A Big Brown --Cool Ghoul colt that was the most expensive 2-year-old in training sold this year at public auction has been named Darwin. Demi O'Byrne of the Coolmore Stud buying team purchased the colt for $1.3 million from Wavertree Stables, agent, at the Fasig-Tipton Florida select juvenile auction in March.
Darwin has not raced yet, but O'Byrne said recently that the colt's multiple Eclipse Award-winning trainer, Todd Pletcher, had indicated the 2-year-old might make his career debut in three weeks. O'Byrne was interviewed Sept. 12 while shopping for horses at the Keeneland September yearling auction in Lexington.
O'Byrne also said that Coolmore and its associates had tried to name the colt John Brown, "after the abolitionist," but that The Jockey Club didn't accept that submission.
Charles Darwin, who might have inpspired the juvenile's name, was an English scientist who became famous for his theory of evolution by natural selection. The equine Darwin is a half brother to stakes winners Dagnabit and Bad Boy Rising (both by Freud ).