Record time at Keeneland sale

The first under-tack show for Keeneland's April 17 juvenile produced fast times Monday, including a record-breaking 20.20 seconds for a quarter-mile and a record-tying 9.60 seconds for an eighth.

The show was the first to take place over the track's new Polytrack surface, installed in time for racing in October 2006. Posting the day's fastest quarter-mile times were Hip No. 102 and Hip No. 212, a Yankee Gentleman colt and a Lemon Drop Kid filly who each breezed a quarter-mile in 20.20 seconds. That beat the fastest quarter-mile time previously recorded at a 2-year-old preview, the 20.60 seconds that What a Song breezed at the 2005 Barretts March juvenile auction. Hip No. 102, the Yankee Gentleman colt, is out of the Well Decorated winner Truly Something. Murray Smith consigns the colt, who is from his sire's first crop. Hip No. 212, the Lemon Drop Kid daughter, is out of Grade 1-placed stakes-winner High Heeled Hope. She is in the Kirkwood Stables agency's consignment.

The fastest eighth-mile time at Keeneland on Tuesday was 9.60 seconds, which equaled the 2-year-old auction record set by Unbridled Slew, at the Barretts May sale in 2006. Hip No. 86, a Mineshaft filly, posted the 9.60 time at Keeneland Monday. Consigned by the Hartley/De Renzo agency, the filly is out of Grade 1-placed Stylish Talent.

The under-tack preview took place on a chilly spring day, and consignors theorized that the unseasonably cold weather helped tighten the Polytrack and produce faster times.