Venetian Harbor Family Pride of Colts Neck Stables

Venetian Harbor has had a meteoric ascent to rank among the top 3-year-old fillies of 2020.

The daughter of Munnings  crushed a Dec. 29 maiden special weight cast at Santa Anita Park in her second career outing and dispatched her rivals in the Las Virgenes Stakes (G2) with equal measure. The winning margin in the one-mile race Feb. 8 was 9 1/4 lengths. She races for Ciaglia Racing, River Oak Farm, and Dominic Savides and is trained by Richard Baltas.

Venetian Harbor was a plucky purchase by Jesse Hoppel, agent, for $110,000 out of the eighth session of the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale from the Ashview Farm consignment, but was a $205,000 RNA at last year's Ocala Breeders' Sales' Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

"She was just so athletic. Honestly, it was one of those where we were pleased for $110,000, but it was like, 'Jeez, she's so athletic ... there's no telling ...'" said Gray Lyster, who operates Ashview Farm with his father, Wayne, and brother, Brian. "From day one I kept up with part of the ownership group, and they were always high on her. I was kind of surprised she RNA'd at the 2-year-old sale. I know they had other offers for her after she had RNA'd, which they declined. They believed in her."

They believed in her, as did her breeder, Richard Santulli's Colts Neck Stables. A longtime client of Ashview, Santulli has some dozen mares that he owns in partnership with Ashview and a handful of his own that he boards there. Multiple stakes-placed Sounds of the City, by Street Cry—he dam of Venetian Harbor—is one of them.

Sounds of the City holds a special place in Santulli's breeding program as she's a third generation homebred out of Santulli's best runner, Safely Kept. The Maryland-bred Safely Kept was named 1989 champion sprinter after finishing second in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) at Gulfstream Park. A year later she returned to defeat Dayjur—dubbed the "Fastest Horse in the World"—in the Sprint at Belmont Park. The iconic race, in which Dayjur jumped shadows in deep stretch, is one of the most memorable moments of the World Championships.

Sounds of the City, like Safely Kept, did her best racing around one turn, winning four of 29 starts and earning $293,399 while in training with Alan Goldberg. She placed in six sprint stakes including Keeneland's 2013 Giant's Causeway Stakes on the turf. Venetian Harbor is her second foal.

Out of the stakes-winning Welcome Home (by Dixieland Band), Sounds of the City was bred to Oscar Performance  for 2020. She's failed to deliver a foal the last two seasons.

"You love every horse, but it's cool when you've been around to see a family develop like this," Lyster said the day after the Las Virgenes. "My dad and Richard are very close friends. This is the fifth generation of the filly we've had on the farm. Safely Kept was Richard's best horse. Now he has a great-great-granddaughter out there on the track. He's been responsible for the whole family and it's cool we've been able to help him do it.

"Mr. Santulli offers a lot of his yearlings each year," Lyster added. "He has a portfolio of horses and he sells some and races some. He has a lot out of this family, so he chose to offer her. It's typical for him to take a lot of his yearlings to the sales.

"It's helpful to have an inside track when you know the family a little bit. They don't have to be really big in that family—it's kind of the opposite. Some of the normal sized ones, or even a little smaller, are the better runners. And Munnings is a really good sire. There wasn't anything tricky about the mating. Gosh, Munnings is a good sire. He's done it all on his own."

Santulli, who does his own matings, has bred more than his fair share of good horses. Among his most notable is Oxbow , winner of the 2013 Preakness Stakes (G1). The New Jersey businessman has been a client of Ashview for longer than Lyster can remember, with a relationship cultivated by his father years ago.

"He's the throw back owner who doesn't tell you how to raise your horses. He asks for our input and we follow his lead on his decisions," Lyster said. "It's truly a breath of fresh air in this day and age. We give him feedback but he makes the big picture decisions. He's the greatest guy in the world to work for.

"We're fortunate to only have a couple of breeding clients because we mostly just have spots for our own horses, but he's been with us forever and hopefully will be with us forever. I think he and my dad were handicapping back in the day before I was even a thought."

And now, those thoughts are on the May 1 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs.