Select sales featuring plenty of freshman sires

The 2013 select juvenile sales will offer a tantalizing early glimpse at some sires’ first crops, from stallions whose current fees range, from just $2,200 to $15,000.

There’s a strong dose of Unbridled’s Song in this year’s freshman lineup, as the season’s four select auctions feature the first juveniles by four Unbridled’s Song stallions. Taylor Made’s Old Fashioned and Ashford Stud’s Dunkirk have the largest Unbridled’s Song drafts with 14 and 12 juveniles spread among the Barretts March, OBS March, Fasig-Tipton Florida, and Keeneland April select auctions. Hill ’n’ Dale resident Zensational, the sprinter who had 2010’s highest U.S. first-year stud fee when he entered stud at $25,000, has five juveniles at the same auctions. Noonmark, standing this year at Sequel Stallions in New York, has the smallest contingent with three.

It’s not surprising that Unbridled’s Song horses should be so strongly represented at the juvenile sales, when you consider their sire’s own history. Unbridled’s Song, by Unbridled, set a record juvenile auction price in 1995 when he fetched $1.4 million at the Barretts March sale, although owner Ernie Paragallo canceled the sale and took back the colt after a bone chip in his ankle was discovered. Unbridled’s Song went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and has become a fashionable source of classy juveniles and two-turn horses.

Old Fashioned, Zensational, Noonmark, and Dunkirk each have stakes-related juveniles at the early juvenile auctions. At Fasig-Tipton, the Old Fashioneds include a half-brother to graded-placed stakes winner Safe Trip, while Zensational has a colt out of a half-sister to Grade 1-winning millionaire Seattle Smooth. Noonmark has a daughter of stakes winner Reddy for Rubys at OBS. Dunkirk’s group at OBS includes a colt out of Diabolical’s and What a Name’s half-sister Mischievious. Dunkirk got off to a fast start as a juvenile sire at Barretts last week when his colt out of the winning Kyle’s Our Man mare Missy Turtle sold for $575,000 to Demi O’Byrne, the second-highest price of the sale.

Another Unbridled-line horse with his first 2-year-olds is WinStar Farm’s Grade 1 winner Pioneerof the Nile. The classic-placed stallion is by Unbridled’s son Empire Maker, who has enjoyed huge success at auction—and on the track, courtesy of such horses as Royal Delta, Grace Hall, and Bodemeister—since his sale to Japanese interests in 2010. Among Pioneerof the Nile’s 17 juveniles at the sales is a half-brother to Grade 1-placed stakes winner Big Apple Daddy at OBS and a Keeneland colt out of a half-sister to Grade 1 winner and classic-placed A P Valentine.

WinStar’s Colonel John, a Grade 1 winner by their two-time Breeders’ Cup Classic victor, Tiznow, also has 17 juveniles cataloged at the select sales. Of the freshman sires considered here, Colonel John had the highest average yearling sale price at $83,418 for 61 auction yearlings (Pioneerof the Nile ranks second at $75,689 for 57 yearlings). Of the Colonel John juveniles offered, 10 of them are cataloged to the OBS March venue. Colonel John’s OBS group includes a half-sister to Grade 1-placed Desert Key.

WinStar fields the largest number of freshman sires with early select juvenile entrants with four. They also stand Kodiak Kowboy, whose two lots include a half-sister to stakes-placed Dan the Tin Man at OBS; and U S Ranger, a Danzig horse whose three sale lots include a Fasig-Tipton half-brother to graded stakes winner and Grade 1-placed La Gran Bailadora.

The late, great Mr. Prospector also is amply represented via sires from his line, including the Unbridled-line stallions as well as Highcliff Stallions at McMahon’s Cosmonaut, by Lemon Drop Kid; Vessels Stallion Farm’s Square Eddie, by Smart Strike; and Grand Slam’s son Visionaire, who has been exported to South Africa’s Summerhill Stud but has two cataloged at the select sales. Visionaire’s juvenile at Barretts, a three-quarter-brother to stakes-placed Grand Steal, sold to Rozamund Barclay for $50,000.

In the year he turns 30, Storm Cat also has an influence on this year’s freshman sire lines. Pin Oak Stud’s Cowboy Cal, by Storm Cat’s very popular son Giant’s Causeway, has four juveniles at the early sales. Storm Cat also is the great-grandsire of Taylor Mountain Farm’s Denis of Cork, by Harlan’s Holiday, and is the broodmare sire of Noonmark and Parading. The latter sire, a Claiborne resident, is by the successful Pulpit and is the only one of these freshman sires going directly back to the exceptional sire A.P. Indy on the sire’s side (although Dunkirk’s famous dam, Secret Status, like Pulpit, is by A.P. Indy). Parading’s three include a half-brother to graded winner Cobalt Blue’s dam, stakes-placed Prado Star.

Parading is one of nine freshman sires standing this year for $5,000 or less in North America (the high mark among these horses’ 2013 fees is $15,000, for Colonel John, Pioneerof the Nile, and Zensational). Cosmonaut ($5,000), Winding Oaks Farm’s Benny the Bull ($2,500), Denis of Cork ($2,500), and Square Eddie ($5,000) each have just one early juvenile sale nominee, but Parading ($3,500), U S Ranger ($5,000), Noonmark ($5,000), Ocala Stud Farm’s In Summation ($4,000) and Ballena Vista’s Dixie Chatter ($5,000) each have three.

Dixie Chatter, by Dixie Union, and Square Eddie are the only California-based sires with early select entrants. Square Eddie’s only lot was withdrawn from the Barretts sale on March 4. Dixie Chatter’s trio includes the first foal—a colt at Barretts—out of stakes-placed Digestivo, whose dam is Grade 1-placed and Grade 3 winner Gastronomical. That juvenile sold for $85,000 to Dennis O’Neill.

There also are two freshman sires from Florida with early select lots. Benny the Bull, 2008’s champion sprinter, has a half-brother to multiple stakes winner Sok Sok at Barretts that was purchased for $75,000 by Mersad Metanovic. In Summation’s group of three includes a half-brother to Grade 1-placed multiple stakes winner Awesome I Am at OBS.

First-year sires of juveniles at major 2-year-old sales