Seventeen years ago, at the 1997 Keeneland November sale, Glencrest Farm's John Greathouse stood out back with his brother, the late David Greathouse, and purchased a maiden stakes-winning mare named Call Her (Caller I.D.) for $82,000. The men put the mare in foal to the then-unheralded Smart Strike and sent her back through the ring the following year, only to buy her back when bidding stalled at $60,000. It would prove a hugely important decision for Glencrest, which would go on to sell over $2 million in produce out of the mare. Call Her's offspring include the Grade II winner Battle Won (Honour and Glory), a $325,000 yearling; and this year's GII Charles Town Classic upsetter Imperative(Bernardini), an $800,000 yearling.
Yesterday at November, a Glencrest-bred grandson of Call Her by the red-hot Trappe Shot (Tapit) kept the momentum going for the family, eliciting a session-topping bid of $200,000 from Chris Baccari's Baccari Bloodstock. Four Star Sales consigned the colt on behalf of Glencrest as hip 1901. Keeneland Associate Director of Sales Tom Thornbury, on the phone in the press box, handled the bidding duties for Baccari.
“We were really happy with this colt coming into the sale; he's a really nice horse,” said Glencrest's John Greathouse, Jr., who watched the bidding out back with his father. “The mare's a lovely mare, but she had some problems and we couldn't get her sold and we couldn't race her, so we bred her.”
The colt was produced by the unraced 7-year-old Irish Lullaby (Giant's Causeway), a daughter of Call Her who, in addition to Battle Won and Imperative, is also a half to MSW Nadeshiko (Honour and Glory) and SP Matched (Smart Strike).
“This colt looked a lot like his dam–she's by Giant's Causeway–and I think he'll stretch out just fine,” added John Jr.
John Sr. still remembers well what first attracted him and his brother to Call Her. “She was a pretty filly, and was a pretty good racehorse,” he said. “Stanley Hough trained her, and she ran some nice races in New York. New York was pretty tough back then. Not that it isn't now. Anyway, we used to, and still do sometimes, buy maiden mares and then put them through the ring the next year after breeding them. We didn't pull it off with her, and it worked out.”
Claiborne's Trappe Shot emerged from the yearling sales this year as a big-time talking horse after members of his first crop averaged $125,928, tops among his crop despite the fact he stood for just $10,000 in his first year at stud. His $100,000 median also led all first-crop sires.
“We own a share in Trappe Shot, and I thought he was a really fast horse,” said John Sr. “He maybe didn't want to compete against the very best around two turns, but he was a nice horse. And he's getting horses with stretch that look like they will go two turns. We're really high on him.”
John Jr. said Trappe Shot's offspring have some common characteristics. “They've got a lot of muscle to them and are well balanced, and they walk well and look like athletes,” he said. “They look quick.”
The market continues to pay well for weanlings that tick all the proverbial boxes. John Jr. said he's finding weanlings to be a hit-or-miss venture. “You're getting it all, or you're not getting anything,” he said. “We had some nice foals who just didn't quite get it done, either because of the sire or people just not landing on the horse.”
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