Patience Pays Off for Stephens Thoroughbreds
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Photo: Joe DiOrio
John Stephens at the OBS June Sale
After John Stephens paid $12,000 last year for a son of Midshipman at The October Sale, Fasig-Tipton's yearling sale in Lexington, Ky., he and his wife Jill waited patiently for the colt to develop.
Rather than rush the dark bay or brown colt into an early-season 2-year-olds in training sale, Jill Stephens broke the colt once he arrived at their Ocala, Fla.-based training center before he was turned out for two to three months and then put back in training for a late-season sale.
On June 12, during the first session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales June 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale, Stephens Thoroughbreds was rewarded when Mike Waters went to $90,000 to acquire Hip 47, the half brother to Washington Oaks winner Princessof the Nyl, a Pioneerof the Nile filly who won or placed in eight of 11 starts and earned $123,799.
"We just gave him all the time in the world to mature," Stephens said. "Sometimes it just works out, and it did here."
Bred in Kentucky by Guy Snowden and Diane Snowden, the colt was produced from the Bernardini mare Arabisini, who descends from a blue-blooded female family that includes champion Althea, grade 1 winner Ketoh, and grade 2 winners Twining and Atelier, among others. The colt was bought from Denali Stud, agent, at the Fasig-Tipton sale.
John Stephens said the colt impressed any potential buyers who saw a video of his under tack show breeze of a quarter-mile in :21 2/5.
"He's a beautiful colt, and he had a beautiful video," the consignor said, noting the colt's sire was not the flavor of the day for fall yearling buyers. "He was a big, pretty colt by Midshipman, who was not very popular, and the October sale was kind of the end of the road for yearling sales and he wasn't getting a lot of attention. If you're not on those 'now' sires, you can buy horses and people tend to want to turn them over quickly. He was a wonderful, nice horse, and if he was by any other sire, there is no telling what he would have brought (as a yearling)."