream come true.”

For three of this year's Kentucky Derby connections, those dreams began at a 2-year-old in training sale.