“She's fast,” Morse said of the filly's appeal. “The work was really good. There was a really strong headwind and for a horse to work :9 4/5 on dirt, that's impressive. And physically, she looks like an athlete. I loved her looks. But time will tell.”

Morse admitted he may have found a bargain at the Texas auction.

“Truthfully, I think if she'd been in Florida, she would have brought way more,” he said. “But just like any sale, if there is a good one, someone will show up.”

Consigned by Al Pike's Pike Racing, agent, the gray filly is out of Sky O'Blue (Henny Hughes). She was purchased by Susan Naylor Sellers for $60,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton July sale.

“She just had a presence to her,” Naylor said of the decision to purchase the filly last summer. “She was just a nice, balanced filly and had a good walk and looked like she might be fast.”

Naylor confirmed her intention was always to reoffer the filly at a 2-year-old sale.

“Absolutely. I am a pinhooker first and if I have to race them after that, I will,” she said.

Naylor has also had success with racing as her default. She was represented by a pair of horses in last year's Breeders' Cup; homebred Andthewinneris (Oscar Performance), who RNA'd for $67,000 at the 2021 Keeneland September sale and Manny Wah (Will Take Charge), who she purchased for $175,000 at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton July sale.

“And I had to RNA two in this sale,” Naylor said with a chuckle. “Who knows, maybe you'll see us next year in the Breeders' Cup.”

The Texas sale seemed like a good fit for the speedy gray filly, according to Naylor.

“She looked like she would be early and fast,” Naylor explained. “And they aren't as judgmental down here. She did not have a whole lot of page, but neither did Bwana Charlie when we sold him down here in 2003. We paid $14,000 for him and sold him for $240,000, which was a lot back then. And I know they love grays down here, so I figured a gray filly that was fast, this would be the place for her. She wouldn't get lost.”

Of the filly's bullet breeze Monday, Naylor admitted, “We were blown away. She looked good doing it, but then they printed what it was–that doesn't happen very often. And especially with this track. This track used to be a lot faster back in the day, but it's not as fast as used to be.”

During the one-day auction, which had a catalogue of 193, a total of 103 juveniles sold for $3,420,000. The average was $33,204 and the median was $17,500. There were 64 horses reported not sold for a buy-back rate of 38.3%.

A year ago, from a catalogue of 144, 88 juveniles sold for $3,050,700. The average was $34,667 and the median was $28,000. There were 29 horses reported not sold for a buy-back rate of 24.8.

There were four horses sold for six figures a year ago, led by a $200,000 daughter of Free Drop Billy. Seven hit six figures Wednesday.

“We're truly fortunate to have had such quality offerings in our 2023 sale,” TTA Sales Director Foster Bridewell said. “It's a testament to the hard work and time put in by our sellers and teams behind these athletes. And we're grateful to our buyers locally, nationally, and internationally for supporting our sale.”

Still, with the uncertainty swirling around racing and Texas and its conflict with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, Naylor admitted she wasn't sure what to expect from Wednesday's sale.

“I was a little shocked that [hip 167] would bring that much,” Naylor said. “It was a very odd sale. The sale last year was a little more balanced. But I think with all of the stuff in the news and all of the uncertainty with HISA and everything, a lot of the big hitters were not here. There were a handful, but a lot weren't here. There were a lot of nice pedigrees, but it seemed like everyone was sitting on their hands a little bit. I was really surprised to see they got as nice a book as they did and there seemed to be some nice individuals here, too. But I think we didn't quite get the buyers to show up this year.”

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Scheduled to be run at 6 furlongs on the main track, the Myrtlewood will go as the eighth race on Friday afternoon's 10-race program with a 4:44 p.m. ET post time. First post Friday is 1 p.m.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, Jester Calls Nojoy won her second start by 10 lengths at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and then finished sixth behind division leader Echo Zulu in the Grade 1 Frizette in her most recent start.

Joel Rosario will have the mount Friday and break from post position one.

Chief among her rivals is Randy Patterson's Verylittlecents.

Winner as the favorite of the Ellis Park Debutante, Verylittlecents is trained by Randy Morse and will be ridden by Joe Talamo from post position six.

The field for the Myrtlewood, with riders and weights from the inside, is: Jester Calls Nojoy (Rosario, 118 pounds), Jumeirah (Francisco Arrieta, 118), She's Pure Silver (Luan Machado, 118), Blazing Summer (Reylu Gutierrez, 118), Kant Believe It (Jose Ortiz, 118), Verylittlecents (Talamo, 120), Majestic d'Oro (Tyler Gaffalione, 118), You Look Cold (Paco Lopez, 120), Chi Town Lady (Florent Geroux, 120), Sweet Dani Girl (Martin Garcia, 118), Towser (James Graham, 118).

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RUNHAPPY ELLIS PARK DEBUTANTE S., $125,000, Ellis, 8-15, 2yo, f, 7f, 1:23.32, ft.
1–VERYLITTLECENTS, 120, f, 2, by Goldencents
                1st Dam: Pinch Me, by Arch
                2nd Dam: Stay Awake, by Pulpit
                3rd Dam: Mila, by Unbridled
($50,000 Ylg '20 KEEJAN; $85,000 RNA 2yo '21 OBSMAR).
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN. O-Randy Patterson; B-Kellie & Tim
Holland & Ramon Rangel (KY); T-Randy L. Morse; J-Joseph
Talamo. $76,380. Lifetime Record: 3-2-0-0, $111,980.
2–Golden Sights, 118, f, 2, Goldencents–Celestial Sighting, by
Eskendereya. ($40,000 Wlg '19 KEENOV; $15,000 Ylg '20
OBSOCT; $100,000 2yo '21 OBSAPR). O-September Farm, LLC,
Union Park Thoroughbreds, LLC, Jonathan Wilmot, Rick
Howard & Black Fern LLC; B-Taylor Made Stallions, Inc. (KY);
T-Rodolphe Brisset. $24,800.
3–Manasota Sunset, 120, f, 2, Outwork–Highestmaintenance,
by Macho Uno. ($65,000 Ylg '20 KEEJAN). O-Joe Sharp;
B-Pocket Aces Equine LLC (KY); T-Joe Sharp. $12,400.
Margins: 2HF, 2HF, HF. Odds: 1.30, 10.50, 2.80.
Also Ran: Chopin Drive, Southern Sky, Mohaylady. Scratched: Joyrunner.
Click for the Equibase.com chart.

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Now Morse tries to pull off a sweep at the next level, with Verylittlecents the 2-1 favorite in the $125,000 RUNHAPPY Ellis Park Debutante and Texas Red Hot at fat 8-1 in the $125,000 RUNHAPPY Ellis Park Juvenile.

Morse is very high on Texas Red Hot, even if the Texas Red colt doesn't seem to get that much respect elsewhere.

“He's a really nice-moving colt,” he said. “I'm really high on him. He ran a really slow (speed figure) number the other day. But we'll see. I think he's pretty special. In his last race, it had rained that day. I think they'd opened (harrowed the track) up, and it still wasn't very fast, let's put it that way. It was really muddy out of the chute, and that race was seven-eighths.

“But bottom line is, he did it very professional, I thought. He was boxed in behind horses, nowhere to go. And when he did get a seam, he did what he needed to do.”

Texas Red Hot, who'd been second in his debut, made a leap forward between races. Morse expects another progression for this race, saying, “I think the farther they keep going he'll just get better and better.”

Verylittlecents finished fourth in her first start.

“She got away really bad,” he said. She had the one hole. But she's really quick. But she showed she had some class, because she kept finishing that day, where most of them when get away bad will just throw in the towel.”

Morse said she put it together in her last start. “A horse came up and hooked her, and when he asked her, she ran away from the field,” he said.

“The filly looks pretty good on paper,” Morse continued, speaking of the Debutante. “The colt, he's going to have to step up numbers-wise. But I think he's capable.

“Both of them, knock on wood, have done very well. Both of them had a really good breeze here, worked in a minute by themselves, just real easy. As hot as it's been, I haven't wanted to overdo anything with them. They're still just babies, still learning.”

No matter what happens Sunday, Morse believes both babies have a bright future.

“This doesn't mean their whole future, this one race,” he said. “…. (but) you'd like to see them finish. This is seven-eighths of a mile. This will separate a lot of them. They're doing well. It's just a matter if they're good enough.”

Joe Talamo rides both horses.

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Roughly 24 hours before Pletcher, the trainer, was scheduled to send out Fearless in the Oaklawn Handicap, unbeaten Pletcher, the horse, was to make his 3-year-old debut in an allowance sprint Friday at Oaklawn.

“I have no connection to the horse,” Pletcher said Wednesday afternoon.

But Sara Patterson does. Pletcher is owned by Patterson's father, Randy, who purchased the son of Jack Milton for $7,500 at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Sara Patterson named Pletcher after her best friend, Shad Pletcher, who died in December 2019. He was 48.

“I had just spent the weekend with him,” Patterson said. “Hadn't seen him in a year. Unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, just passed away. It was a pulmonary aneurism.”

Trained by Randy Morse, Pletcher was a 2 ¾-length winner of his Nov. 27, 2020, career debut at Remington Park. Randy Patterson, Morse's main client, owns Cedar Run Farm, a 200-acre foaling and layup facility just west of Hot Springs in Pearcy. Sara Patterson manages Cedar Run and said Pletcher was the first horse she's selected at a sale.

“It was coming down to the end of the sale and a lot of the sales companies were posting pictures on their Facebook pages – 'Hey, check out this colt, check out this, check out that,' ” Patterson said. “There was a colt and he just kept popping up on my Facebook page. I got to researching it and looking at it.”

After diving into Pletcher's pedigree, Patterson said she really liked the colt and sent her father some pictures. A contact for Randy Patterson then inspected the colt, Sara Patterson said, and gave the thumbs up to bid.

“Dad, of course, made it sound like he wasn't going to buy him,” Patterson said. “It's just another horse, blah, blah. I said, 'OK, that's fine, but if I were going to pick one, that would be my pick. I like that horse.' Sale goes on, I look at the results and, sure enough, I scroll down there and there it says, 'Randy Patterson.' ”

Sara Patterson said she had to come up with a name and eventually thought of her late best friend.

“He was always so supportive of me and my career and finally making the decision to come down to Arkansas,” Patterson said. “I felt like it was cool. He would always tell me how proud he was of me being able to come down and live this dream that I'm living. I was like, 'Pletcher, that's got to be his name. That's it. It's Pletcher.' ”

Patterson, 35, grew up in Anthony, Kan., and she and her father began developing Cedar Run approximately seven years ago to target the Arkansas breeding program.

After the name Pletcher was approved by The Jockey Club, Patterson said she realized “everybody” would believe the colt was named after Todd Pletcher.

“I never even thought about it at the time,” Patterson said with a laugh. “I'm excited about the horse.”

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Cedar Run owns Moonshine Mullin, a millionaire Grade 1 winner who stands at nearby Lake Hamilton Equine Associates. In last Sunday's second race, Moonshine Mullin was represented by the top four finishers in the $20,000 maiden-claiming event for Arkansas-breds at 1 1/16 miles. About an hour later, Patterson recorded her first career victory as an owner when favored Longntall, a 4-year-old homebred daughter of Moonshine Mullin, broke her maiden by 12 lengths in the fourth race for $10,000 Arkansas-bred filly and mare claimers at 1 1/16 miles. Longntall paid $4.20.

On the excitement scale, Patterson called the results, essentially, a dead-heat.

“That's kind of got to be a tossup, but I'd have to say, getting to actually take the first winner's picture probably made me more proud,” Patterson said. “I won't forget that. It's something you always look forward to, getting into the business and you finally get to be an owner and looking forward to taking that first picture. That was pretty cool.”

Patterson, 35, is the daughter of Randy Patterson, who owns Cedar Run and campaigned Moonshine Mullin for his final seven career starts with trainer Randy Morse after claiming the horse for $40,000 in November 2013 at Remington Park.

Moonshine Mullin, by Albert the Great, won his final five career starts, including three races at the 2014 Oaklawn meeting and the $300,000 Alysheba Stakes (G2) and $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap (G1) that summer at Churchill Downs.

Patterson and Morse also hit another home run with Kate's Main Man, who won the $100,000 Essex Handicap for older horses in 2011 at Oaklawn, roughly a year after being claimed for $35,000. They won the $100,000 Fifth Season Stakes for older horses in 2016 at Oaklawn with Street Strategy, who Patterson also now stands at Lake Hamilton Equine.

Following Moonshine Mullin's retirement from racing, he became one of the building blocks for Cedar Run, which the Pattersons began developing approximately seven years ago to target the Arkansas breeding program.

Longntall is from the first crop of Moonshine Mullin and marked the fifth career starter for Sara Patterson (all at the 2021 Oaklawn meeting).

Patterson said Longntall was the first “Moonshine baby” foaled at Cedar Run, adding she delivered the bay daughter of Smokin Reward.

“That's what made it extra special,” Patterson said. “Not only was it a win, but it was a win with a horse that we bred and we raised and she was the first one that we had here on the farm. She was my second year to ever do foaling.”

Longntall is one two horses Patterson owns. The other is Tallandlong, a 3-year-old full sister to Longntall who has two runner-up finishes at the meet. Tallandlong is entered in Thursday's fifth race at Oaklawn. Both horses are with trainer Johnny Ortiz.

Longntall, who broke her maiden in her third lifetime start, is named after Patterson's close friend, Oaklawn horsemen's bookkeeper Terri Hoffrogge. She is 5-11.

“We always call her 'long and tall,' Patterson said. “My horse, Longntall, is, I mean, tall. She is so tall. She is so long. It just worked perfect. The little sister came along and Terri always came out to the farm and looked at the horses and hung out here with us and loved them just as much as we did. The full sister came along and looked so much like Longntall, we were like, 'Well, we need to name this one 'Tallandlong.' Now, everybody's joking about what we're going to name the next one.”

Patterson said Smokin Reward is one of “8-10” mares Cedar Runs owns. Smokin Reward also has a 2-year-old Moonshine Mullin colt, Smokin Boots, and an unnamed yearling colt by Hightail. Patterson said Smokin Reward may go to a Kentucky stallion this year. Longntall is her first foal.

Patterson was raised in Anthony, Kan., a small town about 50 miles southwest of Wichita, and said she was introduced to racing, and, ultimately, ownership, through her father.

“I always grew up watching our little two-week summer meet that we had in Kansas,” Patterson said, referring to the now-defunct Anthony Downs. “Watching my dad always being an owner and being involved in racing, it was just something that I always had a passion for. I knew it would be a goal of mine. It was something that I wanted to do. I just had to be patient and wait for the right time. He's always been extremely supportive and helped me get to where I am. If it wasn't for him, obviously, I wouldn't be here. He's given me a lot of rein with our Arkie-breds and let me pick and choose what I want, what I like to do, who I like and what not. Longntall and Tallandlong had always been the two that I picked from the beginning that I knew I wanted to own and race.”

Patterson said she plans to slowly grow her two-horse stable, primarily with Arkansas-breds. Patterson said her father probably has 15 horses at Oaklawn, the bulk with Morse.

“I think I will probably stay small for as long as I can,” Sara Patterson said. “I probably won't have more than five for a while, just trying to stay afloat. It's a hard business, so you've got to find a way to stay afloat. I just hope to add a couple here or there through the years and eventually when the time is right, I'll expand it. But until then, I'm just going to keep it small and manageable.”

Patterson said because Cedar Run isn't set up for breeding and focuses on foaling and broodmare care, Moonshine Mullin and Street Strategy stand at Lake Hamilton Equine. They return to Cedar Run after breeding season, roughly mid-February-late June.

Moonshine Mullin and Street Strategy both stand for $1,000.

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