Mares In Foal to Epicenter Headed to November Sales
As this season’s breeding stock sales roll into town, last year’s Champion 3-Year-Old Male Epicenter sees mares carrying foals from his first crop go through the ring at both Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland over the next few weeks.
Two of those mares kick off the season at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale with both coming late in the session.
The first is Goddess Pele, offered as Hip 236 from the Taylor Made Sales consignment, who sells her on behalf of DJ Stable. She is carrying her first foal on a February 19 cover.
Goddess Pele is a half-sister to Grade I winner Sibelius and multiple stakes placed Dypsy. After her racing career, Dypsy produced multiple stakes winner and multiple Grade I placed Edwards Going Left and stakes placed Harper’s Gallop. Sibelius is by Epicenter’s sire Not This Time.
Under Goddess Pele’s second dam is multiple stakes winner Clamorosa, who is also the granddam of stakes winner and 21-time winner Chris And Dave, and stakes winner Bensonhurst Bull.
A half-sister to Not This Time’s Grade I winner Princess Noor sells as Hip 248 through Gainesway’s consignment. Unraced herself, Al Ula Princess is a half-sister to three winners from three to race and carrying a foal on a February 21 cover.
Al Ula Princess is out of the Grade III winning Sheza Smoke Show, who is a half-sister to American Pharoah’s stakes placed Silver Currency with their dam being the stakes winning Avery Hall. Each of the four dams on this page have produced at least one stakes winner with her first three winning stakes and fourth placing in one.
Moving across town to Keeneland, Epicenter has 37 mares carrying his foals on offer during that nine-session sale.
Stakes-placed More Than Ready mare Moral Reasoning sells as Hip 69 with Taylor Made Sales. She is out of a winning half-sister to multiple Group I winner Karakontie and stakes winners Sunday Sunrise and Bottega.
The mare’s third dam is the stakes winner Moon Is Up, who not only produced Group I winner Amanee but is also a daughter of champion Miesque. A top level racemare, she is also a bluehen mare as the dam of multiple Group I winners Kingmambo and East of The Moon with many of her daughters also producing Grade I winners.
A half-sister to Grade I American Pharoah third Be You sells as Hip 195 through Taylor Made Sales for Determined Stud. Benvenutta is a full sister to dual Grade I winner and Chilean champion sire Constitution and half-sister to graded stakes winners Boynton and Jacaranda. Jacaranda went on to produce the stakes placed American West.
They are out of the Grade III-placed Baffled, who is a half-sister to Grade I winner Emcee and Grade II winner Surfer among the three stakes winners out of Surf Club. The foal Benvenutta is carrying is bred on the same Not This Time x Tapit cross as multiple graded stakes winner Arzak, who is entered in the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
The dam of stakes winner Sweetlou’sgotaces is consigned as Hip 726 by Taylor Made. Bred to Epicenter on April 9, Kayce Lu’s other named foal is the four-time winner Honorable. Kayce Lu is the latest in a long line of stakes producers with her dam producing Grade III winner and multiple Grade I-placed Comical. That stakes placed dam is also a full sister to Grade I winners Colonel John and Mr. Hot Stuff with the trio’s dam Sweet Damsel producing four stakes performers and another stakes producer overall.
A daughter of Grade I winner Hot Dixie Chick is offered by Paramount Sales as Hip 770. Marcy Darcy is the dam of three other foals with her one of racing age a winner. The mare also has a Tiz The Law yearling filly to come.
A winning Smart Strike mare, Marcy Darcy is a half-sister to Grade I winner Pauline’s Pearl, multiple stakes winner Union Jackson, and stakes placed Marsalis among the four to race out of Hot Dixie Chick. Hot Dixie Chick’s producing success isn’t a big surprise, her Grade III winning dam Above Perfection is also the dam of Grade I Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming and Grade II winner Positive Spirit among others.
Swiss Alps sells as Hip 911 with an update to her produce record. The Blandford Stud-consigned 9-year-old saw her Justify juvenile Miss Justify win a Laurel Park Maiden Special Weight by 3 ½ lengths on debut in October.
A winning Majesticperfection mare, she is a half-sister to stakes winner and Grade I-placed Holiday Soiree and to the multiple stakes winner Marquee Prince. Holiday Soiree provided another update after the catalog was released when her Grade III winning daughter Vahva went even better with a victory in the Grade II Raven Run Stakes. Swiss Alps’ second dam is also a stakes producer with four of her eight winners winning at least one stakes during their career.
Hip 1637 consigned by Hartwell Farm is the stakes producing Platinum Preferred. The mare’s nine runners include the stakes winner and Grade I-placed Midnight Pleasure and multiple Grade III-placed Platinum Paynter. In all, six of her eight runners have won a combined 22 races with her juvenile already placed in one start as well.
Every mare in foal to Epicenter at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale sells during the first three books with his final being Hip 1855 on Sunday, November 12.