First-Crop Sires Plentiful for Baldwin Bloodstock

In a catalog brimming with first-crop weanling sires, Amy Bunt is optimistic in her third year of bringing a consignment to the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. The consignor's Baldwin Bloodstock is stacked with offerings by promising young stallions, including some set to make a splash in the sales ring.

"I think I have a really good physical consignment here," Bunt said. "There's really not a single one that I wouldn't add to someone's short list if they were asking me. We have a lot of first-season sires. Some of these first seasons are really, really fast sires and some are classic sires so I think I have a pretty good spread."

Among the weanlings to pass through the ring Nov. 8 for the first day of selling for Book 3 include a pair of colts by Drain the Clock  . Bunt had nothing but praise for the young Gainesway stallion.  

"Just seeing the Drain the Clock babies so far everyone seems pretty excited about them. Up in New York some really nice ones sold," Bunt said. "The excitement about that sire was so great that people are already trying to buy breeding rights from breeding rights holders so that's always encouraging. I have two Drain the Clocks in here and they are both lovely."

Drain the Clock, a son of Maclean's Music  , was a notably quick sprinter for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., earning his finest victory in the 2021 Woody Stephens Stakes (G1) over champion Jackie's Warrior  . At last month's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Mixed Sale, two of the stallion's weanlings sold for six figures.

Bunt's Drain the Clock colts are Hip 1403, a scopey bay out of the Orb  mare Final Adventure, and a sturdy chestnut consigned as 1190 from the Hard Spun   mare She's a Honey. Hip 1403 hails from the family of grade 1 winner Marylebone (Unbridled's Song) and grade 2 winner Alpha Kitten (Tale of the Cat). Hip 1190's dam, while unraced, is a daughter of Southern Honey, a grade 3-winning sprinter by Colonel John.

"One looks a lot quicker and one looks like more of a route kind of horse but also has speed so I think they'll appeal to all the buyers," Bunt said. "(Drain the Clock is) a pretty exciting stallion pretty early in the game."

Other first-crop sires with weanlings on offer from Baldwin Bloodstock include Early Voting  , Epicenter  , Speaker's Corner  , Mystic Guide  , and Aloha West  .

Taylor Made Stallions' Early Voting recently saw a $150,000 weanling filly at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Mixed Sale.

"People are liking the sire so far. He also did very well in New York," Bunt said.

Consigned as Hip 1482, Baldwin Bloodstock's Early Voting filly is produced from the winning Lemon Drop Kid mare Lemon Gala, a half sister to grade 2-winning Concave  (Colonel John).

"She is very pretty moving, an elegant filly," Bunt said of Hip 1482. "She has all the right parts, she has a great vet report, very correct. She's very balanced. Pretty head. Nothing to fault whatsoever."

Bunt was also complimentary of Mystic Guide and Speaker's Corner, two new Darley stallions with their first weanlings on offer this fall. Baldwin consigns Hip 1176, a colt by Speaker's Corner, and Hip 1317, a colt by Mystic Guide.

"Darley has an exciting young crop of sires out. Maxfields have sold really well and now they've got Mystic Guide and Speaker's Corner," Bunt said. Both Mystic Guide (by Ghostzapper  ) and Speaker's Corner (by Street Sense  ) were grade 1 winners on the track, capturing the 2021 Dubai World Cup (G1) and 2022 Carter Handicap (G1), respectively.

Hip 1176 is out of the winning City Zip mare Run Away's Sis, a full sibling to multiple graded stakes winner Run Away and Hide , who went undefeated in his three starts as a 2-year-old.

"This guy looks very, very fast and is out of a cool family," Bunt said of Hip 1176. "He's got a nice pedigree. We're hoping he sells well."