Hip 6 (Fasig-Tipton photo)
By Sarah Mace
The twelve New York-bred juveniles who passed through the ring at Fasig-Tipton’s March 1 sale of two-year-olds in training at Gulfstream Park set a high bar for their fellows as they kicked off the 2017 two-year-old sale season.
In all, ten individuals sold for an average price of $241,250 and $225,000 median, and the Empire State-bred star of the day was Hip 6 from the family of Untapable, who commanded a hefty price tag of $900,000 as fourth best seller of the sale and third highest-priced colt.
Bred by Gallagher’s Stud in Ghent and foaled there on February 5, 2015, Hip 6 was the top-selling New York-bred last year at the Fasig-Tipton select Saratoga yearling sale, going to Hartley/De Renzo from the consignment of Denali Stud for $300,000. After the dark bay colt posted a furlong breeze of :10 2/5 in the under tack show for Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds at Gulfstream, WinStar Farm and Breeze Easy partnered to to make the purchase.
Hip 6 Fasig-Tipton photo
“I just liked everything about him, his pedigree, the way he moved and the way he galloped out,” WinStar president Elliott Walden told the TDN. “Very classy horse. (The price) was a little high, but those kind of colts bring that kind of range, so I thought it was okay. We bought him with Breeze Easy. We looked at him at Saratoga (sale) and he’s really done well. He’s a nice colt. Todd Pletcher will train him.”
Pletcher added, “He’s a beautiful colt and performed really well on the track, and he seems to have a great mind. He really does check all the boxes. He’s a very promising horse.”
The handsome juvenile has an all-star pedigree. His dam, Kentucky-bred winner and winner-producer Wild Chant, by War Chant, is a half sister to the incomparable Untapable (Tapit) – champion, multiple Grade 1 winner and earner of $3.9 million – and to Paddy O’Prado, a Grade 1 winner, 1.7 million earner and sire. Wild Chant, who was bought by Gallagher’s Stud for $300,000 at the 2011 Keeneland November sale, has a yearling filly by Lemon Drop Kid and was bred back to Medaglia d’Oro in 2016.
Hip 25 (Fasig-Tipton photo)
The second top-selling New York-bred in the sale was Hip 25, an Into Mischief colt out of Blue Devil Bel. He brought a cool half-million dollars when purchased by a partnership of China Horse Club and WinStar Farm. Consigned by Crupi New Castle Farm, Hip 25 also breezed an eighth in :10 2/5.
Bred by Richard Leahy’s Oak Bluff Stables, LLC and foaled on February 19, 2015 at Berkshire Stud in Pine Plains, the colt is a graduate of the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale, where he was purchased from Winter Quarter Farm by 4H for $175,000.
His dam Blue Devil Bel, bred and campaigned by Leahy in New York, is a multiple winner and six-figure earner by Gilded Time. Also a winner-producer, Blue Devil Bel is a half sister to multiple stakes winner Akilina, who is the dam of Rieno Tesoro, a group winner in Japan, and Governor Malibu, a multiple graded-placed New York-bred runner.
More congratulations are in order for the connections of a trio of New York-bred colts who sold in the mid-$200,000 range.
Hip 32, from the first crop of Justin Phillip, bred by Castleton Lyons and Kilboy, also foaled at Berkshire Stud, and offered by Steven Venosa’s SGV Thoroughbreds, was purchased by Justin Casse, agent, for $265,000. The colt sold previously for $90,000 at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred yearling sale in Saratoga to SGV. The colt had the good fortune to receive a five-star catalogue update under his first dam Catch My Fancy (Yes It’s True). Catch My Fancy’s daughter Catch the Moon is the dam of Girvin, who leapfrogged to the top of the Kentucky Derby points leaderboard with a win in the Grade 2 Risen Star last Saturday. Catch the Moon is also the dam of well-known graded winner Cocked and Loaded. Venosa reported that that the colt attracted a lot of attention and most likely will turn out to be a sprinter.
A pair of juveniles, who sold back-to-back as Hips 20 and 21, each brought $250,000. Hip 20 is a bay March colt by star sire Uncle Mo out of As Promised by Century City who was purchased by Colt’s Neck Stable from the Crupi’s New Castle Farm consignment. Bred by Dr. Jerry Bilinski and Harry Patten and foaled at Bilinski’s Waldorf Farm in North Chatham, the colt went to Crupi 16 for $100,000 at the New York-bred yearling sale in Saratoga.
Hip 21, a third-generation product of Vivien Malloy’s Edition Farm where he was foaled, is by Tale of the Cat out of winner Awesome Bull (Holy Bull). His second dam is Miney’s Awesome, out of Mine Tonight, purchased by Malloy at the 1999 Keeneland sale for $300,000. Bill Parcells’ August Dawn Farm signed the ticket for the bay February colt, who was previously purchased as a yearling at the Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale by Zayat Stables for $160,000.
