HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Fasig-Tipton hosted the under-tack show for its Gulfstream Selected 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale under bright sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s Monday in South Florida. A total of 11 juveniles shared the fastest furlong time of :10 flat, while a filly by Orb was the quickest of seven to drill a quarter-mile when she completed the distance in :21 flat.
“We had a really good day,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. “Conditions were fair throughout, the track was very consistent from beginning to end and conditions were very similar from beginning to end. The horses seemed to breeze really well consistently across the board.”
Gulfstream’s grandstand was crowded with a wide swathe of potential buyers, from overseas shoppers, to trainers, bloodstock agent and prominent owners. Among conditioners in attendance were Mark Casse, Steve Asmussen, Jonathan Thomas, Wesley Ward, Ken McPeek, Kiaran McLaughlin, Barclay Tagg, Chad Brown and Patrick Biancone. Bloodstock agents in attendance included Alex Solis, Patti Miller, Tom McGreevy, Jamie McCalmont, Marette Farrell, Donato Lanni, Pete Bradley, David Loder, Kerri Radcliffe, Patrick Lawley-Wakelin, Hubert Guy, Kim Valerio, Deuce Greathouse, Ben McElroy, Jacob West and Jane Buchanan.
Larry Best, whose OXO Equine LLC purchased the $1.5-million topper at last year’s Gulfstream sale, watched the breezes Monday, as did Stonestreet owner Barbara Banke and WinStar Farm President Elliott Walden. Bob LaPenta’s racing manager John Panagot was in attendance, as well as Little Red Feather Racing’s Billy Koch and Gainesway’s Brian Graves.
Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree Stables sent out 17 juveniles to work over the Gulfstream oval Monday and came away with five of the 11 fastest furlong workers on the day.
“For the most part we were happy,” Dunne said of his day. “We had a lot of very solid breezes. There were one or two we thought might have gone a hair better, but when you’ve got that many of them, nothing ever goes totally the way you want. But for the most part, they showed up like we thought they would.”
Steve Venosa’s SGV Thoroughbreds sent out five horses to work Monday and came away with a bullet worker and four horses who went in :10 1/5. Venosa agreed conditions remained consistent throughout the under-tack show.
“We had five horses here, so we had one horse in each set and they each went up there and all worked equally,” Venosa said. “I don’t think there was really any difference from the first set to the last set.”
SGV’s bullet worker was hip 31, a New York-bred colt by Scat Daddy. The juvenile is out of Sanford Bacon’s homebred multiple stakes winner Risky Rachel (Limehouse) and it’s a family Venosa knows well.
“We had that horse’s mother on the farm,” Venosa explained. “We ran her off the farm over at Tampa Bay Downs and she broke the track record over there. With the help of some people, we were able to get her to Scat Daddy. We had the foal up in New York and the colt has been on our farm since he was a weanling. He’s been a pleasure to be around. It’s kind of unique that we were able to train the mother and then to have the son come here and perform the way he did. They both have a lot of stretch, a lot of size, but the best quality is his mind. They both have the same mind and nothing but class.”
Heading into Wednesday’s auction, activity at the barns has already been brisk, according to Dunne.
“The traffic has been really good,” he said. “We’ve been showing throughout the week. It seems like the usual faces are here and a few different ones and a lot of overseas buyers. So I think they’ll have the market. It’s just a question of having what they want. It’s going to be the same thing, between the works and the vets and the gallop-outs and the inspections, there are a lot of bridges to cross. The ones that fall into the patterns they are looking for, will sell really, really well. Hopefully there are enough guys who are willing to think outside the box a little bit and give a horse a chance or measure their buying to their budget. Just from my perspective, having been here throughout the week watching horses train, I think there are a lot of really nice horses here. Hopefully they are received that way.”
The Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale will be held Wednesday in the track’s paddock beginning at 3 p.m.