Better Than Honour

4th-BEL, $90K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6 1/2f, post time: 2:20 p.m. ET Vegso Racing Stable homebred CELESTIAL (Quality Road), a full-sister to champion 2-year-old filly and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies heroine Caledonia Road, kicks off her career for Hall of Famer Bill Mott. She RNA'd for $700,000 as a FTKSEL yearling last year and is drawn widest of all in post nine. Magnier, Tabor, Smith and Westerberg's Sweet as Pie (Tapit), a $490,000 FTKSEL yearling produced by a full-sister to GISW Streaming (Smart Strike), debuts for Hall of Famer...

Every year, like the fireflies, they emerge with the gathering heat of summer. Even as the more established sophomores hobble out of the Triple Crown series--many requiring rest or recuperation, some even menaced by retirement--a second wave reliably reinvigorates the crop. Sure enough, in recent days a couple of new names have volunteered themselves to test the resilience of those Classic protagonists who do persevere to Saratoga and beyond. But while both share a fresh, progressive profile, in other respects they could scarcely be more different. 'TDN Rising Star' First...

While it remains too early to acclaim a masterpiece in the making, even these first, bold brushstrokes have plainly been mixed from an unusually vivid genetic palette. And if Cezanne (Curlin) can complete the canvas the way he has started, with a confident new flourish in the GIII Kona Gold S. last weekend, then he could become an exhibit for one of the principal galleries of the modern breed. Happily it has the most discerning of curators in John Sikura, who has been devotedly cultivating this family--Cezanne's third dam is...

6th-SA, $50K, Msw, 3yo/up, 6 1/2f, 6:03 p.m. ET CEZANNE (Curlin), the second-highest-priced 2-year-old to sell at public auction when bringing $3.65 million (:10) at last year's Fasig-Tipton March sale, makes his long-awaited debut after a string of works highlighted by a bullet :47 3/5 half (1/47) last Saturday. Sharing a name with the French post-impressionist artist, the colt looks to match his career to the masterpiece that is his pedigree. Third dam, 2007 Broodmare of the Year Better Than Honour (Deputy Minister), sold for a world-record $14 million at...

The Curlin show continued Tuesday evening at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale when another son of the leading sire brought a co-topping $1.5 million from the partnership group of West Point, Woodford, Siena, Valdes Singleton, Sandbrook and Freeman. Consigned by Stone Farm, agent, Hip 174, the first foal out of GSW & MGISP America (A.P. Indy), was bred in Kentucky by B. Flay Thoroughbreds. This is the extended female family of bluehen mare Better Than Honour. A Curlin colt out of Chilean champion & MG1SW Wapi (Chi) (Scat Daddy) (Hip...