Day 1 Rethought

If I had walked into Day 1 of the Fasig-Tipton sale with a real $50,000 budget, I would have been thrilled to walk out with Hip #185.

I love the Midnight Storm story. I love the pedigree I get from Ghostzapper and Hansel on the dam side. I know the May 31 birthday will make this filly slow to mature, but that is ok by me. Maybe there will be something better at Keeneland next week, but why wait. I got the sire I wanted, and the stamina pedigree to back it up for 3.5x a low stud fee. This would be a mare that I be happy to breed for many years.

If I had a reliable bloodstock agent tell me this horse had a decent appearance and a clean set of x-rays, this would have been a very affordable horse. She is on the small side, but let’s see what she looks like in 4 months.

Even if I had walked in with $100,000 I would have been excited with this horse and room to buy another.

You just have to face the reality that half the horses you want are not really available. This is frustrating, but not insurmountable.

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Back in the real world I gave the West Point purchase of the Street Sense colt some more thought. I think I will call and get more details.

I view Street Sense as one of those sires that is just too expensive at $75,000, but maybe he should at least be at the top of my too expensive list. His pedigree has an interesting tie to His Majesty. Street Cry, his father, certainly has a euro-pedigree to admire. Maybe Street Sense gets a little overlooked. His median yearling sold for only $125,000 last year. I always viewed him as a precocity sire because of his BC Juvenile win, but he has plenty of stamina in his pedigree as well.

The female side of the West Point purchase is not all that exciting. Giant’s Causeway, Seeking the Gold, and AP Indy are all great broodmare sires, but there is no racing ability to speak of. The dam won only a $16,000 maiden claimer, and the 2nd dam won only a MSW at Finger Lakes.

In fact you could view this pedigree as almost a classic ANTI-RESULTS pedigree. Why pay up for tangible results like Grade 1 wins, when you can get great pedigree for a cheaper price. I will have to give this some thought, but it similar to what Starlight and Donegal were doing.

You can tell this is also a very strong looking individual just glancing at the walking video.