by John P. Sparkman

A colt by Sky Mesa turned in the fastest one-furlong breeze on Friday at the under-tack show for the Fasig-Tipton Calder sale of selected two-year-olds in training, sprinting down the Calder Race Course homestretch in :9.80.

Consignor Cleveland Wheeler, agent, paid $100,000 for the colt out of Grade 3-placed stakes winner Secondary School, by Honor Grades, at the 2007 Keeneland September yearling sale. The second foal of his dam, the colt was bred in Kentucky by John J. Carey.

The weather gods smiled on Fasig-Tipton's decision to reduce the number of breeze shows for the sale from two to one, as it turned out to be a perfect day for watching horses work, with bright sunshine, temperatures in the 80s, and a crosswind most of the day.

“What do you mean we got lucky with the weather? We've been working on that for days!” joked Terence R. P. Collier, the sales company's director of marketing.

A colt by Sky Mesa's sire, Pulpit, posted the fastest quarter-mile time of :21 flat. Pinhooker Hoby Kight paid $100,000 for the half brother to stakes-placed winner Mrs. Debbie M out of Actceptional, by Noactor, at the 2007 Keeneland September sale.  The colt, from the family of Valid Expectations, was bred in Kentucky by North Wales LLC.

“I'd say the reaction [to the breeze show reduction] has been pretty good,” said Walt Robertson, Fasig-Tipton's president and chief auctioneer. “We had a few buyers who wish they could get tapes a little earlier, but after today, they've got three days to look at them and get it all sorted out.”

“The track was remarkably consistent all the way through and it was fast enough,” Collier said. “I thought the track crew did a marvelous job so that the fast times were spread throughout the day.

“I don't think there were too many surprised consignors. And I think we had one lost iron all day, and remarkably enough, we didn't have a single loose horse.

“It was a very good day.”

After three days for inspection, the one-day sale will begin at 11 a. m. EST on February 26.

For results of the under-tack show, click here.

John P. Sparkman is bloodstock editor of Thoroughbred Times