Merlot, Color Me Gold top inaugural Hastings paddock sale

Merlot and Color Me Gold shared the highest price, $30,000, at the inaugural Hastings paddock sale for horses of racing age Saturday.

Eighteen horses sold for a total of $143,500 and an average price of $7,972.

Merlot, a 4-year-old gelding by Rosberg, finished third in the $50,000 Chris Loseth Stakes in his last start as a 3-year-old and ran second in the Jack Diamond Futurity as a juvenile. He was purchased by the Hastings Racing Club II. Nancy Betts will be his new trainer.

The gelding previously raced as a homebred for Swift Thoroughbreds and was trained by Dino Condilenios. He breezed three furlongs in 34 1/5 seconds during the sale’s preview day, making him the fastest of 10 offerings at the distance.

Bred in British Columbia, Merlot is out of the Grade 3-placed multiple stakes-winning Feu d’Enfer mare Napa, whose four foals to race are all winners including multiple stakes-placed Willamette, also by Rosberg.

Color Me Gold is a 3-year-old filly by Harbor the Gold. The Washington-bred has started three times and was coming off a third-place finish in a $25,000 maiden-claiming race at Golden Gate for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer on March 15. She was purchased by Peter Redekop and will be trained by Anita Bolton.

The filly was previously owned by the partnership of North American Thoroughbred Racing Co. and Mark Dedomenico, whose Pegasus Training Center consigned Color Me Gold at the Hastings sale.

Color Me Gold is out of the stakes-winning Supremo mare Premo Copy, who is the dam of five winners from six foals to race, including stakes winners Seattles Best Copy and Castinette Dancer.

“We were very happy with the results,” sales organizer Mike Heads said. “The goal was to keep horses at Hastings that may have been headed elsewhere, and it worked out well.”

The 2016 Hastings meet begins April 17.

– additional reporting by Joe Nevills