LEXINGTON, Ky. - Buying yearlings to resell as 2-year-olds is a risky business, as any professional reseller, or "pinhooker," will quickly tell you. But sometimes the payoff is staggeringly good, as it was on May 16 for Ciaran Dunne, Mike Akers, and David Greathouse.
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DRF Past Performances
Long before the events of Tuesday's Barretts May sale of 2-year-olds in training in Pomona, Calif., breeder David Newcomb knew he had raised a promising Red Bullet colt.
Newcomb bred the colt on his ranch in Taylorsville, north of Sacramento, and sold him for $190,000 at the 2005 Keeneland September yearling sale. What he could not foresee was that the colt would be resold for a May sale record $2.5 million Tuesday.
"I was a little surprised," he said.
Millionaire producers are not as rare as they used to be. Multimillion-dollar purses have made the million-dollar earnings plateau increasingly accessible. Producing two millionaires, however, is still an enviable coup.
This was accomplished at Tampa Bay Downs on Kentucky Derby Day, when Live Oak Stud's 8-year-old Revved Up won the $75,000 Chris Thomas Turf Classic and kicked his lifetime earnings to $1,029,096. Revved Up's year-younger half-brother, Miesque's Approval, is a Grade 2 stakes winner and an earner of $1,189,474.
The 2-year-old sales market has seen amazing results this year, with record prices popping up at nearly every turn. Now the attention turns to the two-day Fasig-Tipton Midlantic preferred 2-year-olds in training sale, which gets underway at 11 a.m. Monday at the Timonium Sales Pavilion in Timonium, Md.
The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic preferred 2-year-old sale has 96 New York-breds cataloged to the annual spring auction, to be held at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.
The two-day sale will be held Monday and Tuesday, with selling getting under way each day at 11 a.m.
New York sires Catienus, Freud, Good and Tough, Thunderello, and Wheelaway are each represented by several juveniles.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Led by a $2.5 million Red Bullet colt, the Barretts May juvenile sale set three records and equaled one Tuesday in Pomona, Calif.
The $2.5 million son of Sookloozy, by Avenue of Flags, set a mark for the auction's highest price ever. The price paid by Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum's Darley agency easily topped the previous record of $375,000, which Jess Jackson paid for Cambria Gold at the sale's 2003 edition.
LAS VEGAS - Barbaro was nothing short of sensational in winning the Kentucky Derby, and although his main competition that day - Brother Derek and Sweetnorthernsaint - had rough trips that compromised their chances, I expect Barbaro to win the Preakness.
Many skeptics point to the dream trip Barbaro received in the Derby, one that he will not have in the Preakness, which surely sets up as a different race. They forget, however, that Barbaro faced adversity before and passed with flying colors. He makes his own racing luck.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - A $2.5 million Red Bullet colt who set a record workout time last Thursday at the Barretts May juvenile sale's preview set another record Tuesday with the auction's highest-ever sale price.
Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum's Darley organization purchased the colt, which sold as Hip No. 80, from sellers Mike Akers and Ciaran Dunne. Dunne's Wavertree agency consigned the son of Sookloozy, by Avenue of Flags, on behalf of the partnership.
A Red Bullet colt out of Sookloozy became the fastest colt ever to work an eighth of a mile for a Barretts May sale on Thursday when he breezed in 9.60 seconds.
The sizzling workout was part of the Barretts May 2-year-old auction's first preview day at Fairplex Park in Pomona, Calif. The second preview, featuring Hip Nos. 190-378, was to take place Friday.