Champion Vequist Sidelined, Could be Sold This Fall
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Vequist wins the 2020 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland
Vequist , the champion 2-year-old filly of 2020, is finished racing this year due to an undisclosed physical issue and might be sold this fall, co-owner Adam Wachtel said.
Plans call for the 3-year-old Nyquist filly to be entered for a sale this November, though she could be withdrawn and raced next year as a 4-year-old, Wachtel indicated. Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable, and Swilcan Stable own the Butch Reid-trained runner.
"Do you keep on, or do you sell a champion? It's not an easy decision," Wachtel said. "Our inclination all along has been to test the waters with the sale.
"We're leaning toward 'The Night of the Stars," he added of her sales entry, referring to The November Sale at Fasig-Tipton. "But it's not impossible she could go to Keeneland. But we're still making that final decision."
The November Sale is Nov. 9, one day before Keeneland's November Breeding Stock Sale begins and continues through Nov. 21. Both sales are near Lexington.
Vequist, winner of the Spinaway Stakes (G1) and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) last year at 2, has started just once this year, finishing ninth when eased in the Davona Dale Stakes (G2) Feb. 27 at Gulfstream Park. After breezing regularly at Saratoga Race Course this summer, she was scratched from the Cathryn Sophia Stakes Aug. 24 at Parx Racing.
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"We were entered in Parx, but we were really planning on running at Saratoga," Wachtel said. "She was breezing unbelievable.
"She has probably put on 100 pounds since she was a 2-year-old. She's just a big monster of a horse. So unless she's 110%, there is no way we were going to take any chances with her, so we just decided, 'Now is not the time.'"
Vequist last breezed a half-mile in :48.23 over the Saratoga main track Aug. 15.
If the partners elect to continue to race her, she would be given 90 days off, Wachtel said.
Bred in Kentucky by Tom and Sue McGrath's Swilcan Stables, Vequist is out of the graded stakes-placed Mineshaft mare Vero Amore . She is one of two graded black-type runners from her dam, the other being Mainstay (Astern ), who ran second this year in the Schuylerville Stakes (G3) at Saratoga before a fourth-place finish in the Adirondack Stakes (G2) there.
Vequist has two wins and two seconds from five starts and earnings of over $1.2 million.