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Bloodstock agent Steve Young arrives at Keeneland this week with a history of success during the annual yearling sale.
Most notably, Young purchased Always Dreaming at the September 2015 sale. The son of Bodemeister out of Above Perfection went on to win the 2017 Kentucky Derby.
Perhaps more impressive than that score is Young’s overall record from the 2021 Keeneland Sale, during which the agent bought eight horses. Now 3-year-olds, the group has produced six runners including three graded-stakes winners and two black-type winners.
“I thought we did very good,” Young said when asked his thoughts following that year’s sale. They were horses that we wanted to get. Some of them I wasn’t sure we would be able to, but we left there feeling we had done good.”
And now?
“We’re obviously proud,” he said. “We’re happy as long as they’re healthy. The main thing is, it’s not a finished story. You could see a lot of good things happening still to come to pass.”
The graded winners from that 2021 group so far have been three fillies: Liguria and Occult , both trained by Chad Brown, and Window Shopping , trained by Richard Mandela.
Liguria, daughter of War Front , won the $100,000 Jimmy Durante Stakes (G3T) at Del Mar in December. Purchased for $275,000, she’s 3-1-0 in six starts.
Bred by Tada Nobutaka and out of the dam Lerici, the Alpha Delta Stables-owned Liguria is a full sister to multiple grade 1-winning mare Avenge, who was bought by Young at the Fasig Tipton Saratoga August 2013 Sale.
Lerici had 11 foals, and two graded-stake winners, both bought by Young.
While stallions understandably always get a lot of attention, the quality of the dams should not be an afterthought, Young says.
“It’s a team effort and I put value in both,” he said. “I think if you don’t, you are neglecting a big part of the equation. If you just buy off stallion power, I think you can walk yourself into some problems and vice versa.”
Liguria is pointing to the $600,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1T) at Keeneland Oct. 14.
Occult, whom Young bought for $625,000, won the $262,500 Monmouth Oaks (G3) by 10 lengths July 29. She’s 3-0-1 in six starts.
An Into Mischief filly out of Magical Feeling, Occult is pointing to the Cotillion Stakes (G1) at Parx Racing Sept. 23. She was bred by Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds and is owned by Alpha Delta Stables.
Window Shopping , sired by American Pharoah and out of Delightful Joy, won the $200,000 Summertime Oaks (G2) at Santa Anita Park June 3. Bred by International Equities Holding, she’s owned by Ramona and Perry Bass.
Although the filly finished sixth in the Del Mar Oaks (G1T), “she has some blue sky left,” Young said.
Despite the Class of 2021 already producing five stakes winners, Young sounded most excited about a filly who only has raced once.
Bandita , daughter of Gun Runner , impressively broke her maiden first time out in a late-January maiden special weight at Gulfstream Park. She won by 8 3/4 lengths and “was wrapped up in the final sixteenth,” according to the race report.
(L-R): Joanne Wiegand Daw and Steve Young check out horses ahead of the Keeneland September Sale
“Growing pains horses have,” as Young puts it, led to the filly taking a rest. However, she has breezed five times since Aug. 10 with the likelihood of running at Keeneland in the fall.
Bandita, out of Tricky One and bred by International Equities Holding, is owned by Bass Stables and trained by Todd Pletcher. She was purchased for $350,000.
Two more Pletcher-trained colts Lost Ark and Sendero , have won black-type races.
Lost Ark, son of Violence out of Marion Ravenwood, captured the Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Park in August 2022. He was third at Saratoga Race Course this month in the Saranac Stakes (G3T), a race won by Carl Spackler .
Bred by Ashview Farm & Colts Neck Stables, and owned by Harrell Ventures, Young bought him for $275,000.
Sendero, son of City of Light , took the Jamestown Stakes at Colonial Downs last September. Out of Trishas Even, the colt was bred by Knockgriffin Farm and his owned by Harrell Ventures. Young bought him for $300,000.
And Change, a Street Sense filly bought for $280,000, and Thedreamcontinues, an Always Dreaming filly who cost $60,000, have not raced yet.
The final member of Young’s 2021 Keeneland group was a $75,000 War Front colt who died before being named.
Asked whether he would take a repeat of the 2021 Keeneland class at this year’s yearling sale, Young said, “Absolutely.”
The Lockport, Ill., native, though, knows that his 2021 class, or even his purchase of a Kentucky Derby winner, will mean little in this week’s auction.
“It means you’ve been where a lot of people are trying to go but the time is always now,” Young said. “You can hit a home run in the World Series, but when you stand there with a 3-2 count this year, it really doesn’t matter what you did then. You have to do it now.”
That approach also means that Young and Joanne Daw work hard to cover all the bases before a sale.
More than 50 hours of pedigree work, watching replays, and looking up racing charts and past performances preceded Young and Daw traveling from Saratoga to Kentucky two weeks before the Keeneland sale to visit 17 farms in 2 1/2 days.
“We went with no pre-conceived notion of what we were going to see quality-wise but I was basically blown away about how many good horses we saw,” Young said. “And if they vet the way they look, it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
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