A gray or roan son of Tapit (Hip 413) and half brother to grade 1 winner Drain the Clock became the first seven-figure purchase early during the Sept. 10 session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Gainesway consigned the colt purchased by Mayberry Farm on behalf of Lee and Susan Searing, who race as C R K Stable.
"April Mayberry and her staff, they loved that horse," Lee Searing said. "They've been looking at him for a couple of days. We loved that horse.
"When the price stopped at $1 million, $1.05 million—we knew it was Spendthrift (bidding against us), so I was surprised they stopped. It was about where I might have stopped; I put a few more bids in there and it worked out."
Searing, who said he purchased one colt during Book 1, said he would be bidding on more horses, specifically colts.
Hip 413 is out of the Arch mare Manki, who has also produced multiple graded-placed winner Corposo (Vino Rosso ). Drain the Clock, by Maclean's Music , won the 2021 Woody Stephens Stakes (G1) among his four black-type wins. Drain the Clock stood this past breeding season at Gainesway for $10,000, alongside Tapit, who commanded a $185,000 fee this season in his 21st year at stud. Drain the Clock is represented by his first yearlings this year.
April Mayberry of Mayberry Farm is well acquainted with high-quality Tapit colts. She gave 2022 Horse of the Year Flightline his early training at Mayberry Farm near Ocala, Fla.
She has given other notable horses their initial training, such as 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, 2022 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Rich Strike , and more recently Test Stakes (G1) winner Kilwin, and Santa Anita Derby (G1) runner-up and Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes (G1) third-place finisher Baeza who is campagined by C R K Stable and Grandview Equine. Mayberry Farm purchased the son of McKinzie , a half brother to 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage and 2024 Belmont Stakes winner Dornoch , at the 2023 edition of the September sale for $1.2 million.
Beyond Drain the Clock's success on the track, his first crop has been well received—with a colt (Hip 578) at Fasig-Tipton's New York Bred Yearlings Sale bringing 27 times his stud fee, selling for $270,000 to trainer Michael Maker. He has had seven other six-figure yearlings sell over the summer.
Brian Graves, general manager of Gainesway, described Hip 413 before the sale as "a big, leggy, classic-looking two-turn horse. Anytime you have a half to a current stallion, people's minds gravitate to the immense possibilities there."
Hip 413 was bred in Kentucky by Nick Cosato and the Tapit Syndicate.
