Million-dollar horses always grab the headlines at the Keeneland sales, but there are a wealth of “Hidden Gems” mined every year by astute buyers for much lower prices. This series from Daily Racing Form and Keeneland focuses on those future graded winners who sold for less than $100,000. The McLean family’s Crestwood Farm has a simple slogan: “We Raise Runners.” This turns out to be an understatement. Hall of Fame fillies Serena’s Song and Xtra Heat have been raised on Crestwood’s central Kentucky bluegrass. A more recent alum, Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap heroine Got Stormy, could be starting a case to be enshrined alongside those female titans someday. A course-record performance at Saratoga, over males, off a week’s rest is pretty good fodder for a plaque on Union Avenue. Regardless of Got Stormy’s eventual place in history, she’s the latest example of why perseverance is so important at the Keeneland September yearling sale. By an unproven $5,000 sire in Get Stormy and cataloged as Hip No. 3101 in Session 10 of the auction in 2016, Got Stormy may have been easy to pass over as just another horse. Buyers with stamina during the sale and those more interested in physicality and attitude would have taken note of the chestnut filly with the long white blaze at the Crestwood consignment. “We always liked her conformation,” Crestwood Farm patriarch Pope McLean remembers. “As she grew into her yearling year, she looked better and better. And one thing that really stood out was she was totally the boss in the field, a real Type A personality.” The filly did attract the attention of some astute buyers at the Keeneland barn as sale day approached. ”Kenny McPeek liked her a lot as a yearling, and I have a lot of respect for the way Kenny evaluates a horse,” McLean said. “He just didn’t quite step up the plate at the sale.” It was Equine Invest who ultimately connected on the final bid and signed the ticket for $23,000. The price was the second-highest for a yearling from the second crop by Crestwood Farm’s own Get Stormy, a three-time Grade 1 winner by Stormy Atlantic. “Of course at the time Get Stormy was just getting started,” McLean said. “A lot of people wait to jump on the bandwagon. We thought the price was fair enough at the time, though we did like her quite a bit.” The Get Stormy bandwagon is filling up fast, and McLean rightly notes that he’s anything but a one-horse wonder. “He has quite a few others going for him,” McLean said. Those others include graded stakes winners Fifty Five, Storm the Hill, and Go Noni Go along with Clyde’s Image, a multiple Grade 1-placed performer in 2019. McLean founded Crestwood nearly 50 years ago and now operates the 1,000-acre property alongside sons Pope Jr. and Marc. The McLean triumvirate bred Got Stormy with longtime friend and client Brian Burns (Mt. Joy Stable). Burns offered Got Stormy’s dam, Super Phoebe, with Crestwood at the 2010 Keeneland November sale, and the McLeans decided to take a flyer on the daughter of Malabar Gold themselves. Burns ended up staying in for half. “From there, Brian liked Get Stormy when he went to stud and thought she would be a good mare for him,” McLean said. “Rob Keck, who does our matings here at the farm, liked the mating, too.” The $500,000 Fourstardave was a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, and it’s possible that Got Stormy will make a stop along the way at Woodbine for the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile on Sept. 14, just a few days after the Keeneland September sale begins. The filly has amassed more than $700,000 in earnings to date – a long way from her $23,000 price tag as a yearling. “It’s always thrilling to win a Grade 1,” McLean said. “It’s been great for the farm and great for Get Stormy, of course. The last couple races she’s been a monster. We hope she’ll go on to be something really special.” As the 2019 Keeneland September sale quickly approaches, buyers should remember Got Stormy’s journey from a $23,000 purchase in Session 10 to a Grade 1 celebration in the winner’s circle at Saratoga – a spot every buyer hopes to wind u