Tale of the Cat Colt Impressive

Scoring an impressive debut win at Belmont on Friday was exciting prospect Overdriven (2c Tale of the Cat x Air France, by French Deputy). Prepared by Todd Pletcher for the Repole Stable, Overdriven was a bit awkward to jump from the gates, but recovered quickly to move into second place before accelerating in the stretch to win the five furlong dash by three and a half lengths in a tick over 56 seconds. A $200,000 weanling purchase, Overdriven fetched $350,000 when re-offered at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale where he was bought by Mike Repole. “I had my team out there [at the sale]: Ed Rosen, my pedigree guy; Jim Martin, my racing manager; and Jimmy Crupi, who picks out my yearlings,” said Mike Repole. “I looked at the [catalogue] page, they looked at everything else. I saw he was a half to Smooth Air. The mare was never bred to anything more than a $5,000 sire.” Overdriven is the fourth winner from French Deputy mare Air France, whose best offspring is Smooth Air, a multiple Grade II winner of six races and $1.1 million in prizemoney.