Steve Asmussen trained Yaupon to win six of eight starts, capped by the 2021 Forego Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. Now, one of Yaupon's quick-working juvenile sons is set to join his stable for owner Kaleem Shah.
On April 16 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, Shah purchased Hip 585 as K S I—an acronym for Kaleem Shah Inc.—from the de Meric Sales consignment for $1.3 million. Leading up to the sale, the colt had worked a furlong in :09 4/5.
Shah was accompanied at OBS Wednesday by Asmussen, who excitedly spoke about Shah acquiring the bay, who he said reminded him of Yaupon.
"And then you walk up on him and he has so many characteristics of his dad temperament-wise," Asmussen said. "I went back and looked at him multiple times, liked him more every time I saw him. Obviously, (Shah) paid more than retail for him but just loved who he is compared to a lot of other good horses."
Asmussen added they "would have been more comfortable getting him for less, but the question was: Do you think he's the right horse? And I believe that he is."
Yaupon was a 2-year-old sales graduate, purchased from the OBS June 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale in 2019, where he sold for $255,000 to East Hickman Bloodstock. He went on to make $703,264 for Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt before his retirement to stud at Spendthrift Farm in 2022. His first foals are 2-year-olds of 2025.
"I'm unbelievably excited about them because they look as athletic as he was and obviously at the in-training sales, they're showing the same sort of speed he did," Asmussen added. "And (what's) comforting for me is the first time I ever saw Yaupon, he was working at an in-training sale. So you know it's easy to recollect that that's what your dad looked like, on the racetrack and at the end of a shank, and that worked out beautifully for us."
Hip 585 was a highly rewarding pinhook and sale for de Meric Sales, which bought him for $285,000 from Fasig-Tipton's The July Sale last year from Ballysax Bloodstock consignment. Richard Bremer and Cheryl Sprick bred him in Kentucky out of the Stormy Atlantic mare Twitterpated, whose best finish was a second in five starts. She is a full sister to the 2015 Matriarch Stakes (G1T) winner Stormy Lucy.
"(Hip 585) is a special horse and definitely one that we had high expectations for," said Tristan de Meric of de Meric Sales.
His new connections share those lofty expectations as they look to the future.
"And when you're giving this kind of money for him, a race career is not enough," Asmussen said. "I mean he's going to have to be impressive enough on the racetrack to become a stallion to justify what we just did."
Zedan Goes to $1.15 Million For a Tiz the Law Colt
Zedan Racing, with bloodstock agent Donato Lanni, zeroed in on one horse during the April 16 second session of the OBS Spring sale and went to $1.15 million to land him.
"He's the horse we wanted to go home with," said Lanni about Hip 508, a powerfully built chestnut son of Ashford Stud's second-crop sire Tiz the Law .
Tom McCrocklin consigned Hip 508, who he bought for $150,000 during Fasig-Tipton's The Saratoga Sale out of the Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services consignment. The colt was bred in Kentucky by Merriebelle Stable out of Taboo, a winning daughter of Forestry and multiple stakes producer. The mare has already produced stakes winner Let My People Go (Pioneerof the Nile), grade 3-placed winner Der Lu (Orb), and stakes-placed winner Smartly Agree (Smart Strike). Taboo is a half sister to grade 1 winners Creative Cause and Vexatious.
"He was one of the top colts. It's hard to separate them all, but this is the one we gravitated to. He comes from a deep family," Lanni said after the colt sold. "He's just a cool dude, really cool, real quiet, really, really, fast."
The colt worked a quarter-mile in a sparkling :20 3/5 during the under tack show.
"He had a great work, came back really good. We were really happy with that," Lanni said.
So far, Lanni said the trade has been good at OBS.
"The top end of the market is always tough," he said. "The middle market is a buyer's sale. Prices have been very good in the middle market for buyers. It's a good market, good horses rise to the top, and this colt was one of them."
