A Maryland-bred son of FAIRBANKS hit six figures at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training sale on Monday, May 20, selling for $150,000 on a bid by Mr Ed Savant. Bob Baffert has been the trainer for horses purchased under that name.

Out of the Two Punch mare So Smashing, the dark bay colt is a half-brother to multiple stakes winner and track record-setting juvenile filly Twelve Pack Shelly. His next three dams are stakes winners Hero’s Hurrah, Bravest Miss and Missile Belle, the latter winner of the Coaching Club American Oaks. Bred by Sycamore Hall Farm LLC, the colt was sold as a yearling for $15,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall sale to All in Sales (Tony Bowling), agent, who consigned the colt to the May sale. FAIRBANKS’s son posted a :22.40 quarter mile at the Under Tack Show on May 15.

FAIRBANKS, whose oldest crop are now 3-year-olds, has had six juveniles sell this year for an average of $57,333 and median of $36,000. The offspring of the son of Giant’s Causeway appreciated substantially in less than a year, as five of the six went through the sales ring as yearlings, one as a $9,500 RNA and the other four selling for an average of $10,125.

A multiple graded stakes winner who got better with age, FAIRBANKS earned $879,768 while racing through his 5-year-old season and excelled as the distances got longer - among his victories was the mile and a quarter Hawthorne Gold Cup H.-G2. The 2012 leading freshman sire in the Mid-Atlantic region by earnings and number of winners, FAIRBANKS currently ranks at the top of this year’s second-crop sires in the region.

Odds-on favorite OGERMEISTER shot to the lead and charged home to win by six lengths in his debut on May 16 at Belmont Park. He took the first 2-year-old race of the year in New York for his owner/trainer Wesley Ward. Bred in New York by Mrs. Gerald Nielsen, OGERMEISTER is out of the Polish Numbers mare To the Good Times. He was a purchased by Ward for $40,000 at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Preferred Yearling Sale in 2012 at Saratoga. The Belmont score was worth $33,000 to the winner.

SILVER TRAIN is the leading 2-year-old sire in the Northeast this year, with two winners from three starters.

ROCKET RIDGE, a chestnut colt by NOT FOR LOVE, caught the attention of California-based trainer Kristin Mulhall at Barretts’ May Two-Year-Old in Training in Pomona on Monday, May 13. Mulhall couldn’t let him get away, spending $235,000 to secure the Maryland-bred for her stable.

The colt, bred by Charles and Cynthia McGinnes, is out of the winning Wild Rush mare Polo Ridge, a half-sister to stakes winners All Smiles, Target Sighted and Two Punch Gal. Stakes-winning second dam Cranberry Muffin is one of five stakes horses out of Muffies Muffin, who also produced multiple graded winner Wicapi, among others.

ROCKET RIDGE turned in a time of :10 flat, which equaled the fastest time for an eighth-mile during the training preview.

During his career, NOT FOR LOVE has sired 11 juveniles to bring in excess of $200,000 at public auction. The most successful sales sire standing in the Mid-Atlantic region, his juveniles sold have averaged $116,301, with a median price of $62,000! They’re fast, they’re good-looking and they get to the races - lots to love about the NOT FOR LOVEs!

BETTER LIFE, the 2012 champion miler and stayer in Singapore, has returned with a flourish, taking the Group 2 Queen Elizabeth II Cup on Friday, April 26, her third group win in her past four starts.  BETTER LIFE is one of nine group/graded winners from the first five crops for SMARTY JONES, which account for nearly half of his 20 total stakes winners.

The 4-year-old Australian-bred daughter of SMARTY JONES pushed her career earnings past the million-dollar mark with her seventh win in a dozen career starts.

Suzuka Racing Stable’s flashy chestnut filly, guided by regular rider Alan Munro, had to overcome a slow pace and a five-wide trip on the turn into the stretch to take the mile and a quarter Queen Elizabeth. She asserted her superiority in deep stretch over Singapore’s turf course to win by a length and a quarter in 2:03.13.

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