Timely Headlines for Scanlon

[Wandering Eyes]

HALLANDALE, FL – As David Scanlon prepares for his first consignment of the juvenile sales season at Wednesday’s Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Selected 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, his program received some timely headlines when By My Standards (Goldencents) upset Saturday’s GII Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds. Scanlon sold the colt for $150,000 at last year’s OBS April Sale.

“He was a beautiful horse,” Scanlon recalled. “He was a little young, but he was a big, beautiful-framed horse. He came into the sale nice, but he worked on a tough day last year. That was the day we had the 15 mph headwinds. So he worked :10 3/5, which wasn’t ideal, but still he was a good mover. He was just a horse who had all the right parts, but he hadn’t filled out yet.”

Scanlon wasn’t surprised By My Standards became a graded stakes winner, but he did admit that the success had come sooner than anticipated.

“I had heard he had been working well and I knew his maiden win was good,” Scanlon said. “I had kept up with Josh Stephens, who bought him, and he told me he was doing well. When I saw the entries, I said, ‘Man, he must really be doing good for him to come off the maiden and be entered here.’ It wouldn’t surprise me that he was a horse that, down the road, going two turns, was going to be a decent horse.”

By My Standards’ exploits came at a perfect time for Scanlon, who will offer two juveniles at the Gulfstream sale, followed by 25 at the OBS April sale and an additional 17 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale.

“The timing couldn’t be better,” Scanlon said. “It’s perfect timing when you’re heading into the bulk of the sales to get an update like that. We were thrilled–it gives your consignment a little bit extra.”

Scanlon’s Gulfstream team is made up of a colt by Shakin It Up (hip 83) and a filly by Liam’s Map (hip 138).

Hip 83 is out of Mon Ange (Wolf Power {SAf}), a half-sister to Grade I placed Key Hunter (Jade Hunter)) and to the dam of multiple graded stakes winner Pants on Fire (Jump Start). He was an $80,000 purchase at last year’s Fasig-Tipton July sale.

“The Shakin It Up, maybe we didn’t pay as much as some of the horses in here, but he’s a really pretty, mature horse with a really good body,” Scanlon said. “We figured with him, I was looking for a really nice horse at a decent price and he fit the picture. Sometimes we go for the off-sire a little bit. I’m a big fan of doing that, just going for the athletic individual. When you are working with a budget a little bit, sometimes you have to give something up and sometimes I’ll say, ‘Hey, I’ll take the athlete,’ and maybe give up the well-known sire power.”

That approach worked for Scanlon three years ago when he purchased a bay youngster by Friesan Fire for $35,000 as a yearling in 2015 and resold him the following May in Timonium for $825,000. That successful pinhook turned into subsequent Grade I winner Army Mule.

Hip 138 is from the highly hyped first crop of multiple Grade I winner Liam’s Map. Out of graded stakes placed Sonja’s Angel (Smoke Glacken), she was purchased by Bruno DeBerdt on behalf of Khalid Mishref for $190,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale.

“The Liam’s Map has the pedigree and is by a hot first-year sire,” Scanlon said. “I knew she would work well here.”

Scanlon said he expects to see a continued demand for high-end horses at the Gulfstream sale, but he is also hoping for a broadening of the middle market.

“I think it’s going to be a good sale,” he said. “It’s kind of like everything else, good horses are going to sell well. And you just hope for a strong middle market to get a good clearance and a good horse sale.”

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