Practical Joke Colt Tops Texas Yearling Sale

GRAND PRAIRIE, TX – A colt by Practical Joke brought $110,000 to top Monday's single-session Texas Thoroughbred Association (TTA) Summer Yearling Sale at Lone Star Park.

By the numbers, a total of 175 yearlings sold for $3,240,000. The figures represented a decrease from 2022 when 161 sold for a record $3,416,000 in gross receipts. This term, the average was $18,542, while the median was $11,000 and 77 horses reported not sold.

Foster Bridewell, Director of Horse Sales for the TTA, said of the auction, “Three of our top five offerings were Texas-breds, so that was good to see,” he said. “This was one of our largest catalogs in the history of this sale and we had buyers from several key quadrants–Kentucky, Ocala, California and across the Lone Star State.”

A Practical Topper For Al Pike

Offered as hip 122, the dark bay was purchased by Al Pike, acting as agent. The Apr. 30 foal is out of SW Jan's Perfect Star (Imperialism), dam of UAE Jebel Ali Sprint hero Road Bloc (Street Sense). The native Texan from Palestine, and his wife Salley, relocated this past summer to Highlander Training Center, outside of Dallas. A regular on the pinhooking scene, Pike frequents a bevy of juvenile sales, including OBS March, Fasig-Tipton Midlantic and the Texas 2-Year-Old In-Training Sale.

Practical Joke colt (hip 122) | Olivia Friesen/TTA Sale

Pike said he saw this yearling as an opportunity.

“This one is for me and partners,” said Pike. “I thought he was a stunning Practical Joke, beautiful horse, and I think he's going to grow to be really special. It's just the Practical Joke that sold it and he had some pedigree too. I just thought he was a beautiful colt. This will be one to pinhook for the spring and we'll probably look to go to OBS March.”

Bred by Michael and Linda Mazoch of Texas, the colt was consigned by Scott Mallory, agent.

“He came from Buena Madera and they always do an excellent job in preparing the horses for the sale,” Mallory said. “And it makes it a whole lot easier when you get to the sale because they are well presented. With the recent success of Practical Joke, we kind of thought he'd be fairly popular with the sale. He vetted good, handled himself well up there. And with Texas coming up with the $40,000 maiden special weights, we knew that would add an extra bid or two. I didn't quite think he'd bring $110,000, but I'm happy about it. We thought he'd sell well–I thought he'd sell for $70,000 or $80,000, but $110,000 is excellent.”

Vekoma Colt Takes Home Silver

Late in the session, hip 260, a chestnut colt by Vekoma, brought $90,000 from pinhooker David Scanlon. Out of Winning Saga (Tale of the Cat), the May 12 foal was raised and prepped at Elm Tree Farm in Kentucky and consigned by agent Scott Mallory, who also consigned the topper.

“This colt just showed well the whole time, he had a great disposition, he just looks like he is going to turn into a really beautiful 2-year-old and he was bred by Dr. Fred Willis from Louisiana,” said Mallory.

Competitive Edge Colt Reminds Asmussen of Ryvit

The third highest-priced yearling of the session was taken home by Steve Asmussen's KDE Equine for $85,000. Hip 24, consigned by Highlander Training, was bred by Valor Farm in Pilot Point, Texas.

Ryvit schooling at Saratoga with Erik Asmussen up | Sarah Andrew

The Feb. 16 foal is the first foal out of unraced Better Than Mo (Uncle Mo), who counts MSW More Than Most (Indygo Mountain), MSW Worldventurer (Wimbledon) and GIII Miss Preakness S. scorer Red Ghost (Ghostzapper) as half-siblings. His third dam MGISP Alysbelle (Alydar) is a full-sister to Horse of the Year Alysheba.

Asmussen indicated Monday's purchase was prompted by another Texas sale graduate, GIII Chick Lang S. victor Ryvit (Competitive Edge).

“A couple of years ago, I got Ryvit out of this sale,” explained the Hall of Famer. “I think that there are blue collar horses and they have to earn their keep. And it had everything to do that he reminded me of Ryvit. Just a very sturdy and athletic-looking horse and, hopefully, we can create a similar circumstance.”

On behalf of his client Whispering Oaks, Asmussen also purchased hip 110, a Louisiana-bred colt by Spun to Run out of SP Hilarious Brown (Big Brown) for $80,000, in addition to a dark bay filly by Competitive Edge out of Conquest Bebop (Scat Daddy) (hip 51), who also brought $80,000.

Complete sales results can be found here.

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Shoplifted, Gold Double To Stand At Valor Farm In Texas

Valor Farm is pleased to announce two new stallions, Shoplifted and Gold Double, for the 2022 breeding season, further bolstering the most accomplished stallion roster in Texas.

Shoplifted is a son of one of the breed's all-time leading sires, Into Mischief, who is on his way to topping the North American general sire list for the third consecutive year. A $525,000 yearling who sold for $800,000 as a 2-year-old, Shoplifted earned nearly $600,000 on the track while making six starts against Grade 1 competition for trainer Steve Asmussen.

Shoplifted hit the board in three of those Grade 1 races: he ran second in the Grade 1 Runhappy Hopeful Stakes in his second lifetime start and third in both in the G1 Woody Stephens Stakes and G1 H. Allen Jerkins Stakes. He also won the $400,000 Springboard Mile Stakes at Remington Park.

Shoplifted was retired from racing after finishing a close second to graded stakes winner Dennis' Moment at Keeneland in October. The 4-year-old is out of the winning Yes It's True mare Shopit. He will stand for a fee of $5,000.

Gold Double, a winning son of leading sire Medaglia d'Oro out of graded stakes winner Fiftyshadesofgold, has also been retired from racing to stand his first year at stud at Valor Farm. A homebred for Valor Farm's owner Douglas Scharbauer, Gold Double will stand for a fee of $1,000.

Gold Double hit the board in all five of his career starts, including a maiden win at Fair Grounds, and he brings a powerful pedigree to the Texas breeding program as the only known son of Medaglia d'Oro, one of the world's top stallions, standing in the state.

Gold Double is out of Texas-bred Fiftyshadesofgold, who earned $420,521 in nine starts with wins in the Debutante Stakes and G3 Eight Belles Stakes at Churchill Downs and a runner-up finish in the G2 Fair Grounds Oaks.

Gold Double's pedigree mirrors the long and successful history of Valor Farm. Fiftyshadesofgold, the 2014 Texas Horse of the Year, is by Valor stallion My Golden Song, perennially one of the leading sires in the Lone Star State. The dam of Fiftyshadesofgold, Hadif Cat, is by Hadif, who helped put Valor Farm on the map as one of Texas' top sires of the 1990s and into the 2000s. The pedigree of Fiftyshadesofgold also includes Grade 2 winner Alysbelle, a full sister to the great Kentucky Derby winner, Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer Alysheba, who was campaigned by Douglas' mother, Dorothy, and sister, Pamela, as part of the noted breeding and racing program with his father, Clarence.

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Shoplifted, Gold Double To Stand At Valor Farm

'TDN Rising Star' Shoplifted (Into Mischief–Shopit, by Yes It's True) and Gold Double (Medaglia d'Oro–Fiftyshadesofgold, by My Golden Song) will enter stud for the upcoming breeding season at Valor Farm in Texas.

Bred by Machmer Hall, Craig and Carrie Brogden, Shoplifted was a $525,000 Keeneland September yearling turned $800,000 Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream breezer and raced for Robert Clay's Grandview Equine, Everett Dobson's Cheyenne Stable and the Roth family's LNJ Foxwoods. Trained by Steve Asmussen, Shoplifted won his maiden by 4 1/2 lengths at first asking at Saratoga in 2019 and was runner-up to stablemate Basin (Liam's Map) in the GI Hopeful S. before closing out the season with a victory in the Springboard Mile S.

Also placed in the GI Woody Stephens S. and GI H. Allen Jerkens S., Shoplifted hails from the female family of GISWs Miss Shop (Deputy Minister) and Power Broker (Pulpit), MGSW Imprimis (Broken Vow) and GSW & MGISP Trappe Shot (Tapit). Shoplifted will stand for $5,000.

Gold Double, bred and owned by Valor Farm's Douglas Scharbauer, is a son of Texas-bred Fiftyshadesofgold, who carried the famed Scharbauer silks to victory in the GIII Eight Belles S. Gold Double hit the board in all five starts, including a Fair Grounds maiden win. Fiftyshadesofgold, Texas's Horse of the Year for 2014, is a daughter of Valor stallion My Golden Song, a perennial leading sire in the Lone Star State. Gold Double's female family includes Alysbelle, a full-sister to Alysheba. He will stand for $1,000.

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Competitive Edge to Valor Farm in Texas

Competitive Edge (Super Saver–Magdalena’s Chase, by Cape Town), winner of the 2014 GI Hopeful S. at Saratoga and a nationally ranked first- and second-crop sire over the past two years, was purchased by Douglas Scharbauer to stand at Valor Farm in Texas. He previously stood at Ashford Stud in Kentucky. His 2021 fee will be $5,000.

Competitive Edge, who also covered mares in the Southern Hemisphere while with Ashford, was North America’s sixth ranked first-crop sire with more than $1.3 million in progeny earnings in 2019. He is currently ranked among the Top 15 second-crop sires, with total progeny earnings of nearly $3.6 million thorough early December. He is represented by 12 stakes horses, including Saratoga stakes winners Fierce Lady and My Italian Rabbi, and graded-stakes placed Reagan’s Edge and Edgeway.

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