Dark Star Thoroughbreds Scores Pinhooking Home Run

Stori Atchison's Dark Star Thoroughbreds hit a pinhooking home run at the opening session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale March 16, selling a colt (Hip 110) from the first crop of Unified to Spendthrift Farm for $400,000. Atchison previously purchased the colt for just $19,000 out of the Legacy Bloodstock consignment at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale. "I was obviously very happy with the price, but it didn't surprise me at all because I knew the amount of interest on the horse. There was a ton of people on him," said Atchison who is based at her farm and training center in Morriston, Fla., near Ocala, and has consigned under the Dark Star Thoroughbreds banner since 2007. "He was an absolute piece of cake all through winter. He was a monster on the racetrack and a very kind, passive horse in the barn." Bred in Kentucky by Jay Goodwin and Brian Foret, the dark bay or brown colt hails from a running family. He is produced from the multiple stakes-winning Saint Ballado mare Mykindasaint and is a half brother to stakes winner Malibu Saint (by Malibu Moon) and two other winners—Pappou, by Tapit, and Hold Everything, by Corinthian—both earners of more than $100,000. At the under tack preview, the colt breezed a co-fastest eighth-mile in :9 4/5. "He is a strong horse with a really athletic, easy-flowing walk," Atchison said. "He has always been forward, and he has done whatever we wanted or needed him to do. He took to training naturally. It was second nature for him, really." Encouraged by the enthusiastic bidding she witnessed at the March Sale, Atchison related that Dark Star Thoroughbreds has two juveniles being pointed to the OBS Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in April and another pair for the OBS June 2-Year-Olds in Training and Horses of Racing Age Sale. "Overall, this sale was strong," she said. "It was very exciting for a lot of people. I have a really good group coming for April and June. We actually targeted the later sales for them just to give them a little more time to mature. It's a strong group."