A Scat Daddy colt commanded $575,000 around 11 a.m. (EDT) May 21 during the first session of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training in Maryland. He is the highest-priced horse sold so far during the auction.
Donato Lanni, the bloodstock services director for Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Kentucky, signed the sale ticket for the muscular chestnut juvenile for Ernie Moody’s Mercedes Stables. Lanni said the colt would be sent to Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.
The immediate underbidder was David Ingordo of Lane’s End Bloodstock.
“Scat Daddy has done a lot of good things and he looked a lot like a really good Congaree,” Lanni said. "Bobby (Baffert) came out here on Sunday (May 20) after the Preakness (gr. I) and I showed him the horse; he really liked the him. His work was really good and he is a really well-made horse. He looked fast.”
Consigned by Raul Reyes' Kings Equine, agent, the colt breezed an eighth of a mile in :10 1/5 prior to the auction. He is the first foal out of the unraced Congaree mare Magical Mist, who is a half sister to grade I winner J P's Gusto (by Successful Appeal ).
John Sykes and Susan Sykes bred the colt in the name of CloverLeaf Farms II. In that name, the Sykeses also purchased Magical Mist, when she was carrying the colt, for $14,000 from Sweezy & Partners, agents, at the 2010 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky February mixed sale.
“She was a big, strong pretty mare in foal to a young horse,” said Matt Lyons, who is the general manager for CloverLeaf in Florida and the Sykeses’ Woodford Thoroughbreds in Kentucky. “I can’t say there was a great deal of science behind it. We just try to buy some nice young mares and she fit the bill. We also had some nice Scat Daddys on the ground. That was it.”
Lyons called the $575,000 colt’s price “a pretty good return on investment,” then added: “You never know where the good horses are going to come from. This colt was a beautiful horse. He is by a very good stallion and he breezed well; everything came together.
“Obviously, you’re surprised when a horse brings that much money,” Lyons continued. “But with all the action he had at the barn and the number of scopes (endoscopic throat examinations) he had, we knew we had a lot of players.”
Woodford Thoroughbreds, agent for CloverLeaf Farms II, entered the colt in the 2011 Keeneland September yearling sale. Kings Equine also entered him in the Fasig-Tipton Florida select sale of 2-year-olds in training earlier this year. The colt was scratched from both auctions.
“He was a just a horse that was going to need a little time,” Lyons said. “We were hoping the way that the Scat Daddys were running in these classic races that they would do well. We just thought this (sale) would be good fit for him. We didn’t take him to the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale because we didn’t feel he was quite ready.”
Woodford Thoroughbreds bred Daddy Long Legs, who won the 2011Juddmonte Royal Lodge Stakes (Eng-II) and this year's UAE Derby Sponsored by The Saeed & Mohammed al Naboodah Group (UAE-III). The colt ran in the May 5 Kentucky Derby Presented By Yum! Brands (gr. I), but was eased.
