Colt goes in 9.6 at Keeneland preview

Keeneland's sole under-tack preview for its April 8-9 juvenile sale featured a spate of fast times that included an eighth-mile breeze in 9.60 seconds.

Hip No. 7, a gray or roan Langfuhr colt who is a half-brother to Blue Grass Stakes hopeful Cool Coal Man, fired off the 9.60-second breeze as the day's fastest worker at the distance. The time equaled the record under-tack work for an eighth-mile set twice before: by Unbridled Slew at the 2006 Barretts May 2-year-old sale and by Patricia's Gem at the 2007 Keeneland April juvenile auction.

Hip No. 7 was one of seven 2-year-olds to put in eighth-mile times under 10 seconds. The others went in 9.80 seconds, and they were Hip No. 99, a Scrimshaw-Christmas Rose filly; Hip No. 101, a Seattle Fitz-Cometuseibella colt; Hip No. 149, an Officer-Push Her colt; Hip No. 155, a More Than Ready-Riverboat Miss filly; Hip No. 163, a Cat Dreams-Siphonophora filly; and Hip No. 184, a Speightstown-Balancing Act filly.

Two youngsters had the day's fastest quarter-mile time of 20.40 seconds. They were Hip No. 45, an Aldebaran-Propriety colt, and Hip No. 190, a Forestry-Broad Dynamite colt.

The sale, conducted in a single daytime session in years past, will take place this year in two evening sessions. Each session was to begin at 7 p.m. in the Keeneland sale pavilion in Lexington, Ky.