Tapit Colt Tops Barretts Hips to Watch

A colt by three-time leading sire Tapit   supplemented into the Barretts select sale of 2-year-olds in training tops the list of hips to watch during the March 29 auction at Del Mar.

Offered as Hip 135 and the last horse scheduled to go through the ring, the Jan. 25, 2015, chestnut colt named Fiftyshadesoftapit is offered by Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree Stables. Produced from the grade 1-winning After Market mare Lady of Fifty, the colt bred in Kentucky by Rockingham Ranch was bought back for $625,000 when consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency to last year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga August yearling sale.

The colt was entered but withdrawn from this year’s Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream 2-year-olds in training sale. In preparation for the Barretts auction, he breezed an eighth of a mile in :10 2/5 during Monday’s training previews.

A Justin Phillip   colt who worked the fastest quarter-mile in :20 3/5 and was an $80,000 purchase by Cinco de Mayo Stables at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale is consigned by Eddie Woods as Hip 48. Bred in Kentucky by Highland Yard, the colt is out of the Speightstown mare Town Belle, a daughter of $504,532-earner and multiple grade 3 winner Clearly a Queen. As a weanling, the colt was bought by Equest Thoroughbreds for $45,000 at the 2015 Keeneland November sale.

Two expensive yearling purchases that could fetch high prices Wednesday are Hip 88, a Candy Ride   colt from Wavertree, and Hip 14, a California-bred son of Take Charge Indy   offered by Woods as agent.

Bred in Kentucky by Candy Meadows, the Candy Ride colt who worked an eighth in :10 2/5 was purchased by Justin Casse for $185,000 from Baccari Bloodstock at the Keeneland yearling sale after having previously been acquired by Casino King for $100,000 from Taylor Made at the 2015 Keeneland November sale. The colt is out of grade 3 winner and grade 1-placed Derwin's Star, a daughter of Wildcat Heir who earned $639,070.

A half brother to stakes winners Stormation and Smart Promotion, the Take Charge Indy colt who breezed an eighth in :10 1/5 was bred by Mercedes Stables and was sold by Burleson Farms to Shelby Stables for $180,000 at Keeneland as a yearling.

Hip 85 is a well-bred Scat Daddy filly who had been bought as a short yearling for $105,000 from Summerfield at last year’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s winter mixed sale by W. D. North Thoroughbreds and Stuart Morris. Consigned by North’s Starting Point Thoroughbreds, the filly bred in Florida by Westbury Stables and Alfonso Figliolia is out of a grade 3-placed mare and from the family of grade 1 winner Condo Commando and multiple grade 2 winner Yearly Report.