Harlan's Holiday Colt Fastest in Timonium

TIMONIUM, Md – A colt by Harlan's Holiday was the fastest furlong worker of Wednesday's second session of the under-tack preview for next week's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale when he tied the mark of :10 flat set by two workers in Timonium during Tuesday's first session. Hip 371 is out of the unraced Awesome Maneuver (Awesome Again), a half-sister to graded stakes winners Cat Fighter (Storm Cat) and Ishiguru (Danzig), and recorded his :10 flat work during the day's first set.

The dark bay colt is consigned to the sale by Justin Casse's Casse Sales on behalf of Fletcher Mauk's Small Batch Thoroughbreds. Small Batch purchased the youngster for $100,000 out of last year's Fasig-Tipton October sale.

It was the second bullet breeze of the under-tack show for Casse, who sent out hip 6, a colt by Shackleford, to work in :10 flat Tuesday on behalf of Kinsman Farm. While obviously enjoying the double bullet, Casse was quick to give credit to his clients.

“Fletcher bought the Harlan's Holiday and the horse has been training with Jimbo and Torie Gladwell in Ocala,” Casse said of the Wednesday's bullet worker. “The horse prepped well before he left the farm and he prepped well here the other day. So after the horse yesterday, who was trained at Kinsman Farm, I thought this horse had a good chance of going equally fast.”

Casse added, “I can't take credit for what these horses did here because they have only been under my care for seven days. It's just a blessing to work with very good horsemen.”

Also working early in Wednesday's session of the under-tack show, hip 310, a colt from the first crop of GII Louisiana Derby winner Mission Impazible (Unbridled's Song), earned the quarter-mile bullet when he worked in :21 3/5. Consigned by Sergio Centeno's Blue River Bloodstock, the New York-bred is out of stakes-placed Voodoo's Argument (Closing Argument).

“I expected he would work good because he's shown me a lot of talent at the farm,” the Florida-based Centeno said of the $20,000 OBS August yearling.

Centeno has been consigning under the name Blue River for about 10 years, but this year's sale will mark his Midlantic debut.

“This is the first time I'm selling in Maryland,” Centeno, who pinhooks some 35-40 juveniles a year both for himself and for clients, said. “I've got some New York-breds and this is the right place to sell New York-breds. I'm just trying something different. I've been selling in Ocala and I thought I would go out of town and try my luck.”

Blue River consigned subsequent stakes winner Conquest Whiplash (Hear No Evil) to the 2013 OBS April sale, where she sold for $370,000 to Conquest Stables.

Wicked Rich Proving Wicked Fast

One of the surprising stars of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic under-tack show so far is the little-known stallion Wicked Rich (Yes It's True). South Carolina-based consignor Wes Carter brought six juveniles by the sire to Timonium and, of the five to breeze so far, three have gone in :21 4/5 and one (hip 85) shared Tuesday's bullet time of :21 3/5. All were bred by Carter in New Jersey.

Carter purchased Wicked Rich, on behalf of Carolyn Vogel's Crossed Sabres Farm, for $120,000 at the 2007 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The bay RNA'd for $150,000 at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale before winning two of nine starts under the Crossed Sabres colors.

“I bought him for Carolyn Vogel's Crossed Sabres Farm,” Carter confirmed Wednesday. “He raced four or five times with Seth Benzel in New York to start with and then we sent him to Kenny McPeek and he won two races at Churchill Downs. Then he came back to New York to run and in his second work, he had a bullet work and after the wire he fractured his cannon bone, got a condylar fracture. We put screws in it and Ms. Vogel just wanted someplace for him to go and she gave him to me.”

Wicked Rich was originally scheduled to begin his stud career in New York, but after that deal fell through, Carter went to Plan B.

“I've been looking to get a few of them out there racing before I stood him,” Carter explained. “Being that he only made $70 grand, I didn't figure anyone would be wanting to pay much of stud fee.”

By Yes It's True out of an Affirmed mare, Carter thinks Wicked Rich has an ideal pedigree for a stallion prospect.

“What I like about him as a stallion is that he doesn't have any Mr. Prospector in him,” Carter said. “And he has Northern Dancer, but it's like his fourth dam's sire. He's Bold Ruler and he crosses really well with all the popular breeding.”

Carter admitted he “backed into” the mares he bred to Wicked Rich. The dam of hip 85, Mom's Honor (Hold That Tiger), was given to him by a friend. Hip 269 is out of Swimmer (Rock Slide). “I raised Swimmer and she didn't get to do anything at the races and her momma had two foals and they're just kind of farm pets,” Carter admitted. And of Waiting to Connect (Black Tie Affair {Ire}), the dam of hip 312, Carter said, “The guy couldn't pay the training bills, so we ended up with her.”

“I just bred him to the kind of cross that I needed,” Carter said. “So Mr. Prospector or some Storm Cat that is popular, but is too concentrated in horses today. The biggest soundness issues with horses today is that they are inbred so badly. And Richie, he's an outcross. He's Bold Ruler line on top a couple of times. And he's Bold Ruler on the bottom. He's got Raise a Native on the bottom, but it's far enough back that he gets a little bit of in-breeding to Mr. Prospector, but not overly so. And Northern Dancer on his very bottom side where it's not overloading on Northern Dancer.”

Wicked Rich had 10 foals in his first crop, now three, led by Asheepoo, a maiden winner out of Waiting to Connect. Carter's Midlantic draft is the stallion's entire current crop of juveniles. Carter sees some similarities between the sire and his progeny.

“They are quite like him,” he said. “He had a lot of speed, but he won at a mile and a mile and a sixteenth on the turf. These babies have his intelligence and they are showing all kinds of speed. And they are doing it handily. They're just fast and they stay sound. They have a lot of heart–they'll run their guts out and I like that about a horse.”

Carter is hoping his consignment will lead to bigger and better things for Wicked Rich.

“Once I get these guys out there and people can see how they run, then I can send him to New York and stand him for $5,000 or $6,000,” Carter said. “I figure if people see how these babies perform with not much momma, they're going to really want to send the good mares to him. If he can get some good mares, then he'll really set the woods on fire.”