A Jump Start colt was euthanized Monday after fracturing a tibia during the under tack show for the Keeneland April sale of 2-year-olds in training in Central Kentucky. The bay juvenile completed his eighth-of-a-mile work over Keeneland's Polytrack surface, but it was apparent to the crowd he was in distress near the end of the move and immediately afterward. Becky Thomas of Sequel Bloodstock, the colt’s consignor, knew something was wrong earlier.
“He was very ready to go, very ready to break off, and he broke off good and then … it was awful,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.’ ”
Thomas bred the colt in Kentucky in partnership with Lewis Lakin and James Kintz. Burleson Farms, agent, consigned the colt to the 2006 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. Then a weanling, he was listed as being sold to Bruce Carter for $8,000.
“He was a big, long-striding, pretty-moving colt,” Thomas said. “I liked him very, very much.”
The 2-year-old was a half-brother 2000 Bay Shore (gr. III) and 1999 Display Stakes winner Precise End (by End Sweep). Their dam, a 21-year-old daughter of Summing named Precisely, captured the 1991 Peach Blossom Stakes at Del Mar.
“We’re sorry it happened, and we commiserate with her (Thomas),” said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland’s director of sales. “It was a freak thing considering what he fractured, his tibia.”