Venosa Scores in Fasig-Tipton Digital Debut

[Wandering Eyes]

Steve Venosa's SGV Thoroughbreds, a regular consignor on the 2-year-olds in training sales circuit, made its debut on the digital auction scene and came away with the sale-topper at the Fasig-Tipton October Digital Sale which closed Wednesday. Venosa and partners sold the broodmare Stifled Heiress (Munnings) (hip 242) for $470,000 to Bryant Prentice's Pursuit of Success, LLC. The 9-year-old mare, who sold in foal to Leinster, came into the virtual sales ring with a big update after her 3-year-old son Mad House (Vekoma) won the GII Gallant Bob Stakes at Parx three weeks ago.

“The mare had a very big update a few weeks ago and Jesse [Ullery] from Fasig-Tipton reached out to me,” Venosa explained. “We discussed it and we came to a mutual agreement on where we felt the mare was going to fall price-wise and I felt comfortable with that. I really trust Fasig-Tipton and Jesse. They have a great team over there. And that's why we decided to put the mare in the sale.”

Stifled Heiress remained at Venosa's farm in Ocala during the bidding and, while she didn't attract in-person visits, there was still plenty of interest ahead of sale time.

“I did get several calls on her with people who had questions,” Venosa said. “The people who know me, they felt comfortable talking to me about it. There was more interest than I really thought there would be.”

Stifled Heiress was originally purchased as a pinhooking prospect for $51,000 at the 2017 Washington Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association Summer Yearling Sale.

“We had bought her to put in a 2-year-old training sale,” Venosa said. “We brought her down to Gulfstream, but she had some radiographic issues and it was just one of those things where she did not make the races. So we went ahead and bred her. We wound up breeding her to Vekoma the first year and that turned out to be Mad House. And that's when everything came together with the mare.”

Of the mare's sale-topping final price Wednesday, Venosa said, “She exceeded expectations. We were very, very happy with the outcome. Having a graded winner and being a young mare, it all made sense.”

Mad House joins stakes winner Soontobeking (King for a Day) and his stakes-placed half-brother Black Volt (Cairo Prince) to come out of Venosa's broodmare band of “a handful of mares.”

“Maybe I will get into the mare business instead of the 2-year-olds,” Venosa said with a chuckle, before admitting, “But I like going to see what they look like versus waiting 11 months and then they come out and their legs are on backwards.”

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