We'll start at Book 1 and go all the way to Book 6, talking to buyers who found horses that slipped under the commercial radar in their given segment of the marketplace. 

Much of the buying during Book 6 of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale takes place in the back ring, with shoppers looking at horses for the first time just minutes before they go through the ring.

Trainer John Hancock came to the final book of the 2022 sale with a plan, and he was rewarded nicely for sticking to it.

The Henderson, Ky.-based horseman started the day zeroing in on Hip 3778, an Oxbow filly who he landed for $12,000 – a few bids below the session median of $15,000. In less than a year, the filly later named Youalmosthadme was a head-turning first-out winner at Keeneland's spring meet, and Hancock sold her privately for multiples on her initial sale price.

“Believe it or not, she was the key horse that day for us,” Hancock said. “My daughter, my grandson, and my cousin all looked at the page on her, and the second dam was a mare called May Gator, who we all knew because she raced in Kentucky, and we liked that mare. We clued in on her. We knew that the Oxbows that we had seen were really fast, and we if we could put this together, she could be really rapid at 4 1/2 furlongs.”

Pope McLean's Crestwood Farm consigned Youalmosthadme, as agent. The filly is out of the stakes-placed Good and Tough mare Good Gator.

A perennial top trainer of 2-year-olds on the Kentucky circuit, Hancock frequently purchases yearlings with the aim of debuting them as early juveniles during the Keeneland Spring meet or early in the Churchill Downs spring/summer meet. If the horse shines in one of those early races, he'll sell them privately.

“I've been fortunate enough over the years that I have a lot of clients out there,” Hancock said. “It's kind of funny, they'll start tagging my phone in March, 'What do you got?' They start keeping up with them and asking for their names, so I'll send them some names and they'll start tracking their breezes. About the last eight to ten years, it's been like that.”

After he signed the ticket, Hancock took Youalmosthadme back to western Kentucky, where he began her basic training at Ellis Park. The trainer said having the “real world” experience of getting started on a racetrack is invaluable to his charges.

“Ellis Park has been awfully good to me to let me bring my babies in to break them in the fall, and I get 60 days on a big racetrack with them,” he said. “Churchill Downs owns the track now, and it works out good for them, since a lot of them run there over the spring and summer.”

After getting her start at Ellis Park, Hancock sent Youalmosthadme to the farm of G.W. Parrish in Florida for 45 days. The reviews from Parrish confirmed what Hancock thought he already knew.

“He called me one morning and said, 'This filly's a freak,'” Hancock said.

Youalmosthadme returned to Hancock's care in January, joining him at Turfway Park for finishing touches before the Keeneland spring meet in April.

The filly was entered for her debut at Keeneland on April 19, and she dominated the 4 1/2-length race, drawing away to win by 8 1/2 lengths.

Hancock said potential buyers were chilly on Youalmosthadme in the days leading up to the race. His phone was much busier after the filly crossed the wire.

“I had 12 calls in three days, and out of those 12, probably eight of them were the biggest people in the business trying to buy her,” he said. “One owner called himself and said, 'I don't need my trainer calling, I'm calling you.'”

Jake Ballis, owner of Black Type Thoroughbreds, came forward with the most appealing bid, bringing with him a partnership that included Qatar Racing, Swinbank Stables, and Steve Adkisson. The deal was done on a handshake, and when the money was wired to Hancock a few days later, the filly moved to the barn of trainer Brad Cox.

Youalmosthadme provided immediate dividends for her new owner, taking the Kentucky Juvenile Stakes on May 4 at Churchill Downs by an easy 8 3/4 lengths. A stumbled start cost the filly her unbeaten streak in the Ellis Park Debutante Stakes in August, but she recovered to finish third.

The filly is scheduled to compete next in the Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes on Sept. 16 at Churchill Downs.

Youalmosthadme_Sept 22_Hip 3778 from Lauren Warren on Vimeo.

The post Treasure Hunting Presented By Keeneland: Youalmosthadme Was A Book 6 Star For Hancock appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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We'll start at Book 1 and go all the way to Book 6, talking to buyers who found horses that slipped under the commercial radar in their given segment of the marketplace. 

A little faith can go a long way in the later books of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, and the success of Owlette on so many different levels shows how that faith can be rewarded.

The Ontario-bred daughter of Frac Daddy sold as Hip 3560 to bloodstock agent Ben McElroy for $7,500 during Book 5 of the 2018 Keeneland September Sale, which was well south of the session's median sale price of $11,000. She was a half-sister to a trio of Canadian stakes-placed runners, out of the stakes-winning American Chance mare Itstartswithadream.

A less-than-stellar vet report has scared buyers off countless horses on the sales grounds, but there was something about the filly that McElroy couldn't shake.

“She was a beautiful physical,” the agent said. “Michael Byrne was selling her, and she was Ontario-sired and Ontario-bred, so obviously, she was eligible to run for a lot of money up at Woodbine. She would have made considerably more money, only nobody would pass her on the scope. I got three different vets to scope her, and nobody would pass her.”

If Owlette had produced a clean scope, McElroy estimated she could bring as much as $125,000 in the ring. The added uncertainty meant her price would likely go down significantly, but it wasn't enough to keep the agent from watching the filly go through the ring, in case the bottom fell out on her price.

McElroy admitted there was a bit of sentimental value in his interest in Owlette, as well. Back in his days as a stallion groom at Vinery in Kentucky, one of the horses he was assigned to was Owlette's broodmare sire American Chance.

McElroy made some calls to find a buyer for the filly, but the scope was too much of a red flag for anyone to commit. When Owlette stepped into the ring, the agent decided to try buying the filly himself and working out the ownership later.

The bidding started at the upset price of $1,000, and the hammer fell at $7,500. Afterward, McElroy found partners including trainer Wesley Ward and David Mowat of Ten Broeck Farm to split the cost, making an already low investment point even less of a risk.

Before her debut race at Keeneland in April of her 2-year-old season, Ward had Owlette scoped again, and her airways were flawless.

Owlette broke her maiden in her second start as a juvenile at Woodbine, which preceded a run of stakes victories that included the Shady Well Stakes, the Victorian Queen Stakes at two, and the Star Shoot Stakes at three. She also finished third in the Grade 3 Selene Stakes.

Owlette retired at the end of her 3-year-old season with four wins in nine starts for earnings of $256,262 – multiples on her hammer price.

She continued to reward her connections as she transitioned to her career as a broodmare, selling to Woods Edge Farm for $150,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Her first foal, a colt by Street Sense, will be offered at this year's Keeneland September sale as Hip 651.

The ideal vision of a profitable horse usually involves a flashy seven-figure windfall at some point in the process, but the lights are kept on in barns at tracks and farms with horses that make money at far more attainable levels.

McElroy was well aware of the bargain he found with the star filly, which can require an eye just as keen – and luck just as good – as the one sizing up a seven-figure superstar.

“I need to find a few more Owlettes,” he said.

Owlette_Sept 18_Hip 3460 from Lauren Warren on Vimeo.

The post Treasure Hunting Presented By Keeneland: Owlette Rewarded McElroy’s Faith After Book 5 Purchase appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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We'll start at Book 1 and go all the way to Book 6, talking to buyers who found horses that slipped under the commercial radar in their given segment of the marketplace. 

A sale price is not a premonition of future success or failure, and few in recent history have proven that to be true more effectively than Two Emmys.

A total of 295 horses changed hands during the eighth session of the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, taking place during Book 4 of that year's auction, and only 13 of them hammered for a price lower than the son of English Channel at $4,500.

Trainer Hugh Robertson and owner Richard Wolfe partnered up on the colt, and Two Emmys rewarded them with a trio of graded stakes victories and earnings of $925,083.

Offered as Hip 2556, Two Emmys was bred in Kentucky by Tottenwood Thoroughbreds, and he was offered by Vinery Sales at the September sale as agent for the breeder.

His dam, the unraced Buddha mare Miss Emmy, lacked a standout produce record when Two Emmys went through the ring, with two winners from four foals to race, and no stakes winners. However, there was cause for hope once the eyes trailed down the page.

Second dam Our Dear Sue, a half-sister to champion turf male Sunshine Forever, had a knack for putting stakes-producing daughters on the ground. The Grade 1-placed stakes winner Don't Read My Lips went on to have three stakes winners of her own, including the multiple Grade 3 winner Hotstufanthensome.

However, the daughter of most interest under the second dam was the unraced Deputy Minister mare California Sunset, who went on to birth V. E. Day, who won the Grade 1 Travers Stakes in 2014. V. E. Day is himself a son of English Channel, just like Two Emmys.

The hammer price on Robertson and Wolfe's newest yearling was far below the session's median sale price of $40,000. In fact, it would have gone below the median for the 2017 sale's 12th and final session of $7,000.

Initially, it appeared as though Two Emmys might run like one would expect for a horse bought at such a discount. After finishing well off the board in his lone start at age two, Two Emmys was given nine months off and taken down to the maiden claiming ranks at Arlington Park, where he beat three other horses after the race got rained off the turf.

The horse found some consistency by the end of his 3-year-old campaign, but he didn't enter stakes competition until March of his 5-year-old season, when he finished a surprise second in the G2 Muniz Memorial Classic Stakes at the Fair Grounds at odds of 24-1.

Two Emmys then returned to his Chicago homebase, where he was runner-up in an Arlington allowance optional claiming race and the G3 Arlington Stakes prior to his first Grade 1 start in the Mr. D Stakes. He sprung a monumental upset, leading at every point of call and holding off heavy favorite Domestic Spending to win by a neck at odds of 27-1.

Graded stakes races became a regular occurance for Two Emmys after the Mr. D. A year later, he picked up a win in the G2 Muniz Memorial Classic, and his most recent start was a front-running score in the G3 Fair Grounds Stakes on Feb. 18, racing at age seven.

In total, Two Emmys has won seven of 24 starts, including four stakes races.

Of the 37 Grade 1 winners to have sold at the 2018 Keeneland September sale, Two Emmys brought the lowest sale price during his time in the ring.

The post Treasure Hunting Presented By Keeneland: Two Emmys May Have Been The Bargain Of His Class appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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We'll start at Book 1 and go all the way to Book 6, talking to buyers who found horses that slipped under the commercial radar in their given segment of the marketplace. 

When a horse that sells at auction goes on to win a Triple Crown race, the list of people the owner thanks in the winner's circle often includes the bloodstock agent who picked the horse out.

That was not the case with Arcangelo, winner of the Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes. Owner Jon Ebbert of Blue Rose Farm has spurned the conventional way of doing things in favor of shopping and selecting his own horses at auction, and it has taken him to the sport's highest levels.

Ebbert picked up the Arrogate colt for $35,000 out of Book 3 of the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale; well below the session's median sale price of $125,000.

A Pennsylvania-based real estate investor, Ebbert said he grew up occasionally riding show horses, but the foundation of his Thoroughbred knowledge came more on the betting end than the bloodstock end. Still, he enjoyed going to Thoroughbred auctions to train his eye, and before he made his first purchase at the 2008 New York Breeders' Sales Company October Mixed Sale, he read Hall of Fame trainer Carl Nafzger's book “Traits of a Winner: The Formula for Developing Thoroughbred Racehorses” to better understand what makes a horse tick.

Though he was self-taught, that does not mean Ebbert was instantly a prodigy when it came to selecting racehorses. His first purchase at the New York sale was a yearling Mayakovsky colt named Daydreamin Boy who missed the board in all 20 of his career starts.

“He was slow as hell,” Ebbert said. “I didn't know anything, and I just kind of kept training my eye. That was it.”

Ebbert was a quick study, and each auction and purchase was another opportunity to learn. He was buying both to race and pinhook, and it hadn't led to much success – his response when asked about his second-most successful purchase behind Arcangelo was “nothing worth mentioning” – but over the course of the past 15 years of buying horses and watching young horses mature into racehorses, he was absorbing plenty of information that would one day pay huge dividends.

“I just know more now what it takes to make a racehorse, just a better idea as far as muscularity and conformation, and stride length,” he said. “You're looking at a whole picture. You're looking at maturity, and thinking of what he will grow into.”

When Ebbert was shopping the 2021 Keeneland September sale, he had two separate goals: find a pinhook prospect, or find a well-bred horse he could hopefully develop into an Unbridled's Song-line stallion to stand in Pennsylvania. He typically buys just one or two yearlings per year, so the margin for error was slim.

He zeroed in on Hip 1182, a colt out of the unraced Tapit mare Modeling, from the Gainesway consignment. His third dam was the mighty Better Than Honour, which put him in a rich family that included champion Rags to Riches, Belmont Stakes winner Jazil, and Breeders' Cup Marathon winner Man of Iron, among many other notable names. Arrogate was a son of Unbridled's Song, which meant the colt was checking a lot of boxes.

The problem? Arcangelo was a May 11 foal, and he looked like it.

“I saw how immature he was, and I just kind of knew how he'd develop because I'd watched some of those babies grow up,” he said. “I had an eye for watching those babies grow up, and I knew there wasn't much to him, but they always come out bigger and stronger. He looked leggy and athletic, and I just knew what I was looking at.”

Ebbert had gotten good at predicting a horse's hammer price before they went through the ring, and he expected Arcangelo would hammer for $40,000. He was off by $5,000, but as buyer, it's often better to have your guess be too high and get them for less than the other way around.

Arcangelo has rewarded Ebbert handsomely from there. Placed in the barn of trainer Jena Antonucci, the colt has arguably become the horse to beat in the Eclipse Award race for champion 3-year-old male, starting with a win in the G3 Peter Pan Stakes, and following with signature victories in the Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes.

The colt has won four of six starts, with total earnings of $1,754,900.

An owner on the sales grounds without a trainer or bloodstock agent to guide them might be an uncommon sight, but Ebbert said he wouldn't have it any other way. Having that level of skin in the game makes the big moments even sweeter.

“I think I've got to put faith in what I'm buying,” he said. “I put faith in myself and faith in what I'm buying, and I just love it. It's one of my favorite things to do in the industry, just go to the auction and pick a horse. I think I've got an eye for it.”

For potential owners thinking about forging their path alone at Thoroughbred auctions, Ebbert said maintaining a basic business plan was crucial.

“Be small, go within your budget, but also remember that it costs the same to feed a million-dollar horse as it does to feed a $5,000 claimer,” he said. “You want to get the best horse that you believe in for the best price.”

Arcangelo_Sept 2021 Hip 1182 from Lauren Warren on Vimeo.

The post Treasure Hunting Presented By Keeneland: Arcangelo Was A Self-Selected Score For Ebbert appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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We'll start at Book 1 and go all the way to Book 6, talking to buyers who found horses that slipped under the commercial radar in their given segment of the marketplace. 

For a moment after the fall of the hammer, Ciaran Dunne thought he'd bought the wrong horse.

It was Book 2 of the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, and Dunne had just signed the ticket on Hip 1272, a Liam's Map colt, for $50,000 under his Waves Bloodstock banner. Before the horse went through the ring, he'd valued him at several times more than that.

For the 2018 September sale's fifth session – the first day of trade for Book 2 for that year's renewal – the median sale price was $135,000. The colt that would become multiple Grade 1 winner Colonel Liam wasn't the least expensive horse of the day, but he was certainly closer to the bottom of the list than the top.

“Liam's Map had been selling really well, and obviously, when you get that deep in the sale, it's kind of a pull the trigger or go home situation,” Dunne said.

Dunne had the horse, but he also had plenty of questions about that horse, and whether his own eye had somehow failed him.

“When the hammer dropped, my first instinct was that I bought the wrong horse, and somehow or other I'd messed up and gone on ahead and bid on the wrong one,” he said. “Then, my second thought was maybe I read the vet report wrong. We were just shocked we got him for what we got him for. We had appraised him for something around $150,000 to $200,000.

“Very rarely when I buy one at Keeneland September do I go back to the barn and see them afterwards,” he continued. “Usually, you just don't have time. There's so much going on, and you're kind of just moving on. I actually made the trip down to the barn to try and see how I'd screwed up, and what we missed. I honestly thought that we'd really stepped in it.

Dunne ventured down to the Darby Dan Sales consignment in Barn 10 on the Keeneland property to look at his new colt and figure out why the expectation and the hammer price were so far out of sync.

“I went back down to the Darby Dan barn and pulled him out, and Renee [Logan, Darby Dan's sales director] was there, and when I got there, she goes, 'I'm glad you came. I just wanted to tell you…' and I'm thinking, 'Oh, here it comes.'” Dunne said. “He had some little skin infection in his mane, and that's what she wanted to tell me about, and I was standing there going, 'Is that it?'”

Dunne looked the leggy colt over, and watched him walk back and forth trying to find any glaring flaws he surely must have missed to get the colt at that price. He didn't find any.

Whatever caused the entire buying bench to sleep on Colonel Liam as a yearling fell to the wayside when Dunne offered him for sale the following year at the 2019 Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. After the colt breezed a quarter-mile in :20 4/5 seconds for Dunne's Wavertree Stables consignment, he sold to Robert and Lawana Low for $1.2 million; the second-highest price of that year's auction.

“It was one of those that we all talk about that just slips through the cracks,” Dunne said. “He was a beautiful 2-year-old. It wasn't that we raised him up and turned him into a beautiful horse. He was a beautiful horse when we bought him.”

Colonel Liam lived up to the seven-figure price on the racetrack, winning seven of 12 starts and earning $1,812,565.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, Colonel Liam is a two-time winner of the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf, to go along with victories in the G1 Turf Classic Stakes and G2 Muniz Memorial Classic Stakes.

Colonel Liam retired to Ocala Stud in Florida for the 2023 breeding season, where he stood his debut season for an advertised fee of $6,500.

Bred in Kentucky by Phillips Racing Partnership, Colonel Liam is out of the unraced Bernardini mare Amazement. His second dam is the multiple Grade 1 winner Wonder Again.

Colonel Liam_Sep 18_Hip 1272 from Lauren Warren on Vimeo.

The post Treasure Hunting Presented By Keeneland: Colonel Liam Seemed Too Good To Be True For Dunne appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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We'll start at Book 1 and go all the way to Book 6, talking to buyers who found horses that slipped under the commercial radar in their given segment of the marketplace. 

Champion Echo Zulu might be one of the best possible results of a plan coming together at a horse auction, but she initially wasn't part of the plan at all for owners Winchell Thoroughbreds and L and N Racing.

The two entities were encouraged to pair up by mutual trainer Steve Asmussen ahead of the 2020 yearling auction season, and they entered that year's Keeneland September Yearling Sale with a plan to buy colts.

That year's sale featured the first crop of yearlings from sire Gun Runner, a horse the Winchell operation campaigned to a Horse of the Year title in 2017, and Winchell racing manager David Fiske said they planned to support their new stallion heavily.

At the same time, L and N Racing – a partnership consisting of Lee Levinson, sons Andy and Michael, and family friend Don Nelson – was in the midst of campaigning Echo Town, a Speightstown colt who had recently won the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.

The boutique Book 1 of that year's Keeneland September sale featured a half-sibling to Echo Town by Gun Runner, out of the Grade 2-winning Menifee mare Letgomyecho.

There was just one problem: The yearling wasn't a colt. Michael Levinson was undeterred.

“Mike was the one that came to us and said, 'Have you seen this Gun Runner half-sister to Echo Town?'” Fiske said. “At first, we kind of went, 'Well, no, because we're looking at colts,' and we tried to stay focused. He kind of kept on about it, and Steve [Asmussen] went and looked at her, and Steve liked her. He wasn't raving about her, but he liked her.”

The filly jumped through all the veterinary hoops, and at that point, Fiske said they expected Echo Zulu to hammer somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000. Going in for half on a price in that range wouldn't be “make or break” for the Winchell operation, and between supporting Gun Runner and generating some goodwill with their new partners, it was decided to deviate slightly from the plan.

Echo Zulu went to the partnership for $300,000, selling as Hip 253 during the second session of Book 1. The median price for that session was $330,000, putting the filly just below the line.

Betz Thoroughbreds consigned Echo Zulu as agent at the sale, and the filly was bred by the partnership of Betz/J. Betz/Burns/CHNNHK/Magers/CoCo Equine/Ramsby.

“Bill Betz has a history and a reputation of raising and selling really nice racehorses,” Fiske said. “I don't think Bill had sold anything out of Letgomyecho for more than $300,000, and we thought it was Gun Runner's first crop and we want to put as many of those in good hands as we can. That could only benefit us. We thought if we could get her for $300,000, how could we get hurt too badly doing that? She's going to have some residual value (as a broodmare).”

For going off charted course, Echo Zulu has rewarded her owners handsomely, winning nine of 11 starts and earning $2,640,375 to date.

She was named champion 2-year-old filly of the 2021 racing season after a campaign that featured victories in the G1 Spinaway Stakes and Frizette Stakes, and culminated with a 5 1/4-length triumph in the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar.

Following a 3-year-old campaign that saw her finish second in the G1 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint after winning the G2 Fair Grounds Oaks and G3 Dogwood Stakes, Echo Zulu has gone on to become one of the top female sprinters in the nation at age four. She's unbeaten in three starts during the 2023 racing season, starting with the G3 Winning Colors Stakes, then the G2 Honorable Miss Handicap, and most recently the G1 Ballerina Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 26.

“Everyone's been really pleased ever since,” Fiske said. “It's one of those things where the stars just aligned and everyone was receptive with the proposition.”

Echo Zulu_Sept 2020 Hip 253 from Lauren Warren on Vimeo.

The post Treasure Hunting Presented By Keeneland: Echo Zulu Was A Product Of Goodwill And Good Luck appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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