By Brian DiDonato
Bill Harrigan sent out 2-year-old Blue Collar (Majestic Warrior) to a 46-1 debut upset over the Keeneland turf Oct. 12 (video), and will hope to light up the board again in Lexington Monday evening when the filly goes through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Owned and bred with longtime partner Michael Pietrangelo, the bay miss will be offered as hip 173 under Harrigan's Miacomet Farm banner.
A second generation homebred for Harrigan and Pietrangelo hailing from the female family of GI Oak Leaf S. heroine Tipically Irish, Blue Collar was bought back as a Keeneland September yearling before being taken down to Payson Park in Florida, where Harrigan spends his winters breaking, training and preparing horses for the 2-year-old sales.
“I had her at Payson Park all winter and always liked her,” the Schenectady, NY native noted. “After she went through the [Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale, where she was bought back], I brought her back [to Kentucky] and turned her out for a month and a half. Then I said, 'Let's get going, and run her at Keeneland.' It all worked out. She wasn't that much of a surprise for us, because she had always worked with or outworked every horse that we put her with, and down at Payson Park I have 90 horses, mostly babies, and I was working her with the best fillies I had down there.”
The decision to supplement Blue Collar to the November sale was strictly a case of sticking to a business plan, says Harrigan. He and Pietrangelo own about 15 broodmares housed at Harrigan's Miacomet Farm in Georgetown, KY–which is in its 20th year of operation–as part of their breed-to-sell program.
Blue Collar's debut effort was further bolstered when runner-up Juenesse Doree (Dream Ahead) returned to air by 4 3/4 lengths back at Keeneland Oct. 28 for conditioner Mark Casse.
“After [Blue Collar] ran and won like that, we decided to put her in. We sell–the ones that we run are horses that didn't get sold,” he noted. “She's got a lot of upside. She ran 4/5 of a second faster than the other division [of 2-year-old turf maiden fillies] that day, and Mark Casse told me the next morning, 'You know, Bill, I really like that filly [who ran second].' Then, of course, [Juenesse Doree] came back and won quite nicely.”
As for Blue Collar's physical attributes, Harrigan said, “She's very correct with a beautiful shoulder, and a very nice size. I think she's very attractive.”
Dam Ushuaia (Cape Canaveral) has a weanling colt by Uncle Mo who Harrigan emphatically called “very nice.”
Harrigan has already enjoyed a big score at a Fasig sale this year. He pinhooked a Candy Ride (Arg) sibling to GII San Felipe S. winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Danzing Candy (Twirling Candy) who he acquired as a yearling for $50,000 and sold to Godolphin for $620,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale.
“I bought 11 horses for two different partnerships and just sent them down to Payson [Wednesday], and we'll target that Fasig-Tipton sale again [in 2017],” Harrigan revealed. “Because I'm down there at Payson, it's not far away, and I can do my day job and be at the sales.”
But before his focus shifts to the sales, Harrigan will be rooting home another filly who he helped prepare for a winning debut at Keeneland. He consigned Carolyn and Fletcher Gray's I'm a Chatterbox (Munnings) as a yearling in 2013, and later got her ready for the races in Kentucky before she upended a Lexington maiden of her own at 13-1 for the Grays and Ken McPeek. The three-time Grade I winner, now under the care of Larry Jones, will take on a star-studded field in Friday's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff.
“She was a very nice filly who did everything easily and very nicely,” recalled Harrigan, who also had GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile longshot Term of Art (Tiznow) down at Payson over the winter. “It's really a thrill, because Carolyn and Fletcher are good friends. It's more about rooting for your friends through their horse.”
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