Road to Fasig July Sale Goes Through Churchill Downs

[Wandering Eyes]

After going postward in Saturday’s GIII Bashford Manor S. at Churchill Downs, a pair of juveniles trained by transplanted Irishmen will head across the state for an expected engagement in the following week’s Fasig-Tipton July Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale in Lexington. John Ennis will saddle Weiland (Yes It’s True), a 6-1 shot in the six-furlong race, while Paul McEntee will saddle 30-1 outsider Baytown Glory (Morning Line).

Weiland, who will be offered as hip 547 through the Paramount Sales consignment at the July sale, is already a stakes winner under the Twin Spires, having broken his maiden in the May 3 Kentucky Juvenile S. (video).

“He’s doing fantastic,” Ennis said of Weiland, who gave him his first stakes win in the Juvenile. “I couldn’t be happier with him. He’s a super nice horse.”

Ennis purchased Weiland for $7,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton October sale and the colt races in his colors.

“I didn’t look at him at the barn,” the former jockey said of Weiland. “He just caught my eye in the back ring. He had a great walk, was very athletic, he was correct, and he had a great eye. With yearlings, I think a big thing is their minds, and he had a great mind. To this day he has a fantastic, fantastic mind. I think that is a big part of his success.”

Weiland opened his career with a fifth-place effort at Keeneland Apr. 18. He was 19-1 longshot when he gutted out a narrow victory in the Juvenile S.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little bit of a shock,” Ennis said of the stakes win. “He improved massively from his first start. He’s a pretty big horse. Once he figured it out after his first run, he went on and won. It was fantastic.”

When he purchased Weiland as a yearling, Ennis fully expected to resell the youngster as a juvenile.

“I was buying yearlings myself to get them started at Keeneland,” he explained. “And if they were precocious enough, win at Keeneland and maybe sell them then. Or get a good form on them and then go back to the July sale.”

Regardless of where Weiland finishes Saturday, he will keep his engagement in the July sale, according to Ennis.

“I own him all myself and whether he finishes first or last, he’s going to Fasig-Tipton,” Ennis said. “He’s a stakes winner already and it would be great if he went there as a graded stakes winner as well. But he is going there regardless. This is what I bought him to do. He’s perfectly sound. He runs Lasix free. He is a clean, sound, good-looking horse. And there are more yearlings to be bought in September and this fall.”

Ennis has been training for only the last five years or so and maintains a small stable based at Keeneland.

“I never have more than eight or 10 horses,” he said. “So it’s hard to get a stakes horse when you only have a small number. I used to be a jockey back in Europe and I came here maybe seven years ago and I was galloping here first. And it developed into training myself.”

Ennis said the July sale is a perfect venue for both buyers and sellers.

“The horses of racing age is a super sale for buyers and sellers because you are getting horses who are safe, sound, and like Weiland, has the form to go to Saratoga if they want him to,” he said.

Weiland’s stablemate Payntermaniac (Paynter) will go postward in Saturday’s Debutante S. at Churchill Downs. The filly, owned by Coco Jean Stable, is catalogued as hip 498 at the July sale.

“She is 30-1 in the Debutante, but she doesn’t deserve any part of that,” Ennis said. “She ran first-time out at Churchill and she got beat three or four lengths by a filly [Eyeinthesky] who just got beat [when third] in the Astoria at Belmont. She is a correct filly, very, very fast and she will definitely outrun her odds on Saturday.”

Another European import, trainer Paul McEntee will look for his first graded stakes winner when he saddles Baytown Glory in the Bashford Manor. The colt (hip 407), along with stablemate Baytown Macca (Creative Cause) (hip 408), is catalogued to sell at the July sale through the Ballysax Bloodstock of McEntee’s brother, Carl.

Baytown Macca, entered in Thursday’s fifth race at Churchill Downs, was third in the Kentucky Juvenile S. and McEntee admitted it was a toss up which colt would be pointed towards the Bashford Manor.

“I worked them both two weeks ago last Saturday and Baytown Glory worked a lot better,” McEntee said. “Then last Saturday, I had a horse running at Churchill and I brought Glory over there for a breeze over the track. My brother organized for him to breeze with three of Dale Romans’s 2-year-olds and he breezed very well over the track. So I decided to put him in it.”

McEntee acquired Baytown Glory, who RNA’d for $1,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton October sale, privately over the winter. The colt was seventh in his debut at Keeneland Apr. 25 before graduating by 2 1/4 lengths at Indiana Grand May 1 (video).

“I had met [Darby Dan general manager] Robert Hammond who obviously worked with Carl and I met up with him over the last three or four years that Carl was working at Darby Dan,” McEntee said. “He told me there was a 2-year-old that I might be interested in who was down with Eddie Woods in Florida. He asked me if I was interested and I said I would go and have a look at him. I went down to see him on the farm and acquired him privately.”

McEntee continued, “He is a really nice horse and when he ran first-time out at Keeneland, I’d only literally had him a month and I was just giving him a race to get experience. He got bashed coming out of the gate and he had a really rough race. Then I ran him back only six days later in Indiana and I told the jockey to be very easy on him. So even though the time was slow, he won it very impressively. He won by four lengths and the jockey never even smacked him or pushed him. It was only a couple of weeks after that he was truly 100% fit.”

McEntee said he acquired Baytown Glory with an eye towards a possible resale.

“In an ideal world, I’ll normally try to make the sale,” McEntee said. “That’s what I’ve done the last two or three years. I’ve bought them at Fasig or Keeneland, getting them going and then moving them on elsewhere. This year, with my brother going out on his own [with Ballysax Bloodstock], he and I spoke about getting a 2-year-old stakes placed and selling him at the July sale. Normally 2-year-olds do fairly well there.”

Now in its fifth year, the July Horses of Racing Age Sale is a convenient place for trainers like McEntee to market their horses.

“Fasig is just down the road,” McEntee said. “I don’t have to change any of their training plans and they can train up to the sale. If they sell for what I want them to sell for, then they will move on to a different owner and if they don’t, they’ll carry on in their training and future career.”

McEntee, who recently purchased a farm in Scott County, has been training in the U.S. for the last seven years. He had his first stakes winner when Lay Line Force won 2011 Sophomore Sprint S. at Mountaineer.

“I was over here in the early ’90s and I worked for Christophe Clement for 2 1/2 years,” McEntee said. “Then I moved back to England and worked with my dad who trained in England until he passed away.”

McEntee is a fifth generation horseman and said there was never any doubt his future was in the racing industry.

“All four brothers work in the Thoroughbred industry,” McEntee said. “The only one of our family who isn’t in racing is my sister and she works in banking.”

He added with a laugh, “I suppose she was the only one with a bit of common sense.”

Should Baytown Glory provide him with his first graded stakes victory, would it be more difficult to offer the colt at auction?

“There is definitely an emotional attachment,” McEntee said. “But I’ve just purchased my own farm and obviously it’s all about doing business. So I would love to see him go on and be successful for somebody else, to be perfectly honest. And then reinvest the money myself this fall in September and October in more yearlings.”

The Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale will be held Monday, July 9 beginning at 4 p.m. The company will host its July Selected Yearlings Sale the following day, beginning at

10 a.m.

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