I was home watching football and updating the website with all our new purchases on Saturday when Marc called. He was on the sales grounds conducting some business for another client when Joe Seitz of Brookdale Sales suggested he take a look at Hip 4069, a filly by Temple City out of Lisa Jean by Proud Citizen. Joe said he really liked the filly but there was limited interest from pinhookers because she was by Temple City and because she had a very small chip in each knee. His vet had told him the chips would never be an issue because of their size and location. However, it was enough to limit interest in her considerably. Joe added that the seller was willing to reimburse any buyer $2,000 if she sold for more than $8,000 if they wanted to have the chips removed. Marc spent a good bit of time with her and agreed with Joe that she was a nice filly and certainly worth at least $8,000. We talked it over and decided that we’d take a shot and try to get her for up to $12,000. The hammer dropped at $10,000.
The filly is an excellent mover. She engages her hips, plants and drives through her hocks with a strong, fluid movement. She has good conformation through her knees and ankles and tracks well behind. She’s a very nice physical now, but like most Temple City offspring, we expect her to get even nicer over time.
If you have followed us for very long, you know we love Temple City fillies. In fact, we purchased our first Temple City filly for $10,000 on the last day of the sale (2015), just as we did this one. That filly was Storm Temple Pilot. We had our greatest success with Temple City Terror and we are very pleased with the progress we’re seeing from our 2YO, Temple City Magic. Temple City is one of the best turf sires in North America. He is the sire of such graded stakes winners as Miss Temple City, Bolo, Annals of Time Kimbear and, of course, Temple City Terror.
Lisa Jean is a daughter of Proud Citizen (Gone West). She was a winner of three races and $106,737. She has six foals of racing age and produced four winners. He’s Got Swagger, our filly’s FULL brother, broke his maiden at Saratoga in July. He ran third in a first level allowance at Saratoga and earned a 97 EQB speed figure. He followed that up with a 107 in a fourth-place finish (beaten just two lengths) in a $160,000 allowance at Kentucky Downs earlier this month. He’s entered in an allowance at Churchill Downs in the coming week. The colt was bred by one of the top breeders in the country, Jack Swain. Jack has bred graded stakes winners Exaulted, Marley’s Freedom, Noble Bird, War Story and Miss Ella.
We had our vet check the x-rays after the purchase and he agreed that the chips were unlikely to ever present a problem for her. However, with someone else paying for the surgery, he agreed that we might as well do it to avoid that 10% chance that they do become a problem. So, unlike the other purchases, she will go to Foxborough Farm. We’ll get the surgery scheduled in the next couple weeks. She’ll get time to recuperate at Foxborough and then move to Margaux Farm to start the breaking and training process.
