Weanlings from new sires arrive at fall sales

A diverse group of young sires whose first crops arrived this year will be represented at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November and Keeneland November sales, a roster that includes three Eclipse Award winners and a proven 1 1/4-mile to 1 1/2-mile classic dirt horse who each have more than 18 weanlings cataloged.

Drosselmeyer, the upset winner of the 2010 Belmont Stakes and the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Classic, leads all first-crop weanling sires at Keeneland with 29 foals cataloged and also has one offered at Fasig-Tipton. The 6-year-old Distorted Humor horse had stamina to spare when racing for owner WinStar Farm and reached his peak form, aside from his Belmont win, at age 4. Those attributes make Drosselmeyer, who now stands at WinStar, a sire whose first crop might be best perceived as long-term investments by buyers with Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup aspirations.

The reverse would be true for Uncle Mo, the champion 2-year-old male of 2010 who now stands at Ashford Stud. The 5-year-old son of Indian Charlie was the textbook definition of a ready-made racehorse in 2010, when he achieved two triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in his first three starts and tallied two impressive Grade 1 wins in that span. He has 26 weanlings cataloged at Keeneland and three at Fasig-Tipton.

Three-time Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti has 19 weanlings cataloged at the November sales (16 at Keeneland, three at Fasig-Tipton). Castleton Lyons’s 7-year-old son of Tale of the Cat is one of two prominent turf horses whose first crop arrive at the sales this fall, with the other being Ashford’s Cape Blanco. That Irish-bred 5-year-old, 2011’s champion turf male, is by the incredibly successful Galileo and has 21 weanlings cataloged at Keeneland along with one at Fasig-Tipton.