Value can be found at every level of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, and in the “Treasure Hunting” series, we'll be examining successful graduates of the bellwether auction who sold below the median price of their particular session.
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.
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If you appreciate our work, you can support us by subscribing to our Patreon stream. Learn more.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.
