8th-Del Mar, $57,000, Msw, 7-31, 2yo, f, 1mT, 1:36.05, fm.
MADONE (f, 2, Vancouver {Aus}–Indian Love Call, by Cherokee Run), off at odds of 5-1 in her debut, settled into a comfortable spot, idling near the back through the first quarter in :22.47. She edged up on the rail, swept to the outside on the final turn, and continued to inch toward the front, a bit belatedly changing leads, but assuredly in command. She crossed the wire one length to the best of fellow firster and post-time favorite Ivy League (Medaglia d’OroBWith Honors). Indian Love Call has a yearling filly by Astern (Aus) and had a colt this year by Cairo Prince. She was bred back to Gormley. She hails from the immediate family of GISWs Gold Fever (Forty Niner) and Boisterous(Distorted Humor). This is third winner for Vancouver (Aus) (Medaglia d’Oro).
Sales history: $70,000 Wlg ’18 KEENOV; $50,000 Ylg ’19 KEESEP; $125,000 2yo ’20 OBSMAR (:10 1/5). Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $33,000.
O-Kaleem Shah, Inc.;
B-Glendalough LLC (KY)
T-Simon Callaghan.
Courtesy of the TDN
CORONATION CUP S., $100,000, Saratoga, 7-31, 3yo, f, 5 1/2fT, 1:01.67, fm.
-SHE’S MY TYPE (FR), 120, f, 3, by Dunkerque (Fr)
1st Dam: Theoricienne (Fr), by Kendor (Fr)
2nd Dam: Theorie (Fr), by Anabaa
3rd Dam: Timber Nymph, by Woodman ($27,000 Ylg ’18 KEESEP). O-Ghislaine Head; B-Haras Du Quesnay (FR)
T-Christophe Clement
Lifetime Record: 6-3-1-1, $167,580. *1/2 to Tour to Paris (Fr) (Fuisse {Fr}), Ch. 2yo Colt-Hun, Ch. Sprinter-Hun, Ch. 3yo Colt-Hun, GSW-Fr, $187,848
With no trainer hotter at Saratoga these days than Christophe Clement, who also won the allowance just prior to the Coronation Cup S., the only surprise surrounding the victory of She’s My Type was that the public let her go at 4-1.
Positioned third-last behind fractions of :21.74 and :44.25, She’s My Type was covered up mid-pack and looked beaten in early stretch. Right around the time the leader covered five-eighths in :55.80, the waters parted like the Red Sea for She’s My Type, who burst through an impossible hole, shrugged off some interference, and powered to the front, getting to the wire a half-length in front of Miss J McKay, who had also come on late to erase Shippy’s three-length lead only strides before the line.
“Sometimes we are lucky, sometimes we are not,” Clement said. “Today was lucky. She has a very good turn of foot. When she had the chance to finish, I thought she ran very well. I thought the way she was going at Gulfstream that she could go from seven-eighths to a mile. Her brother [Tour To Paris] won a Group 2 [Prix du Gros-Chene at Deauville] in France a few months ago going five furlongs. That was one of the reasons we went back to sprinting with her and it seems to have worked out very well.”
Now a two-time stakes winner, She;s My Type broke her maiden last December at Gulfstream in her only start as a 2-year-old, then captured the Ginger Brew S. Jan. 20. Placings in the Mar. 28 Sanibel Island S. and the June 21 Lady Shipman S. marked her last two starts. The Coronation Cup was her first time going as short as 5 1/2 furlongs.
Theoricienne (Fr) has a juvenile full-brother to She’s My Type named Sensible, who sold at last year’s Osarus sale as a yearling for the equivalent of $19,748. The mare has a yearling filly by Anodin (Fr).
Courtesy of the TDN
6th-Delaware, $47,100, Msw, 7-30, 2yo, 6f, 1:12.91, ft. KENNY HAD A NOTION (g, 2, Great Notion–Darting, by During), favored at 6-5 in this unveiling, sat back off the pace in third through a :22.62 opening quarter. Winding up on the outside in the lane, the bay closed resolutely, getting up in the final jump to deny Don=t Dare Me (Daredevil) by a head. Darting=s most recent offspring is a yearling colt by Divining Rod. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $30,000. O-Ulman, Louis J. and Glasser, H. Neil; B-Althea Richards (VA); T-Dale Capuano.
Last out, YLIKEDIS (Street Sense) broke her maiden with panache at Laurel going 1 1/16 on the turf. She tracked on the rail until allowed to angle out and clear the field for the win. Running back in allowance company also at Laurel and at the same distance and surface, she followed the script of rail to outside to make it 2 in a row. The 3-year-old filly was a member of the Gulfstream Gallop contingent. She was purchased for $65,000 and resold for $170,000. She is owned by Kingsport Farm and trained by Kelly Rubley.
Consignor Kip Elser with Kirkwood Stables told BloodHorse’s Meredith Daugherty after he sold a $325,000 American Pharoah filly to Speedway Stable that the Midlantic sale had more of a middle market than previous sales this year. His observation was spot on, with the average price for the fourth through sixth deciles dropping between 1% and 6%. The average price for the fourth decile (horses that sold in the $50,000-$80,000 range) was essentially even with last year’s sale, dropping a mere 1% to $66,200.
Bloodstock agent Marette Farrell was more than pleased to sign the winning ticket on an American Pharoah filly (Hip 451) for $325,000 June 30 during the final session of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.
Purchased on behalf of Speedway Stable, the dark bay or brown daughter of the Ashford Stud stallion had been one of the more popular juveniles at the barn of Kip Elser’s Kirkwood Stables, who consigned the filly on behalf of Midway Gallop. The filly worked a quarter-mile in :22 during the under tack show.
“I’m very pleased,” said Elser. “She’d gotten a lot of play, and she deserved it.”
Bred in New York by Pine Ridge Stables, the filly is out of Choice Pearl (by Any Given Saturday). Her second dam is stakes winner Horns Gray, dam of Spinaway Stakes (G1) winner Awesome Humor and granddam of Forego Stakes (G1) winner Emcee, group 2 winner Surfer, and stakes winner Spring Party.
Horns Gray is also the granddam of group 3-placed Baffled, the dam of grade 1 winner and leading second-crop sire Constitution as well as grade 2 winner Boynton and grade 3 winner Jacaranda.
“She’s by American Pharoah, who is an up-and-coming sire, and she’s from a fabulous family—Constitution’s family,” said Farrell. “She’s a big filly, and I think she has a big future in front of her. She just needs a little time, but we’re excited to get her.”
As a buyer shopping the Midlantic market in the midst of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, Farrell said she’d been pleased to see competition at every level even if it meant she had to spend a little more.
“It’s really strong here,” said Farrell. “I read all the reports, and I think I’m in a different world because I’m out there trying to buy them and it’s really tough. But I think it’s wonderful for the consignors, and it gets everyone’s heads up.
“It’s been an amazing sale from the top to the bottom. Any good horse at every level all the way down to the lower prices have found people excited to get them and who have had to fight to get them. We’re always hoping to pay a little less but hopefully it will be a good thing down the road.”
Elser, too, said he was pleased with how the market had played across the two-day auction.
“I think there are no real surprises and the top has stayed strong. There is more of a middle here than there has been so I think that is a good sign for everybody.”
Sackatoga Stable, on the Triple Crown trail again with GI Belmont S. winner Tiz the Law (Constitution), purchased a filly by Tonalist for $290,000 early in Monday’ sfirst session of the Midlantic sale. The juvenile (hip 27) was consigned by Kirkwood Stables and, like the Belmont winner and Sackatoga’s 2003 GI Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide, is a New York-bred. A[Sackatoga operating manager] Jack Knowlton just uses New York-breds. That’s all he does,” said trainer Barclay Tagg. The filly is out of Holiday Apple (Harlan’s Holiday), a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Lady Apple (Curlin). She worked a quarter-mile during last week’s under-tack preview in :22 1/5.
“She’s a very attractive filly,” Tagg said. “I liked everything about her when I went over and watched her here for a couple of days. We didn’t want to spend that much money, but I think she’ll be worth it.”
Asked if Tizthe Law=s exploits made the partnership more likely to bid higher than they might normally do, Tagg smiled and said, “Maybe he gave them a little more money.” Of the Belmont winner, Tagg added, “He’s doing well, very well. He came out of his last race great and we’re very pleased with him.”
Courtesy of the BloodHorseKip Elser of Kirkwood Stables at the Midlantic Sale
Fasig-Tipton Photos
South Carolina-based pinhooker looking forward to his first auction of 2020.
By Ron Mitchell
South Carolina-based horseman Kip Elser is looking forward to finally having the opportunity to offer horses to the public at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale that gets underway June 29 at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.
Elser, who operates the Kirkwood Stables sales and training entity, has yet to send any of his juveniles to auction during a sales season disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kirkwood’s business model evolves around buying a select group of yearlings to be sold the following year at The Gulfstream Sale, Fasig-Tipton’s selected 2-year-olds in training sale at Gulfstream Park, and the Midlantic sale.
The April 1 Gulfstream sale was canceled this year, and the Midlantic sale originally scheduled for mid-May was pushed back on the calendar in an unprecedented year.
As a result, the Kirkwood offerings at Midlantic consist of a mix of horses that were originally targeted for the sale and those that were meant to sell in April.
“Eight of them were slated for the Gulfstream sale, and we had quite a few late developers and some eligible for state-bred programs that were always pointed to this sale,” he said. “With the addition of the Gulfstream sale horses, this is about double the size of what we normally have.”
Elser believes it would have been unsafe to try to conduct the Midlantic sale any earlier and that Fasig-Tipton is making all the right moves by providing a clean and safe environment for the auction, as well as setting up mechanisms for buyers to place bids via phone or through its newly established online portal. In addition, Fasig-Tipton has implemented various online means for which buyers and their agents can view videos and repository information of the horses cataloged.
“The company has made a huge effort,” Elser said. “They are working more with phone and online bidding, and we’re doing more with video and other forms of communications. It’s a different world.”
Though he has some concerns about what the market will look like, Elser believes the extra time has been beneficial, along with other positive factors such as the reliability of the Timonium track and the location of the fairgrounds to a critical mass of trainers.
“I’m worried about who wants to buy horses in this situation,” Elser said. “I think there are a lot of positives here. It’s a safe dirt surface. There are more tracks open now than there were two weeks ago. There are quite a few horsemen who can make a day trip coming here to look at horses, bid on horses, and do their work without having to fly here or stay in a hotel.”
Elser said the March and June sales conducted by Ocala Breeders’ Sales could provide a window into what might happen this week.
“The top of the market has shown to be relatively stable in the other sales, and I think we’re going to see a little firming of the middle market,” he said.
While the Kirkwood horses scheduled to sell at Gulfstream would have just galloped in their presale workouts had the South Florida sale taken place, the horses are farther along in their development now and had timed workouts of a quarter-mile during the under tack show that preceded the Midlantic Sale.
“It’s a natural progression,” Elser said of the horses’ progress to date and potential for improvement. “They all worked great. We’re hoping these last three days weren’t their best days. This is not the high point in their careers.”
One Kirkwood horse that should attract a lot of attention is Hip 52, a Tapit colt that is a full brother to three stakes-placed runners, including grade 3-placed Taxable, and a half brother to another stakes-placed horse.
Photo: Fasig-Tipton Photos
The Tapit colt consigned as Hip 52 at the Midlantic Sale
“He is at the top of the group anywhere he goes,” Elser said of the colt bred in Kentucky by Winchell Thoroughbreds that breezed a quarter-mile in :22 during the under tack show.
“He had a tremendous gallop out, which is what you expect from a horse like that,” Elser said.
The colt, produced from the winning Giant’s Causeway mare Jackpot Joanie, a half sister to 2005 Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Summerly, was originally purchased for $200,000 from Gainesway last year at Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky October Yearlings Sale.
Kirkwood said his consignment is filly-heavy, with two in particular that should stand out.
Hip 451 is a daughter of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah produced from the Any Given Saturday mare Choice Pearl, a half sister to grade 1 winner Awesome Humor and to the dam of grade 1 winner Emcee and group 2 winner Surfer. The filly bred in New York by Pine Ridge Stables was acquired from Paramount Sales for $75,000 at the Fasig-Tipton yearling sale in October.
The other exciting filly prospect for Kirkwood is Hip 168, a daughter of Hard Spun bought from Lane’s End, agent, for $40,000 at last year’s Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The filly bred in Kentucky by G. Watts Humphrey Jr., Susan Keller, Victoria Oliver, and G. Watts Humphrey III is from the immediate female family of multiple grade 1 winner Clear Mandate, the dam of grade 1 winner and sire Strong Mandate and grade 3 winner Newfoundland. Her third dam is grade 1 winner Dream Deal, who is a half sister to Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Creme Fraiche.
