Tiz the Law, Honor A. P. siblings fail to meet reserve at sale

Grade 1 winners Tiz the Law and Honor A. P. were the cover boys of the Fasig-Tipton selected yearling showcase, held just days after they met in the Kentucky Derby – and both had half-siblings in the catalog for that auction. Both have ultimately been retained to race in the colors of their respective breeders after not meeting their reserves in the ring.

Breeder George Krikorian was willing to hang on to his Curlin filly out of Grade 1 winner Hollywood Story after she drew a high bid of $1.4 million, which he said was “close” to the reserve. The half-sister to Honor A. P. will be retained to race and later join her owner’s broodmare band.

“I’m very happy to take her home,” Krikorian said. “We haven’t thought about a plan for her yet, but we’ll just move forward with her career, and we’ll look forward to racing her.”

Krikorian purchased Hollywood Story for $130,000 as a yearling, and she went on to become a millionaire with a career highlighted by wins in the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet as a juvenile and the Grade 1 Vanity Invitational Handicap at age 5. Honor A. P. became her first Grade 1 winner when taking this year’s Santa Anita Derby. He was fourth in the Kentucky Derby following trouble at the break.

Hollywood Story also is the dam of stakes winner Miss Hollywood, Grade 2-placed Hollywood Star, and stakes-placed Hoorayforhollywood.

Randy Gullatt and Steve Davison’s Twin Creeks Farm bred Tiz the Law and sold him to Sackatoga Stables as a yearling. This year, the New York-bred colt has won the Belmont Stakes, Runhappy Travers Stakes, and Florida Derby, and most recently was second as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby. His half-brother, by New York stallion Mission Impazible and out of Grade 2 winner Tizfiz, left the Fasig-Tipton ring on a high bid of $245,000 that failed to meet his reserve. Gullatt said in a message shortly afterward that Twin Creeks now plans to race the colt themselves. The farm also owns a 2-year-old full sister to the colt named Angel Oak.

Pope retains Songbird foal

Mandy Pope, who breeds and races as Whisper Hill Farm, has made a number of blockbuster purchases of high-class racemares over the last 10 years to build her broodmare band. She elected to retain the first foal produced by one of those champions – and will have at least one more pricey filly to join her as she shops at the Keeneland September yearling sale this week.

Pope entered her filly from the first crop of champion and leading moneywinner Arrogate who is the first foal out of two-time Eclipse Award champion Songbird at Keeneland September. However, several days prior to the sale, the filly was announced as a withdrawal. She will soon head to Florida for her early training before racing in Pope’s colors.

“Mandy decided she was too cool to sell,” said a post from Timber Town Farm, where Pope boards her mares in Kentucky and which handles her sale consignments.

Pope purchased Songbird for $9.5 million at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale upon the conclusion of her career. Among North American broodmare prospects at public auction, that price tag ranked behind only Horse of the Year Havre de Grace, a $10 million purchase by Pope. In a major vote of confidence for a young stallion, Pope sent Songbird to Arrogate in his first season at Juddmonte Farm. She won’t get a chance to repeat that pairing, as Arrogate died earlier this year at the young age of 7.

Songbird delivered a Tapit filly earlier this year at Timber Town and was bred back to that stallion for 2021.

Meanwhile, on the buying side of the bench, Pope went to $1.1 million on the opening day of Keeneland September to acquire a Medaglia d’Oro filly. She is out of the Group 3-placed Distorted Humor mare Baffled, the dam of multiple Grade 1 winner and young classic sire Constitution. Baffled, who is from the immediate family of Grade 1 winners Awesome Humor and Emcee, also is the dam of Group 2 winner Boynton and stakes winner Jacaranda.

“She is very athletic with a super, super shoulder like the Medaglia d’Oros have,” Whisper Hill general manager Todd Quast said. “We are happy to have her, first as a runner and then for a broodmare