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| Hip #103 at the 2011 Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale Credit: Fasig-Tipton |
The colt had previously sold as a Keeneland November weanling for $165,000 (more than six times his $25,000 stud fee), by far outshining the other members of his crop, who as a group averaged $62,600.
Consigned at Saratoga by Gainesway, as agent, and purchased by Mark Casse, as agent, the dark bay or brown colt out of the graded stakes-placed Copelan mare, Copelan's Angel, must be a physical standout to command these prices. In 2010, Broken Vow's 47 sale yearlings averaged $44,964, with a filly out of the stakes-winning Cat Thief mare, Cohiba Miss, fetching the highest price--$240,000--at last year's Keeneland September sale. Subsequently named, "Lady Cohiba," the now two-year-old filly, purchased by Live Oak Plantation, is currently in training at Belmont.
Trainer Mark Casse knows Copelan's Angel well, having consigned her to two OBS Two-Year-Old-in-Training sales back in 1997, where she was sold for $55,000. She went on to win or place in eight of her 11 starts, including a third in the Grade III Selima, while earning $134,195.
Copelan's Angel's previous foal, a 2009 colt by Corinthian (who stands for $25,000), had caught the eye of EQB's Patrice Miller, who bought him at last September's Keeneland sale for $100,000. In order to qualify under EQB's stringent selection criteria, a yearling must have an excellent cardiovascular system, and meet other rigid biomechanical benchmarks, so it certainly appears that Copelan's Angel is producing some athletic-looking foals.
But her foals don't just look good, they run well, too. Five of the mare's eight foals of racing age are winners, including the stakes winning Skip Away filly Fly Away Angel, and stakes-placed In the Paint (by Tiznow).
Broken Vow, a multiple graded stakes-winning son of Champion Unbridled, out of the Nijinsky II mare, Wedding Vow, is perhaps best known for his outstanding fillies, having sired Grade I winners Unbridled Belle, Sassy Image, Cotton Blossom, and Panamanian Champion Broken Wedding.
The colt by Broken Vow out of Copelan's Angel is bred on a pattern similar to that which produced Grade II stakes winner Rockport Harbor (by Unbridled's Song out of a Copelan mare). The match merits an A+ TrueNicks rating. With a solid record of performance in the sales arena, and the pedigree and conformation to match, this free-striding colt will be one to watch when he hits the racetrack.