Setting the 'Tone' at Gulfstream

4th-GPX, $42,000, Msw, 3yo, 1 1/8m, 1:50 1/5, ft. 
TONALIST, c, 3, by Tapit 
1st Dam: Settling Mist, by Pleasant Colony 
2nd Dam: Toll Fee, by Topsider 
3rd Dam: Toll Booth, by Buckpasser 
   Tonalist finished fourth on debut behind two fellow Tapits, Matterhorn and Harpoon, going a mile at the Big A Nov. 16. Adding blinkers and Lasix for this second attempt, the 7-2 shot was hard ridden from his rail draw, but took up a mid-pack spot down the backside while kept off the inside by Joe Bravo. Unleashing a premature bid five wide around the home turn, the lanky bay steadily advanced on the leader Global Strike (Smart Strike) and put a neck in front of that rival entering the lane. Global Strike clawed back the lead briefly, but Tonalist proved more determined and eventually put away his stubborn foe to level off nicely and earn his diploma by four lengths. According to Trakus data, Tonalist covered 27 feet more than the runner-up, which equates to a difference of approximately 3.18 lengths. Sales history: $195,000 RNA yrl '12 FTSAUG. Lifetime Record: 2-1-0-0, $28,950. Click for the brisnet.com chart, VIDEO or the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. 
O-Robert S Evans. B-Woodslane Farm (KY). T-Christophe Clement. 
 
   At the Keeneland November sale in the fall of 2007, Patrick Lawley-Wakelin went to $800,000 on behalf of the Middleburg, Virginia-based Woodslane Farm of Rene and Loren Wolcott to acquire then 8-year-old mare Settling Mist (Pleasant Colony) carrying a foal by Claiborne's Seeking the Gold, fully 22 years old at the time and nearing the end of his stallion career. 
   “We knew she was carrying a filly, and fillies by Seeking the Gold were at a premium at the time,” Lawley-Wakelin recalled. “Additionally, the mare is by Pleasant Colony and she had an outstanding pedigree.” 
Indeed, Settling Mist was a full-sister to The Bink (Seeking the Gold), the dam of treble Grade I winner Riskaverse (Dynaformer) and GSW Cozzy Corner (Cozzene). Further down the pedigree is Broodmare of the Year Toll Booth (Buckpasser), the dam of champion Plugged Nickle (Key to the Mint), and she is also a half-sister to a mare called Easter Bunnette (Carson City). More on that later. 
   Settling Mist foaled a Smart Strike filly in addition to the Seeking the Gold filly, neither of which was a rousing commercial success before producing a colt by Gainesway's Tapit in February 2011. The Wolcotts send their mares to be cared at Wayne Sweezey's Timber Town, and the colt was prepared for the 2012 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga August yearling sale. 
   “[Tonalist] had a lot of leg, but I think he's a good product of both the sire and mare,” Lawley-Wakelin commented. “[Settling Mist] is a big strong mare, typical of a daughter of Pleasant Colony, and to me you can't go too wrong with a daughter of Pleasant Colony.” 
   Sweezey always believed he had his hands on something good, but nature intervened. 
   “He was always a big and scopey horse, but somewhere around March or April of that year, he went through one of those growth spurts and kind of got a little awkward,” Sweezey explained. “We had him up there at Saratoga and we ended up buying him back [$195,000], but Shel Evans had a few horses in our consignment and we ended up getting him sold.” 
   That Evans would be interested was not a surprise. Evans's father Thomas Mellon Evans raced the 17-hands Pleasant Colony to victories in the 1981 GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S. before finihing third in the GI Belmont S. en route to championship honors. Shel Evans spent plenty of time around Pleasant Colony as a youngster, and, as it turned out, Tonalist embodied some of the traits of his broodmare sire while domiciled at Saratoga in the summer of 2012. 
   “Whenever we would put Tonalist back in his stall, he'd take a few nips of hay and then lay down and sleep,” Sweezey explained. “Pleasant Colony did exactly the same thing, and I think that since Shel was around the barn so much and saw that, it may have contributed to his buying the horse.” 
   Evans has also had a reasonable amount of success with daughters of Pleasant Colony. Evans bred and raced Pleasant Colony's daughter Shared Interest to a a victory in the GI Ruffian H. in 1993, and she went on to a successful career as a broodmare, producing Grade I winners Forestry (Storm Cat) and Cash Run (Seeking the Gold). 
   Settling Mist has a 2-year-old filly of 2014 named Settle 'n Speight (Speightstown). The mare, whose half-sister Easter Bunnette produced Horse of the Year Havre de Grace (Saint Ballado), was sold privately to owner Charles Fipke in 2012 and produced a colt by Fipke's Tale of Ekati (Tale of the Cat) in 2013. –Alan Carasso