Tapits Dominate Fasig-Tipton Pinhook Prospects

When shopping the 2016 yearling sales for quality horses they could buy and hopefully improve upon to re-sell as 2-year-olds, Ciaran Dunne and his pinhooking partners fell in love with a striking son of leading sire Tapit   produced from the grade 1-winning mare Lady of Fifty.

When the colt, named Fiftyshadesoftapit, exited the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale ring unsold on a final bid of $625,000, Dunne secured the colt privately and now has him entered as Hip 90 in the March 1 Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale. Conducted in the Gulfstream Park paddock, the sale begins at 4 p.m. ET.

Based on his RNA price, Fiftyshadesoftapit leads the list of horses previously sold or bought back that are cataloged for the auction.

“We bought him after the fact in Saratoga and I think he is a lovely horse,” Dunne said of the colt bred in Kentucky by Rockingam Ranch. “He has trained really well all winter. He is a good-minded horse—a strong colt. I told someone I think he is a very good Tapit, not that there are very many bad Tapits.”

Randy Hartley and Dean DeRenzo were playing in the upper reaches of the pinhooking market before it became fashionable, and this year they have a Curlin   colt they hope will appeal to the discerning buying bench.

A Curlin colt purchased by Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds has the second-highest previous sale price of $475,000, the highest-priced offering in the Fasig-Tipton sale actually sold as a yearling.

Consigned as Hip 59, the half brother to stakes winners Swinger's Party and Hubba Shake, descends from the female family of grade 1 winners and sires Ogygian and Honour and Glory. He was bred in Florida by Miller Racing and purchased by Hartley and DeRenzo from the St George Sales consignment at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale.

“We have stretched (our price range) in buying at the yearling sales and try to come here and be at the top of the market,” Randy Hartley said.

Hartley/DeRenzo also has a well-bred Scat Daddy filly that was one of the two pinhook prospects that had a previous sale price of $450,000.

“We stretched on some fillies we bought and there is a risk, but there is some residual there,” he said of Hip 40, a half sister to grade 1 winner Union Strike and to millionaire grade 1 winner Handsome Mike   who went unsold on a final bid of $450,000 when consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency to last year’s Keeneland fall yearling sale.

Consigned by Eddie Woods as Hip 80 is a Tapit colt acquired by Cromwell Bloodstock for $450,000 from the Ashview Farm consignment to last year’s Fasig-Tipton July sale. Since being purchased, the colt has had a significant upgrade in his pedigree, as his half sister Sweet Loretta won the Spinaway Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. The colt bred in Kentucky by Ashview and Colts Neck Farm, is out of the stakes-placed Bluegrass Cat   mare Ithinkisawapudycat, who was sold for $2.2 million at Keeneland in November and is a half sister to grade 1 winner Spring in the Air, who was sold in 2015 at Keenelend November for $1.65 million.

Zayat Stables, which is stepping into the pinhooking arena for the first time, has seven horses cataloged for the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale through various consignors. The most expensive purchase is Hip 87, a bay colt by Awesome Again   bought by Zayat for $400,000 from the Taylor Made flight at the 2016 Saratoga August yearling sale. Bred in Kentucky by Town & Country Horse Farms, the colt was produced from the multiple stakes-placed Quiet American mare Kiss the Lady.

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Another Tapit that does not make the list as one of the top previously sold of RNA’d 2-year-olds at Fasig-Tipton, but who has developed well for Hoby and Layna Kight is Hip 38, purchased for the modest price of $40,000 from the Gainesway consignment at last year’s Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale. Bred by Winchell Thoroughbreds, the colt is a half brother to grade 1 winner and sire Cuvee, grade 2 winner Will He Shine, and to four additional stakes-placed runners.

Hoby Kight said there was good reason the colt did not fetch a higher price as a yearling, but he was pleased to get him for such a modest sum, especially considering his sire and female family.

“For me, I just go try to buy a nice horse and let the pedigree follow,” the horseman said. “He was a little May baby. People who could buy him passed on him, and those (who) could afford him didn’t vet him, because they didn’t think they could afford him. But he grew and did all the right things. I’ve very happy to have a Tapit and one everybody can afford.”