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goldencents, harlan's holiday, into mischief, share the upside program, spendthrift farm, vyjack, wayne hughes
The following article first appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.
With a pair of stakes victors in the two races for colts hoping to earn a berth in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May, the Spendthrift Farm stallion Into Mischief has rocketed into a leading role among the sires of classic candidates.
The son of Harlan’s Holiday was a leading fancy for the classics himself after a good-looking win in the Hollywood Futurity, and he has a pair of appealing prospects in Goldencents, winner of the G3 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita, and Vyjack, winner of the G2 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct.
Goldencents has good collateral form with divisional leader Shanghai Bobby (by Into Mischief’s sire Harlan’s Holiday) because Goldencents finished second to the obvious Eclipse choice in the G1 Champagne, which has been the only loss in four starts for Goldencents. The colt won his second stakes in the Sham.
The successes of Into Mischief’s late-season juveniles have increased the demand for seasons to him to such a degree that the stallion’s advertised fee is now $20,000 live foal on a stand and nurse contract.
Into Mischief was one of Spendthrift’s original Share the Upside stallions. Under this program, breeders purchased seasons to the horse for two consecutive years, and for the price of the two paid seasons, they became owners of a lifetime breeding right in the horse.
Access to the horse under those terms is looking rather salty today.
Goldencents, bred in Kentucky by Rosecrest Farm and Karyn Pirrello, was a $5,500 yearling at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky’s 2011 October yearling sale and resold at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s June auction for $62,000.
The colt’s dam is the Banker’s Gold mare Golden Works, who is now a 12-year-old. The mare was consigned to the Keeneland January sale and cataloged in Book 3 as Hip 1544, the 10th hip of the day on the last day of the sale, but she has been declared out.
That is not a surprising move, as the mare was cataloged as “not mated,” and her produce record shows two years not mated, one year not pregnant, and two foals, aged 4 and 5, listed as unnamed. Goldencents, however, is a good horse, and he has made his dam a mare of value for someone’s program.
Like Goldencents, Vyjack was bred in Kentucky. The newly minted 3-year-old is a bay gelding and is out of the Stravinsky mare Life Happened. Now unbeaten in three starts, Vyjack holds promise of greater things for his owners, Pick Six Racing, and breeder Machmer Hall.
Life Happened is a half-sister to multiple G3 stakes winner Disco Rico, and the mare is also the dam of Prime Cut (Bernstein), who ran second in the G3 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland and third in the G2 Peter Pan at Belmont in 2011. She has a 2-year-old filly by Bernstein who is a full sister to Prime Cut named Tepin, and the mare’s yearling is a filly by leading sire More Than Ready.
Vyjack sold for $45,000 at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July selected yearling sale, then resold for $100,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training last May.
At the Midlantic sale at Timonium, Vyjack worked three furlongs in :34 2/5, which was the fastest work at that distance. He looked good doing it also, covering the ground efficiently with strides of approximately 24.75 feet in length and a BreezeFig that ranked him in the leading cadre of Group 1 workers at the breeze show.
Both of these young challengers for the classic preps that lie ahead appear ready to get “into mischief” for the Triple Crown.