Consignor Becky Thomas of Sequel Bloodstock may very well have the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale topper in her barn come May 24 with Hip 385, a beautifully built colt named Berning Remarks from the penultimate crop of the late Bernardini.
The colt, a fourth-generation homebred for renowned New York breeders Mary and Chester Broman, exceeded expectations with a blazing :9 4/5 breeze during the under tack show, recording the fastest eighth-mile since 2012 over the Timonium bull ring.
“He’s one of the quickest horses I’ve had in a while,” Thomas said. “He’s bred two turns top and bottom and yet he’s just got lots of speed. You don’t expect those types of breezes here (at Timonium), certainly at OBS the fastest works can be in :9 3/5 there. We knew he was very fast and we did expect him to be a :10 flat type horse but I was a little bit worried because it had rained the day before and for the first set it was a little bit slower. It was a beautiful work.”
The last horse to match :9 4/5 was a Successful Appeal filly consigned by Old South Farm and bought for $100,000 by Koid (Choi Sang Bae). The filly was sent to Korea, where she won two races from 10 starts.
Hip 385 hails from the family of some of the Broman’s most talented race mares in Antespend and Seeking the Ante. His dam, the winning Medaglia d'Oro mare G Note, is a half sister to two black-type mares that went onto produce stakes winners, including this year’s Rebel Stakes (G2) hero and media darling Un Ojo.
“(Un Ojo) has certainly been a great story,” Thomas said. “The only reason Mr. Broman sold that mare (Risk a Chance) is because he has so many mares from that same family."
The one-eyed wonder's dam Risk a Chance was sold to Southern Equine Stables for $40,000 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga Fall Mixed Sale.
“We’ve been blessed to train Mr. Broman’s horses over the years,” Thomas said. “With this colt (Hip 385) we’ve had his cousins, aunts, uncles, the whole family.”
Carlos Manresa, Thomas’s son-in-law and general counsel at Sequel, recalls that the Bernardini colt wasn’t the flashiest and loudest colt at the farm during his early lessons.
“Of course he stood out like all Bromans homebreds do because of their pedigrees and coming from such sensational mares, but he just flew below the radar in terms of some of our other colts,” Manresa said.
Sequel consigned the session topping Into Mischief colt that dropped the hammer for $1 million at the Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.
“He always trained steadily through the winter and never really had any issues. He doesn’t have that grandiose colt personality, he’s laid-back and much easier to work with," Manresa said about Hip 385.
The colt has remained the picture of calm and professional as potential buyers hoarded around him to snatch photos and videos throughout the past few mornings.
“He’s incredibly chill but he also has that fire inside where can just explode on the racetrack and we saw that here. His ability to separate work from the leisure activity and barn activity is a great personality trait," Manresa said.
In addition to Hip 385, Sequel has two other promising colts on offer with Hip 592, a colt from the first crop of Good Magic , and Hip 389, a Union Rags colt.
The Good Magic colt is the second foal out of the stakes winning Big Brown mare Puca, a half sister to grade 1-winning millionaire Finnegan's Wake. A pinhook prospect for Sequel, he was acquired by New Team for $235,000 at last year's Keeneland September Sale from the Runnymede consignment.
Good Magic, a flashy son of Curlin who scored a resounding victory in the 2017 Sentinent Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) on his way to being crowned champion 2-year-old male, boasts an average of $136,451 with his juveniles at the sales so far this year.
"He was very athletic (as a yearling)," Thomas said. "He’s developed exactly as we thought he would. I think he’ll be very precocious. His mother was Big Brown, who was not exactly a sprinter. His mother had also ran some really good numbers."
Thomas breathed a sigh of relief when the chestnut drilled a sharp eighth-mile in :10 flat during the under tack show.
"(Hip 592 is) a horse that we’ve always known was fast. I put my faster horses in the first day regardless of ownership. It’s always nerve-wracking because we just want them to do what they do at home. In his case he had always been very quick at home and maintained his speed on the track here so that was great," she said.
Like Hip 385, Hip 389 is also a homebred colt who will be making his first ring appearance on Tuesday. The colt is a son of Goodn'ready, a mare Sequel purchased for $65,000 at the 2019 Keeneland November Sale.
"We bought (Goodn'ready) in foal to Union Rags," Thomas said. "She’s a very pretty mare and was also a pinhook from Randy Bradshaw who I have a lot of respect for."
The New-York bred colt worked an eighth-mile in :10 2/5 during the under tack show, which Manresa thought was tremendous considering they suffered a setback with the colt over the winter.
"He is probably one of the most athletic-looking colts that we have. He looks like a :9 4/5 horse. We lost a little bit of time with him but I think he has a lot of room for improvement still and the upside for him is incredible at this point."
A son of Union Rags, the sire of five grade 1 winners including this year's Santa Anita Handicap Presented by Yaamava' Resort & Casino (G1) winner Express Train, the colt's second dam is graded stakes victress Redaspen (Bianconi), the dam of Peruvian group 2 winner Sonny Corleone and stakes-placed Wychmere.
