Flatter

Colin Brennan hit a home run with the first horse to represent his consignment during its inaugural appearance at the Keeneland September Sale when he sold a $55,000 pinhook for $100,000 during the eighth session of the sale. Brennan purchased the Flatter filly out of stakes-placed Summer Reading (Hard Spun) at last year's Keeneland November Sale. Before the yearling went through the ring on Tuesday, Brennan walked alongside his pinhook prospect for the long trek to the sales pavilion and discussed how he was first drawn to the filly after...

Carolyn Wilson's Fit to Fly (West Coast), a $570,000 OBSMAR acquisition, lived up to his name with a dominant 7 1/4-length score, becoming his freshman sire (by Flatter)'s first winner. Hammered down to even-money favoritism for this debut, the bay went straight to the front and never looked back, clear at every call to win for fun over stablemate Rivzonaroll (Good Samaritan). A $155,000 FTKJUL yearling, he more than tripled that price as a juvenile after breezing in :21 flat for Eddie Woods. Fit to Fly is a half to...

A juvenile sales season which set records at each stop along the way, comes to a close with the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age, which begins its three-day run Tuesday morning in Ocala. OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski expects demand for 2-year-olds to remain high at the June sale. "I think there is still demand for horses," Wojciechowski said. "I think we saw that certainly in April [at the OBS Spring sale]. We heard from a lot of people who still...

Flatter (A.P. Indy--Praise, by Mr. Prospector), a successful stallion at Claiborne Farm for nearly two decades, was euthanized May 9 at the age of 23 due to the infirmities of old age, Claiborne announced Tuesday. The bay was a second-generation homebred for Claiborne and Adele Dilschneider and a full-brother to GSW and successful sire Congrats. "Flatter was the kind of sire you'd like to have 10 of," said Claiborne's Bernie Sams. "He was solid and consistent year in and year out. He started at the bottom and worked his way...

Last term's GI Acorn S. heroine and narrow GI Kentucky Oaks runner-up Search Results (Flatter) returns to action in Saturday's GIII Distaff H. at Aqueduct. The even-money morning-line favorite concluded her sophomore campaign with a third-place finish as the favorite in the GI Longines Test S. at Saratoga Aug. 7. Search Results is two-for-two at the Big A, including a win in last April's GIII Gazelle S. "She's doing well. She's freshened up well down at Payson," trainer Chad Brown said. "This is a good spot and we know that...

Nobody has missed the explosive impact of Not This Time's second crop of sophomores on the Classic trail this year. But the fact remains that it's actually another stallion in his own intake that we find flirting most plausibly with an elusive distinction, with a chance of joining King Alfonso (1885), McGee (1918), Bull Lea (1952) and Native Dancer (1966) in siring the winners of both the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Kentucky Oaks. Okay, so we're getting way ahead of ourselves here. With nearly two months to go, it...

War Front (Danzig--Starry Dreamer, by Rubiano) heads all Claiborne stallions in 2022 with a stud fee of $100,000. The 19-year-old stallion, who stood for $150,000 in 2021, was represented by 10 stakes winners, led by Group 1-winner Homesman and four other Grade I/Group 1 performers worldwide. He is the sire of 29 seven-figure yearlings over his career, and again showed his prowess in 2021 with a a $1.2 million filly. Standing alongside his sire at Claiborne is War of Will (War Front--Visions of Clarity {Ire}, by Sadler's Wells)), a winner...

1st-BEL, $90k, Msw, 2yo, 7fT, 1:00 p.m. ET FIGLIO DEL RE (IRE) (Galileo {Ire}), the first foal out of three-time Grade I winner I'm a Chatterbox (Munnings), makes his debut for Graham Motion. The Carolyn and Fletcher Gray homebred, drawn widest of all in post eight, will be ridden by Jose Ortiz. I'm a Chatterbox's Galileo (Ire) yearling filly brought $725,000 from J.R. International Holdings at KEESEP earlier this week. TJCIS PPs 4th-CD, $120k, Msw, 2yo, 7f, 7:26 p.m. ET MyRacehorse and Greg Tramontin's SEARCH ENGINE (Flatter), a $625,000 OBS...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 3rd-SAR, $100k, Msw, 3yo/up, 1mT, 2:15 p.m. Phil and Christine Hatfield and JSM Equine's ARISTON (Flatter), a $500,000 FTSAUG yearling, debuts for trainer Ian Wilkes. The 3-year-old, bred by Joe Minor's JSM Equine, is out of S S Pinafore (Street Sense) and is a full-brother to graded stakes winner Plainsman and a half to graded placed Liam (Liam's Map). Shadwell homebred Mubtadaa (War Front) set the pace before settling for second in his most recent trip to the post at Belmont June 12. The gray...

1st-Belmont, $87,300, Msw, 7-10, 2yo, 6f (off turf), 1:10.70, gd, 2 1/4 lengths. DOCTOR JEFF (c, 2, Street Boss--Wild Bea {SP}, by Wild Rush), entered for main track only, took over favoritism from chief market rival Fort Ticonderoga (War Front) in the final minutes and made 13-10 look like a gift in the Saturday opener from Belmont. Drawn just outside Fort Ticonderoga in gate two, Doctor Jeff was hustled away from stalls by Joel Rosario and cut out the opening couple of furlongs in :22.61 while under light urging. Ridden...

It may still turn out that we're living under a volcano. For now, however, the first major bloodstock cycle after the trauma of 2020 represents an almost symmetrical, V-shaped recovery--right back to the $200-million breakthrough made by the American 2-year-old market in 2019. Despite restocking with a diminished pool of horses, compared with then, this sector has resembled a giant stress ball in retrieving all its former buoyancy the moment the squeeze was released. It was the juvenile consignors, of course, that were first broadsided by the pandemic last year....

Panadol was an eye-catching 7 3/4-length debut winner going a mile at Meydan on a non-carnival card on Feb. 13, and he employed the same tactics in his second start and stakes debut on Saturday by going to the lead and never looking back. Breaking on terms from the extreme outside barrier, Mickael Barzalona had guided Panadol to the lead by the time they passed under the wire the first time. The advantage down the backstretch was three-quarters of a length while Speight'spercomete (Speightstown) perched three-wide. The stalkers began to...