Sponsored content: Keeneland Hidden Gems - Swiss Skydiver

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.

This year’s Kentucky Oaks features a highly anticipated showdown between dual Grade 1 winner Gamine and runaway Grade 1 Alabama Stakes heroine Swiss Skydiver. Both of the superstar fillies were purchased at the 2018 Keeneland September yearling sale. Gamine was hammered down for six figures as Hip No. 1116, while trainer Kenny McPeek scooped up Swiss Skydiver as Hip No. 2997 for owner Peter Callahan. The final bid on the attractive chestnut from the first crop by Daredevil was $35,000.

“The only reason she was late in the sale was that [breeder] WinStar Farm knew her X-rays were not perfect,” recalls Carrie Brogden, whose Select Sales consigned the filly. “But she had a physical for a select sale or earlier book. She was great-bodied, had a great mind, and never took a step backward.”

McPeek has a long history of uncovering vast potential later in yearling sales, especially at Keeneland September.

He advised owner Ray Cottrell to purchase Grade 1 winner Prince Arch, Hip No. 2184 at the 2002 September sale, for $37,000. McPeek purchased Pure Fun for $22,000 even later in the 2011 September sale, Hip No. 3800, some 14 months before she captured the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet. And in 2005, McPeek zeroed in on perhaps the all-time hidden gem, Curlin, for $57,000. Then known as Keeneland September Hip No. 2261, he’s now known as champion, Hall of Famer, $10 million earner, and leading sire.

In Swiss Skydiver’s favor was that her vetting remained unchanged over the course of her prep time at WinStar and that her issue never hindered her progress and development. This knowledge helped McPeek home in on the filly.

“Kenny has bought horses from us for years and years and is one of those trainers who knows what he can live with,” Brogden noted. “And he does his due diligence to find out if an X-ray issue is clinical or not. That’s what a lot of people don’t understand, if an imperfection has never impacted a horse to that point there’s a much better chance it won’t be an issue going forward. Horses can’t read their X-rays.”

Nor can they read their hip numbers or purchase prices. The important thing for McPeek and Callahan is to read their filly’s past performances that show four emphatic graded stakes victories and career earnings just shy of $1 million. They just might see Swiss Skydiver draped in a blanket of lilies, too.