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Coolmore stretch to US$2.6 million for colt by Darley-based sire
A colt by Darley-based sire Nyquist (Uncle Mo) was the headline act of Wednesday’s Fasig-Tipton's select two-year-olds in training sale after Jamie McCalmont, who was acting on behalf of Coolmore’s MV Magnier, went to US$2.6 million for the Wavertree Stables-consigned colt.
Catalogued as Lot 28, the colt is the first foal out of dual-winning Smart Strike (Mr Prospector) mare Spinning Wheel, who is herself a half-sister to stakes winner Space Mountain (Street Cry) and Grade 1-placed Ride On Curlin (Curlin).
The colt’s third dam is Grade 1 scorer Victory Ride (Seeking The Gold).
"He's by Nyquist, who looks like he's one of the best young stallions around right now," McCalmont told Bloodhorse. "He breezed in :09 4/5. Very few horses went in :10 flat much less :09 4/5. He did a good gallop out and came out of the work good. He trained well in the week before, and he's a very nice horse. He'll be going to Bob Baffert."
Ciaron Dunne of Wavertree said: "Breezing the fastest eighth-mile never hurts. He was a stunning individual. He's just a big, strong colt with plenty of family behind him. Like I've been saying all week, the farms that raise good horses do it and it's not an accident, and Shawnee and Watts Humphrey, they've been doing it for longer than I've been in this game.
"You're always confident with ones that come from them; they have been raised properly, have gone through the protocol, and they've been raised to be racehorses, not to be sale horses. I think that's a big part of it, just the bottom side on the dam side."
He added: "Nyquist, obviously, got really hot after we bought the colt, and we had several last year for Mr Reddam. We've believed in them and they've come along and developed to where everybody recognises him for the quality stallion he is. And then just as an individual he was stunning. He grew up in all the right ways. He got big and strong without getting gross and showed himself like a champion. He's a pretty cool horse. I hope he's as good to Michael Tabor as he was to us."
Nyquist, who finished 2020 as the leading freshman sire in the US, is standing this season at Darley’s Jonabell Farm in Kentucky for a fee of US$75,000.
Later on in the afternoon, McCalmont, Magnier and West Bloodstock teamed up to purchase a colt by Nyuqist’s sire Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie), paying US$1.3 million for the two-year-old.
Once again the colt was offered by Wavertree Stables and catalogued as Lot 67, the youngster is out of Afleet Maggi (Afleet Alex), making him a brother to Grade 1 winner Dream Tree.
Bred in Kentucky by Mike and Pat Freeny, the colt was purchased by Knights Bloodstock for US$335,000 from the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment to the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
"The colt will go to Todd Pletcher," Michael Tabor told Bloodhorse. "I've had horses with Todd Pletcher ever since I can remember. When I had a Derby winner, he was working in 1995 for Wayne Lukas, so we go back a long way. He's a very, very good trainer.
"It's very difficult to gauge a quality horse because as you know, it takes two people. Sometimes you have a big surprise and sometimes you have a big surprise the other way. That's an auction for you. We wouldn't have bought him if we didn't like him. We're very happy to have these two animals."
Meanwhile, the second most expensive lot of the day was a colt by Gun Runner (Candy Ride) - named Needmore Guns - who was purchased by Gary Young for US$1.7 million.
Catalogued as Lot 181 and consigned by Hartley De Renzo Thoroughbreds, the colt is out of stakes-winning Flatter (A.P. Indy) mare Needmore Flattery.
At the close of trade, Fasig-Tipton reported 66 horses sold from 105 offered (a clearance of 63 per cent) for a total of US$25,040,000. The average was US$379,394 and the median was US$300,000. The 39 horses that went unsold represented an RNA rate of 37 per cent. There are no comparable figures from last year with the 2020 sale having been cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
"It was a good start to the two-year-old sale season for us," said Fasig-Tipton president and CEO Boyd Browning Jr. "We're thrilled to be back at Gulfstream Park. I think it was a typical two-year-old sale, great demand and great interest at the top of the marketplace for what are perceived to be the quality offerings. The most encouraging thing in that regard was the diversity of buyers across the board. There were lots of bidders willing to spend plenty of money."
While there appeared to be larger number of horses withdrawn from the original catalogue of 186 individuals, Browning said the number of outs was not atypical of the market.
"It is the same as 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 - people have options," said Browning. "If they don't have what they perceive to be the appropriate number of potential buyers, they have other sales they can go to or go to the races. There is not an extreme pressure to sell. This is not the last stop; for a lot of them it is the first stop. There will be the same thing next year. We will have more scratches than we would like and more RNAs than we would like, and a lot of them will go on to other sales and be successful."