Spendthrift Farm and Mike Repole's Repole Stable, who partnered Sept. 9 to purchase Hip 121, a $1.1 million Gun Runner colt, together made two more purchases of colts during the fourth session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
The two purchases entered the sales ring Sept. 12 one right after the other, Hips 994 and 995, fetching final bids of $775,000 and $375,000, respectively.
Spendthrift and Repole have partnered at times over the past couple of years and have numerous current 2-year-olds together with Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, among them Tenacious Leader, a Not This Time colt who broke his maiden at Saratoga Race Course and finished second in the With Anticipation Stakes (G3T).
Hip 994, one of the top-priced hips of the session, came as little surprise in light of his pedigree. The Airdrie Stud-consigned, Bret Jones-bred son of Charlatan , whose first foals are yearlings, is a half brother to grade 1 winner and $2 million earner Bell's the One and grade 3 stakes winner King's Cause. His dam, the Street Cry mare Street Mate, also produced the stakes-placed Running Mate.
"It's a great pedigree," Spendthrift Farm general manager Ned Toffey said Sept. 12. "It's a great individual, obviously by a first-year stallion.
"Our goals are similar to Mike's in that the ultimate goal is to get them to the breeding shed. I think with this pedigree and his conformation, he looks like the kind of horse who might be able to do that."
Hip 995, bred by Bobby Flay Thoroughbreds and consigned by Stone Farm, is also out of a Street Cry mare, Street Strut, though she has just one foal to race. While his first dam lacks black type, the son of Constitution has a promising female family. His dam is a half sister to America, a grade 3 stakes winner and grade 1-placed mare, and producer of the graded stakes winner First Captain.
Toffey called him "a good-looking horse with tremendous depth to the pedigree."
Both Repole and Spendthrift made other acquisitions Thursday. Repole bought six other horses, five solely with West Bloodstock serving as agent, and another buy in partnership with Albaugh Family Stables.
Spendthrift made one other buy: Hip 1008, a Taylor Made Sales Agency-consigned colt bred by Pin Oak Stud, purchased relatively inexpensively for a son of Gun Runner at $240,000.
"We thought we have to pay a little bit more, but happy to get him. He's out of a mare that could run a little bit," Toffey said of the colt's graded-placed First Samurai dam Sweet Sami D.
