Gordon Waterstone

Lexington, KY — Monday night was the first session for the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale at Fasig-Tipton and there wasn’t an empty seat in the pavilion and it was a full house in the back ring as you can see in today’s photo. And what a night it was as 122 horses sold for more than $23 million — an average of $189,074. Both numbers easily topped the 2021 figures and set all-time records.

It was a big night for my sponsors, Steve and Cindy Stewart’s Hunterton Farm and Hunterton Sales Agency as the 21 yearlings sold brought a total of $5.137 million, an average of $244,619. Hunterton sold the sale topper for $725,000, a Chapter Seven filly out of Jolene Jolene, making the filly named Epoch a three-quarter sister to the 2021 2-year-old Filly Trotter of the Year Venerable and the stakes winners Crucial and Ineffable.

I am pretty sure for the first time ever I actually picked out the sale-topper in advance. A couple people asked me early in the session who I thought the top horse would be and I immediately said Hip 57. Wish I could pick football winners like that.

Monday night was the first session for the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale at Fasig-Tipton and there wasn’t an empty seat in the pavilion and it was a full house in the back ring. Gordon Waterstone photo.

Hunterton also consigned the number-two horse on the list last night as Vic Zelenskyy, a son of Greenshoe out of the great mare Mission Brief brought $550,000. Marcus Melander was the buyer.

Hunterton also had another $525,000 seller in Awaiting, a filly by Walner who is a full sister to this year’s New Jersey Sires stakes champ Walner Payton.

In all, Hunterton sold three of the top four last night, four of the top 10, and seven of the top 20. No wonder Steve and Cindy had a big smile on their faces every time I walked past their spot in the back ring.

I had a big smile on my face when I saw Scott Zeron in the back ring. Scotty has been out of action awhile since getting hurt in a race accident and I told him I missed seeing him drive in Lexington. Then Scotty gave me the good news that he will be back in action finally this weekend as he was driving one for trainer Nancy Takter. I learned this morning at The Red Mile that Scotty had picked up at least one other drive. So to me, the second best news out of the sale after the big night for Hunterton was that Scotty will finally be back in the bike.

Diamond Creek Farm was the purchaser of the sale topper Epoch, and I had seen Adam Bowden and his wife, Lindsay, earlier in the night. It was actually when Adam was signing for Hip 15, a Captaintreacherous filly named Show Of Faith, making her a half-sister to the 2021 Horse of the Year Test Of Faith. Adam was dressed sharply and I told him he cleans up nicely.

The first person I did see when I arrived at Fasig-Tipton was Kurt Becker, the Keeneland announcer who does double duty on the podium for the yearling sale. We waved at each other as Kurt was heading into the pavilion.

I then saw Woodbine Mohawk’s Bill McLinchey and Mark McKelvie. Mark is here doing some work for the stable.ca as they are doing a two-hour “pre-game show” as Mark called it before each sale session. Working alongside Mark is Jaimi MacDonald, the daughter of trainer Robert Fellows who is married to Curtis MacDonald, who is producing the show that can be seen on the stable.ca’s Facebook and Youtube pages.

Curtis does the TV up in Canada and he’s also the brother of Mark, James and Anthony MacDonald, the latter being the head of the stable.ca. I asked Mark about filling the two hours and he said if he needed filler he would just ask Anthony a question and then it would be another two hours before he’d get a second question in.

I later sat with Curtis, Jaimi and Mark McKelvie along with The Hambletonian Society’s Moira Fanning at a table in the patio. Moira bought the first round and then Mark and I went up to the bar for a second, where Dexter Dunn was already in line. Dex asked what we were drinking so he picked up that round. Thanks Dex, much appreciated.

I saw Jim King Jr. and Larry Rathbone at another table so I said hello. Larry told me he just had rain from Hurricane Ian at his home in south Florida and that he had no travel troubles getting to Lexington. I saw Andy McCarthy also so I went over and chatted briefly with him. Trond Smedshammer was in the house so I went over to him and wished him well at the sale.

Greg Schuler, one of my former co-workers at The Horseman was at the sale so we chatted a bit as well. I also saw Trish Hammond, who is here from Illinois with her parents Leonard and Norine, who is a state representative in Illinois. While I hadn’t seen Trish until tonight, I did see her parents at the Merrick Inn where I had dinner Saturday night with Moira Fanning, Randy Manges and Kim Rinker.

I saw Boss Kathy so went over to say hello and then I headed into the sale pavilion where I saw Boss Mike. That’s Mike Tanner, the USTA Executive Vice President and CEO. Mike and I go back a long time, back to when he was working in the PR department at Wolverine Raceway (Detroit Race Course) and I was doing the PR at Hazel Park Raceway and Northville Downs.

Swedish photographer Adam Strom was outside looking in at the arena so I went over to say hello. Adam introduced me to fellow Swede Caroline, who works in harness racing in Sweden.

Richard Gutnick, who I called King Richard when I did a story with him for The Horseman a few years ago, was also in the pavilion so I stopped to catch up with him for a second. I said hello to sale manager David Reid, and then later I had the same chance to talk to sale manager Randy Manges.

I decided to make a loop around the ring and as I did I saw all the people in their usual spots, including Jimmy, Christina and Nancy Takter. I went to the back near the concession area and saw Andy and Julie Miller in their usual spot, with Brian Brown as always sitting nearby behind.

I saw Joe Sbrocco saw went over to speak to him, and he was sitting with Country Club Acres’ James Koehler. I walked back outside where I saw Mark Weaver so I went over, and soon Heather Vitale and DRF’s Derick Giwner came by. Like my USTA co-worker Wendy Ross, Heather seems always on the go, and she told me that she rearranged her travel schedule and she now is leaving Lexington on a 6 a.m. flight Saturday morning so she could go to Shenandoah Downs, where the great Foiled Again was doing a meet and greet during that track’s race card. Mark is a co-owner of Foiled Again so he told Heather and I how the appearance came about, telling us that he received a call from a woman who works at the track to see if it was possible, and Mark said she could absolutely come pick up the horse and return him.

I left the sale around Hip 85 and headed to Le Deauville as Mark the owner opened up the French restaurant (they are normally closed on Mondays) specially for the harness horsemen. I wasn’t feeling 100 percent all day but hoped some food would help, and I had the great combination of escargot and a cheeseburger and fries. I was one of the first to arrive but the place was soon full and there wasn’t an empty table to be found.

It’d be easier to tell you who wasn’t at the restaurant than who was. I sat at the bar and Nick Salvi joined me briefly before he headed to a table with Frode Fladen. I’m friends with Kameron the bartender there so I quickly got a glass of wine and ordered my food. Jessica Dowse, who worked a long time for trainers Ray Schnittker and then Blake MacIntosh came and sat by me so we chatted a bit. And then Erv Miller’s daughter Hannah, a former Amateur Driver of the Year who is married to Atlee Bender, came over and gave me a nice hug to say hello. Hannah and I talked a bit, reminiscing some about the good old days with Illinois Super Night at Balmoral Park.

This morning was actually a two-track morning for me as my first stop was at Keeneland. A great friend of mine asked me for a ride this morning as she will be bartending during the upcoming Keeneland meet that gets underway Friday (the track is also the host site for this year’s Breeders’ Cup), so I dropped her off for her orientation session before heading to The Red Mile, where I arrived at 8:40.

I had heard last night during the sale that race secretary Kevin Mack was having trouble filling Sunday’s Allerage race with Bulldog Hanover. I heard there was only one horse entered at the time, making it what would be a match race. So my first stop this morning at The Red Mile — after finding the breakfast table once again empty (sigh!) — was to see Kevin. Kevin confirmed that it was just a match race last night but now Bulldog has six entered against him. Hopefully the weather remains great, giving us a chance to see Bulldog possibly lower his 1:45.4 world record. Wouldn’t that be sweet!

This morning I stopped in the race office to see Jeff James and PJ Cooksey. PJ told me that she has connections at the local NBC station WLEX so she made a call and a reporter was coming out this morning to do a piece on Bulldog Hanover. PJ wasn’t sure when that piece would air.

It’s a really nice Tuesday morning in Lexington and as I went on my first tour of the backstretch I stopped at Bob Stewart’s barn, where Gil Short and Chuck Sylvester were also at. After going around the barn and seeing the usual people, I decided to head out. That’s when I saw John Butenschoen coming off the track so we exchanged greetings.

Remember Tuesday afternoon’s Breeders Crown Charity Challenge “Cocktails For A Cause” at Fasig-Tipton is at 1 p.m., just prior to the start of the afternoon sale session.

Nothing new to report on gas prices.

Good luck at the sale this afternoon, followed by Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Racing gets back underway on Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. with the sale having a 7 p.m. post time. And enjoy the great weather, highs in the low to mid 70s all week, or at least until Friday.