COLT HOPING FOR A FAST BREAK

The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale will see the debut of a different type of colt–Colton “Colt” Pike will offer his first consignment at Timonium. The 23-year-old son of consignor Al Pike will be selling hip 33, hip 441and hip 521 as Colt Pike Bloodstock Agent. 
    Although Colt was raised in the industry, he never planned on following in his father’s footsteps. “When I was growing up I was going to school and playing a lot of sports and I wasn’t around the barn too much,” the young consignor explained. “Then I went to college and they kept wanting me to declare my major. I kept looking at what they had to offer and never really found anything I was interested in. Then, I started going to a couple of sales with my dad and just kind of fell in love with it. I figured that I could go through college and get a degree, but I might never use it because I found what I liked to do.” 
    When Pike decided to work with horses, his father taught him horsemanship from the ground up at their farm in Lafayette, Louisiana. Pike explained that his father’s guiding influence has both enabled him and encouraged him throughout the years. 
    “After I decided I wanted to get into the horse business, I started at the bottom–my dad didn’t let me take any shortcuts just because I was his son,” Pike said. “I was a hotwalker for a year and then he began to give me a little more responsibility.” 
    Pike got his first taste of success with his very first purchase. “Last year I bought my first horse with one of my dad’s exercise riders,” he explained. “We bought a Dunkirk filly for $4,500 [at Keeneland January]. We brought her to Timonium and sold her for $50,000, so of course, I was hooked after that.” 
Pike also learned from his father how to pick yearlings and uses that knowledge when choosing young horses to pinhook. 
    “I’ve been going to sales the last three or four years with my dad,” Pike elaborated. “He likes to see a good shoulder, a good hip, straight legs–and we like fast. We like something that looks fast. There are some big and bulky horses, but we try to find the racier ones.” 
    In recent years, Al Pike has found a few very fast ones, including last year’s GII Jerome S. and GIII Gotham S. winner Vyjack (Into Mischief) and this year’s GII Louisiana Derby winner Vicar’s In Trouble (Into Mischief). The former, an $8,000 ESLSEP yearling, was resold for $80,000 at this sale in 2011, and the later, a $45,000 FTKJUL buy was resold for $100,000 at Timonium last year. Seeing his father’s enduring successes has further encouraged the young Pike to continue in the horse industry. 
    “We love getting them, breaking them, teaching them and sending them on their way to go be good race horses,” he commented. “When you see them do well like that, it’s obviously good for our business, but it means a little bit more because we had the horse and were with them every day and they’ve gone on to achieve greatness.” 
Although Pike has accompanied his father to a number of sales and worked in the sales barn, he feels a different kind of pressure now consigning under his own name and a newfound respect for his father’s decades of hard work. 
    “I would see my dad getting nervous before the sales because there is a lot riding on it,” Pike noted. “If you have a bad year, it’s kind of tough for the rest of the year until you have your next crop. When I had my first one last year–I have never been so nervous in my life. When it comes down to breeze day and you’ve been preparing the whole year for that day and if the horse runs poorly, you’re not going to make much money. It’s been pretty nerve-wracking, especially now since I have a few clients who have invested money with me and I need to produce for them.” 
    Beside the three Pike will consign at Timonium, he has an Into Mischief 2-year-old, who he might bring to the sales later in the year, and a mare with a Louisiana-bred Freud colt foal. 
    “I have a mare with a baby right now, and I’m thinking about trying to get a few more and get some Louisiana-breds on the ground,” Pike explained. “They recently built a new sales facility and training center in Opelousas, so I’m trying to start selling there and kind of doing my own Louisiana deal because the breeding program is great there.” 
Like most 23-year-olds, Colt isn’t quite sure about his sure of long-term goals, but he does know that selling horses will be a part of it. “These last few days I’ve had this idea of making a transition to yearlings and under, so my dad and I can cover all the sales,” said Pike. “He could maybe shuffle some business to me and I won’t be trying to compete for clients in the 2-year-old game with my dad–because I know they’re going to want to use him. Honestly, I love all aspects of it. I might buy a little percentage of my dad’s horses and get some younger horses. I don’t know where I want to go exactly, but I know I like it and I just want to build it up and get some clients. I kind of want to do a little bit of everything, not so much the racing, but the selling part of it–I like that. It’s an adrenaline rush when you can hit a lick and get some big money for something.” 
    Pike will have some company at in Timonius as well–his father will send nine hips through the ring over the two sessions. 
    The second under tack show continues at 8 a.m. Thursday and the sale will get underway at 10 a.m. Monday.