Valiance

Sunday Insights: Pin Oak's Revised Statute Picks Tough Spot For Debut

6th-SA, $100K, AOC, 3yo, 1m, 4:30 p.m. Richard Mandella has ambitiously spotted REVISED STATUTE (Consitition) for his debut Sunday. The colt set expectations high when he nearly topped the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling sale, selling to Pin Oak Stud for $1,800,000. A son of GI Madison S. winner and $1.5m KEENOV broodmare Last Full Measure, Revised Statute is a half to GI Juddmonte Spinster S. heroine Valiance (Tapit), herself a $3m FTKNOV broodmare purchase. His second dam is Lazy Slusan, also a dual Grade I winner. Revised Statute will need...

[ Read More ]
Stars Align at Fasig-Tipton November

by Jessica Martini, Brian DiDonato, and Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY - The Fasig-Tipton November Sale opened Tuesday afternoon with strong returns for its weanling offerings before exploding with frenetic bidding from an internationally diverse buying bench on a wide selection of superstar mares that ultimately produced a sales record gross of $103,699,000 for 149 head. That figure bested the auction's previous record of $89,473,000 which was set in 2018. The average of $695,966 was the second highest in sale history, falling short only of the 2008 average of $772,297, while...

[ Read More ]
Valiance Fulfills Family Tradition of Grade I Excellence

Valiance may be one of several Grade I winners cataloged for the Fasig-Tipton November Sale, but the statuesque gray is a rare find in the sales ring as a third-generation Grade I winner in her female line. By Tapit, Valiance is out of GI Madison S. winner Last Full Measure (Empire Maker) and is the granddaughter of dual GISW Lazy Slusan (Slewvescent) . "Valiance is a no-brainer," said Fasig-Tipton's Boyd Browning. "You've got three generations of Grade I winners in her pedigree. She's a beautiful mare and had a great...

[ Read More ]
Grade I Winner Valiance Retired, to Sell at Fasig-Tipton November

Grade I winner Valiance (Tapit--Last Full Measure, by Empire Maker) has been retired from racing and will be offered at Fasig-Tipton's upcoming November Sale Nov. 9 in Lexington, Kentucky. Bluewater Sales will consign the 5-year-old mare for owners Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Martin S. Schwartz, and CHC Inc. Valiance captured last year's GI Juddmonte Spinster S. at Keeneland in just her second dirt start and followed up that victory with a game second in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff to multiple champion Monomoy Girl (Tapizar), finishing ahead of another four...

[ Read More ]
Letruska Inherits Favoritism in Phipps

With champion Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) and GI Breeders' Cup Distaff runner-up Valiance (Tapit) both late defections from Belmont's GI Ogden Phipps S. due to fevers, GI Apple Blossom H. heroine Letruska (Super Saver) will likely inherit favoritism in Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff "Win and You're In" event. Closing out last term with a dominant score in the GIII Rampart S. at Gulfstream Dec. 12, the bay wired the GIII Houston Ladies Classic Jan. 31. She missed by a head to Shedaresthedevil (Daredevil), who also lines up here, in Oaklawn's...

[ Read More ]
Eclipse Buys Into 'Rising Star' Annex

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners has acquired a part-interest in recent 'TDN Rising Star' Annex (Constitution) from LNJ Foxwoods, Aron Wellman, Eclipse's managing partner tweeted and then later confirmed via phone Thursday afternoon. "We're in a fortunate position where we've got a good relationship with the Roth family, with Jaime, and I go way, way back with Alex Solis [III] and Jason Litt, their advisors," said Wellman. "That existing relationship certainly helped to be able to open the door for the opportunity to buy into the colt." Sent off at debut odds...

[ Read More ]
Star-Studded Line Up at Fasig Sunday

LEXINGTON, KY--Fasig-Tipton's November Sale, known as the "Night of Stars," will live up to its billing again when it kicks off Sunday at Newtown Paddocks with a sensational line-up of top race mares, broodmares and weanlings. "We have a tremendous catalogue this year with fillies and mares coming off the racetrack, a tremendous group of in-foal mares and the best group of weanlings we've ever had," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. "We are very, very pleased and enthusiastic about the quality of our 2020 catalogue." Top Breeders' Cup contenders like...

[ Read More ]
Tiz the Law Completes Classic Preparations at Keeneland

Sackatoga Stables' GI Belmont S. winner and GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Tiz the Law (Constitution) capped off his serious work ahead of next Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Classic with a five-furlong breeze at Keeneland Saturday morning. With his regular work rider Heather Smullen in the irons, the New York-bred drilled five furlongs in :59.20 and galloped out an extra eighth of a mile in 1:12.20 (video). "I saw just what I wanted. He went perfectly," said trainer Barclay Tagg who will send out his 11th Breeders' Cup starter next weekend....

[ Read More ]
Pletcher Breeders' Cup Troops Gearing Up at Belmont

Trainer Todd Pletcher breezed a quintet of Breeders' Cup contenders over the past two mornings at Belmont Park. Halladay (War Front) (Mile), winner of the GI Fourstardave H. last out Aug. 22 at Saratoga, worked five-eighths in company Friday in 1:00.60 on the fast dirt training track. He was scratched out of the GI Shadwell Turf Mile Oct. 3 at Keeneland with a hind leg infection. "I thought it was a good work. We normally don't work him in company, but seeing as we're a little rushed for time between...

[ Read More ]
Ravishing Fulfillment of a $500 Wish

The viability of the horse business hinges on a precarious equilibrium. Its values have to work out often enough for the rich guy to keep spending, but not so often that the rest of us have to pack up and go home. Very seldom, however, are both extremes embraced so proximately as by Meg Levy last weekend. On Sunday, the Grade I success of Valiance (Tapit) in the Juddmonte Spinster S. vindicated all the promise, in pedigree and physique, she had evinced as a $650,000 yearling sold through Levy's Bluewater...

[ Read More ]
Spinster Winner Valiance to Fasig-Tipton November

Sunday's GI Juddmonte Spinster S. winner Valiance (Tapit--Last Full Measure, by Empire Maker) will be offered at the Nov. 8 Fasig-Tipton November Sale after an anticipated start in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff Nov. 7. She will go through the ring as a racing or broodmare prospect consigned by Meg Levy's Bluewater Sales. A Todd Pletcher trainee for the partnership of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Martin S. Schwartz, and CHC Inc., Valiance is riding a three-race win streak into the Breeders' Cup. She came into the Spinster off a score...

[ Read More ]
Tapit Filly Books Trip to Breeders' Cup With Spinster Win

Valiance, previously a turf specialist who earned her first stakes win in a washed-off event last out, rallied from off the pace to upset the GI Juddmonte Spinster S. Sunday at Keeneland. The win sealed a berth in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff for the gray and capped off a monster weekend at Keeneland for jockey Luis Saez. Beginning her career with three straight turf triumphs last year, including a score in Monmouth's Open Mind S., the $650,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga buy had to be shelved for over 10 months...

[ Read More ]
X

Never miss another story from the TDN

Click Here to sign up for a free subscription.