Sunday Morning Farm looks for another September score

The breakout star of the 2021 Keeneland September yearling sale was hands-on lifelong horsewoman Rosilyn Polan. At her small Sunday Morning Farm in Woodford County, Ky., she bred, raised, and prepped a colt from the first crop of City of Light who sold for a sale-topping $1.7 million.

A year later, Polan, who also bred and sold multiple graded stakes winner Wit, is bringing a six-horse consignment to Keeneland September. Four were bred in her name, once again leaning on young sires, while she is consigning two more as agent for a client.

Polan’s sale-topper last year is out of the stakes-placed Tapit mare Anchorage, whom she privately acquired. She sent the mare essentially sight unseen to City of Light, who was still in training at the time. The colt was purchased by Woodford Racing, Talla Racing, and West Point Thoroughbreds out of Book 2 to lead the sale, marking a rarity, with the top price emerging outside of Book 1. Now named Prosper, he is in training at Del Mar with John Sadler. His page has continued to update, as Anchorage is also the dam of Grade 3 winner Abaan and Grade 3-placed Chip Leader.

Polan’s biggest sale prior to that City of Light colt had come one year before at Keeneland – and was again by a first-crop sire, showing her strong instincts with those horses. The horsewoman bred her unraced Medaglia d’Oro mare Numero d’Oro to Practical Joke in his first season at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud. The resulting colt, Wit, was purchased for $575,000 by Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable at the 2020 Keeneland September sale, with Gainesway later joining the partnership.

Wit won the Grade 3 Sanford and placed in two Grade 1 races last year as a juvenile. This year, he won the Grade 3 Bay Shore before switching to turf in the summer at Saratoga, finishing second in the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and then winning the Better Talk Now on Aug. 28.

Off the success of Anchorage’s sale topper last year, her yearling filly was selected to Book 1 to lead Sunday Morning Farm’s Keeneland September consignment. The filly is from the first crop of Grade 1 winner Omaha Beach, who leads this first-crop sire class by average price.

On offer early in Book 2 from the farm will be a colt from the second crop of City of Light, whose first crop has begun to run to their promise. This colt is a half-brother to Wit, as well as to graded stakes winner Barkley.

Overall, four of the six horses Polan is bringing to Keeneland September this year are by first-crop sires, as, later in the sale, she will bring a Catholic Boy colt, a Catalina Cruiser filly, and a Flameaway filly to the ring.