A More Than Ready colt for the highest price of 320,000 guineas (US$516,129) at the first session of the Tattersalls Craven breeze-up sale April 17 at Park Paddocks in Newmarket, England.
John Egan’s Friarstown Bloodstock sold the session-topping juvenile, who was bought by Anthony Stroud Bloodstock for an undisclosed client.
“He is a very nice horse, by a top stallion, and on our timings did one of the fastest breezes, if not the fastest,” Stroud said of his purchase. “He stays in England, but a trainer has not yet been decided.”
Bred in Kentucky by Donald Burke, Egan purchased the colt for $90,000 from the consignment of Longford Farm, agent for Michael Barnett’s Blackburn Farm, at the 2012 Keeneland September yearling sale.
The dark bay or brown colt is out of the winning In Excess mare Mary Ellise, a full sister to multiple stakes winner Spring Awakening, who also placed in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante S. The family includes Belmont S. (G1) winner Editor’s Note and 2002 European Champion 2-year-old colt Hold That Tiger.
More Than Ready, who has been a leading sire in two hemispheres, is a top-10 sire in America this year. He will be represented in the May 4 Kentucky Derby (G1) by Verrazano, the undefeated winner of the Wood Memorial (G1) and Tampa Bay Derby (G2).
