By Jessica Martini
A filly by Bucchero (hip 999) became the first of the week to work a furlong in :9 3/5, while a colt by Vino Rosso (hip 1072) turned in the day's fastest quarter-mile breeze of :20 4/5 during the final session of the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Saturday in Ocala.
Consigned by Britton Peak, hip 999 is out of stakes-placed Imperial Strike (Imperialism). The filly was bred in Florida by Wendy Lee Christ.
Hip 1072, a supplement to the original catalogue, is consigned by McKathan Bros. Sales and worked his quarter-mile bullet right at the start of Saturday's session of the under-tack show.
“He prepped really good for us over here, so I was expecting him to breeze well,” said Kevin McKathan. “We backed him up to a quarter. He's a big, stretchy two-turn horse and I thought that would suit him best. He worked really well and he galloped out huge. He went out in :32 flat and :44 and change. And he came back in good shape and vetted good.”
The chestnut colt, bred by Ken and Sarah Ramsey, is out of stakes winner Deanaallen'skitten (Kitten's Joy) and was purchased by McKathan for $115,000 as a weanling at the Keeneland November sale.
“Really, I wanted a Vino Rosso,” McKathan said of the colt's initial appeal. “I thought he was a really classy horse and I liked a lot of his foals. So I wanted to get my hands on one. I found [hip 1072] way up on the hill at Keeneland in Book 4 or 5. He was hid out up there–Ramsey was selling him. He was a little backwards, but when I saw him, I just said, 'I need to own him.' We paid well for him and he's been a super colt all the way through.”
The youngster was entered in last year's Keeneland September sale and Fasig-Tipton October sale, but was withdrawn from both. He worked at OBS April before being withdrawn from that sale as well.
“The plan when we first bought him as a weanling was to flip him as a yearling,” McKathan said. “And then it got so tough to buy yearlings, especially for myself, and he was such a nice horse that we just decided to keep him. He was in the April sale and he breezed there. He kind of breezed average–he breezed in :10 1/5–and I knew he was a lot better colt than that if I stretched him out and gave him a better run at a little further distance, so that's what we did.”
McKathan continued, “He's the kind everyone needs. He's a two-turn horse and when they pull him out on the shank, they will love him. He's leggy, stretched out with a long neck. He's a beautiful horse.”
Asked how he found conditions throughout the six sessions of the under-tack show, McKathan said, “I believe it was as good as we could get it. We always struggle with that last set because as the track heats up, that's the toughest there is. But horses were still able to get over it. I think the weather was pretty good for us–I've seen it much worse in June. So, overall, I think the track was good. If you could get in the first or second set, the horses seemed to breeze well throughout there. It got to be a little bit more of a struggle through the third. That's just always how it's going to be.”
The OBS June sale will be held Tuesday through Thursday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.
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