'Avengers' Take Home Three $1.05M Yearlings on Day 3

The third session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale began Sept. 14 with SF Racing’s Tom Ryan striking early, going to $1.05 million for a colt by Gun Runner   consigned as Hip 383 by Pope McLean (Crestwood Farm).

The colt will be headed to the West Coast for trainer Bob Baffert for the partnership in SF/Starlight/Madaket.

"Beautiful horse raised by some wonderful people," Ryan said. "Gun Runner is a sensation. There is no other way to describe him. Our whole team loved this horse. Everyone who (saw) him loved him. It was a very simple consensus vote. We are happy to land him."

Gun Runner's first crop, now 3-year-olds, has made a lasting impression in the sales ring and on the oval with five grade 1 winners, including 2022 victors Cyberknife , Early Voting , and Taiba .

The bay colt was bred in Kentucky by Ann Fostock out of the Pleasantly Perfect mare Perfect Flute, a winner and dam of four foals. Her first foal, Flute Maker, by Sky Mesa, was a winner at 2. The mare comes from the family of Flute, twice a grade 1 winner in the 2001 Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Alabama Stakes (G1) and earner in excess of $1.1 million.

Crestwood Farm thought the colt had potential at the sale.

"He was a special horse. He's a horse we thought could break through and it happened," said consignor Marc McLean. "It was a nice surprise. He was bred by a client, he was foaled and raised at our farm. He has always been a standout. He has such good scope and size and that's what made him special.

"We got lucky and got him in the right spot (in the sale). We were pretty busy this morning; buyers kept coming back, which is a good thing. He was early in the session, which made us nervous, but I believe everybody had done their homework. Hopefully he was one of the standouts on the day, but you don't know until you get here."

Perfect Flute is a half sibling to the Mizzen Mast  mare Filimbi , a grade 2 winner and grade 1-placed turf powerhouse for breeder/owner Juddmonte and trainer Bill Mott.

In 2022 Gun Runner stood at Three Chimneys for $125,000. This year in the sales arena, all 14 of his yearlings offered have sold, averaging a price of $258,632 and a median price of $235,000.

During Book 1 selling of the Keeneland September Sale, a pair of fillies broke the seven-figure ceiling.

The partnership doubled for another $1.05 million colt, Hip 574, by Quality Road   from consignor McLean (Crestwood). The star pupil is a full brother to stakes winner Stillwater Cove and from the family of 2010 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (G2T) victor Interactif and grade 3-placed stakes winner Stretching.

"Quality Road, we love him," Ryan explained. "Great stallion, proven stallion. Very nice family, sibling to stakes-winning filly, so (a) very straightforward colt."

The colt was bred in Kentucky by Rowland Hancock, who purchased the dam, Celibataire, at the 2018 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale in foal to Union Rags   for $180,000.

The SF/Starlight/Madaket partnership stayed busy Wednesday adding an Into Mischief   colt consigned as Hip 679 for $700,000 from Scott Mallory, agent for Determined Stud; a Quality Road colt consigned as Hip 477 for $585,000 from Eaton Sales, agent for Stonestreet Bred & Raised; a Curlin   colt consigned as Hip 461 for $400,000 from Eaton Sales; and a Tapit   colt consigned as Hip 428 from Baccari Bloodstock for $485,000.

The final purchase Wednesday came late with Hip 740, a homebred Into Mischief   colt for Gainesway out of the Malibu Moon  mare More Chocolate, a winner in the 2013 La Canada Stakes (G2), second in the Clement Hirsch Stakes (G1), Santa Margarita Stakes (G1), Vanity Handicap (G1), and third in the 2012 Robert J. Frankel Stakes (G3T).

"It's honestly where I thought the horse belonged in the scene of things," Brian Graves, Gainesway's general manager, commented. "The mare was getting to be a little middle-aged. I'm especially proud of that one—Antony (Beck) let me do that mating during the COVID-19 times. We thought he was a really nice colt physically. We put him in Book 2 just on the age of the mare."

Bidding over the phone, Ryan had the last bid to take the colt for $1.05 million.