A colt by Street Boss (hip 28), one of six to share the furlong bullet of :10 1/5 during the under-tack preview show Monday, topped the Texas 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale when bringing a final bid of $265,000 from Tracy Williams Wednesday at Lone Star Park. The Texas-bred juvenile, the first foal out of Gemmizell (Gemologist), was consigned by Pike Racing at Highlander.
“To be honest, when we came here, we thought he would be one of the better ones,” said consignor Al Pike. “You never know if you're going to top the sale or not, but we thought he would be one of the better horses because he's shown that he was a pretty special horse at the farm.”
Of the colt's final price, Pike admitted, “I wasn't expecting that kind of price. At any market, when you bring a horse who looks like he's the real deal, they usually bring some money. So I was very pleased that he showed up and did his job. And there were some very good judges of horseflesh here and they appreciated what we brought.”
The dark bay colt was purchased for $72,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton July Sale.
“[Trainer] Scottie Gelner picked him out as a yearling and he did a great job of picking him out,” Pike said.
Pike Racing, which was bringing its first group of horses to sale from its new base at Highlander Training Center, sent eight horses through the ring Wednesday. The consignment was represented by four of the six horses to work the bullet furlong Monday.
“This is our first year partnering with Highlander Training Center,” Pike said. “The facility has been good to us and, by the breeze show, you can tell they came from a good place. We broke all of these horses there and they came in here and did a good job. I'm very proud of our team at Highlander and all of the people involved there.”
Pike continued, “I am from Texas and we try to bring a nice group here every year because this is home. We try to bring horses who fit this market and we think we did a pretty good job. These are all client horses, but luckily they sent us some nice horses and they performed well. And for the most part, they sold pretty well.”
Hip 28 was one of three at the one-session auction to bring six figures Wednesday. Whispering Oaks Farm, Coteau Grove Farms, Jackpot Farm and Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt teamed up to purchase a filly by Vino Rosso (hip 26) for $170,000 from AsmussenEquine.com and the same partnership returned later in the session to acquire a filly by Cinco Charlie (hip 49) for $100,000 from Asmussen Horse Center.
From a catalogue of 130 horses, 64 horses sold for a total of $2,199,500. The average was $34,367 and the median was $24,500. With 49 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 43.4%.
At last year's Texas sale, 107 head sold for $3,470,500. The average was $32,435 and the median was $17,500. The buy-back rate was 35.9%.
“It's like everything else, it is kind of hit or miss,” Pike said of the market at Lone Star Park Wednesday. “There were some new people here–there was some money for good horses. We were fielding calls from as far away as Kentucky and California on horses and they were watching their breezes. When you've got a good horse, it's hard to keep it a secret.”
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At Keeneland, they take the safety of the horses and the jockeys very seriously, the reason why Dr. Stuart Brown was brought on board in 2020. As Keeneland's Vice President of Equine Safety, it is Brown's job to do whatever is necessary to protect the sport's competitors. Brown was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week on the TDN Writers' Room Podcast Presented by Keeneland and he gave our team a tutorial on all Keeneland is doing to promote safety.
The effort includes the usage of StrideSAFE, which uses sensors to analyze the gait of horses and can find early signs of problems that can be avoided and should keep a horse off the racetrack while it recovers. At the upcoming Keeneland spring meet, all starters will be wearing the StrideSAFE sensors.
“They're all wearing it when they race,” Brown said. “So, currently, the application is for every runner that competes at our meet will be carrying one of those sensors in the saddle towel. The idea is to use the technology and then to provide the information that can be used as the tool that then can kind of give direct feedback to the to the trainers and their veterinarians. The wearable technologies hold a lot of promise for us.”
When asked about synthetic surfaces, Brown said the goal for Keeneland is to make their main dirt track as safe as any synthetic track. He also discussed efforts to keep jockeys healthy, both mentally and physically.
“The University of Kentucky in conjunction with the UK health care professionals come here and help us on race day and then take metrics,” he said. “We're able to look at our riders and see from race one to race 11 how those riders are doing. And we've had really good engagement with the rider colony here about participating in those activities. They look at balance and reaction time and all those aspects sort of translate into safety. It's been really interesting to kind of look at the feedback that they've been able to get back from the riders and the types of things they are looking for.”
In our breeding spotlight section, we took a look at the Coolmore stallion Echo Town and the WinStar stallion Constitution.
Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association, Coolmore, 1/ST Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds, WinStar, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and XBTV.com, the team of Randy Moss, Bill Finley and Zoe Cadman took a look back at the major races run last weekend, including the tour-de-force and redeeming victory turned in by Fierceness (City of Light) in the GI Curlin Florida Derby. They also looked ahead to the major races set to be run this weekend. Moss loves Impel (Quality Road) in the GI Ashland S. and Cadman loves Just F Y I (Justify) in the same race. That led to a friendly wager between the two.
For the podcast video, click here. For the audio version, click here.
The post Keeneland’s Dr. Stuart Brown Joins ‘TDN Writers’ Room’ Podcast appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
