Juddmonte's Garrett O'Rourke, sitting alongside Southern California trainer Bob Baffert, signed the ticket at a session-topping $600,000 for a colt from the first crop of graded stakes winner Trappe Shot (Tapit). The yearling, hip 982, is out of Winning Call (Deputy Minister), who is also the dam of GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Tapizar (Tapit). He was consigned by Gainesway.
“[Juddmonte owner] Prince Khaled has always liked to have a West Coast presence and we're just coming here to get some dirt horses that we don't produce a lot of ourselves,” O'Rourke explained. “Obviously, we're looking for horses to compete at the very top level and he is a three-parts brother to a Breeders' Cup winner. Whether it's the Classics or Breeders' Cups, that's the level that Prince Khaled likes to be involved in.”
Juddmonte currently has the promising West Riding (Tapit), a perfect two-for-two, in training with Baffert in California.
Trappe Shot, winner of the 2011 GII True North H. and second in the 2010 GI Haskell Invitational S. and 2011 GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H., stands for $10,000 at Claiborne. The stallion was also represented by a $400,000 colt at last month's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale.
Hernon Makes the Winning Call…
When Winning Call (Deputy Minister), then 13 and in foal to Tapit, was led out of the ring unsold at $200,000 at the 2011 Keeneland November sale, Gainesway's Michael Hernon saw a golden opportunity.
“Gainesway consigned Winning Call on behalf of Ron Winchell to the November sale in 2011,” Hernon recalled Saturday after watching the mare's Trappe Shot yearling sell for $600,000. “We were disappointed she was an RNA and endeavored to sell her afterwards. I approached several prominent people, as well as several regular clients of Gainesway, but I wasn't finding a home for her and I was a bit perplexed.”
After some contemplation, Hernon put together a partnership to purchase the mare privately.
Just under a year later, Winning Call's son Tapizar (Tapit) dominated a talented field in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. Days after that, Hernon and partners sold the Tapit filly the mare had been carrying when they purchased her for $350,000 at the 2012 Keeneland November sale.
It was an easy decision to breed the mare back to Trappe Shot in 2013, according to Hernon.
“I bred her back that year to Tapit, but she didn't conceive and I was really high on Trappe Shot,” Hernon said. “We had looked at him closely as a stallion prospect and he's very much in vogue at the moment and rightly so. His stock is excellent. And of course, this mating would produce a three-parts brother or sister in blood to Tapizar.”
That resulting foal had attracted quite a following before heading into the sales ring at Keeneland Saturday afternoon.
“He had great charisma,” Hernon said of the yearling. “I was there when he was born and he was a beautiful horse right from the beginning. He came up to the sale really well. He is a really balanced, imposing horse with great quality. Who knows, maybe one day he'll be standing at stud. He certainly has the pedigree for it.”
Winning Call is back in foal to Trappe Shot.
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