First In-Foal Mares for Gunite at Keeneland November
Multiple Grade I winner Gunite makes his sales debut at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale when 22 mares carrying his first foals sell over the next nine days.
Hidden Brook Farm consigns Hip 506, an Arrogate daughter named Beyond Doubt carrying her first foal on a February 23 cover.
Beyond Doubt is one of six winners from nine to race out of a half-sister to champion Vindication and full sister to Grade III winner Scipion. That mare, Strawberry Sense, has produced four stakes performers with the group including Grade III winner and Grade I-placed Prime Attraction and stakes winner and Grade I-placed Kathy’s Song.
The mare is following in her dam and granddam’s footsteps with Strawberry Sense’s Grade III winning dam Strawberry Reason producing five stakes performers in all with her Unbridled’s Song stakes winning daughter In Step producing Grade II winner Hemsworth.
Grade III winner and $630,245 earner Cookie Dough goes through the ring carrying her third foal by Gunite as Hip 549 with St. George Sales.
That mare is out of the winning Fusaichi Pegasus mare Brooke’s Valentine, whose three winners also include the stakes placed Poe. Cookie Dough’s outstanding stakes record takes up a quarter of the page, but her three dams’ successful descendants take up a huge chunk of their own. In all, she is one of eight stakes winners and three other stakes performers named in the family.
Grade III winner and Grade I-placed Secret Message’s dam Westside Singer sells as Hip 848 carrying a foal by Gunite.
The 16-year-old Gone West mare has been a productive producer with her four runners all winning and her daughters with runners also producing winners. The mare has an exciting group of foals to come with a yearling and 2-year-old by Uncle Mo and a weanling by Medaglia d’Oro.
Westside Singer is out of the stakes winner and multiple Grade II-placed Zawzooth, who produced a stakes performer of her own and has two daughters who followed Westside Singer’s lead by producing stakes performers.
Coming from an in-demand family and carrying her first foal by Gunite is More Than Ready mare Yanira selling as Hip 863.
The mare was placed on the track and has the family to back up the possibility of her producing successful runners. Her half-brother is the Grade I winner Finnegans Wake and her half-sister is stakes winner and Grade II-placed Puca.
Puca is likely better known as the history-making broodmare who produced Grade I Kentucky Derby winner Mage one year before producing Grade I Belmont Stakes winner Dornoch. The foal Yarnira is carrying is also closely related to Puca’s stakes placed Gunning, who is by Gunite’s sire Gun Runner.
One of the first mares to visit Gunite this year and pregnant on a February 15 cover for her first foal is Ghostzapper mare Francing Allstar selling as Hip 1407 with Nursery Place.
The 4-year-old is out of champion Dancing Allstar, who won nine races in her career before producing four winners. Three of those winners have stakes form with Grade II winning daughter Summer Sunday following her lead as a Canadian champion. Another one of her runners is the dual stakes winner Trini Brewnette while her 3-year-old Summer Commander also has multiple stakes placings.
The stakes winning Tap Dance Fever sells with Taylor Made as Hip 1644 carrying her first foal by Gunite on a February 17 cover.
A seven-time winner who earned $286,565 on the track, Tap Dance Fever is a half-sister to the Grade III winner Fast and Accurate and stakes placed Lady Gi in addition the winning Cornakill, who is a stakes producer.
Their dam It’s Heidi’s Dance produced nine winners from 11 to race overall and has her own successful siblings. The mare is a half-sister to the Grade II winning duo of My Pal Charlie and Bwana Charlie with half-brother Bwana Bull winning a Grade III wind two of her sisters producing stakes winners as well with those winners coming on two different continents.
The cross the foal Tap Dance Fever is carrying is bred similarly to the golden Gun Runner x Tapit cross. That cross has produced eight stakes winners and 13 stakes performers, led by Grade I winner Society and four other graded stakes victors.
Carrying her fourth foal by Gunite is Tapit daughter Dreams Are Made, who sells with Taylor Made Sales as Hip 1799.
A winning mare, Dreams Are Made is a half-sister to the stakes winning Smart As Me and Grade I placed Luminance among three stakes performers and seven other winners out of Siren Serenade. Siren Serenade was placed herself and is a daughter of multiple Grade I winner Versailles Treaty. This is an incredibly strong family with Siren Serenade a half-sister to Grade I winner George Vancouver and Grade II winner Saarland. Farther down the line, Versailles Treaty has been the matriarch of a family that also includes Grade I winner Mongolian Groom and Grade II winner Dragon Bay with 15 different stakes performs named under Dreams Are Made’s first two dams alone.
Just like Tap Dance Fever, the foal Dreams Are Made is carrying is bred on that strong Gunn Runner x Tapit cross.
Gunite has mares selling from Sessions 2 to 7 during the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale with each of those sessions starting at 10am and streamed on Keeneland’s website.