Sharp Sees Healthy Return on $700K Runhappy Colt

Owner George Sharp received an excellent return for son of Runhappy March 30 at The Gulfstream Sale, Fasig-Tipton's select sale of 2-year-olds in training in South Florida. Sold over the phone for $700,000 to agent Donato Lanni for Frank Fletcher Racing Operation, the colt is the highest-priced juvenile sold at public auction for the Claiborne sire to date. Sharp pinhooked the savvy investment, named Unhappy, from the Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $125,000 last season. Consigned to this sale by Niall Brennan Stables as Hip 64, the colt breezed an eighth in :10 1/5 Monday during the under tack show. "He was very well-received in the barns, he had a beautiful breeze, and that's how you like to see them do it. He wasn't under duress, and his gallop out was perfect," Brennan said just after the sale. "He's a beautiful mover, a lovely looking horse, and is still going to mature a lot more; he has a lovely scope and length to him as well. He has a great presence and will improve a ton from here. The owners did a great job and believed in him. George Sharp purchased him and Caio Caramori trained him. They came down here with a lot of confidence, and they were right." The bay colt is out of Sue's Good News, winner of the 2003 Singapore Plate Stakes (G3) and producer of Tiz Miz Sue, a winner of more than a million dollars and the 2013 Ogden Phipps Handicap (G1) at Belmont Park. "Caio (Caramori) and his wife (Emma) asked me not to sell the colt, but part of this is a business and I am in the business of selling horses… who needs 23 2-year-olds?" Sharp said. "To achieve the goal of selling one to help pay for the other ones is a huge achievement. I'm thrilled and proud of Caio and his wife Emma, who brought the colt along. He looks like a million dollars, and if he had been by any other sire, he would have brought a couple of million dollars. Niall also did an amazing job getting the colt through the sale." Eclipse champion sprinter Runhappy stands the 2022 season at Claiborne in Paris, Ky., for an advertised fee of $12,500. "It wasn't emotional; it's business," Sharp said. "I have made a lot more money in a day. I'm pleased Mr. Fletcher got him; he's a fantastic owner and made a hell of a buy."