Two Emmys is Robertson's latest bargain buy

For decades, Hugh Robertson has scoured the quiet corners of Kentucky yearling sales, hunting bargains, employing a “zig when they zag” approach. The crowd seeks out hot sires; Robertson focuses on stallions whose progeny get little attention. The major players will bypass pedigree for an individual who stands out physically; Robertson concentrates on runts.

The method seems simple but requires deep insight and experience. The obvious auction horses are obvious for a reason. A bargain hunter might get lucky once or twice. Robertson has been finding hidden gems for decades.

The latest is Two Emmys, who finished second March 20 at Fair Grounds in the Grade 2, $300,000 Muniz Memorial. Two Emmys went off at 25-1 making his stakes debut, set a modest pace under James Graham, and ran with odds-on favorite and eventual winner Colonel Liam to the furlong pole before giving way, finishing 3 1/2 lengths clear of the show horse while earning a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

“[Trainer Todd] Pletcher had to send in a monster, and we did make him work,” Robertson said Tuesday, reached at Hawthorne, where he has spent this winter with his Chicago string.

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At the Keeneland September yearling sale of 2017, Robertson, doing the bidding for himself and Wolfe Racing, went all the way to $4,500 to acquire this son of English Channel and the Buddha mare Miss Emmy. Two Emmys has banked more than $166,000 and should have plenty of good racing ahead of him. Two Emmys raced for a $20,000 tag in his second start and ran in nine allowance races and a starter-allowance before getting his stakes debut.

“Nobody really liked the horse at the sale but me,” Robertson said. “He was small, and horses by that stud often are kind of ugly. They can be little, but they run, and they usually develop later, so I spent a lot of time fooling with that horse. He had little problems all the way we had to deal with, but I thought he’d run better if he stayed reasonably sound.”

Robertson recalled getting outbid on a horse he wanted at the sale and telling his partner about “a little English Channel out back that they won’t bid on.”

“There might have been one other person bidding. I’d have gone to $5,000 if I had to,” Robertson said, tongue in cheek.

This purchase put Robertson in mind of the 2010 Keeneland January sale, where he acquired a young horse by Seattle Fitz for $1,500. “He came into the ring, I think I bid $1,000, some guy next to me said $1,200, I said $1,500, and the other guy said, ‘Too rich for me.’ ” Bet Seattle went on to win 11 races and more than $400,000.

As for Two Emmys, he’s going from Fair Grounds to Oaklawn, where Robertson’s son Mac has a barn with an adjacent turn-out pen. Two Emmys will get some down time for 30 days before pointing for the Arlington meet. The $600,000 Mr. D Stakes comes up in mid-August. Don’t be surprised if the $4,500 horse makes it there.