Harness: Previewing Sunday's Goshen yearling Sale

Here we go again! No sooner is Labor Day in the rearview mirror and that means the scene changes to yearling sale time with the first significant event being the Goshen Sale on Sunday, September 8 at the Mark Ford Training Center in Middletown, New York.

Being a New York sale, as expected, the majority number of yearlings catalogued are Empire State-sired from the four major consignors, they being Blue Chip, Cameo Hills, Hanover Shoe and Winbak Farms. However, there are many by other stallions including Artspeak, Explosive Matter, Donato Hanover, Western Ideal and Well Said who do not stand stud in the New York.

Of those Blue Chip Farms and Cameo Hills are New York residents (despite the error in Cameo’s catalog address), while Hanover and Winbak, the two largest breeding establishments, reside in Pennsylvania and Maryland, respectively. Hanover has always bred to outside stallions while Winbak maintains stallions in New York.

So let’s look at some numbers. Bear in mind I have not actually seen these individuals except perhaps a couple on video.

HIP #6 PERFECT BELLA (American Ideal-Mom’s Bella)

This filly has two things going for her, one being a stallion upgrade from Badlands Nitro, Classic Card Shark, Delmarvelous and Bolt The Duer to leading sire American Ideal, and the other being from the outstanding family of Sanabelle Island. It’s a known fact that great race mares leave productive though marginally successful race daughters, many of whom out-produce their more celebrated dams. I’d look at this filly.

HIP #14 SAUVIGNON BLUE CHIP (Art Major-Some Girls Do)

Here is an Art Major colt from the fast Some Girls Do, she a daughter of the very productive Village Green, who certainly out-produced her more celebrated dam Central Park West. There’s a half-brother Outrajus Blue Chip winning races these days and this colt warrants a looksee.

HIP # 20 PINPOINT HANOVER (Explosive Matter-Peace Dove)

Whereas the first two foals of Peace Dove have yet to set the proverbial world on fire, she still is a sister to mega-winner Cedar Dove from the family of foundation mare Higher Love. For that reason alone, this colt warrants an inspection.

HIP # 21 HADLEYS PENNY (Roll With Joe-Perfect Penny)

This gal is a Roll With Joe filly from an Art Major sister to All Bets Off, a $3 million plus winner by Bettor’s Delight from the highly productive Armbro Penelope. So what we have here is a filly by Roll With Joe, the FULL BROTHER to Bettor’s Delight, from a sister to one of his all-time leading money-winning sons.

HIP # 52 BOTTLE ROCKET (Rock N Roll Heaven-Who Moved The Rock)

This dam, a Life Sign sister to Little Miss Dragon, has had six foals all of whom have made the races, so you know you’ve got a racehorse here. It’s her first time for Rock N Roll Heaven and given the production all over the catalog page, Bottle Rocket is worth a look

HIP # 56 BLUE FLAME (Heston Blue Chip-All Italian)

Heston Blue Chip has shown extremely well with limited opportunity and he represents a stallion upgrade over what All Italian has been bred to previously. She gets ‘em to the races and ‘Heston’ will aid further in that department. In addition, it’s an acceptable 4x3 line cross to Western Hanover.

HIP # 71 BYGONE HANOVER (Artspeak-Brissonte Hanover)

Brissonte Hanover doesn’t miss and thus far Artspeak has made a noticeable stallion debut with his first offerings, so if nothing else ‘Bygone’ should prove her seventh winning race offering.

HIP # 76 SPARTACUS BLUECHIP (American Ideal-Crucial Moment)

OK, I saw it. He paces in the video! Does that mean he can pace fast, absolutely not, as during my Perretti years I sold a few like that. What it does mean is that he’s going to get looked at often and might just be out of the stall when you amble over to the Blue Chip consignment. In addition, there’s that Bettor’s Delight-Western Ideal male line connection which seems to be working rather well these days.

HIP # 79 THE YANKEE CHAPTER (Muscles Yankee-Chapter And Verse)

Speaking of my Perretti years, here’s a Muscles Yankee from a sister to Windsong’s Legacy’s great-siring son Chapter Seven, as the second dam La Riviera Lindy is a productive daughter of Dream Vacation. ‘Muscles’ can still sire quality and I’d be remiss in my legacy not inspecting this colt.

HIP # 89 ROCK ISLAND (Sunshine Beach-Born To Rock)

If you study the feature race results, it’s hard to not to notice the increasing number of major winners from Rocknroll Hanover mares and here’s one that might cross well with the rising Ontario stallion Sunshine Beach. While Captaintreacherous has hogged the headlines as far as siring sons of Somebeachsomewhere are concerned, the “Beach’s” other sons are proving quite capable as well, including Sunshine Beach.

HIP # 94 IT’S IN THE STARS (Heston Blue Chip-Four Starz Horndog)

Sometimes these tough-as-nails race fillies like ‘Horndog’ take a little time before showing their best results and this colt represents inbreeding back to Cam’s Card Shark, which normally I wouldn’t like. However, we haven’t seen enough from Heston Blue Chip to know his particular preferences, so out of curiosity we’ll take more than just a casual look here. Actually, I’d look at every Heston Blue Chip in the sale.

While the Goshen Sale is a regional event to a degree, some rather substantial horses have been sold here, including recent Empire Breeders Classic winner Hickfromfrenchlick. As Roger Huston excitedly bellows, “Be There”.