Duo Share Furlong Bullet at F-T
by Jessica Martini
A pair of colts shared the bullet furlong breeze time of :10 flat during Thursday’s second and final session of the under-tack preview for next week’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in Timonium, Maryland.
Hip 337, a colt from the second crop of Grade I winner Quality Road, hit the :10 flat mark for consignor Bobby Dodd. Out of Social Scene (Tabasco Cat), the youngster is a half-brother to stakes placed Winsome Charm (Silver Charm). Dodd, on behalf of Brad Grady’s Grand Oaks, purchased the colt for $30,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale.
“He prepped [for the breeze show] really well,” Dodd said of the colt. “After we prepped him, my rider said, ‘This horse might be a :10 flat.’ But out here, that is hard to do with the small racecourse and the tight turns, but he really showed up today and we’re really proud of him.”
Of the colt’s appeal as a yearling, Dodd added, “He was a big strong, handsome horse and we liked his pedigree. And now he’s bigger and stronger.”
Dodd thinks there are reasons to be optimistic about finding a strong buying bench at next week’s sale, which last year produced Grade I winners Dortmund (Big Brown) and Materiality (Afleet Alex).
“There are a lot of nice horses who come out of this sale every year, so that should attract plenty of people,” he observed. “And then they are having the races over here [at Pimlico], so all the trainers are here and hopefully they’ll come look, too.”
Raul Reyes, whose King’s Equine consigns hip 400, a son of Bluegrass Cat, to the Midlantic sale, called the colt “our star.” The youngster duly delivered with a co-bullet breeze in :10 flat Thursday.
Reyes purchased the colt for $90,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October sale. Out of Unbridled Melody (Unbridled’s Song), the juvenile is a half-brother to stakes winner and Grade I placed Tourist (Tiznow) and a full to stakes winner and graded stakes placed Michael With Us.
Next week’s sale in Timonium won’t be the colt’s first trip through the ring this year. He RNA’d for $160,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Florida Sale in March.
“We had him in Miami and he breezed really well,” Reyes said. “He went in :10 1/5 down there, but he was in among a really good group of horses. He has matured for the good since then and he is a little bigger and muscular now.”
Three horses shared the bullet quarter-mile breeze time of :22 flat: hip 259, a colt by Wicked Rich from Wes Carter’s consignment; hip 345, a son of Medaglia d’Oro and half-brother to Grade I winner Brilliant Speed (Dynaformer) from Thomas and Casse, agent; and hip 458, a colt by Twirling Candy from De Meric Sales, agent.
The under-tack show was marred early in the day when hip 425, the fourth horse to work Thursday, broke down shortly after completing her furlong breeze.
With an increasingly impressive list of graduates, Fasig-Tipton officials have been kept busy this week making last-minute arrangements for potential buyers.
“You can get good horses out of this sale, as we’ve proven this year with Dortmund and Materiality and War Story and we’ve got Bayern,” observed Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sales director Paget Bennett. “We’ve been really hustling trying to get hotel rooms at the last minute for people who are just all of sudden deciding to come in for the sale. With three graduates running in the Derby and doing what they did in Kentucky, people are saying, ‘We need to go.’ And the consignors are all very excited about the horses they have brought and excited watching their fellow consignors’ horses train.”
Consignors returning to the fairgrounds in Timonium this year found several updates to the barn area.
“The Maryland State Fairgrounds redid all the door jams on each stall and installed full screens throughout the barn area,” Bennett said. “That has made it much easier on our consignors to ship in and bed their stalls and put their horses away. It’s a huge help. That’s what they are used to at other sales facilities, so we’re happy we are on the same page as everyone else. We appreciate the great improvements made to the barn area. All of the upgrades have helped assure us that the horses will be safe and secure before, during and after the sale.”
The Midlantic sale takes place next Monday and Tuesday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.