Al Pike

It takes a pretty serious animal to earn $2 million in any racing jurisdiction, let alone accomplishing that feat in a place like Hong Kong. The urban environment is not for every horse--to that end, the Hong Kong Jockey Club operates their state-of-the-art satellite facility in Conghua [shung-pha] on the Chinese mainland--and it takes a special horse to thrive there. Chancheng Glory (Mor Spirit) has done just that over the course of the last 18 months or so. Bred in Iowa by Allen Poindexter, the 4-year-old gelding has won seven...

The Lone Star Park Sales Pavilion in Grand Prairie will once again host the Texas Thoroughbred Association's (TTA) single-session Texas Yearling Sale Monday beginning at 10 a.m. CT. The TTA catalogue includes 207 head from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma, plus a special dispersal of 10 horses consigned by CS Sales, agent for Three Feathers Farm. By the numbers, the 2023 edition, which showcased one of the largest catalogs in sale history with 271 yearlings, reported 175 sold for $3,240,000. The average was $18,542 and the median was $11,000, while...

A colt by Street Boss (hip 28), one of six to share the furlong bullet of :10 1/5 during the under-tack preview show Monday, topped the Texas 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale when bringing a final bid of $265,000 from Tracy Williams Wednesday at Lone Star Park. The Texas-bred juvenile, the first foal out of Gemmizell (Gemologist), was consigned by Pike Racing at Highlander. "To be honest, when we came here, we thought he would be one of the better ones," said consignor Al Pike. "You never know if you're going...

GRAND PRAIRIE, TX - A colt by Practical Joke brought $110,000 to top Monday's single-session Texas Thoroughbred Association (TTA) Summer Yearling Sale at Lone Star Park. By the numbers, a total of 175 yearlings sold for $3,240,000. The figures represented a decrease from 2022 when 161 sold for a record $3,416,000 in gross receipts. This term, the average was $18,542, while the median was $11,000 and 77 horses reported not sold. Foster Bridewell, Director of Horse Sales for the TTA, said of the auction, "Three of our top five offerings were...

As of July 1, two highly respected entities in Thoroughbred training and racing are joining forces as Pike Racing will be relocating to Highlander Training Center in Sulphur Springs, Texas, the facility said in a release yesterday. Pike Racing, owned by Al and Salley Pike, has become a fixture at the two-year-olds in training sales, and their graduates have experienced success in the sales ring and at the racetrack. A native Texan from Palestine, Al Pike said he has been eager "to come back to Texas" for years. "Salley and...

A filly by Tapwrit (hip 167) , who blazed a furlong in :9 4/5 during Monday's under-tack show, topped the Texas Thoroughbred Association's 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale when bringing a final bid of $300,000 from trainer Randy Morse Wednesday at Lone Star Park. Morse, fresh off a runner-up finish with Taxed (Collected) in Saturday's GIII Fantasy S., purchased the juvenile on behalf of owners Randy Patterson, Joe Morgan and Sam Vogel. "She's fast," Morse said of the filly's appeal. "The work was really good. There was a really strong headwind...

TIMONIUM, MD - The three-day under-tack show for the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale began shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday morning under cloudless blue skies and temperatures hovering around 60 degrees and by the conclusion of the day's seventh and final set shortly before 3 p.m., with temperatures approaching 80 degrees, five horses had turned in the co-fastest furlong time of :10 flat. A filly by Collected had the day's fastest quarter-mile work of :21 1/5. A filly by Nyquist (hip 150) was the first to hit the :10...

Fasig-Tipton, which hosted its first Santa Anita 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in 2019, was forced to cancel the 2020 renewal of the auction due to the pandemic, but the sale returns to the Arcadia track for its second edition Wednesday. Bidding is scheduled to get underway at 1 p.m. PT in the Santa Anita winner's circle. Raul Reyes's Ocala-based Kings Equine, which sold three of the top four lots at the 2019 Santa Anita sale, returns with a 13-horse consignment in 2021. "It was an easy decision to come back--it...

TIMONIUM, MD - The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale returned to its traditional May spot on the calendar with an ebullient session topped by a $1.5-million son of Quality Road at the Maryland State Fairgrounds Monday. The seven-figure purchase was the co-highest priced colt ever sold at the Timonium auction, tying the price of a Curlin colt sold in 2017. "It was unbelievable," Midlantic Sales Director Paget Bennett said at the close of business Monday. "The activity in the barn area over the weekend was strong and all of...

When lifelong owner and breeder Nathan Granger picked up a filly by his late stallion Bind, bred by his partner Jay Adcock, for just $13,000 at the ESLA September Sale, he knew right away that she was something special. So special in fact, that he gave her a name of the highest honor in the Granger family, WUPKAR, which stands for Wake Up, Pray, Kick Ass, Repeat. This was the slogan of Granger's son Ross, who was diagnosed with an astrocytoma in his brain stem shortly after his high school...

Yearling-to-juvenile reseller Al Pike had a busy day Monday, acquiring the three highest-priced offerings at the single-session Texas Thoroughbred Association's Yearling and Horses of All Ages Sale at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie. Pike went to $120,000 for the day's most expensive lot, the Eaton Sales-consigned hip 218. From the first crop of former 'TDN Rising Star' and current Darby Dan stallion Klimt (Quality Road), the Jan. 30 foal was bred in Louisiana by Keith and Ginger Myers's Coteau Grove Farms LLC and is out of the unraced Ms....

TIMONIUM, MD - A filly by Bourbon Courage worked the fastest quarter-mile and three juveniles shared the day's fastest furlong work time during Thursday's second session of the under-tack show ahead of next week's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in Timonium, Maryland. Bourbon on Sunday (hip 286), a Maryland-bred daughter of Bourbon Courage consigned by Naoise Agnew's Nomad Farm Training and Sales, worked a quarter-mile in Thursday's bullet time of :21 1/5. It was the second fastest quarter-mile through two of three sessions of the under-tack show. "We actually...