By Jessica Martini
TIMONIUM, MD – Randy Hartley and Dean DeRenzo sent out two horses to work during the first under-tack show session for the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale Tuesday and came away with the bullet workers at a furlong and a quarter-mile, with a colt by Authentic (hip 59) covering his quarter-mile in :21 1/5 and a filly by Volatile (hip 12) going a furlong in :10 flat.
The first of three sessions of the Midlantic May under-tack show began at 8 a.m. Tuesday under cloudy skies and with temperatures at the Maryland State Fairgrounds hovering around 60 degrees. The session was just minutes old when hip 59 turned in the fastest quarter-mile work of the day. From the first crop of GI Kentucky Derby winner Authentic, the bay colt is out of Grade I winner Gomo (Uncle Mo).
“He keeps himself fit as a fiddle,” Randy Hartley said of the colt. “I knew he could do that. He worked really nice. He's a two-turn looking horse, tall and leggy.”
Hartley/DeRenzo purchased the colt for $300,000 at the Keeneland September sale last fall. He RNA'd for $385,000 after working a furlong in :10 flat at the OBS March sale.
“I had him in March and he worked in :10 flat, but I had so many colts down there that everybody fell on the same four,” Hartley said. “[Bob] Baffert looked at him two or three times, but he wasn't quite there yet. He's looking so much better up here.”
Hip 12 turned in her :10 flat breeze during the fourth of seven sets Tuesday. The filly, out of multiple stakes-placed Exchange Cat (Exchange Rate) and a half to graded-placed Grit and Curiosity (Macho Uno), was purchased by Hartley/DeRenzo for $230,000 at Keeneland September.
“We were trying to find the best Volatile that we could buy because we loved him as a racehorse,” Hartley said. “We felt like, with his speed, his babies would probably work good. These babies by freshman sires who come to the sale and work good, that's what it takes to get people interested in them. And all of the Volatiles looked like they could run.”
The filly was originally slated to sell at the OBS April sale last month.
“I had her in the April sale and she broke out in ringworm horrible–all over her face and her legs,” Hartley said. “She drew hip 1204–she was five horses from the end–and with the way the times were at that sale, I just felt like she was going to have to go in :9 3/5 or :9 4/5. I prepped her down there and she prepped good, but through the rest of the week she was miserable. I don't think she was crazy about the synthetic track and I didn't even work her there.”
Hartley continued, “I haven't done a lot with her since April because she was already ready. I just took her home and we didn't ride her that much because she had all the stuff on her face. We jogged her, but she didn't breeze again. I prepped her a little bit here that was it.”
Of his expectations for the filly's breeze Tuesday, Hartley said, “Here on the dirt, I was hoping for a :10 2/5 or faster. I can sell a :10 2/5 here. But I knew she was going to breeze good just by the way she was pulling me to the pole. Usually, she is real quiet. But she was so strong this morning, I thought she was going to run off with both me and the rider.”
Hip 12 | Fasig-Tipton
The chestnut filly marks a first pinhooking partnership between Hartley/DeRenzo and the McKinney family's Reliance Ranch, which is a major player in Quarter Horse racing.
“I own her in partnership with some new clients of mine from Texas,” Hartley said. “They are sort of transitioning over to the Thoroughbreds now. We are so excited for them because we had her in the April sale and I had to call them and tell them it wasn't going to happen. They said, 'Whatever you need to do.' We only did the one pinhook this year with them and she's a lovely filly, very smart and very classy.”
A headwind kicked up during the later sets of Tuesday's session, which concluded by 2 p.m. just as rain settled into a steady patter that was expected to continue through the night and well into Wednesday's second session of the under-tack show.
The under-tack show continues with sessions Wednesday and Thursday beginning at 8 a.m. The Midlantic May sale will be held next Monday and Tuesday with bidding commencing each day at 11 a.m.
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