The presence of popular, active sires in the pedigrees of a couple of young horses selling Sept. 13 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale is not limited to the top of their catalog pages.
It is also evident beneath their first dams.
A pair of yearlings, Hip 247 and Hip 305, are out of dams that have already produced champions who now stand at stud. Hip 247, an Into Mischief colt consigned by Bridie Harrison, agent for Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds, is a full brother to 2020 Horse of the Year Authentic, and Hip 305, a Ghostzapper filly consigned by Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services, is closely related to Knicks Go , last year's Horse of the Year.
Authentic stood the 2022 season for $70,000 at Spendthrift Farm, also home to Into Mischief, and the gray speedster Knicks Go began his stallion career this year at Taylor Made Stallions for a $30,000 fee.
Hip 305, also a gray, "very much resembles Knicks Go. She's a great moving filly," said Hanzly Albina of Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services. "She is young, (born) April 19, and I think she has a lot of growth and improvement ahead of her. I like her a lot. She's a great-moving, very athletic filly."
In addition to her racing appeal, she will offer buyers residual value. "This is the kind of filly that, regardless of what she does on the track, is going to be worth quite a bit of money," Albina said.
Bred by in Kentucky by Newtown Anner Stud out of the stakes-winning Outflanker mare Kosmo's Buddy, Hip 305 is related to four winners from five foals to race, with Knicks Go, a grade 1 winner at ages 2, 4, 5, topping her produce as a $9.2 million-earning standout.
Paynter, the sire of Knicks Go, and Ghostzapper are sons of Awesome Again, leaving Hip 305 bred similarly to Knicks Go.
Albina envisions her drawing the attention of some "collector mare people" with a pedigree that is "unique and rare."
Hip 247 is out of the winning Mr. Greeley mare Flawless, whose top performer, Authentic, excelled during the COVID-19-impacted season of 2020, winning a postponed Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) and also capturing the TVG.com Haskell Stakes (G1) and Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) that year. He retired with earnings of more than $7.2 million. The mare has produced three winners from four foals to race. Four of the dam's foals have not started, though in addition to Hip 247, one of them is not yet of racing age.
Like Authentic, Hip 247 was raised at Bridie Harrison's Hurricane Place Farm in Central Kentucky for breeder Peter Blum.
"Peter has been doing this forever. He takes great pride in his horses, his mares," said Jonathan Harrison, assistant manager at Hurricane Place Farm.
Watch: High Hopes for Authentic's Full Brother
He says Hip 247 has "good, average size, nice slope to the shoulder, good hip. He's pretty hard to knock, to be honest. He's a super-solid, strong, good-minded horse. He's got that little bit of toughness to him, just like Authentic did."
In some ways, Hip 247 is more forward than Authentic was as a yearling, when the latter was a $350,000 buy at the 2018 September Sale by SF Bloodstock and Starlight West. Harrison noted that Authentic was "a little bit backwards, little bit light of muscle, but still had that awesome-framed shoulder, length of hip, width of hip, good walk, good mind."
An eye-catching face runs in the family. Into Mischief, Authentic, and Hip 247 all have a distinctive white blaze.
"With this horse, Authentic's full brother, obviously he's going to be popular. Everybody's going to want to see him," Jonathan Harris said. "We just hope he shows himself well."
