By Jessica Martini
A year ago, the Hidden Brook team was shopping for breeder John Gardiner when it acquired the then-16-year-old mare Soaring Emotions (Kingmambo), in foal to Hard Spun, for $57,000 at last year's Keeneland November sale. The mare's Hard Spun weanling (hip 251) will go through the ring during the second session of this year's Keeneland November sale next Thursday and between now and then the foal's 2-year-old half-sister Haughty (Empire Maker) could provide the colt with a timely update. The filly goes postward in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar Friday.
“We've bought mares like that for him. Mares that have a little bit of age on them that are stakes producers,” Hidden Brook's Dan Hall said of the purchase. “That's kind of what he likes to do.”
Soaring Emotion was already the dam of multiple stakes winner and multiple graded stakes placed Souper Colossal (War Front) when she went through the November ring in 2020.
“Obviously, we didn't know she would be in the Breeders' Cup–I wish we were that smart,” Hall said with a laugh when asked if Haughty was at all on the team's radar last November. “We saw her at the 2-year-old sale [where she sold for $310,000 to Bradley Thoroughbreds at OBS April]. I'd been communicating with Pete Bradley about the filly and they had been high on her all along.”
Haughty appeared to graduate on debut at Belmont Park in September, but was disqualified for interference and placed third. After failing to draw into the field for the GII JPMorgan Chase Jessamine S., she graduated by an emphatic four lengths at Keeneland Oct. 17 and was promptly tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star.' She is 10-1 on the morning-line for the Juvenile Fillies Turf.
“The mare is already a proven graded stakes producer, but honestly having a current Breeders' Cup 2-year-old filly would be a huge boost,” Hall said. “He is a nice foal and we figured we were going to do well with that, but then the filly came along as well.”
Of Haughty's half-brother, Hall said, “He is very nice. Not to knock Hard Spun, but he's prettier than most Hard Spuns. He's a well-balanced colt with good size and a good walk to him. He should sell well.”
The November breeding stock sales come on the heels of an ultra-competitive yearling sales season.
Asked if he expected that type of market to continue for bloodstock, Hall said, “Especially for weanlings, it will still be a strong market. I think the better mares will continue to sell well. The breeding side of it, we will see, I wouldn't necessarily be feeling that it's definitely going to be the same as the yearling market. People seem to be more interested in racing and pinhooking than actually being breeders right now. But that should cycle back, I hope.”
The Keeneland November sale opens with a single-session Book 1 section next Wednesday with bidding beginning at 1 p.m. The auction continues through Nov. 19 with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.
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