The Fasig-Tipton July Selected Yearling Sale opened with a bang July 9 when the first horse through the ring, Hip 1, sold for $220,000 to John Stewart of Resolute Bloodstock. The dark bay colt by Maxfield out of Abundant Flurry (Midshipman ) was consigned by Legacy Bloodstock, agent.
Jorge V. Gonzalez purchased the colt at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale for $13,000 out of the Lothenbach Dispersal of Breeding Stock & Yearlings. Tuesday’s sale was the largest pinhooking success of Gonzalez’s 20-year horse racing career.
“It was very hard to process because I wanted to stay calm. My heart raced like, it started racing like a horse. I was saying to myself, calm down,” Gonzalez said. “I thought that he was going to be really, really popular. I had always faith that he was going to bring good money.”
Multiple grade 1 winner Maxfield, a first-crop yearling sire, stands at Darley Stallions near Lexington. His 2024 published stud fee is $35,000.
“Well, I always liked powerful horses, big horses,” Gonzalez said. “And Maxfield being a first sire it’s already attractive. That’s what the market is looking for, so that’s what I was hoping, what I was focusing on. And thinking on that, the horse, he was a nice, beautiful individual himself when I picked him.
“I thought he was gonna need just some time and proper care, and he will do the rest.”
Jorge V. Gonzalez at Fasig-Tipton’s The July Sale
Gonzalez, originally from Mexico, resides in Ocala, Fla.
“I started as a groom. Then I own some horses. I’ve been riding for a long time also, and training,” Gonzalez said. “This is what I wanted to do for a living. I have a great satisfaction to see a horse that is happy, healthy, strong, and can go a long way.”
Sale’s Only Filly by Not This Time Brings $320,000
Aidan and Hannah Jennings’ Killora Stud bred Hip 199, a bay filly by leading fifth-crop sire Not This Time out of Mo Champagne (Uncle Mo ), hoping to see her sell well and to a racing outfit. They got both wishes when Flying Dutchmen, an entity associated with Travis Boersma’s Boardshorts Stables, bought her for $320,000. Consigned by Padraig Campion’s Blandford Stud, she was the sale’s highest-priced filly.
“She was attractive, moved very well, and had a lot of presence about her. We thought she was a bit special,” said Campion. “We’re confident we’ll do well for (Boardshorts Stables). They are a good group that is doing it right and buying nice horses. We sold a Good Magic to them at this sale last year. When you are a breeder, that is what you want.”
Not This Time is a son of Giant’s Causeway standing at Taylor Made Stallions near Nicholasville, Ky. To date, he has sired 34 black-type horses, including grade 1 winner and 2022 champion 3-year-old colt Epicenter . Not This Time has been the leader of his sire class by progeny earnings since their second-crop year in 2021. His published stud fee is $150,000.
Hip 199’s second dam to the bay filly is stakes-placed Champagne Royale (French Deputy), the dam of grade 1 winners Majestic Harbor and Danza.
McPeek Buys McKinzie Colt for $275,000
Trainer Ken McPeek, agent, went to $275,000 to land Hip 114, a son of freshman sire McKinzie from Gainesway’s consignment.
Bred in Kentucky by Prairie Vista Partners, the McKinzie colt is out of the stakes-placed Medaglia d’Oro mare Bridgette Bordeaux, who has produced four winners from six starters, including stakes-placed Elusive d’Oro (Elusive Quality).
Bloodstock agent Davant Latham and partners pinhooked Hip 114 out of the 2023 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale for $85,000.
“I’m very happy for all our partners. That was a great sale, a tremendous sale,” Latham said. “We bought him from James Keogh’s consignment, and he was bred by Jay and Cami Brunker, who are friends.
“He came to this sale right. Gainesway did their usual fantastic job preparing the horse for the sale, and it’s a compliment anytime Kenny buys a horse from you, because he has got such a good eye.”
Davant Latham
Latham said he is a fan of McKinzie, so much that he was willing to pinhook from his second crop, which brings into play a timeframe when market opinion of freshman stallions can be in flux.
“I was really impressed with him as a racehorse—he was a grade 1 winner at 2, 3, and 4—and the physicals he was throwing in his first crop,” Latham said. “It’s always difficult to buy weanlings of first-year stallions, and even though this colt was from his second crop, I was so impressed with his first crop I had no worries about buying him.”
Brian Graves of Gainesway, which stands McKinzie ($30,000 stud fee in 2024), said he is encouraged by the market’s continued positive reception and what he is hearing about his runners at the track.
“(Hip 141) was a typical McKinzie, a really leggy horse that was streamlined with a good neck and shoulder … a good-moving athletic horse,” Graves said. “McKinzie didn’t break his maiden ’til October, and I think his yearlings could be similar types. They are leggy and long and probably can run a distance of ground. It will probably take a little time to get those long legs running, but I think people know they’re going to be around sooner or later.
“Tons of quality 2-year-olds by him were traded, and lot of trainers I have talked to think they have good ones in their barns.”
High-Quality $350,000 Vekoma Colt bought for Racing
Partners Siena Farm, China Horse Club, and Maverick Racing teamed up again, this time on Hip 234, a chestnut colt by freshman sire Vekoma that was purchased for $350,000 out of Lane’s End’s consignment. As of July 9, Vekoma leads the freshman sire standings by progeny earnings ($459,153) and by number of winners (10). As a racehorse, Vekoma was a millionaire whose wins included the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) and Carter Handicap (G1).
The Vekoma colt consigned as Hip 234 at the F-T July Sale
The colt, bred in Florida by H & E Ranch, is out of the Scat Daddy mare Scamper, who has already produced stakes winner Alogon , by California Chrome .
“He is a real pretty colt with a lot of quality and great movement,” said Elliott Walden, who is with Maverick, the buying arm of WinStar Farm. “He was our favorite horse in the sale. It is early days on Vekoma, but he has gotten off to a nice start and hopefully, they continue on. We really like the physical.”
Hip 234 will get his early training at WinStar Farm’s training center.
“We love getting to see them every day and had great success with horses like Timberlake, Life Is Good, and Justify. None of them left Kentucky,” Walden said.
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