West Point has called my bluff. On day 2 they selected my 14th favorite horse in the Ocala sale. I was not very excited by the first few horses WP chose, but that ended when they chose:
#346 – f – Hard Spun – Veela by Bartok – 10.1 work, A++ nick, 4/16 foal, $140,000
I would guess a 5% share will cost $10,000 to $15,000. Should I invest?
Hard Spun is one of those sires I will consider, but he in certainly not a favorite. He has become more of an “any kind of horse” sire rather than just a sprint/precocious sire like his father Danzig. In a world with few good turf sires to choose from Hard Spun is acceptable.
The mare, Veela, was a solid racehorse is her brief 9 race career. She won an allowance race at Santa Anita, and had a 101 Equibase speed figure in her best race going 1 1/16 on the turf. She never ran for a claiming price, so the owner wanted to have her babies.
Veela is the daughter of an obscure Irish sire named Bartok. Bartok was the son of an Irish miler name Fairy King. FK was a very successful sire in Europe. Veela’s mom was unraced, but was the daughter of very good stamina sire Navarone. The extended family is not very exciting. Veela did not get to the races until March of her 3 year old season.
Veela has produced 3 solid horses in 7 tries. The best is How Unusual a filly that won G3 going 1 3/8 miles on the turf at Del Mar with an Equibase fig of 111. That is impressive. Veela also produced to other solid horses that each won $80,000+ as turf routers. All these runners were bred to the California sire Unusual Heat. This is really Veela’s first offspring with an accomplished Kentucky sire.
The nick is rated A++, but the results are mainly from Australia because Fairy King is an important broodmare sire is Australia. There are no US runners of this cross that have made over $100,000. The foal is a little late, April 16th.
The work was 10.1 on a day the track was playing pretty fast. That make the work OK, but not great. I would prefer a 2f work, but maybe the runout was good. The consignor is a medium size Florida operation that seems to have quite a few stamina oriented horses for sale.
This horse was one of my top 40 yearling buys. He was purchased for just $30,000 in the Keeneland yearling sale. Maybe I should be a pinhooker!
The purchase price was $140,000. That is only 4x the Hard Spun stud fee of $35,000. In today’s market, that is fair price. It might even be considered an above average value. Two other Hard Spun’s colt’s sold for $310,000 and $240,000 at this sale.
West Point had great success with a Hard Spun filly in California named Hard Not To Love. She won a G1, earned $600,000 plus and will be sold this fall in foal to Curlin. She was a $400,000 purchase as a yearling. She was better at 7f than two turns.
In many ways this horse is exactly the type of unconventional idea that interests me.
- It’s a filly, so maybe the risk is a little less if there is some residual value
- The breeding is obscure enough that not everyone will understand it
- The mare has produced a 1 3/8 mile turf stakes winner, you will not find that in 90% of the horses bought by partnerships.
- The price paid is reasonable, maybe even good.
Buying A Race Horse 