Gradys buy session-topper K J Warrior to send to new stallion Girvin

All week, Brad and Misty Grady and their team had been scouring the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, picking up mares to breed to their Grade 1 winner Girvin, who enters stud next year at Ocala Stud in Florida.

While they had already acquired nearly a dozen mares entering Saturday's sixth session of the sale in Lexington, the Gradys waited until then to make their most expensive purchase, taking home K J Warrior, a daughter of Tapit, for $235,000, to top the day's action.

Keeneland reported 223 horses sold Saturday for a total of $7,236,400 for an average of $32,450 and a median of $20,000.

There are no comparable figures from 2017 as a result of a format change this year. The 103 horses that did not sell represented an RNA [reserve not attained] rate of 31.6 per cent.

View full Keeneland November Sale results

Cumulatively, Keeneland has sold 1,317 horses for $165,159,900 for an average of $125,406 and a median of $67,000, with an RNA rate of 26.8 per cent.

The session-topper was consigned as Hip 2123 by Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck's Summerfield, as agent for Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings. The winning four-year-old mare was produced from the multiple stakes-winning Harlan's Holiday mare J Z Warrior and is believed to be in foal to Kantharos on a last cover date of February 26.

J Z Warrior is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner A Z Warrior, Grade 2 winner Jojo Warrior and Grade 3 winner E Z Warrior.

"We liked her, she's got a fast family. We think she'll fit well with Girvin," Brad Grady said.

Through the end of Saturday's session, the Gradys had purchased 12 horses for total receipts of $1,214,800, at an average price of $101,167.

"We're trying to find some speed and obviously [mares] as pretty and correct as we can buy," Grady said of their strategy. "We're putting some Classic pedigrees to him too. We don't know what's going to work, so we're trying a little variety."

Girvin will stand the 2019 season for $7,500 under a partnership of the Gradys' Grand Oaks Farm, Airdrie Stud, and Ocala Stud in a deal structured by West Bloodstock.

A son of Tale of Ekati, Girvin was bred in Kentucky by Bob Austin and John Witte out of the Malibu Moon mare Catch the Moon and is a half-brother to 2015 Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes winner Cocked And Loaded. He was a $130,000 purchase from Legacy Bloodstock's consignment to Fasig-Tipton's The October Sale in 2015.

Girvin retired with a record of four wins and three seconds from ten starts and earnings of $1,624,392. Trained by Joe Sharp, he scored back-to-back stakes victories in the Risen Star Stakes and the Louisiana Derby both Grade 2, and he went into the 2017 Kentucky Derby as the top points earner on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard.

Following a troubled 13th-place finish in the Derby, Girvin finished a close second in the Ohio Derby before capturing the Haskell Invitational Stakes. Girvin was runner-up to Bee Jersey in the Steve Sexton Mile Stakes at Lone Star Park in his sole 2018 start.

Jacob West, who along with Bobby Dodd of Grand Oaks are assisting the Gradys in their quest for mares at Keeneland, said the couple is committed to providing the horse that took them on a great ride along the Triple Crown trail with every opportunity to succeed in his new career.

"They are getting behind this horse to give him every chance to succeed because he took them on a trip of a lifetime," West said. "They are making a financial commitment. They are making an emotional commitment. They said they want to do what's best for the horse so we came up with a game plan of what that would look like. They own some mares, but the majority they own are fillies that were bought as yearlings."

West said a diverse group of mares will fit with Girvin's pedigree.

"He's a little bit of an outcross for a lot of mares," West said. "Brad and Misty are going to breed a lot of mares with speed, which is kind of ideal. Unbridled's Song was very precocious and seems like a lot of his sons are too, as well as being beautiful horses and are passing that along."

Saturday's second-highest seller was I'm Pretty Strong, a three-year-old daughter of Street Cry out of Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Shared Account, by Pleasantly Perfect. The filly sold to Boomer Bloodstock on behalf of Australian clients for $220,000.

Consigned by Upson Downs Farm, agent, I'm Pretty Strong is from the family of Grade 2 winners Sapphire N' Silk and Shaniko, Grade 3 winner Golden Itiz, and stakes winner Colonial Flag.

En Fuego Stables bought the session's top-priced weanling, paying $145,000 for a filly by Kitten's Joy. Perrone Sales, agent, consigned the filly out of the winning Honour And Glory mare Sunday Sport and from the family of Grade 1 winner Contredance.

The sale continues until Friday.

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