A comparison of top trotting colts and fillies between Lexington and Harrisburg
by Murray Brown
When it comes to trotting yearlings, each year the offering in Lexington stands out. There are very few that would disagree with that assessment.
This year’s Lexington sale offered a total of 266 yearlings by arguably the five top trotting sires in North America — the veterans Chapter Seven (64), Muscle Hill (38), Tactical Landing (41), and Walner (80) and the sensational freshman leading money winner among 2-year-olds Captain Corey (43). It is only with Captain Corey where Harrisburg leads Lexington in numbers with 49 to sell next week.
I asked myself is it only with the numbers that Lexington bests all other sales? My answer is that it is that and along with those numbers, the quality within them was fantastic. However, the offering at Harrisburg is far from being chopped liver.
There are some incredibly well-bred individuals selling there — quite comparable, maybe on occasion superior, to those that were offered in Lexington.
I decided to make a comparison at the top — with both colts and fillies.
How to do so? With Lexington it was quite easy. I’d let the public be my guide. I used the five top priced trotting colts and fillies sold there and then compared them to the top five in my estimation being sold in Harrisburg. With Lexington it would be an objective comparison. With Harrisburg entirely a subjective one.
In Lexington there were a total of 38 trotting yearlings sold that brought $200,000 or more — 17 colts and 21 fillies. The numbers of higher-priced individuals will almost certainly be much lower in Harrisburg.
TROTTING COLTS
1. Lexington: Hip #182 Jimdougie Armitage ($750,000) vs Harrisburg: Hip #152 Command Center
My Pick: Command Center. He is out of the great Mission Brief, one of the great fillies it has been my pleasure to ever see race and now a top broodmare, being the dam of Mohawk Million winner Apex. If this colt were a filly, I believe he might have brought seven figures. His sister in blood Tyndall commanded $800,000 in Lexington. Jimdougie Armitage topped all trotting colts in Lexington bringing $750,000.
2. Lexington: Hip #50 Valorous ($575,000) vs Harrisburg: Hip #12 Salubrious Hanover
My Pick: Salubrious Hanover. Generally, I go with the tried and proven over the unknown. Valorous is by the first-year sire Alrajah One IT, and the first foal from the great Venerable ($1,187,798). Described by his breeder Steve Jones as the nicest yearling he has ever raised. That is a big statement. He sold for $575,000. Nevertheless, Salubrious Hanover is a half-brother to the fast Breeders Crown champ Spencer Hanover 2, 1.52.3-25 (record taken after catalog went to press) and is out of a half-sister to the great Manchego ($3,144777).
3. Lexington: Hip #184 Kountry Win ($425,000) vs Harrisburg: Hip #120 Fine Tuned Man
My Pick: Kountry Win. He’s a $425,000 yearling from the first crop sire King Of The North, and the second foal from the Chapter Seven mare Winndevie ($787,682) over the Chapter Seven half-brother to Oh Well ($1,566,877). If I had the choice of these two, I’d be quite content with the second pick.
4. Lexington: Hip #19 Umbria ($475,000) vs Harrisburg: Hip #24 Starsatsea Hanover
My Pick: Umbria. He’s a $475,000 yearling, and the first foal from the Dan Patch winner Anoka Hanover ($792,739). Another difficult pick, from which I would be quite content receiving the spoils over a colt who is a half-brother to Meshuggah ($576,047).
5. Lexington: Hip #27 Tony Pro ($425,000) vs Harrisburg: Hip #145 Loki Hanover
My Pick: Loki Hanover. He’s the Walner half-brother to Super Chapter ($1,541,515) over the brother to Instagram Model ($548,086). Again, a close pick, but being a sibling to one of the top 3-year-olds in North America currently racing won out.
TROTTING FILLIES
1. Lexington: Hip #70 Dejeuner ($1,000,000) vs Harrisburg: Hip #108 Deltoid Hanover
My Pick: Deltoid Hanover. How can you bet against a million-dollar yearling you might ask? Well, that is exactly what I’m doing. When I made my picks for Harrisburg, of great importance is what I see is value beyond racing. What these fillies may do on the racetrack is yet to be determined. But if I were picking a filly upon which to build my broodmare band the Muscle Hill filly Deltoid Hanover would be my choice.
2. Lexington: Hip #94 Turtle Dove ($900,000) vs Harrisburg: Hip #94 Climatic Hanover
My Pick: Turtle Dove. No sooner did I say above that my picks were often swayed by residual value as a broodmare, do I go against that in making my choice here. In my less than stellar opinion, Climatic Hanover’s page, all things being equal, is superior to that of Turtle Dove’s. Nevertheless, When Dovescry, Turtle Dove’s dam, is one of my all-time favorite trotting females ever. They say you should never let emotion play a part in picking yearlings, but I’m doing it here anyway.
3. Lexington: Hip #4 Tyndall ($800,000) vs Harrisburg: Hip #174 Ronette Hanover
My Pick: Tyndall. A choice between the daughters of two great females, one of them the Hambletonian winner Ramona Hill and the other the dam of two great producers of the trotting breed – Mission Brief, a great filly herself, and the dam of possible Dan Patch winner Apex, and also the dam of prominent sire Tactical Landing. I picked Tyndall because I believe her to possess the better pedigree, although I believe Walner, the sire of Ronette Hanover to be a better one than Gimpanzee, the sire of Tyndall.
4. Lexington: Hip #93 Social Hour ($500,000) vs Harrisburg: Hip #123 White Tie
My Pick: White Tie. A pick between two very well-bred fillies, one of them a sister to a Hambletonian winner and the other a sister to a top filly and out of a sister to the great, but lamented sire in Bar Hopping. I went with White Tie, not because of her pedigree — I consider the pedigrees of both fillies to be almost of equal value — but because for racing purposes, I prefer her sire Chapter Seven to Social Hour’s sire Walner – entirely a personal opinion.
5. Lexington: Hip #59 Temple Of Trot ($485,000) vs Harrisburg: Hip #12 Salubrious Hanover
My Pick: Temple Of Trot. As well-bred a filly as you are going to find in either catalog. By a great sire and out of a great race filly who earned in excess of a million dollars and is the dam of a million-dollar Dan Patch winner King Of The North and is a well looked upon young sire. What is not to like?
THOUGHTS
My Harrisburg choices are top heavy with yearlings from Hanover Shoe Farms, mostly because Hanover did not sell yearlings in Lexington this year. If they had, it’s likely that some of these in the Harrisburg choices might have been in the Lexington ones.
I have not seen either the Harrisburg nor the Lexington yearlings, nonetheless the public has seen the Lexington ones and has, to a great degree, determined the prices that they brought based upon their conformation. At this point, they have not judged the Harrisburg yearlings by invoking those standards.
The respective totals: With colts, the numbers favor Harrisburg 3-2. With fillies, Lexington leads 3-2.
I would be willing to bet anyone willing to make the wager, a dozen New York or Montreal bagels that my picks out earn the others at the conclusion of next year’s racing campaign.
