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Sea The Stars Book 1 Sensation Starts At Donny

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Saturday's Observations features a pricey auction graduate.

AT VIMEIRO (GER) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) was at 650,000gns the fourth-highest-priced yearling by his sire during 2022 when bought for Peter Harris by Richard Knight Bloodstock at Tatts Book 1. In training with Jane Chapple-Hyam, the son of the G2 T Von Zastrow Stutenpreis winner and G1 Preis Von Europa runner-up Amorella (Ire) (Nathaniel {Ire}) is bred to stay so a bold show on debut will augur well.

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Jockey Club Oaks: Highland Grace Could Be Third Generation Graded Winner For Bonner Young

Thoroughbred owner and breeder Bonner Young is hopeful that dual winner Highland Grace can add more prosperity to a highly productive family line in Saturday's Grade 3, $350,000 Fasig-Tipton Jockey Club Oaks going 11 furlongs at Belmont at the Big A.

Trained by Barclay Tagg, Highland Grace started out 0-for-4 through the maiden ranks before stretching out to the Jockey Club Oaks distance on June 3 over Belmont Park's inner turf to graduate at fifth asking. The sophomore daughter of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah doubled up by defeating winners going 10 furlongs on July 4 over yielding Belmont inner turf under Flavien Prat.

Highland Grace, a fifth generation homebred, is out of Young's graded stakes winner Caroline Thomas, who was elevated to first in the Grade 2 Lake Placid at Saratoga Race Course in 2013 before finishing a close third in that year's Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland. Highland Grace's granddam is three-time graded stakes winner Bit of Whimsy, whose sophomore season in 2007 saw triumphs in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup as well as the Grade 3 Sands Point at Belmont Park and the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere at Churchill Downs. Her third dam is Kristi B, who also produced graded stakes placed and black type producer Kristi With a K.

“I have had this family for 43 years and Barclay has trained everything on the page at one point in time,” Young said. “She is a big filly like Bit of Whimsy was. She doesn't have Bit of Whimsy's disposition, she's more like Caroline Thomas in that. She's laid back like American Pharoah was. He was kind and gentle around people and that's how she is.”

Although Highland Grace won over yielding going last out, Young said she is hopeful for firm turf in Saturday's race.

“She's got a kick if it's a hard turf,” Young said. “In the last race she was struggling on the rail and Flavien [Prat] got her out into the middle of the course, that's when she took off. I'm hoping that it won't rain tonight.”

Highland Grace has a 2-year-old full-sister named Katherine Thomas, who made her debut over the Saratoga inner turf in July to finish fifth going 1 1/16 miles.

“Her baby sister Katherine Thomas is actually more like Bit of Whimsy. She's a 2-year-old and I'm hoping she runs at the end of this month. We're aiming for that with her,” said Young.

Young currently owns two active broodmares – Caroline Thomas and stakes-winner Highland Glory, a daughter of Young's now retired broodmare Kristi With a K. She boards her mares at Hinkle Farm in Paris, Kentucky.

Caroline Thomas is in foal to second crop sire Bolt d'Oro, while Highland Glory is in foal to 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify.

“I'm trying to breed a turf champion for Barclay, I've been trying forever,” Young said. “We've had some really nice horses out of this family. I'm lucky because they're born and raised at Tom Hinkle's Farm. I bought my first horse from him in 1980 and I've been part of the Hinkle family ever since. He's a wonderful horseman and they do a fabulous job at his farm.”

Hall of Famer Javier Castellano will pick up the mount aboard Highland Grace, who will break from post 5 at 5-1 morning line odds.

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Penn Family Riding High into Book 3 After Seven-Figure Sale

Alex Penn wasn't at Keeneland when his family's Penn Sales sent their first seven-figure yearling through the ring during Book 1 of the September Sale. He was back home in Bourbon County, busy prepping the rest of their consignment's yearlings pointing for the later books.

“They were all drinking champagne and I was grooming horses,” he said as he jokingly nudged his wife Kendra and laughed, because really, he wouldn't have it any other way.

His family's business was founded a century ago as an all-purpose farm–over the years raising tobacco, Thoroughbreds, cattle, hay, even squash a time or two– and each generation to carry the Penn banner has stuck to its roots.

“We're farmers,” Kendra said simply. “If we can make a profit that's obviously the goal, but we're not here chasing seven figures on a regular basis.”

Of course, the Penn family couldn't help but get their hopes up about the youngster that would go on to sell for $1.35 million to M.V. Magnier. The Uncle Mo colt out of Forever for Now (War Front) looked like a star from the moment he was foaled and the Penns told his breeders Neal and Pam Christopherson going into sale day that he had gotten multiple looks from the right people.

“We had so many of the big folks coming back to look at him,” said Kendra. “He was super nice from the day he was born. He came out as a classic Uncle Mo–big, athletic, good feet, good walk. We had been telling [the Christophersons] that if we could just get him to the sale, that this horse was really nice.”

Spoken like a true farmer, Kendra shared the real 'win' of their momentous day in the spotlight.

“We were all asleep by 8:00 that night,” she said with a grin. “We had to get up at 4:00 to be back out here and do everything we need to do at home. It was definitely an honor to be a part of because the experience is not something that just happens on a regular basis, but life goes on and there are more horses and you just get up and get ready for the next day.”

During the second session of Book 1, Penn Sales offered a colt by Authentic. The half-brother to GISW Arklow (Arch) and MGSW Maraud (Blame) brought $360,000.

Choosing to skip Book 2 in order to keep their manpower within one sales barn at a time, Penn Sales will be back in action for Book 3 on Saturday with six going through the ring.

The Penns are particularly excited about Hip 1241, a Blame colt who is from the same family as the Authentic colt that sold well earlier in the auction.

“He's out of a young mare from a family that has been good to us,” Kendra explained. “His mom is a half to Arklow and Maraud. This colt is everything that family is. He's a really classy colt and he looks a lot like Arklow, so we're really excited about him.”

Their Book 3 lineup features two more colts: a Practical Joke full-brother to Kaling, who ran third in the GI Spinaway S. last year, and a colt from the first crop of Spendthrift's Vekoma.

Equally represented by three fillies, Penn Sales will offer a Classic Empire from the family of GISW Swift Temper (Giant's Causeway), a Maclean's Music out of a half-sister to Tonalist, and a filly from the first crop of Three Chimneys stallion Volatile.

Each of the 20 yearlings in Penn Sales' Keeneland September consignment were foaled and raised at the family's 1,000-acre farm outside of Paris. With oversight from the farm's two leaders in Alex's father John and his uncle Frank (profiled by TDN's Chris McGrath here), Alex and Kendra foal out around 40 mares each year and pride themselves on their hands-on approach.

“I don't think you'll find many farms left that do literally everything themselves,” Kendra noted. “From cleaning stalls to bathing to prepping to breeding, there's not an aspect of it we don't do. I think it makes a difference because we care. It's our livelihood. Everything on the farm is there year-round and so all the horses there have our attention 365 days a year.”

While Alex grew up in the Bluegrass and played a role on the family farm since childhood, Kendra hails from northwestern Pennsylvania. Her family had a small Thoroughbred breeding operation there and like her husband, she was handed equine-related responsibilities from an early age.

Kendra took the horsemanship skills she learned from her childhood and applied them to the yearling prep program at Penn Sales.

“My mom worked for Domino in the eighties when they were a premier sales company and the folks that taught her were pretty special,” she explained. “She handed that down to me. I want our horses to be respectful because a respectful horse is important for every step of their future, racing and beyond.”

Kendra recalled how a few years ago, a first-time employee had asked Kendra if she would be helping with cards during the sales. That newcomer quickly learned that Kendra can be found at the end of the shank for the majority of the sales season while simultaneously keeping a mental log of their consignment's visitors.

While Alex and Kendra said they are happy to continue passing on the spokesperson duties of their business to Frank and John, the younger generation of Penns are grateful for the opportunity to carry on the family legacy. Even their three children, they said, now have a small hand in the operation.

“I'm pretty proud to continue that tradition,” said Alex. “[Frank and John] pride themselves on their reputation and I hope to keep that going.”

“The Penns have done an amazing job raising horses for a long time,” Kendra added. “What John and Frank started has been easy for us to tailor to the sales market. We're here for the long haul, doing right by the horse and hoping that they have a sound and successful career.”

Perhaps equally as gratifying for the Penns as their first million-dollar sale, they also raised the winningest horse of 2022 in Beverly Park (Munnings), who won 15 of his 30 starts last year. The Penns said they believe that the hard-knocking horse's success may be attributed in some part to the way he was raised and the land he was raised on.

“That's something that is very important to us is letting them be horses,” Kendra said. “We raise them as racehorses and hope that the soundness carries them through. We bring them here to let people see that and hopefully they go on and be racehorses.

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Judge Halts Anti-HISA Suit in Louisiana Pending Outcome of HBPA Case in U.S. Appeals Court

A federal judge has stayed a 14-month-old lawsuit initiated by the states of Louisiana and West Virginia that is trying to wipe out the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) via alleged constitutional violations, ordering the case to be “administratively terminated” until the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals makes a ruling in a separate suit in which the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) is also alleging HISA is unconstitutional.

However, U.S. District Court (Western District of Louisiana) Chief Judge Terry Doughty wrote in his Sept. 14 ruling that, “This Order shall not be considered a dismissal or disposition of this matter,” and that he was halting the case while the Fifth Circuit decision played out “without prejudice to the right of the parties to reopen the proceedings.”

This means the plaintiffs (the two states are joined by the Louisiana racing commission, the Louisiana HBPA, the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association, West Virginia's racing commission, and five individuals regulated as “covered persons” under HISA) and the defendants (the HISA Authority, the Federal Trade Commission [FTC], plus overseers of both entities) must now await the decision–likely to be issued months from now–that will result from the Fifth Circuit oral arguments scheduled Oct. 4.

In 2 1/2 weeks, the National HBPA and 12 of its affiliates will be trying to prove claims that the 2022 rewrite of the HISA law remains “patently unconstitutional,” and that the Authority overseeing the sport “is basically a private police department” whose sweeping powers equate to “oligarchic tyranny.”

The HISA Authority and the FTC will go into those same arguments backed by a lower court's opinion issued in May that ruled HISA is indeed constitutional, because “Congress cured the unconstitutional aspects of HISA's original approach.”

It's also on the judicial record that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of HISA back in March.

One day prior to Judge Doughty's ruling, Magistrate Judge David Ayo wrote in a report that recommended staying the Louisiana case that the multiple, overlapping anti-HISA lawsuits currently swirling in the court system are clogging federal dockets.

“After an exhaustive review of the landscape of suits challenging the Act, this Court concludes that [an amended complaint the plaintiffs had filed] is the result of deliberate strategy” that equated to “an abuse of procedure and an impermissible use of judicial resources,” Judge Ayo wrote in his Sept. 13 report.

The original lawsuit in this case was filed June 29, 2022, alleging that HISA violates the Fourth, Seventh and Tenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, plus the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the process by which federal agencies develop and issue regulations.

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