Nuckols Back at Keeneland with One Horse

Consignor Alfred Nuckols hit a home run when a Street Sense   yearling filly consigned by his Hurstland Farm to Keeneland’s 2013 January horses of all ages brought a winning bid of $1.45 million from industry newcomer Nat Rhea’s Regis Farms.

Nuckols is back at this year’s January sale with a Street Sense yearling full brother to the filly who lit up the bid board four years ago. The March 18, 2016, colt that comprises his entire one-horse consignment at Keeneland has been attracting a lot of pre-sale attention from potential buyers.

Consigned as Hip 78, the colt will be offered during the Jan. 9 opening session of the auction that continues through Jan. 13 with daily sessions beginning at 10 a.m. ET.

While the colt sired by the Darley stallion who won the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) is a nice individual, Nuckols has no misconceptions about whether he will achieve the ring success of his full sister, whose purchase price was the second-highest paid for a yearling in the history of the Keeneland January auction.

“He’s a nice colt, but that ain’t going to happen again,” the affable Nuckols said in reference to the seven-figure filly named Bijou who was co-bred by Hurstland and Darley on a foal share arrangement. “The stars aligned that day. But he is a nice colt, with a good hip and nice bone.”

Bred by Hurstland and William Kartozian, the colt was produced from Please Sign In, a hard-knocking daughter of Hurstland’s stallion Doc's Leader. Although she only had one stakes victory to her credit, Please Sign In placed in nine stakes, including two grade 3 events while campaigned in the Midwest. Retired following a career in which she won or placed in 22 of 33 starts, Please Sign In continued her success in the breeding shed.

Her first foal was Cry And Catch Me, winner of the Oak Leaf Stakes (G1) who was later sold for $3 million as a broodmare while in foal to Bernardini  . Certify, an Elusive Quality   filly out of Please Sign In, was highweighted filly at age 2 on the European and English handicaps after winning a group 1 stakes in England and was a group 2 winner in Dubai.

Penmanship, the colt’s 3-year-old half brother by Bernardini, was bred by Hurstland and Darley and is now in training in Europe with Andre Fabre after being bought by John Ferguson, Sheikh Mohammed’s agent, for $240,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale offering.

Nuckols said he pointed the colt to the January auction because he thought he would be a standout and the consignor’s previous success with Bijou at the sale. The veteran Kentucky horseman ended up with a rare one-horse consignment after a grade 1 producing mare he was pointing to Keeneland January ended up not being in foal.

“We’re out here with a one-horse consignment, but in January that’s all it really needs to be,” Nuckols said jokingly while braving the single-digit temperatures to show off the colt to prospective bidders. “We just figured this would be a good place to sell him. He’s a nice enough colt that I think he will be attractive to an end-user. But you never know.”