A $750,000 colt by More Than Ready and out of Canadian champion Embur’s Song (Unbridled’s Song) topped Monday’s opening session of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale at Timonium.
Ben McElroy was reportedly the agent acting for the buyer, a client of trainer Simon Callaghan’s, according to Daily Racing Form’s Nicole Russo.
First bought for $500,000 by Hartley/De Renzo as a yearling at Keeneland September, the dark bay was among those firing a bullet furlong in :10 1/5 at the May 16 under tack show. The Florida-bred was cataloged as Hip No. 204 here.
Embur’s Song earned a Sovereign Award as Canada’s champion older female of 2011 after victories in the Doubledogdare (G3) (in track-record time over Keeneland’s old Polytrack), Ontario Matron (G3), Hendrie (G3), and Windward. Her half-sister, stakes-placed Dawn Raid (Vindication), is the dam of 2016 Preakness (G1), Haskell (G1), and Santa Anita Derby (G1) star Exaggerator (Curlin).
Late in the session, a colt from the first crop of Mucho Macho Man, Hip 278, was a dramatic pinhook success when selling to Michael Lund Peterson for $625,000.
Consigned by Kirkwood Stables, agent, the Kentucky-bred chestnut had not garnered any such traction at OBS March, where he just RNA’d for $55,000. But speeding a quarter in a bullet :21 1/5 during the May 16 preview caught attention.
The auction veteran had been a $14,000 bargain as a Keeneland January “short yearling” before going to S.R. Schwartz, agent, for $95,000 at the same venue in September. His dam, the winning Itsagiantcauseway (Giant’s Causeway), hails from the immediate Pin Oak family of former Canadian Horse of the Year Peaks and Valleys (Mt. Livermore) and multiple Grade 2-winning millionaire Alternation (Distorted Humor).
Monday’s best-selling filly, and third overall on the leaderboard, was a $325,000 daughter of Bernardini snapped up by Charles Zacney. Offered by Paul Sharp, agent, as Hip 246, the Kentucky-bred worked her furlong in :10 2/5.
The dark bay had failed to reach her reserve at Keeneland September, led out unsold at $120,000. She was produced by the Giant’s Causeway mare Great Look, an unraced full sister to multiple Grade 3 victor Winning Cause and descendant of noted matron Grenzen (Grenfall).
Fasig-Tipton reported that 172 juveniles were sold for $12,066,000, an increase of 4.6 percent from the $11,537,500 grossed by 162 during the 2017 opener. The $70,151 average was 1.5 percent off from last year’s $71,219, and the median dipped 10 percent, from $40,000 to $36,000.
The two-day sale concludes Tuesday, with trade getting under way at 2 p.m. (EDT). For continuously updated results and live streaming of the auction, visit fasigtipton.com.
