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 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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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, 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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The son of Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver previously stood at Ashford Stud in Kentucky. His 2021 fee will be $5,000. 

Bred by WinStar Farm LLC and sold for $750,000 as a 2-year-old, Competitive Edge broke his maiden at first asking by more than 10 lengths at Saratoga Race Course. Then in just his second career start, he romped to a 5 3/4-length win in the historic Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes, also at Saratoga.  

His win streak continued as a 3-year-old, when in consecutive starts he won the Tamarac Stakes at Gulfstream Park and the G3 Pat Day Mile Stakes at Churchill Downs, stopping the timer at 1:34.18. All told, he earned $519,280 on the track. 

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, Grade 2- and Grade 3-placed Reagan's Edge and Grade 3-placed Edgeway. 

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Congaree (Arazi–Mari’s Sheba, by Arazi), a Grade I winner at seven, eight, nine and 10 furlongs, was euthanized due to the infirmities of old age Nov. 22, according to a release from Valor Farm in Texas. He was 22 years old.

Congaree was owned and bred by the late Robert McNair and his wife Janice’s Stonerside Farm and barely survived his foaling, weighing in at a sizeable 152 pounds, suffering several broken ribs in the ordeal.

Eventually put into training with Bob Baffert, Congaree won the 2001 GII Wood Memorial S. and was third in the GI Kentucky Derby after setting a blistering pace. His one-mile split remains the second-fastest in the history of the race. Third to his stablemate Point Given (Thunder Gulch) in the GI Preakness S., Congaree would go on to win the GI Swaps S. later that season. The chestnut added a second Grade I in the 2002 GI Cigar Mile H., and after missing by a head in the 2003 GI Santa Anita H., cut back to seven furlongs to annex the GI Carter H. He defeated Harlan’s Holiday by three lengths in the GI Hollywood Gold Cup over a mile and a quarter and became the only two-time winner of the Cigar Mile later that year, scoring by 5 1/4 lengths. He was one of just a handful of horses retained by the McNairs after they sold the majority of their Thoroughbred holdings and farm to Sheikh Mohammed in 2008.

Initially retired to Adena Springs, Congaree was later transferred to New York and ultimately Texas. He is the sire of 13 stakes winners to date, six at the graded level, includine Grade I winners Jeranimo, Don’t Tell Sophia and Killer Graces.

“Congaree was such a special horse,” said Janice McNair. “I am so grateful for all the many happy memories Congaree gave us. He was so unique, and had the most loving personality. He was a delight to be around, and it was always such a thrill to watch him run. Congaree was truly the horse of a lifetime for us.”

Added John Adger, longtime advisor to the McNairs: “Congaree was the epitome of what we hoped to accomplish with the Stonerside breeding program. It was fitting he

was our first Grade I homebred, as his dam and granddam were part of the purchase of the Elmendorf broodmare band of Jack Kent Cooke in 1997–an acquisition we considered the cornerstone of the breeding program. Congaree, in fact, earned back nearly the entire cost of that investment with his race

earnings. He always gave 100% in every race. He was an Eclipse Award finalist three times–Horse of the Year, Champion Sprinter, and Champion Older Horse.”

Congaree has been laid to rest in the cemetery at Valor Farm, shared by many of the great horses owned and raced by the Scharbauer family. Doug Scharbauer purchased Valor Farm from the estate of his late father Clarence in 2016.

WATCH: Congaree wins his second consecutive Cigar Mile in 2003

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Owned by Janice McNair, who, with her late husband Bob, bred and raced Congaree in the name of their Stonerside Stable, Congaree was one of a handful of horses the McNairs retained after selling their farm, training center, and bloodstock to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum in October of 2008 in order to devote more time to their NFL franchise, the Houston Texans.

“Congaree was such a special horse,” said Janice McNair. “I am so grateful for all the many happy memories Congaree gave us. He was so unique, and had the most loving personality. He was a delight to be around, and it was always such a thrill to watch him run. Congaree was truly the horse of a lifetime for us.”

Trained by Bob Baffert, the chestnut son of Arazi out of Mari's Sheba raced 25 times, from age two to age six, including an amazing streak of 22 consecutive starts in graded stakes, beginning with a win in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial in 2001 in his stakes debut. Overall, Congaree won five Grade 1 stakes, from seven to 10 furlongs, and five other graded stakes, while placing in another six, including the 2001 Kentucky Derby and Preakness. His time for the one-mile split in the Derby remains the co-second fastest mile in the classic's history. Congaree also ran the fastest dirt mile in North America in 2002, winning the G1 Cigar Mile Handicap at Aqueduct in 1:33.11. He came back to win that race again in 2003 and remains the only two-time winner of the Cigar Mile. Congaree was undefeated at Aqueduct, winning three Grade 1s and a Grade 2. Overall, he competed at ten tracks in five states coast to coast.

“He was just a special horse,” said Baffert. “We had gotten to know the McNairs after training Chilukki for them, but it was through Congaree that we really got to know the whole family, and we made some great memories. Congaree was a really fast horse, and could carry his speed. His Kentucky Derby performance was one of the best, he set a blistering pace for the mile and hung in gamely. Another race that stands out in my memory was his Hollywood Gold Cup win in 2003. He just destroyed the competition. We raced all over the country with him, and it was just so much fun to show up with a horse like Congaree.

“First time I saw him, he really caught my eye,” Baffert continued. “I was looking at all these well-bred yearlings at Stonerside and saw him in a paddock nearby, and I said 'Wow, can I take that chestnut? I'll trade you back one of these Danzigs for him.' He didn't have the most perfect conformation, but he made up for it with heart. He was a real noble horse, sweet, kind, just a great personality.”

Congaree barely survived a difficult birth, presenting at 152 pounds – well above average size, especially for a first foal. Sickly and confined to stall rest due to several broken ribs, he quickly became a staff favorite with his friendly personality. Janice McNair remembers feeding him peppermints on the many visits to Kentucky the couple made from their Houston home.

“Congaree loved his peppermints and knew what the rattle of a candy wrapper meant at an early age. He especially seemed to bond with my husband Bob. The two had a special connection, and I know Bob got tremendous joy watching him run. He was such a character, just a very special horse.”

Retired to stud at Adena Springs in Kentucky, he was later moved to New York and eventually to Texas. In total, Congaree has sired 13 stakes winners from 317 starters, including six graded or group winners, with Irish highweighted filly Maoineach and Grade 1 winners Jeranimo ($1,525,364), Don't Tell Sophia ($1,382,479), and Killer Graces among his leading runners. As a broodmare sire, his daughters include the dams of Grade 2 winner and classics-placed Homerique and 2020 Group 3 winner New Treasure (IRE).

“Congaree was the epitome of what we hoped to accomplish with the Stonerside breeding program,” said John Adger, longtime racing and bloodstock manager for the McNairs. “It was fitting he was our first Grade 1 homebred, as his dam and granddam were part of the purchase of the Elmendorf broodmare band of Jack Kent Cooke in 1997 – an acquisition we considered the cornerstone of the breeding program. Congaree, in fact, earned back nearly the entire cost of that investment with his race earnings. He always gave 100 percent in every race. He was an Eclipse Award finalist three times – Horse of the Year, champion sprinter, and champion older horse.”

“Congaree had so much class,” said Ken Carson, general manager of Valor Farm. “He was a pleasure to be around, an easy-going horse who certainly loved his mints.”

“I am very grateful to all the people who played a part in his life – all our Stonerside staff, Bob Baffert and his team, our friends and family who traveled the country with us to watch him race, and to his many loyal fans who reached out to us over the years,” said Janice McNair. “He's been at two great farms here in Texas – first Will Farish's Lane's End Texas under the excellent care of Danny Shifflett, then after Lane's End closed, we were fortunate to be able to move him to Douglas Scharbauer's Valor Farm. We are especially grateful to Farm Manager Donny Denton and the entire crew at Valor for the wonderful care they have given Congaree. We are honored that he has been buried in the cemetery at Valor alongside so many of the great horses owned by the Scharbauer family.”

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