Stetson Racing to $600K for Speedy Ghostzapper Filly

When the smoke of a frenzied bidding war finally cleared inside the Ocala Breeders' Sales pavilion June 14, bloodstock agent Donato Lanni emerged victorious to sign the winning ticket on a $600,000 daughter of Ghostzapper .

Having sold the second most expensive juvenile to be purchased at the June 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale, consignor Gayle Woods could not stop her tears. 

"I've had a really bad year," said Woods. "I haven't sold anything well. This was huge. That was really a good way to finish the season." 

Cataloged to the sale as Hip 914, the filly had hit the radar of several buyers at the sale when she was one of only two individuals to breeze a bullet three-eighths of a mile in :32 3/5 during the under tack show. 

"I'm glad I got her. That's the one I wanted," said Lanni, who purchased the juvenile as agent for Stetson Racing. "I waited for her." 

Bred in Kentucky by Blue Devil Racing Stable, Hip 914 is out of the Tiznow  mare Tizahit. Purchased by Eric Antonio Devalle for $67,000 from Lane's End's consignment to the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Devalle said he was intrigued when the auctioneers announced an update to the filly's page. Her half sister, Come Dancing, had just earned listed honors in the Royal Delta Stakes at Belmont Park. 

Devalle decided to take a chance. 

"When I saw her she looked very attractive," said Devalle, who regularly pinhooks a small number of horses. "She had a good conformation, (she was) a Ghostzapper. Come Dancing, she won a stakes at Saratoga when I bought this one, but it was a listed stakes. It was not in the catalog when I bought her. Probably the auctioneers said she has a half sister that is a stakes winner so I said, 'I'll go for her.' Then Come Dancing started to run better and better." 

Now a multiple graded stakes winner, Come Dancing most recently finsihed second to Midnight Bisou in the June 8 Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1) at Belmont. The lost was her first of the season. 

"I have to thank Gayle," said Devalle, who had never consigned a horse with Woods prior to the June sale. "Gayle did a tremendous job. This filly was born May 6 so she decided to come to this sale instead of April. She made the right decisions." 

The price eclipsed Devalle's previous pinhooking record set in 2014, when he sold a Mineshaft  gelding named Wolfman Rocket for $550,000 to Frank Fletcher Racing at the OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training through Eisamann Equine. 

"She's a beautiful filly," said Woods. "I thought she'd make $400,000 or $500,000, maybe $600,000 if the right people got into it and it happened. She's got so much class. A beautiful conformation, racey, and I mean she moves like smooth as silk. I could watch that video over and over and over. It's like poetry in motion."

The filly will got to John Connelly of Stetson, who most recently found success at Pimlico Race Course when his Curlin  filly Point of Honor—also purchased by Lanni for Stetson—took the May 17 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2). 

"(Connelly) is really enjoying the business and he's great for the business," said Lanni. "He's the easiest guy to work for. Obviously she's got pedigree, a good family. I think she came out here and worked a good three-eighths. It was her first sale and I liked that they gave her the time to get here. 

"This is a good sale if you've got the right horse. There are still people looking to buy top-class horses here. It's been a long year and it's been fun. Our jobs are a lot easier when you have people step up and the clients step up and buy these nice horses."