Donworth the Star Turn at KEENOV

When last seen up the hill over at the Keeneland main track, 'TDN Rising Star' Donworth (Tiznow), making just the second start of his career, was a gallant runner-up in the GII Coolmore Lexington S. carrying the colors of Nat Rea's Regis Farms. The handsome colt, offered by Three Chimneys as hip 3324 during Tuesday's ninth session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, not surprisingly proved the dearest offering of the session, as Dennis O'Neill signed the winning ticket at $550,000 on behalf of J. Paul Reddam.

Previously trained by Graham Motion, Donworth overcame a rough trip to graduate at first asking at Gulfstream Park Mar. 14 and gave an excellent account of himself in the Lexington, finishing three lengths in back of the more experienced Divining Rod (Tapit). Third in the Sir Barton S. on the GI Preakness S. undercard May 16, he was last seen running away with an off-turf renewal of the Stanton S. at Delaware Park June 20.

“You know, being a TDN Rising Star, a stakes winner by 11 lengths and graded-stakes placed, he was a horse that attracted a lot of interest,” commented Three Chimneys' Case Clay. “There were a lot of people on him through the $500,000 level and Dennis O'Neill was the winner. He is doing very well, been galloping on the farm. He's had a lot of scopes and I had him appraised in the $300-600,000 range. You never know when you have a dispersal with horses selling without reserve exactly where they are going to fall. He is just a gorgeous individual, very good looking, he showed well and was very popular.” (ThoroStride video)

For Reddam, the purchase comes 10 days following the victory of Nyquist (Uncle Mo) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

“We are very, very excited to get him and we'll bring him right out to California and try to get him ready,” said O'Neill, whose brother Doug will handle the training duties. “We watched his replays and he was very impressive. Graham Motion is a very conservative trainer, so for him to run that horse in the Lexington second time out was outstanding and gave us confidence. He's a horse that looks like he was getting better and better, he's got a beautiful pedigree and we hope he'll develop into a prominent older horse. We had him valued in the $600,000 range, so we hope we made a wise purchase.”

O'Neill estimates Donworth is 6-8 weeks away from a breeze, while races like the GII San Fernando S. and GI Santa Anita H. loom early-season targets if all goes well, he said.

“He may even make a grass horse down the line. The Tiznows can handle that and he's got a nice female family for it.”

Out of the GISP Temple Street (Street Cry {Ire}), Donworth hails from the extended female family of GI Canadian International S. winner Marsh Side (Gone West).

Eclipse Finds Their Rhythm

By his own admission, Aron Wellman scours the results from racetracks the world over in search of racing prospects for his Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. However, Wellman had never purchased a horse of racing age at public auction, a fact which changed in the blink of an eye Tuesday afternoon at Keeneland. Wellman was extended to $335,000 for hip 3321, recent Keeneland maiden winner Cowboy Rhythm (Tapit) from the annual WinStar Racing draft.

“He is a lightly raced colt by Tapit who has shown considerable talent in each of his races and we believe there is a lot of upside,” Wellman commented. “He has a stallion-making pedigree and is very good looking, so when you put the whole package together and the fact that he's got all his conditions ahead of him, he's very attractive addition to our stable.”

Wellman confirmed that the athletic gray colt will be turned over to trainer Todd Pletcher, but for the time being, they will not be in any particular hurry, despite the iron being hot.

“One thing we've noticed with horses that look ready and ripe to go on, sometimes the stress of the sale will dull them a little bit and this colt–he was probably shown 100-150 times–so the one thing we don't want to do is jam him up. It would appear on paper that he is ready to run, but we'll probably try to show constraint and send him to Todd's base at Palm Beach Downs and recharge him and map out a future. He has the perfect foundation to work with and last thing we want to do is get too far ahead of ourselves.”

Given the broad success his sire has had, Wellman was over the moon to take Cowboy Rhythm home.

“This is uncharted territory for us and it's hard to understand where the market is, but we definitely believe there was value in the hammer price,” he explained “The fact that he was three turning four maybe took some of the shine off the apple and we see a lot of upside with this colt. If he was two turning three, maybe you add another zero to the price. Hopefully he will be postured to jump into graded stales company soon. If he does, we could have a stallion on our hands.”

Walden Pleased With WinStar Draft

This year's draft of horses of racing age from WinStar Farm had a tough act to follow, given the on-track performance of the 2014 graduates. Barbados (Speightstown), who topped last year's consignment on a bid of $340,000 from Paul Hanifl's Suzanne Stables, had a strong 2015 season, with victories in the Spectacular Bid S. in his first start under new ownership followed by the GIII Hutcheson S. Race Day (Tapit) fetched $285,000 from owner Matt Schera, and the gray colt became a treble graded winner this term, with tallies in the GIII Razorback H., the GII Oaklawn H. and, most recently, the GII Fayette S. on Breeders' Cup Friday. The draft of WinStar horses Tuesday at Keeneland realized gross receipts of $1,444,500 for 26 horses, and WinStar President and CEO Elliott Walden pronounced himself pleased with the results.

“I thought it went well, there was plenty of action, lots of vetting and I thought there was a lot of competitive bidding,” he explained. “Cowboy Rhythm was obviously our best and I thought he sold reasonably well and was a very good buy at that price.”

The WinStar draft has become a fixture of week two at the November sale, and Walden shed some light on the philosophy behind the undertaking.

“It gives us a chance to evaluate horses all year and this sale comes at a time when were turning over some horses and this give us the opportunity to raise some capital to reinvest. We bought a bunch of mares and this sort of gives us a chance to keep us moving ahead.”

On the current state of the market, Walden added, “[The 2015] sales have been solid, numbers have been good, and on the heels of the Breeders' Cup, it's been really positive and healthy without being crazy.”

With three days remaining in the sale, the cumulative average stands at $108,285, an improvement of 12.2% over last year. The median of $45,000 remains unchanged. The November Sale continues Wednesday at 10 a.m. For full results, please vist www.keeneland.com.