Belladonna Racing became the second-leading buyer by gross purchases on Day 4 of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, the second day of the sale's Book 2 selection.
Helping put the partnership toward the top for the session was an $825,000 Not This Time colt (Hip 1067) sold by Norevale Farm. For the Sept. 12 session, Belladonna bought five horses for a total of $2,385,000.
Belladonna Racing operates partnerships for a select group of co-owners who want to compete at the highest level in Thoroughbred racing. The business is owned and managed by David Ingordo, trainer Cherie DeVaux, and Paul Manganaro.
"Across the board, all the horses we buy are good physicals that are in the top tier of the athletes here, among the ones you can afford," said Ingordo, the manager of Belladonna and also of Lane's End Bloodstock. "Most important, they were all raised in good places. I'm very particular about where I will buy a horse from because how they are reared is very important."
Hip 1067 was the second colt by Taylor Made Stallions' leading sire Not This Time that Belladonna bought during the first week of the September sale. On Sept. 10, Belladonna bought Hip 286 for $1.3 million.
Day 4's chestnut colt was attractive because he is a half brother to grade 2-placed winner Common Defense, whom Ingordo tried to buy after his second career start. The colt went on to be runner-up in the Rebel Stakes (G2) two races later. Hip 1067 was bred by Tony Holmes, Michael Holmes, and Norevale Farm out of the Street Cry daughter Allusion.
"I thought Common Defense was a nice horse and love the pedigree, it is an old King Ranch family," he said. "Also, we have Up to the Mark at Lane's End, so Not This Time could be a sire of sires. He is becoming an elite sire, if he is not there already. (Hip 1067) has the physical and, of course, you'd always like to pay less but this is what you have to pay. I would rather have him looking out of our webbing and running for us then seeing him in Todd Pletcher's barn in Saratoga and be running against him."
The other Day 4 yearlings bought by Belladonna include Hip 900, a $500,000 Essential Quality filly out of multiple stakes producer Mira Alta (Curlin ); Hip 768, a $450,000 colt by Game Winner and half brother to grade 3-placed stakes winner Strategic Dreams; Hip 919, a $310,000 Practical Joke filly whose family includes 2011 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Shackleford, grade 1 winner Lady Joanne, and graded stakes winners Afleeting Lady and Baghdaria; and, Hip 1116, a $300,000 Girvin filly who is a full sister to stakes winner Swirvin.
The second session of Book 2 produced one other $825,000 sale, a bay colt (Hip 898) by multiple leading sire Into Mischief out of the Quality Road daughter Mighty Road that was consigned by Mill Ridge Farm. Windancer Farm Holdings, based in Ohio, bought the colt with bloodstock agent John Moynihan signing the ticket. Mighty Road sold for $1 million to Narvick International during the 2019 Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale out of the De Meric Sales consignment. A half sister to grade 3 winner and multiple stakes producer Decelerator (Dehere), Mighty Road would only make one start before an injury derailed her racing career.
"She showed a lot of ability," said Price Bell with Mill Ridge. "He is her first foal and a really special colt that has a ton of class. Margaux Farm raised the horse and we had the privilege to consign him. He was a star from the beginning and had a lot of interest from a lot of good judges. And, what a sire Into Mischief has been. He throws all shapes and sizes and the beauty is they all like to run."
Ingordo said the competition was stout during the first week of the September sale, but it was what he expected.
"There are a lot of brilliant people out here. The best of the best have come to Keeneland, and Keeneland did a phenomenal job with the first week of the sale—the physicals and the pedigrees," he said. "Consignors have done a good job and scratched the ones that are not going to vet. Everyone knows what they are doing, so it is very competitive. People are dialed in on the buying side and they are very, very sharp."
