Fasig-Tipton July: Sons of Candy Ride, Harlan’s Holiday lead early goings

The bar for the high price at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July selected yearling was raised quickly Monday afternoon when Jay Em Ess Stables secured a Candy Ride ridgling for $250,000, quickly surpassing a $235,000 Harlan’s Holiday colt who went to Conquest Stables.

The Candy Ride ridgling, consigned by Warrendale Sales, as agent, is out of the unraced A.P. Indy mare True Legacy, dam of five winners from as many starters – remarkably, by four different stallions. Her winners are topped by Verdana Bold, whose biggest win came in the Grade 3 Selene Stakes in Canada; she won or placed in three other stakes events. The ridgling was bred in Kentucky by Edward Seltzer.

Out of stakes winner and Grade 1 placed Harbour Club, by Danzig, True Legacy is a half sister to stakes winner Holzmeister, stakes placed Overlord, and Galleon of Gold, dam of Grade 1 winner Game Face.

“He’s a nicely-made horse, well-balanced, handled himself well, and he passed the vet,” Samantha Siegel of Jay Em Ess Stables said about the ridgling. “He fell in the right price range. Good horses are hard to find, and people kind of land on the same horses, and it’s a just matter of who wants which one more. Luckily we got one, and he’s such a nice colt. We’ll se what happens.”

Siegel said that there were no immediate plans for the ridgling as far as his racing career was concerned.

“He’s going to go and relax for a little bit and live like a horse, then in October, we send our horses down to Florida to get broken,” she said. “We don’t know who’s getting who yet. We’ll see.”

The ridgling became the most expensive foal out of his dam to sell at public auction, topping Verdana Bold, who fetched $160,000 as a weanling at the 2005 Keeneland November breeding stock sale.

Candy Ride, sire of unbeaten champion Shared Belief, stands at Lane's End Farm near Versailles, Ky.

Moments earlier, trainer Mark Casse signed the ticket for Conquest Stables on the $235,000 Harlan’s Holiday colt. The yearling got a big catalog update when close relative Unspurned became a Canadian classic winner, and parlayed that into a successful trip through the auction ring less than 24 hours later.

“I just thought he was a real pretty horse,” Casse said. “He’s got a live pedigree, and we have a couple nice Harlan’s Holidays, so I thought it made sense.”

Bred in Florida by Prince Farm, the colt was consigned by Baccari Bloodstock as agent.

Out of the winning Time for a Change mare Time for a Crown, the colt is a half brother to stakes winners Sayaad and Banga Ridge, and Grade 1-placed winner Coronet of a Baron. Banga Ridge is the dam of Unspurned, who captured the Bison City Stakes, the middle leg of Canada’s Triple Tiara for fillies, on Sunday at Woodbine. The colt is the most expensive foal out of his dam to sell at a yearling auction.

Time for a Crown is a half sister to two stakes placed winners, including Carson Jen, dam of Grade 1 winner A Z Warrior, Grade 3 winner E Z Warrior, and stakes winner J Z Warrior – the latter by Harlan’s Holiday.

Other top runners by Harlan’s Holiday, who died last November, include champion Shanghai Bobby, Grade 1 winner and successful young sire Into Mischief, and Grade 1 winner Majesticperfection.

Despite a brief reign as the sale’s most expensive horse, Casse said the price was not as stinging as he expected.

“I actually thought it was a good price,” he said. “I thought he might bring just a touch more. I was happy. Harlan’s Holiday was a solid sire and the mare is a solid producer, and I thought he was a beautiful horse, so we’re happy.”

-Additional reporting by Nicole Russo