Harness: Captaintreacherous's full brother tops record night at Lexington Selected Yearling Sale

The owner-trainer duo of brothers John and Tom Cancelliere have shelled out a lot of money on full brothers to superstars before, and despite results that haven’t worked in their favor, they went back to the well again, spending $360,000 on Captaintreacherous’s full brother Treasure Trove to top Tuesday night’s first session of the 2018 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale.

Treasure Trove (Somebeachsomewhere-Worldly Treasure), who sold as HIP 82, was bred by White Birch Farm and sold as part of the Preferred Equine Marketing (agent) consignment.

"I started out with Some Of The Beach (a $430,000 Harrisburg buy), which is the full brother to Somebeachsomewhere, and I started out with Detour Hanover (an $825,000 Harrisburg buy), the full brother of Donato Hanover," said John Cancelliere. "This started with a joke. I said to Tommy one day, go buy a horse. It started as a joke, and then it just escalated from there. We ended up with a horse farm and ended up breeding.

"We like to mix it up a little bit. This is the enjoyable part. The part that's not enjoyable is the part Tommy has to do now. It's pleasing and whatnot and if it works out, great. Only one thing knows at this point, and God is not letting us know any time soon."

Cancelliere applauded the job Myron Bell has done with Captaintreacherous and would be elated if Treasure Trove could be mentioned in the same breath with him.

"I don't usually take no for an answer, let's put it that way," Cancelliere said in regards to the spirited bidding. “I was quite surprised that Myron Bell didn't bid on him, but he doesn't like full brothers and full sisters. He is the visionary. Myron's job now, I think, is more trying to sell the Captaintreacherous offspring rather than buy Captaintreacherous's full brother. I can understand why he wouldn't have bid on him.

"We can only hope that he could get and be managed as well as Myron managed Captaintreacherous. He's done an absolutely superb job in marketing, selling, and building the whole package. We can only hope he's half the horse that horse is. I'd be doing handstands."

In concluding, Cancelliere remarked on the big-ticket buys that haven’t worked out as hoped up to this point.

"There's no givens. We take our shots and we see," he said. "We've made some bad mistakes. We've made some good decisions and we've made some bad decisions, like all human beings." Derick GiwnerTall Dark Stanger was second on the night

Checking in behind Treasure Trove was HIP 60 Tall Dark Stranger. A Bettor’s Delight colt, Tall Dark Stranger sold from the Hunterton Sales Agency (agent) consignment and went to Nancy Johansson for $330,000. Johansson purchased the colt, who is out of Precocious Beauty (Art Major, $838,004) and a half-brother to recent Kentucky Sires Stakes 2-year-old filly pace sweeper Beautyonthebeach, for a group that includes Caviart Farms, Marvin Katz, Howard Taylor, and Michelle Crawford.

"We loved him. He was an athletic-looking Bettor's Delight,” said Johansson. “He has very tough, gritty horses. He was a beautiful individual, with obviously a very, very nice maternal family on him. We have Lazarus (by Bettor's Delight) in the barn, my dad's (Jimmy Takter) barn. My dad's retiring, and I think this is a nice horse for us to continue our relationship together.”

Tony Alagna was heavily involved in the bidding as well, but came up short on this occasion.

"He was Kentucky and Ontario-eligible, and I had Ontario guys that were looking at him as well, so it was okay that he was Bettor's Delight,” remarked Alagna. “Bettor's Delight shows up every year. He was definitely one of the top colts we had looked at as well. We knew he was on Jimmy's list. He was one of Jimmy's favorite colts, if not his favorite colt, so we knew we were going to have to go as far as we could. We were going to go to $200,000, and I went to $310,000. We couldn't stop them, and that's okay. That's what makes it a horse sale."

While Alagna missed out on Treasure Trove, he did get Stay Hungry’s three-quarter brother Force N Fury (Captaintreacherous-My Little Dragon) for $300,000 to tie for third on the list. Force N Fury was HIP 54 and also sold from the Preferred Equine consignment.

"He's very a similar style to Stay Hungry as a yearling, and he's a Captaintreacherous," offered Alagna. "He just checked all the boxes - maternal pedigree, conformation, athleticism in the paddock. He had a great video, and a lot of presence. He was a no-brainer for us. He was our number one colt. We were going to go all the way on him and get him bought and we did.

"You have an attachment (to the family), but you have to be objective. You have to look at it as an individual, and if he has characteristics of the brothers that were good, then that's a good thing. A brother has to look like a brother in my opinion."

Also fetching $300,000 were HIP 6 Whose Blues (Cantab Hall-Bright Baby Blues) and HIP 41 Das Deo (Captaintreacherous-Lisjune). Whose Blues, who went to Determination Stable (Serge Godin), is the first foal out of the Andover Hall mare Bright Baby Blues ($492,203), and Das Deo, purchased by Mr. Dana Parham, is a half-brother to I Luv The Nitelife and a full brother to multi-time Pennsylvania Sire Stakes winner this year De Los Cielos Deo. Whose Blues sold for breeder and consignor Cane Run Farm, while Das Deo was another big item for Preferred Equine from Deo Volente Farms.

"I liked the video and it's a nice animal, a very nice animal," said Luc Blais, who will handle the training of Whose Blues. "Every year we've liked that family, and I think this year we're lucky we got one from that family. The new million-dollar race (next year at The Red Mile) maybe helped, for sure (with the price). It's good for the game. We need to try different things."

As for Das Deo, Parham said he couldn’t pass him up at this point.

“I missed a couple last year that went for 300-350,000 or whatever, and there’s not a horse that I can’t buy,” he said. “I can’t buy them all, but there’s not one I can’t buy. I was just determined this year that I’m not going to get out-bid on one or two of my favorites. Ross Croghan liked the horse a lot, and that’s where we’re at. The breeding, that’s where it starts. It’s well put together. Ross couldn’t find a flaw with him. Ross has a good eye for horses. He’s done well over the years.

“I passed up on Rocknroll Hanover years ago, and I regretted that. I could have had him, and you reach an age where you just don’t want regrets. I’m not going to regret buying one that doesn’t work out. The regrets come not buying one that does work out. I’m getting my son involved, and I’d like to leave him something good. He’s really interested and he works hard. He makes it possible. I have so many other interests that I can only spend a few hours a week on this. He spends 60-70 hours a week, so without him I’d only have a handful.”

As for the numbers for the night overall, the first session finished up 10.6% versus last year. The total was the highest one-night gross in the history of the sale ($12,900,000), topping 2017’s second night ($12,146,000). 102 yearlings went through the ring on Tuesday night for an average of $126,471 (up from 2017’s first night average of $114,344). Muscle Hill led the gross at just over $3.1 million, followed by Captaintreacherous ($2.292 million), Somebeachsomewhere ($1.88 million), Father Patrick ($1.69 million), and Trixton ($720,000).

"There were a lot of people here, and a lot of people we hadn't seen in years,” said sale co-manager Randy Manges. “We had good activity from the Europeans tonight, they bought a lot of horses and spent a lot of money. Pacing colts, I don't we've ever sold more pacing colts in a sale for over $300,000, and we sold two of them tonight. I'm always surprised, but we're up off a sale that was the best sale we've ever had. Right now we'll try to keep the run going. I'm old, maybe I could retire before it starts going the other way.”

Tomorrow night’s second session likely has its work cut out for it going up against last year’s record second night, but Manges couldn’t have been happier with Tuesday’s opener.

"This was the highest gross ever for a first session. This year we sold more horses, that had something to do with the gross,” he stated. “For the average, we just have good horses. It's that simple. I talked to a lot of guys tonight that didn't get horses, or they only got one, so they're looking forward to tomorrow. Tomorrow night will be a little tough. We sold our highest-priced horse last year on our second night, and we had the highest gross on any session.”

Wednesday’s portion of the sale, with HIPS 109-276 on offer, begins at 7 pm. For full results of tonight’s session, click here.