by Gordon Waterstone

The sun was shining bright on my old Kentucky home Wednesday morning (Oct. 2). The sun is also shining bright over Fasig-Tipton as the first two sessions of the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale were record-breaking.

Monday’s opening-night session got underway at 7 p.m., with a two-hour gathering to celebrate the life of the late Randy Manges kicking things off. With a photo montage of Randy and his many, many friends being shown on the TVs, everybody gathered to do a little reminiscing. Randy’s son, David, flew in from Dallas, while his daughter, Carey, made the trip from Boston. Opening remarks came from Kurt Becker, and then David took the microphone to speak eloquently about his father.

When the sale began, I had taken a seat on a bench directly outside the sale office at Fasig-Tipton. That was always where Randy could be found taking a break, so I wanted to honor the memory of my great friend by sitting in his spot for Hip #1.

In making my rounds early, I went over to say hello to my sponsors, Steve and Cindy Stewart. I wished them luck, and it looked like it worked, as the Stewarts’ Hunterton Sales Agency was the leading consignor by gross for the opening session, with 21 yearlings selling for $4,567,000. Hunterton’s sale-topper for the night was Hip #95, a Tactical Landing filly who sold for $550,000 to a partnership of David Anderson, Robert LeBlanc, John Fielding and Pryde Stable.

Hip #15 lit up the tote board with the final bid of $925,000 going to Ken Jacobs. The Hanover Shoe Farms-sold Walner filly is the first foal out of the 2020 Hambletonian champ Ramona Hill. Just like Ramona Hill, the yearling filly named Rani Hanover will be trained by Tony Alagna.

I talked to many, many, many people Monday night at the sale. Chris Coyle noted to me that famed French horseman J.P. Dubois was in attendance, and I later saw him walking in the back ring. I can say that J.P. looks great for age 84.

I also had a chance to say hello to Tim Twaddle, whose large group included his daughter, Meadow. Another large group was three generations of the Altmeyer/Wilder family. Going solo in the back patio area was Richard Gutnick, and while we talked, he reminded me again that he’d framed a story which I wrote about him several years ago at The Horseman And Fair World where I christened him “King Richard.”

Eventually I made my way back out to Randy’s bench and Bill O’Donnell came over to say hello. So too did Mark Weaver, who introduced me to Jason Robinson. I later saw Mark with his partner, Mike Bruscemi, who was accompanied by Tony, their new chief of security. I was later chatting with Ex-Boss Kathy and was pleasantly surprised when Francisco Del Cid stopped by.

I wanted to be sure and catch some of the Lions game so I ducked out early and met Moira Fanning and Judy Wilson at Buffalo Wild Wings. The game was the first time a perfect game had ever been thrown in Detroit. Ironically it came at the hands of Lions quarterback Jared Goff, who was 18-for-18 passing.

I arrived back at Fasig-Tipton by noon on Tuesday for the cocktail reception. A check for $12,500 was presented by Marvin Katz on behalf of the Breeders Crown Charity Challenge to the UK Children’s Hospital. Prior to the second session beginning, breedings to seven stallions — Muscle Hill, Sweet Lou, Tactical Landing, Walner, Chapter Seven, Confederate and Downbytheseaside — were auctioned off, with those offerings bringing in another $203,000.

Tuesday’s sale session was another big day for the Stewarts’ Hunterton Sales Agency as they sold the afternoon’s topper. Honors went to pacing filly Naughty Beauty, a daughter of Bettor’s Delight—Beautyonthebeach, who sold for $550,000 to Andrew Harris, acting as agent for William Pollock. The filly was bred by Jim Avritt, Sr.

By day’s end there was a new second-session average of $97,768 for the 227 yearlings sold. After two days, Hunterton has sold 44 yearlings for a total of $7,105,000, second to only Preferred Equine at slightly more than $8 million.

During my pavilion travels on Tuesday, I had a chance to say hello to Trond Smedshammer and Bernie Noren. I stopped to chat with David McDuffee for a spell, and he gave me a hip number to keep an eye on and who he expected to purchase. So, I kept track, but Dave’s prediction failed to come to fruition.

While I had seen Brian and Jennifer Brown in their usual spot on Monday night, Brian was solo on Tuesday. I sat for a few minutes with the new-and-improved Brian, telling him that his recent 60th birthday looks good on him.

I was able to leave Fasig-Tipton at a reasonable time to make it home to watch the Detroit Tigers in their first playoff game in 10 years. What an exciting and fun game to watch, especially with the Tigers holding on to win 3-1.

I was getting a bit nervous late in the game that the Astros would tie it up and go into extra innings as I had plans to meet a large group for dinner at Tony’s at 6:15 p.m. But the game was over in nine innings so I made my way downtown. Actually, we were supposed to have dinner at Frank and Dino’s, but that restaurant remained closed Tuesday as a result of lingering power problems from last Friday’s storm. Moira Fanning had put the plans together and she told me that somebody at Frank and Dino’s called to let her know of the situation and then actually made our reservations at Tony’s.

My group included Moira and her husband, Tom, John and Paula Campbell, Emily Ratcliff, Amanda Gaskin, Australia’s Wally Mann and Kristen Odegard, who lives in Paris (France, not Kentucky).

We had some great conversation at the table. One of the topics was Summer Slam, and it wasn’t about Tuesday’s afternoon at Fasig-Tipton. It was about the Summer Slam that is scheduled for MetLife Stadium adjacent to The Meadowlands over Hambletonian weekend next year. So, if you’re planning on attending the 100th Hambletonian next year you might want to answer the bell early and start checking hotel prices now.

Tony’s was filled with harness people in there. Taking the table behind me was a group that included Nick Salvi, Wendy Ross and Jenn Bongiorno. I received a nice hug from both Wendy and Jenn (who told me that Marty Byrd is also in town with her), but when Nick tried to do the same, I politely stepped back. Scarlett Wilder, our roving eyewitness reporter, soon joined the trio to make it a quartet.

While I was washing hands in the men’s room, I was hip checked by somebody. That somebody turned out to be Buzzy Sholty. As I headed back to my table I saw Will Alempijevic, whose group included Nik Drennan. Andy and Julie Miller also had a really big group dining together. I also grabbed a peak at a back booth where Jonas Czernyson and Kristin Shetler were, with Joe Holloway and Marty Granoff nearby.

Arriving at Tony’s at 6:10 p.m., I made the decision to not valet park and instead take a chance on parking on Short Street where there were many spots open. Thing is, parking meters are in action until 7 p.m. I decided that with a tip the valet parking charge would be $15, the same as what a parking ticket would cost. I can happily report that when I made it back to my car after dinner at 9:45 — yes, we were at Tony’s for 3½ hours — my windshield was clean with no ticket in sight.

I arrived at The Red Mile on the sunny Wednesday morning about 8:45. It was chilly so jackets were required. The breakfast area was again empty, but there is hope for Thursday as Emily Ratcliff texted me asking if I had any requests as food will be served. I told her bagels with cream cheese have always been a popular item in the past.

It was again quiet walking through the barn area. Tahnee Camilleri again waved hello as she’s done every morning. I saw Tahnee as I was looking over to see if Chris Ryder was around as I wanted to wish the newly-elected Hall of Famer a happy birthday.

I saw associate judge Jeff James heading into his office so I went in and sat down. Jeff and I go back to even before I started working at Hazel Park and Northville Downs in 1979. Jeff had a great Hall of Fame driving career in Michigan. It was just a few years ago that he transitioned into the role of a judge.

While I was sitting with Jeff, Tyler Butenschoen came in to make a couple of driving changes for the Butenschoen barn. He asked Jeff if Jody Jamieson was expected at The Red Mile on Friday. Jeff told Tyler that Jody would be in town on Saturday but not Friday. But what did Jeff do? He picked up the phone and called Jody to see if he could make it a day early for Tyler. Jody said he would make his way to the Bluegrass, which meant Tyler left the office very happy.

Linda Toscano came in to scratch a horse out of Friday’s card, and just as she was leaving the office Jeff’s phone rang. It was Dewayne Minor, who took his filly out of the open trot that is slated as race 1 on Friday’s card. Jeff then made another call to Tony Alagna, telling him that with Linda’s scratch his AE1 horse would be moving into the race.

Also on Friday’s card as race 6 is the Bob McIntosh Memorial. There will be an on-track ceremony to remember the late Hall of Famer following the race.

Traffic in Lexington is very light this week as the county’s schools are closed for a fall break. While there is no football game this week as UK has a bye, Keeneland opens on Friday afternoon. As for the weekend’s weather, it’s a direct opposite of last week as highs each day will be around 80 degrees and not a chance of rain.

Remember, racing resumes Friday at The Red Mile at 1 p.m. Remember to fill up your gas tanks as prices have dropped into the $2.70s. I filled up my tank on Wednesday and using my dollar off with my Kroger fuel points paid just $1.87 a gallon.