Rags Pauline is a half-sister to Grade II winner Keen Pauline (Pulpit) and is carrying a foal bred on a similar cross to Unified, a three-time graded stakes winner and top-10 first-crop sire last year. Polan purchased Rags Pauline for $17,000 at the 2020 Keeneland January sale.

Buyers may still make offers on horses that failed to meet their reserve by visiting the sale page, then clicking “Make Offer” next to the horse they are interested in purchasing.

Fasig-Tipton's next digital auction will be the final phase of the Glen Todd Dispersal. Bidding will be held Sept. 22-29.

The post Rags Pauline Tops Fasig-Tipton Digital Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Mitole (Eskendereya – Indian Miss, by Indian Charlie) is a barn favorite for Spendthrift Farm's Stallion Sales Manager Mark Toothaker for several reasons, perhaps a big one being that, as Toothaker joked, “He's easy on a guy trying to sell stallion season.”

The 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint champion bred over 200 mares in each of his first few years at stud, including that tough third season where many promising stallions are lucky to get 100. What has made Mitole so extremely popular?

“I think with Mitole, the biggest thing with him was just how fast he was,” Toothaker explained. “Steve [Asmussen] even said that this is the fastest horse in the world. He was hard to beat at any distance and we feel like that's what breeders have gravitated toward is his speed. The demand for him has just been amazing through the first three years.”

Bred by Edward A. Cox Jr., Mitole was a $20,000 yearling turned $140,000 OBS April 2-year-old. Campaigned by William and Corinne Heiligbrodt and trained by Steve Asmussen, the colt out of future Broodmare of the Year Indian Miss (Indian Charlie) got his first win in his third start, defeating a field of maidens by 10 lengths as a young 3-year-old. He got his first stakes win two months later in the Bachelor S. at Oaklawn Park.

“We were chasing another stallion that day,” Toothaker recalled. “When I came back to the office, I told everyone that I may have seen the best 3-year-old in the country. They thought I was talking about the other horse, but I was talking about Mitole. This was April of his 3-year-old year and he got a 107 Beyer. This horse was just incredible.”

Mitole was sidelined after a win in his next start in the Chick Lang S. due to a splint injury, but returned at four to capture six of his seven starts in 2019, including the GI Churchill Downs S. on the Kentucky Derby undercard, the GI Runhappy Metropolitan H. over MGISW McKinzie (Street Sense) and the GI Forego S. in stakes-record time. He culminated his season with a career-high 112 Beyer Speed Figure in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint and retired with over $3 million in earnings as the 2019 Champion Male Sprinter and Horse of the Year finalist.

Launched with an initial stud fee of $25,000 in 2020, Mitole's fee was brought down to $15,000 the next year when Spendthrift reduced stud fees for most of their roster in 2021. Toothaker said that as the young stallion's first foals arrived, breeders started calling with the hopes of bringing their mares back to him.

“People have loved the way these things look,” Toothaker said of Mitole's first foals. “They have great hips on them, they look like him, and they just look fast.”

Mitole sent 56 weanlings and short yearlings through the ring at the breeding stock sales. 46 sold to average $80,608 and place their sire among the top 5 first-crop weanling sires in North America in 2021. His colt out of Rode Warrior (Quality Road) sold for $285,000 at Keeneland November to Spendthrift Farm and Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt while another colt at the same sale brought $200,000.

At the upcoming Fasig-Tipton July Sale on July 12, Mitole will be represented by 13 members of his first crop.

“I feel like as we go around and do our notes out there, it's going to be a lot of the same,” Toothaker said. “It will be a horse that looks like we could take to the 2-year-old sale and it could go fast and have a chance to hit a big lick, or, it could be a horse that trainers are going to take to the track saying that we could come out with this 2-year-old and mean business from the get go.”

Brookdale Sales will send Hip 9, a Mitole colt out of the Lonhro (Aus) mare Limit, through the sales ring at Fasig-Tipton July for breeder Mineloa Farm. Martin O'Dowd said that everyone at Mineola has been impressed by this colt from the start.

“He's very, very nice,” O'Dowd said. “He's correct and has a great mind and a lovely walk. In the paddock, he just moves beautifully with a fabulous, low stride. The mare has a very deep family and it's a family that runs on dirt and turf.”

At the same sale, Rosilyn Polan's Sunday Morning Farm will send a Mitole colt through the ring as Hip 51. The yearling is out of Sweetness Galore (Rock Hard Ten), a daughter of GISW Tribulation (Danzig). Polan's favorite thing about the youngster, she said, is his powerful stride.

“I love that he is not only so fluid when he walks, but he's so purposeful,” she explained. “He acts like he's planning ahead with every footfall and just reaching for the finish line. He's a fun one to have.”

Toothaker said that he is anticipating high demand for Mitole's yearlings from a wide variety of shoppers.

“It's exciting because Bill and Corinne were active at the sales supporting him and they're going to try to have these things ready to roll as well,” he said. “I feel that the 2-year-old pinhookers all the way to the people going to the races are going to want to have a Mitole. Everybody likes fast.”

The post First-Crop Yearling Previews: Mitole appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

But now it was on to Book 3 and the spirited breeder and consignor was ready for round two.

“Of course, as beyond exciting as the Anchorage colt was, now that I'm here with another consignment, that's really behind me and this is where my focus is now,” Polan said at Barn 28 as she stood alongside the stalls of her Accelerate colt and Sharp Azteca filly. They wouldn't bring quite what her first offering sold for, but the duo did fetch over $160,000 combined.

Although the owner of Sunday Morning Farm had her mind set on her final two offerings of the auction, it was clear that most other salegoers were still fixated on her farm's earlier success as a steady stream of well-wishers dropped by to extend their congratulations.

“People have been so genuinely happy for me, people I don't even know,” she said. “People ask me if I expected that [result]. Well nobody ever dreams of even getting to a million dollars. I knew people would like him, but nobody even thinks of liking him for that kind of money. The words haven't been invented yet to describe that feeling. The only thing that would have made the day more perfect would have been to have my daughter Laiken there. She is always such a good help to me and is my best cheerleader.”

The day before Polan's City of Light colt entered the sales ring, another colt by the Lane's End first-crop sire, consigned by Woods Edge Farm, brought $1.05 million.

“I had told a friend of mine, 'Oh darn, I wanted to be the most expensive City of Light at the sale,'” Polan said with a laugh of still a bit of disbelief.

But even after achieving such a monumental goal, the breeder went home that night to commemorate the achievement by catching up on barn chores.

“My celebration is all right here,” she said, pointing towards her heart. “The best thing about what I do is that I go back home and work. I have fly masks to tend to and stalls to tend to. That keeps me grounded and keeps my happy. It fills me up.”

City of Light colt out of the stakes-placed mare Anchorage fetches $1.7 million. | Keeneland

Polan had held a similar celebration ceremony last year, when her Practical Joke colt brought $575,000 at the same auction. Now of course named Wit, he brought attention to his breeder earlier this summer when he became a GIII-winning 'TDN Rising Star.'

“I can't compare the two horses or the two feelings,” she said when asked to describe the similarities between her experiences with Wit and with this yearling colt. “I will say that with both of them, I just felt so special.”

Polan did admit that with Wit, she had not realize how well he would be received until after he was on the grounds at Keeneland.

“He was just so laid back about it but when he came to the sale, every time he came out of his stall he got bigger and had more presence and was loftier.”

But this City of Light yearling was different, she said. “The Anchorage colt was always that way, whether it was at the farm or the sale, he was always coming out of his stall saying, 'Let's go.' At the sale people would comment to me, 'It's four o'clock in the afternoon and he's still marching.' But that was always his type.”

To Polan, his powerful-but-easygoing stride and eye-catching presence was reminiscent of what she saw in the colt's dam six years ago at the Keeneland November Sale.

“I was trying to buy a mare in foal to Will Take Charge,” she recalled. “I wasn't able to buy anything so I went and looked at every RNA after the sale. I looked at quite a few before I saw Anchorage, but from the second I saw her I went, 'Oh yeah, this is it.' I mean she just fills your eye and she's got so much presence. She's a big, heavy mare that looks like she would hit the ground hard, but when I brought her home and turned her out, she went off across the field and her feet never hit the ground -just like mine after that sale.”

Polan sold Anchorage's first Will Take Charge foal for $130,000 at the following November Sale. That filly, named Tijori, won on debut to earn 'TDN Rising Star' status. Bred back to the same sire, Anchorage produced a Will Take Charge colt that brought $280,000. Now named Abaan, the Todd Pletcher trainee broke his maiden earlier this month at Saratoga by over seven lengths.

“She continues to produce fabulous runners,” Polan said proudly. “At home, she's my special mare. I'm sure everyone's going to say that if I sell a million-dollar horse out of her, of course she's my special mare. But she just is. She's such a queen and she's the gift that keeps on giving.”

Polan recalls the stunned sensation she felt when Anchorage foaled her City of Light colt last February.

“I felt like the luckiest person in the world,” she said.

As the newborn stepped up on wobbly legs, she thought back to the photo of trainer Michael McCarthy sending City of Light off to Lane's End alongside his young daughter when the champion retired in 2019.

“In the picture, there he was on the van and the daughter was boo-hooing because she couldn't believe that her horse was leaving. So I got in touch with Allaire [Ryan] at Lane's End and asked if I could send her a picture of this foal because he was so special and I wanted to show this young girl that her horse was not gone. That was my first picture of the foal and from the minute he stood up, some horses give you that feeling and some don't. This one was, 'Oh my gosh, wow.'”

Polan's City of Light colt out of Anchorage thrives as a youngster at Sunday Morning Farm. | Rosilyn Polan

According to Polan, the stunning bay didn't lose an ounce of 'wow factor' from the moment he got to his feet to when he went through the ring at Keeneland.

“He was a beast on the farm and never really went through a gangly stage,” she explained. “All summer as we've been sales prepping him, he would handwalk 45 minutes up these hills and then he would go in the stall and lay down. He would sleep flat out all day long and sometimes I would have to wake him up to feed him. He just had a good attitude. There was nothing super sweet about him; he's always been a man.”

While the colt's stall now stands empty back at Sunday Morning Farm, it will soon be filled by his half-sister by Omaha Beach that was foaled in March.

“She is like the farm princess,” Polan said with a big smile. “I don't spoil them and I didn't make her that way. She was just born that way.”

Also on the farm is Wit's younger brother– this one a son of none other than City of Light.

Polan said she currently has eight mares in her broodmare band.

“I count them 40 times a day and then I forget,” she jokes, and then shares what she looks for in potential additions to her band. “It's the same thing when buying a mare as choosing what stallion to breed to: If they make my knees weak then that's the one I want. I don't get emotional about it to where I'll spend whatever it takes. With my mares I have to have a price limit and I'm just lucky that I've been able to have been so lucky.”

And luck, Polan believes, is what it all comes down to in this business.

“Everyone says they're glad to see that the small breeder can do this. Well honestly, the big breeders deserve it just as much as anybody because look at the financial responsibility that they put on the line to be who they are. I think it has more to do with luck than it has to do with hard work or intention or being out there every evening going through your fields, because we all do that. We all work hard and some of us get lucky and some of us haven't had our luck yet.”

However modest Polan's outlook on the reasoning behind these recent successes, she will keep the fond memories tucked away to ponder daily as she raises up the next crop of future runners at Sunday Morning Farm.

“I think it's what keeps us all working in the Thoroughbred business,” she said. “It's the carrot in front of the old nag, or whatever they say, and it's just amazing to think that a payoff like this can happen to anybody.”

The post Sunday Morning Luck Strikes Again at Keeneland appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Woodford Racing, Talla Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds bought the $1.7 million City of Light colt, who is the highest-priced yearling so far in the sale. Talla Racing and West Point teamed to purchase the Justify colt for $1.55 million.

A total of 13 yearlings have sold for $1 million or more during the first three days of the September Sale.

Strong demand fueled healthy results on Wednesday, the first day of the Book 2 catalog. Keeneland recorded gross sales of $60,996,000 for 211 yearlings, for an average of $289,081 and a median of $230,000. Through the first three sessions of the September Sale, a total of 419 yearlings have sold through the ring for $151,618,000, for an average of $361,857 and a median of $290,000.

Wednesday's gross sales were up by 49.3% from the comparable session in 2020, with the average up by 30.9% and median increased by 27.8%. Buybacks declined from 34.4% on day three last year to 25.4% on Wednesday.

“That was amazing – one of the best sale days we have seen in a while,” Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy said. “Every time you picked your head up, it was another $500,000, $600,000 yearling. There was a lot of optimism and a diverse group of buyers. We had a lot of end users and new money. It was really positive with a great vibe around the grounds. Today should lead to an exciting day tomorrow.

“We found a lot of consistency where the momentum of Book 1 flowed into Book 2 – a confluence of positive things happening all the way through,” Lacy continued. “A lot of people have not been able to buy a horse yet. There is a pent-up demand. They are not going to go home until they fill their orders.

“We call the September Sale the world's yearling sale and it really is. Everybody has been in play.”

“The highlight today was the depth of the market,” Keeneland Director of Sales Operations Cormac Breathnach said. “Apart from the two million dollar-plus horses, we had 26 others that brought over half a million and they went to a broad base of buyers, particularly domestic demand in today's case. We've seen the new money that we saw in credit applications go to work today. People are excited about what they're buying and they're excited about sticking around. It's a tremendous day.”

Rosilyn Polan's Sunday Morning Farm of Woodford County, Kentucky, consigned the $1.7 million colt, who is out of the Tapit mare Anchorage.

“I have always loved this colt,” said Polan, who bred 2021 Sanford (G3) winner and Hopeful (G1) runner-up Wit and sold him for $575,000 at last year's September Sale. “I have always known he was special, and I knew that people would like him, but usually people like a horse for a certain price. Nobody can ever dream of a million dollars.

“I am so proud of my horse and my crew,” added Polan, who consigned three horses to this year's September Sale. “The mare is my favorite mare – of course anybody would say that now. (This colt) is just a fabulous horse.”

Asked how she would celebrate the achievement, Polan said, “Clean stalls, turn out yearlings, clip ears, feed, go to bed early, get up and ship (my horses) tomorrow (to Keeneland). That's the best part of it, is that it keeps you real.”

Bill Farish of Woodford Racing said he likes City of Light “a lot. (The yearling colt) is a stunning individual, very strong, good bone colt. A rare type individual. It was a full price, but I knew we were going to have to stretch to get him.”

The colt is the first acquisition for the Woodford, Talla, West Point partnership. On Tuesday, Woodford and West Point purchased the $1.6 million session topper, a Quality Road colt who is a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Girvin and classic-placed Midnight Bourbon.

Talla Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds acquired the $1.55 million Justify colt who is from the family of champion Wait a While. A half-sister to stakes winner Feeling Mischief, he is out of the stakes-winning Latent Heat mare True Feelings.

“We have a team together: (trainer) John Sadler, (agent) David Ingordo and West Point Thoroughbreds,” Mike Talla said. “We had had our eye on two or three of them and kept getting outbid. So finally, we had to make a stand somewhere. We really liked this one, so we went in for him. We'll know next year if we made a mistake or not. Let's talk next summer.”

The purchases were especially memorable to Terry Finley, West Point's Founder and President.

“After 30 years, I think about when I first came here, and I thought it was the best thing in the world when we bought a horse for $12,000,” Finley said. “And now, we get a shot to buy horses like this with great partners and great people. It's just incredible. We've worked hard to evolve, and we're just part of a team. We like to think we're good partners, and we bring on good partners. We all do our own thing, and it's a special thing. These horses are very hard to buy, and I just couldn't do it without an immense amount of support and people who are in a position to take chunks.

“You just start dreaming with these kind of horses, and just hope you get lucky.”

Stonehaven Steadings consigned the $1.55 million  Justify colt and 10 hips later sold a $750,000 filly from the first crop of Grade 1 winner Mendelssohn out of Grade 2 winner Wasted Tears, by Najran, as agent for Bart Evans and Stonehaven Steadings.

B.B.E. purchased the $750,000 filly, whose 2-year-old half-brother, Corniche, won his Sept. 4 debut at Del Mar by 4¼ lengths. Her 4-year-old half-sister, Look Me Over, scored a 3½-length win in an allowance race at Ellis Park on July 25.

“Probably the most exciting thing I have experienced in this business,” Stonehaven Steadings Director of Bloodstock and Client Development Aidan O'Meara said about the sales. “We were high on them all along. There was a huge update for the filly. The (Justify) colt has been one of our top two colts all along, but he really blossomed in the last two months. He was a class act all the way through. He improved every day and you could feel the momentum building with the serious players getting involved.”

“(Right now) I am flabbergasted and shocked and overwhelmed about the whole thing. We certainly weren't expecting those kinds of results. We had aggressive reserves but they blew past them by 200 percent. You dream of a day like this with two quality horses back to back.”

A colt by Gun Runner from the family of champion Untapable sold for $975,000 to West Bloodstock, agent for Repole Stable and St. Elias. Consigned by Gainesway, agent, the colt is out of Untapable's full sister Time to Tap, by Tapit. The family also includes Grade 1 winner and sire Paddy O'Prado, Grade 2 winner Fun House and Grade 3 winner Majestic Eagle.

“He's by Gun Runner – probably can't name a hotter stallion or a stallion that's gotten off to a hotter start than him,” Jacob West said. “And (this colt) looks a lot like his dad. The whole team loved him.

“He was kind of the 'talking horse.' We had a pretty good idea that he was going to cost a lot of money, but that was right about what we thought he would bring. We knew we were going to have to fight off some pretty serious competition, and I'm just glad we got him.”

West said the colt would go to trainer Todd Pletcher.

Gainesway was the session's leading consignor, selling 21 horses for $7.9 million. They included three of the day's 10 highest-priced yearlings.

Gainesway, agent, sold a $900,000 filly from the first crop of Mendelssohn whose dam, the Discreet Cat mare Acrobatique is a half-sister to champion Covfefe and Japanese Group 2 winner Albiano. She sold to Solis/Litt, agent.

Another notable sale for Gainesway occurred when Maverick Racing paid $800,000 for a colt by Quality Road who is the first foal of Grade 1-placed stakes winner Cherry Lodge, by Bernardini. The colt's family includes Canadian champion Curlin's Voyage, Grade 1 winner Stormello, Grade 2 winner My Best Brother and Grade 3 winner Gala Award.

Courtlandt Farm purchased a colt by Gun Runner out of Grade 2 winner Broadway's Alibi, by Vindication for $875,000. He was consigned by Lane's End, agent.

Agent Donato Lanni signed the tickets for two high-priced horses offered consecutively in the ring.

For SF Bloodstock/Starlight/Madaket, he paid $850,000 for a colt by Curlin whose 2-year-old half-brother, My Prankster, won his career debut by 10 lengths at Saratoga on Aug. 21. Consigned by Summerfield, agent for Stonestreet Bred & Raised, the colt is out of Grade 2 winner My Wandy's Girl, by Flower Alley.

“Very well-bred horse,” Tom Ryan of SF Bloodstock said. “By Curlin, a stallion we really admire, out of a mare that looks like she has a chance to be a very good mare at this point. My Prankster looks like a good colt.

“We definitely noticed the 2-year-old winning as well as he did. We admired him at last year's yearling sale. This colt looks like a very nice two-turn colt.”

For Charles and Susan Chu's Baoma Corp., Lanni paid $825,000 for the yearling that preceded the Curlin colt, a filly by Quality Road who is the first foal of stakes winner My Miss Chiff, by Into Mischief. She was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent for Town & Country Horse Farms.

“Beautiful,” Lanni said. “She was just a real quiet filly, really well-made, like a good runner.”

Lanni, agent for SF Bloodstock/Starlight/Madaket also paid $775,000 for a colt from the first crop of champion Good Magic consigned by Woods Edge Farm, agent; $675,000 for a son of Uncle Mo consigned by Gainesway, agent, and $440,000 for a Twirling Candy colt consigned by Clearsky Farms, agent.

By spending $2.74 million for the four yearlings, Lanni, agent for SF Bloodstock/Starlight/Madaket, was the session's leading buyer.

The fourth session of the September Sale, which marks the conclusion of the two-day Book 2, begins tomorrow at 11 a.m. ET. TVG2 will have live coverage of the session from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The entire sale is streamed live at Keeneland.com.

The September Sale runs through Sept. 24.

The post Keeneland September’s Third Session Sees $1.7 Million City Of Light Colt New Sale Topper appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

LEXINGTON, KY – Bidding was fast and frenetic when the first of two Book 2 sessions of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale opened Wednesday in Lexington, producing the auction's highest-priced offering yet when a colt by City of Light (hip 612) sold for $1.7 million to the partnership of Woodford Racing, Talla Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds.

“That was amazing,” an ebullient Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy said at the close of business Wednesday. “That was one of the best sale days we've seen in a while. Every time you picked up your head, there was a horse selling for $500,000 or $600,000.”

During the session, 211 yearlings sold for $60,996,000. The session average was $289,081–up 30.88% from the corresponding 2020 session–and the median was up 27.78% to $230,000. Of the 350 catalogued lots, 283 went through the ring and, with just 72 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 25.44%.

Through three sessions, 419 yearlings have sold for $151,618,000 for an average of $361,857 and a median of $290,000.

A year ago at this point in the sale, 394 yearlings had sold for $126,076,000. The cumulative average was $319,990 and the median was $250,000.

The September Sale results sheets continued to be punctuated by a diverse buying bench, with seven different buyers purchasing the day's top 10 lots from seven different consignors.

“I think the highlight for me is the depth of the market,” said Keeneland's director of sales operations Cormac Breathnach. “Aside from the million-dollar horses, we had 26 bring over half a million. They went to a very broad base of buyers, particularly domestic demand in today's case. We saw the new money go to work today. People are excited about what they are buying and are sticking around.”

The $1.7-million yearling, who could become the first from Book 2 and the first by a first-crop sire to top the September Sale in at least the last decade, was one of two to bring seven figures during the session. Mike Talla and West Point Thoroughbreds also teamed up to purchase the first North American million-dollar colt by Triple Crown winner Justify for $1.55 million. Woodford Racing and West Point had made the auction's previous top bid of $1.6 million when purchasing a son of City of Light's sire Quality Road Tuesday.

First-crop sire City of Light has been on fire at Keeneland September, accounting for a pair of million-dollar colts. Through the first three sessions, 19 yearlings by that Lane's End stallion sold for a gross of $9,315,000 and an average of $490,263. City of Light's sire and fellow Lane's End resident Quality Road was also responsible for a pair of seven-figure colts. Overall, 25 Quality Road yearlings have sold for $13.47 million with an average of $538,800.

Seven of the top 10 sellers Wednesday were from the first or second crops of their young sires and the top two lots were rewarding smaller breeders. Rosilyn Polan's Sunday Morning Farm was responsible for the $1.7-million colt and Jeff and Chiquita Reddoch's Stonehaven Steadings sold the $1.55-million colt.

“The two top prices today were homebreds from smaller breeders,” Lacy said. “That is a real score.”

While some sellers seem to be eschewing the boutique Book 1 section of the September sale for an increasingly competitive Book 2, Lacy said he thinks the reality is that Book 1 continues to attract top money. Lacy pointed out that the Book 1 median was $350,000, compared to Book 2's current median of $230,000.

“Book 1 is where the money is at,” Lacy said. “It does drop off, but you probably get more consistency through certain parts of [Book 2]. Book 1 gets a bad rap in certain ways. I thought yesterday was amazing, but today the clearance rate probably made it even better.”

Breathnach expects to see competitive bidding continue as Book 2 concludes with its second session Thursday.

“This [momentum] is hopefully going to last for a while because there are a lot of people here who haven't bought a horse yet and there is that whole second week [of buyers], who maybe haven't arrived yet. We are pretty optimistic about how this is going to see through to the end of the sale, but today was a great day for sure.”

The Keeneland September sale continues Thursday at 11 a.m. Following a dark day Friday, the auction runs through Sept. 24 with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

Polan Hits One Out of the Park

Rosilyn Polan, who sold future graded stakes winner Wit (Practical Joke) for $575,000 at last year's Keeneland September Yearling Sale, shot past that previous personal best when a colt by City of Light brought a sale-topping final bid of $1.7 million from the partnership of Woodford Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds and Mike Talla.

“I can't even imagine how much money that is,” said Polan as she was bombarded by well wishers while walking back to her Barn 37. Larry Best, smiling broadly, bound over to congratulate the petite consignor, while consignor Chris Baccari shouted over, “You're the woman.”

The seven-figure yearling is out of Anchorage (Tapit), a mare Polan purchased privately four years ago.

“She is my favorite,” Polan admitted of Anchorage. “I know I have the dam of Wit, but I love her. And I have always had a lot of confidence in this colt. He was the first foal born on my farm last year and from that minute, I knew he was special.”

Anchorage has a weanling filly by Omaha Beach and was bred back to Game Winner.

Of the decision to send the multiple-stakes placed mare to City of Light, Polan explained, “It was a no-brainer. I booked sight unseen because he wasn't at the farm when I was there. He was at the racetrack. One of the guys said, 'I have a picture of him on the racetrack.' So he showed me on his phone and when I saw that beautiful big rear end, I said that was enough. I actually bred the dam of Wit [Numero d'Oro] back to City of Light.”

Polan has eight mares at her Sunday Morning Farm and credited her two-person team on the farm with preparing the colt for his sales success Wednesday.

Asked how she would celebrate the milestone sale, Polan said, “Clean stalls, turn out yearlings, clip ears, go to bed early and get up and ship tomorrow. I never have a bad day. I don't. My horses… you know there's always challenges. There's always death or sickness … but I'm always looking forward. They just fill me up. I'm still having fun. So now I'm going to have more fun.” @JessMartiniTDN

Talla, West Point Make a Statement

Mike Talla and West Point Thoroughbreds' Terry Finley, bidding out back, created the first fireworks of Wednesday's third session of the Keeneland September sale when going to $1.55 million to secure a son of Justify (hip 580), but the two men were far from done. Joined by Woodford Racing's Bill Farish just about a half-hour later, the duo went to a sale-topping $1.7 million to acquire a colt by City of Light (hip 612). Both colts will be heading west to the barn of John Sadler, who trains GI Santa Anita Derby winner Rock Your World (Candy Ride {Arg}) for Talla and Hronis Racing and undefeated 'TDN Rising Star' Flightline (Tapit) for West Point, Hronis Racing, Summer Wind Equine and Siena Farm.

“It was a full price but I knew we were going to have to stretch to get him,” Farish, whose family's Lane's End stands City of Light, said of the colt. “This horse could have been in Book 1 as easily as he is in Book 2. You can't let that cloud your judgment. He was a Book 1 type, no question about it. One horse doesn't determine the whole market, but he was exceptional.”

Woodford Racing and West Point teamed up to purchase a $1.6-million Quality Road colt during Tuesday's second session of the Keeneland sale.

“There aren't that many horses who give you that truly good feel that you're looking at an extremely good prospect,” said Finley. “There were a couple today that we bought that gave us that feel. It's good to have partners and to be in a position where we could take some swings at really good prospects like this.”

Of the increasing presence of partnerships at the top of the results sheets, Finley said, “These horses are very hard to buy, and I just couldn't do it without an immense amount of support and people who are in a position to take chunks. I don't necessarily abide by the notion that these partnerships are bad for the sellers, because oftentimes, you might get two of these groups [that bid against each other]. So everything evens out. You can't mess with the market. The market is what the market is.”

Talla, who made it to this year's GI Kentucky Derby with Rock Your World, is the co-founder of The Sports Club Company.

“We have a team together, John Sadler, David Ingordo and West Point Thoroughbreds,” Talla said after signing the ticket on the Justify colt. “We had our eye on two or three of them and we kept getting outbid. We had to make a stand somewhere and we really liked this one, so we went in for it. We will know next year if we made a mistake or not. Let's talk next summer and see if we are glad if we bought him or not.”

Talla also teamed with West Point to purchase a City of Light filly (hip 451) for $500,000.

Looking ahead, Finley said, “You just start dreaming with these kind of horses, and just hope you get lucky.” @JessMartiniTDN

Stonehaven Steadings Flexes Its Muscles

Jeff and Chiquita Reddoch's Stonehaven Steadings had its first million-dollar sale when, in partnership with de Meric Sales, it sold a Quality Road filly for a sale-topping $1.5 million at this year's OBS April sale. The operation enjoyed a second million-dollar transaction Wednesday at Keeneland when its homebred colt by Justify (hip 580) sold for $1.55 million to Talla Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds.

“Unreal. Just completely unreal,” Stonehaven Steadings' Leah O'Meara said after the colt left the sales ring. “The de Merics sold that horse down in Florida. While we still owned a large piece of him, they did that. This one was ours. It was really nice for our team. I can't wait to go back to the barn and celebrate with them.”

The bay yearling is out of graded-placed True Feelings (Latent Heat), a mare the Reddochs purchased for $210,000 at the 2012 Keeneland November sale. The mare is the dam of multiple stakes winner Feeling Mischief (Into Mischief) and graded-placed Royal Act (American Pharoah). She produced a Quality Road colt this year.

“We had two Justifys and we decided to split them up and put one in Book 1 and one in Book 2,” O'Meara said. “They were different types, both nice stretchy colts, but two different types. We thought highly of both of them, but you never know when you come out here who is going to be received the best. [Hip 580] was an absolute monster at the farm and he showed like a complete professional through every show. He never got tired. The colt we had in Book 1 [hip 224 who sold for $600,000] was lovely, but there were a lot of big-priced Justifys, so maybe it helped to be in Book 2. But I think this colt would have stood out anyway.”

The OBS April topper, now named Corniche, was tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' following a debut victory at Del Mar for Speedway Stables and trainer Bob Baffert. Ten hips after selling the $1.55-million son of Justify, Stonehaven Steadings sold that filly's half-sister by Mendelssohn (hip 590) for $750,000 to her co-breeder Bart Evans.

“It was probably the most exciting thing I have experienced in this business,” Stonehaven Steadings' Aidan O'Meara said after watching the two yearlings go through the ring. “We are excited for everybody on the [farm and sales] team. It is a credit to them and their horsemanship. It might be one of the best crews in Kentucky for a farm of our size.”

Of the yearlings, O'Meara said, “We were high on them all along. There was a huge update for the filly. The colt has been one of our top two colts all along, but he really blossomed in the last two months. When you get here to the sale, some horses go in the opposite direction and some of them bloom and thrive and change. He is a big magnificent-striding horse. He was a class act all the way through. He improved every day and you could feel the momentum building with the serious players and the [veterinarians] getting involved.”

Stonehaven Steadings completed a highly profitable day at Keeneland Wednesday with a filly by City of Light (hip 645) who sold for $500,000 to West Point Thoroughbreds, Robert Masiello and Scarlet Oak Racing. The bay yearling is out of Canny (Big Brown), who was claimed for $15,000 at Fair Grounds in 2019. @JessMartiniTDN

Gun Runner, the Gift That Keeps on Giving for Winchell

Gun Runner carried the Winchell Thoroughbred colors to 12 victories and just shy of $16 million in earnings and has proven equally talented in the breeding shed. The chestnut shot to the top of the freshman sire rankings with a pair of Grade I winners at Saratoga, both of whom are owned and bred or co-owned by Winchell.

The Three Chimneys stallion provided his part-owner with another success Wednesday when a Winchell-bred son of Gun Runner (hip 574) summoned $975,000 from Jacob West, acting on behalf of Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable.

“He was a really nice colt,” said Winchell. “I wanted to stay in on him. That probably won't happen at this point. I like to support our horses.”

Winchell was quick to thank West, who pointed to trainer Todd Pletcher and said, “You need to thank that guy right there.”

“You probably can't name a hotter stallion or a stallion that has gotten off to a hotter start than him,” West said of Gun Runner. “The colt looks like his dad. The whole team loved him. He is by Gun Runner and out of a Tapit mare and that is a pretty good combo, we hope. You can't get any hotter with the stallion or the broodmare sire. We are excited to get him.”

As for the price, West said, “He was kind of the talking horse around. So, we knew he'd bring good money. That was right about what we thought he would bring. We knew we were going to have to fight off some pretty serious competition.”

Hip 574 is out of the unraced Time to Tap (Tapit), who is a full-sister to Winchell's champion filly and GI Kentucky Oaks winner Untapable. A half to Grade I-winning stallion Paddy O'Prado (El Prado {Ire}), Untapable is a daughter of GSW Fun House (Prized).

Fourteen Gun Runners yearlings have sold through the first three days for a total of $5.845 million and average of $417,500.

—@CDeBernardisTDN

Mendelssohn Filly to LNJ Foxwoods

A filly from the first crop of Grade I winner Mendelssohn (hip 603) will be joining the roster of the Roth family's LNJ Foxwoods after selling for $900,000 to the bid of bloodstock agents Jason Litt and Alex Solis Wednesday at Keeneland.

The filly is out of the unraced Acrobatique (Discreet Cat), who is a half-sister to LNJ Foxwoods' champion Covfefe (Into Mischief). She was consigned by Gainesway on behalf of breeder Alexander-Groves Thoroughreds.

“Of course the pedigree is there, but the physical is there too and she was awesome the whole time,” Solis said. “She stands up conformationally. She has a great walk on her and a lot of body. She looks fast.”

Of the power-packed opening session of Book 2, Solis said, “It's been really strong. We loved the Quality Road filly that Donato bought earlier in the day and when she brought $850,000, I knew this was probably going to be more.” @JessMartiniTDN

Courtlandt Strikes for Gun Runner

Don and Donna Adam's Courtlandt Farm was very active in Book 1 and made their presence known late in the opening session of Book 2 when going to $875,000 for a colt by leading freshman sire Gun Runner (hip 679). Lane's End consigned the filly for Jon Clay's Alpha Delta Stables.

“We liked everything about that colt,” said Courtlandt Farm manager Ernie Retamoza, while seated alongside former Lane's End farm manager Mike Cline, who was also sporting a Courtlandt Farm hat. “He was a great physical. The way the Gun Runners are coming out running, they are tough to buy. You saw what we had to give for him, but we are glad we got it done.”

Reynolds Bell went to $2.15 million to secure hip 679's second dam, MGSW & GISP Broadway's Alibi (Vindication), on Clay's behalf, carrying a foal by Smart Strike at the 2013 Keeneland November Sale. The resulting foal was the colt's dam, the unraced Distorted Lies (Smart Strike). Broadway's Alibi is a half-sister to MGSW Golden Lad (Medaglia d'Oro) and MSW & GISP R Gypsy Gold (Bernardini). This is also the family of GISW sire Dialed In.

Courtlandt Farm has purchased a total of 10 yearlings through the first three sessions for $6.175 million. —@CDeBernardisTDN

SF/Starlight/Madaket Partners Stay Busy

The stallion-making partnership of SF Bloodstock, Starlight Racing and Madaket Stables continued its busy buying pace during Wednesday's third session of the Keeneland September sale, going to $850,000 to acquire a colt by Curlin (hip 466). The yearling was consigned by Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck's Summerfield on behalf of breeder Stonestreet.

“He's a very well-bred horse. He's by Curlin, a stallion we really admire and out of a mare that looks like she has the potential to be a very good mare at this point,” said SF's Tom Ryan.

The chestnut colt is out of graded stakes winner My Wandy's Girl (Flower Alley), who won the GII Barbara Fritchie H. before being purchased by Stonestreet for $700,000 at the 2014 Keeneland November sale.

Her 2-year-old colt My Prankster (Into Mischief), who sold for $600,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearlings Showcase, romped home a 10-length debut winner at Saratoga Aug. 21 for Robert and Lawana Low and was named a 'TDN Rising Star'.

“My Prankster looks like a good colt,” Ryan said. “We definitely noticed the 2-year-old winning as well as he did and we admired him last year at the yearling sale. This colt looks like a very nice two-turn colt. He'll go to California to Bob Baffert.”

The partnership's four purchases Wednesday also included a $775,000 colt by Good Magic (hip 607), a $675,000 son of Uncle Mo (hip 573), and a $440,000 colt by Twirling Candy (hip 560).

Through three days, the group has purchased 10 yearlings for $6,265,000.

Another emerging partnership making a big impact at the September sale is the BSW/Crow Colts Group, which purchased 10 lots Wednesday for $2,605,000. Through three sessions, bloodstock agents Liz Crow and Brad Weisbord, bidding alongside trainer Brad Cox, have purchased 13 yearlings for the partnership for a total of $3,955,000. @JessMartiniTDN

Quality Sale For Town & Country Farms

Town & Country Farms had a strong showing in Book 1 of Keeneland September, selling an $850,000 Into Mischief colt (hip 53) and a $350,000 Quality Road (hip 113), and Louise Courtelis's operation sparked the first fireworks of Book 2 when their homebred filly by Quality Road (Hip 465) summoned $825,000 from Donato Lanni, acting on behalf of Susan and Charlie Chu's Baoma Corp. The filly was consigned by Taylor Made.

“She has been very lucky with fillies,” said Lanni of Susan Chu, who has campaigned Grade I-winning fillies Bast (Uncle Mo) and Varda (Distorted Humor). “She is a very fun owner. She and Charlie are very game. Hopefully she is like the other good fillies that we have had for her. They are really good people to work for.”

He continued, “[Hip 465] is just beautiful. She is a quiet filly, well made and has everything we wanted.”

Hip 465 is the first foal out of MSW & GSP My Miss Chiff (Into Mischief), a half-sister to MSW Silvercents (Goldencents). A $110,000 FTKJUL purchase by King's Equine, she carried the Town & Country silks to four wins from nine starts and just under $200,000 in earnings.

“Shannon [Potter] picked her out and flew all over to see her run and always believed in her,” said Kiki Courtelis, President of Town & Country, referring to the farm's CEO.

“She's a great mama,” said Potter. “She's been very good to us. That filly was really special, especially for a first foal. She checked all the boxes for everyone. She had a big walk to her. We thought breeding her to Quality Road might have been a stretch in stud fee, but she has paid us back tenfold from the time we raced her all the way up to selling the first baby out of her.”

He added, “This baby has gotten better and better. She was always a good foal. It was great.”

Lanni also purchased Town & Country's $850,000 Into Mischief colt for the group known as the Avengers. The colt was out of GSP Majestic Presence (Majestic Warrior).

“We sold another one for $850,000,” Potter said. “That was probably 1 and 1A for the crop that we had going through. I thought the Into Mischief colt was the best colt that we have raised at Town & Country so far. Martine is our yearling guy and he is one of a kind. He has a special hand with horses and whenever he hooks on one and really likes it, we know it is the real deal.” —@CDeBernardisTDN

City of Light's Connections Strike For One of His Daughters

City of Light's trainer Michael McCarthy signed the $750,000 ticket on a filly (hip 636) from his initial crop on behalf of the stallion's owners Mr. & Mrs. William K. Warren. McCarthy was also the underbidder on the $1.7-million City of Light colt who is the current sale topper.

“I loved this filly,” McCarthy said. “I saw her the other day and have been thinking about her for the last 24 hours. We tried earlier on the [sale topper]. We went a fair ways with him. We were unlucky, but he has obviously gone to a good home. This filly reminds me of the filly we purchased in Saratoga.”

The conditioner continued, “[The City of Lights] have plenty of scope, plenty of class. She showed herself wonderfully in the back ring. She took it all in. It's amazing. You are so close to them for so many years and then you try to jump back in. They are in so demand. We are grateful to have to pay a premium. She has good residual value.”

Hip 636 is out of Birdie Birdie (El Prado {Ire}), who breeder and consignor Nursery Place purchased for $160,000 carrying a Twirling Candy foal at the 2016 KEENOV sale. She is also responsible for MGSW Free Rose (Munnings) and SP Sylven Park (Wildcat Heir).

McCarthy has been pleased to see such a high demand for the offspring of City of Light both this week and at last month's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale.

“It is wonderful to see,” McCarthy said. “It is always nice to play a small part in a horse like him and I am glad to see he is carrying it on in his second career.” —@CDeBernardisTDN

Evans Buys Out Partner on Mendelssohn Filly

Bart Evans teamed up with Stonehaven Steadings to breed a Mendolssohn filly out of his MGSW & GISP-placed mare Wasted Tears (Najran) (hip 590). He loved her so much he couldn't part with her, going to $750,000 to buy out his partners.

“I liked the mare,” Evans said. “I raised her, trained her, ran her and bred her. I don't have a filly out of her. She had one we had to put down this year and now she is going to be 17. I want the blood and I liked her. She reminds me of her mother with her attitude and her looks.”

Evans purchased Wasted Tears's dam Wishes and Roses (Greinton {GB}) for just $20,000 at Keeneland September back in 1992. Wasted Tears won 12 of her 22 starts–with half of those wins coming in graded stakes–for her owner/breeder/ trainer and earned $941,463. Wasted Tears is also the dam of $1.5-million OBS April topper Corniche (Quality Road), who romped to 'TDN Rising Star'-dom on debut at Del Mar Sept. 4.

This is the first crop for GISW Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy), who was a $3-million KEESEP topper and is a half-sibling to future Hall of Famer Beholder (Henny Hughes) and superstar sire Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday). Another Mendelssohn summoned $900,000 from Solis/Litt just a few hips later (hip 603).

“I like Mendelssohn,” said Evans. “I saw him when they got him and, my God, I think he was the best-looking horse I've ever seen. They took him all over the world. I looked at all the Mendelssohns I could to see how they are, but she showed more of her mother than they did.” —@CDeBernardisTDN

The post Fireworks As Keeneland Book 2 Opens appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

“When I was little, waking up on a Sunday morning, you'd smell coffee brewing in the kitchen, and pancakes cooking,” she explains, some 30 years later. “And so I always thought Sunday morning was just the best feeling. But when we bought the farm I thought, no, this here is 'Sunday morning'; this is the best feeling.”

And so they called it Sunday Morning Farm, this a 100-acre parcel between a loop of the Kentucky River and the Woodford Reserve Distillery. Even so, they knew that all the repose seeping from the name would have to be deferred for much honest labor.

Learning that the fencing was coming down at the old Warnerton Farm, they offered the crew a deal. If they did the work, could they keep the timber? Well, sure.

“We had a long pole, and a chain, and a wheel,” Polan remembers. “And we'd hook the chain over one end of the pole, and the other end would go over the tire, and we'd get on the end of it and just push, push, push, until it would pull that chain end up, and pull the fence post out of the ground.”

They loaded the salvage onto the truck and took it home, where they pried out all the nails and sawed off the jagged ends. They'd bought a post driver, among a lot of other old equipment bought at auctions to repair, and Kenneth mounted each board onto its post with a hammer.

“If you had seen the place then, it almost makes me weep to think back to how hard we worked,” Polan says. “I can't believe what we did that. But we just worked and cleared. We were young-well, Kenneth wasn't that young! But he was tough. And we were just 'living off love'.”

Polan speaks those last words with a charming, singsong lilt of self-deprecation, without remotely diminishing the joys that redeemed the perspiration of those days. Because somehow they made it work: they cleaned offices at night, they cut hay for other people, and of course there was still the catering business. Because the whole adventure had been underpinned by an inspiration that had seized Polan, pondering a history of her own with horses, when her delicatessen in downtown Lexington stood idle during sale weeks.

“I thought, 'Gosh, everybody's at the horse sale but me,'” she remembers. “So I thought I'd go out and see if anybody wants me to deliver lunch. Because prior to that, you'd just send out one of your show crew to McDonalds, and nobody liked their lunch.”

She started with a single client, but was soon known all round the barns as “The Bag Lady,” her sandwiches keeping consignors and their help going through long days of showing in the extremes of the Kentucky climate. It went so well that Polan was ultimately able to join the competition. But for all the romance of the idea, and the name, there was never anything merely fanciful about Sunday Morning.

“Kenneth was not a horse person, but he had grown up farming,” Polan says. “His family raised hay and tobacco, with a horse-drawn plough, and a horse-drawn hay cutter, so he had a knack-plus he was a really hard worker, and knew how to do anything. So we were a good complement, building this farm.

“My dad and his brothers had a hill farm in the mountains of West Virginia. All the aunts and uncles and cousins would go up there for the summer, and the menfolk would leave the womenfolk and go back to Huntington to work all week, and then come back at the weekend. We had a couple horses up there, that lived in the forest in the winter and then in the summer we had them brought over, and that was how I learned to ride: my mother standing at one point, my brother at another, and me going from one to the other. And then I'd spend the entire rest of my day in the shed where those horses liked to loaf in the cool, standing around among the tractors and machinery, and I'd read to them and write stories about them and I was just one of those horse crazy girls.”

So after college Polan decided she'd learn the horse business properly, and wrote to farm after farm in Kentucky. But every owner, every manager, told her the same. We don't hire women. Eventually she got a foot in the door, when Harold Snowden at the Stallion Station sent her to Keeneland, where his son was training, with instructions to give her a job walking hots; until, at last, Jonabell Farm gave her the farm work she craved. No doubt it was a wider education, too, with the grooms teaching her to shoot craps in the tack room during their lunch break. But the whole environment was so immersive that she would now feel ever restless, unless and until able to tend horses for herself someday.

In the early Sunday Morning years, admittedly, it proved just as well that they were still harvesting plenty of tobacco. Though they had scraped together enough for a first mare, her yearlings tended to sell for only $3,000 or so. But then, in 2005, everything changed.

Polan had bought a Meadowlake mare for $51,000 at the 2003 November Sale, in foal to El Corredor. She now sold the resulting colt at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale to B. Wayne Hughes, the new owner of Spendthrift Farm, for $385,000. Almost as suddenly as the sun had come out over the farm, however, it was hidden behind the blackest cloud imaginable. For it was that same year that Kenneth was claimed by cancer.

“At least he knew he was now leaving me financially secure,” reflects Polan. “He was there at the sale that day, and he was so proud. Because of that colt, I had a little money in my pocket. We paid off all our debts, and Kenneth made sure I had new equipment. And, in the years since, I've somehow had more home-run, lucky years than unlucky ones.”

So while quantity remains modest–with nine mares of her own, and five boarders–Polan has achieved repeated and skillful increments in quality, each success containing the seedcorn of the next. The one time she made a perilous stretch was in borrowing $160,000 for a Tapit mare named Anchorage, in foal to Will Take Charge, at the 2015 November Sale. Each of her foals sold since, however, has raised more than she cost–notably a $370,000 Runhappy filly at the 2019 September Sale.

In further vindication of her strategy, essentially to seek fine mares with glamorous rookie covers, at the same auction she realized $250,000 for a Frosted colt acquired in utero with an unraced Medaglia d'Oro mare, Numero d'Oro, for $175,000 at the 2017 November Sale. The following year, however, the same mare's colt by Practical Joke would do better yet.

“I was one horse in the middle of three huge consignments, and I would have to push my way into the middle to make room for him to be shown,” Polan remembers. “But he never turned a hair. He just got bigger and better every day. He just puffed up and his stride got longer. He was so professional–and he was shown a lot. He was scoped, oh, 27 times I think. People came back and back, and several who I know told me: 'Rosilyn, this is one of the nicest horses in the whole sale.' There we were, day one of Book 2, surrounded by Tapits and Curlins and Medaglia d'Oros. And he was head and shoulders above anything in there. Every time I watched him go out, he made my knees go weak. He knew he was special.”

And so, it appeared, did everyone else. There was a single caveat: slightly puffy tendons. In a normal year, Polan might have done some therapy to tighten them up a little, maybe some ultrasound or PST. But this was not a normal year. Who on earth, she asked herself, would be buying racehorses in the time of coronavirus? But the ultrasounds evidently showed only an immature, growthy colt, just maybe not the type for a 2-year-old sale.

As it was, he made $575,000. His new owners, regular partners Vinnie Viola and Mike Repole along with Antony Beck of Gainesway, gave him the time he needed; and when he surfaced from the Pletcher barn on Belmont S. day, under the name of Wit, he won by six lengths. The dazzling impression he made then has, of course, since been reinforced by a still more emphatic success in the GIII Sanford S. at Saratoga, qualifying him as the trailblazer of the juvenile crop.

“Nothing like this has ever happened to me before,” Polan says. “I've sold well, more than once. And I've always thought that was the ultimate. But now, oh my gosh! In both races he was away a little slow but he didn't have to do anything, just lengthened and lengthened as he went through the race. It was like a dream, watching, and it still is. I'm just so proud of that boy.

“To me, the best part was after his first race, when he loped back to the winner's circle on a loose rein. He turned to the crowd, took in his surroundings, and just put his nose on the rail, took a deep breath and seemed to say: 'Now what do you want me to do?' He's always been a 'What-can-I-do-for-you-today?' type.”

And this, of course, is a win-win situation. Polan is not just delighted for the buyers who gave the farm such a good payday, but also in a position to reap further rewards through Wit's dam. Numero d'Oro was wisely given a fallow year, having delivered Wit as late as May 5, but now has a City Of Light weanling colt who Polan describes as a “duplicate” of his sibling; and she is in foal to Authentic.

“She just has aura about her, a beautiful walk and beautiful manner,” says Polan. “It makes your eyes happy to watch her walking, and her baby the same. He has just the same big rear end, the same bullet appearance as Wit, that same swinging stride. They're just so confident and unruffled.”

Whatever each may have been inherited from their dam, the intimate Sunday Morning regime has doubtless contributed significantly as well.

“Well, I do handle my foals a lot,” Polan says. “But nothing really special. I have two young men who work for me, and they too have really easy-going temperaments. We hand walk, for sales prep. We've dogs running around. In the evening I'll go through the fields, give them a scratch, take their fly masks off. They pretty much do what you ask, and we don't fight. For years I did this by myself, so they had to be good. But really I don't know that much. I just give them time.”

Many a bigger farm could do with that kind of “ignorance”. And the smaller ones, for their part, can take heart from her example.

“It just shows, anybody can do it,” Polan says. “I started out peddling sandwiches. I've just been super lucky. People always say, 'Well, you work so hard.' But we all work so hard, don't you agree? And some of us are lucky, some of us are not. But I'm not only a very lucky person. I'm a positive person, too. I expect good things to happen. And when bad things do happen, I just keep looking forward.

“Even at age 68, I'm still like a little kid. These horses give me way more than I do them. My farm's so pretty, so secluded. Lot of birds. And then to have these beautiful horses, that give me so much joy… So you meet your challenges, and you carry on. And then when you hit a home run like Wit, really there are no words. It just fills me up so much, looking at his baby pictures: that cute little bugger, with a zigzag stripe on his face.”

So really the GI Hopeful S., scheduled as the next step of the colt's journey at the end of the Saratoga meet, has seldom been so well named. Wit will not just represent Sunday Morning Farm, but every program that has realized what could have been an idle dream, not so much by dollars and cents as by passion and endeavor.

“I'll never go anyplace or do anything,” says Polan. “My life is very small. You think, how nice it would be to go trekking through the Alps, go see Machu Picchu. But I'll never do that. This is who I am. And I'm just really happy doing what I do.”

The post Wit Finds It Easy Like a Sunday Morning appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post