No disappointment for John Gunther as Justify half-brother fails to sell

Some breeders might have been disappointed if they had watched one of their most stunning works of matchmaking artistry turn into a $950,000 RNA (reserve not attained) in the Keeneland September sale ring, but not John Gunther.

Instead, the Eclipse Award-winning breeder and owner of Glennwood Farm said he was nothing but excited. In fact, he declared that he is already looking forward to racing the Pioneerof The Nile colt who
is a half-brother to Glennwood-bred Triple Crown winner Justify.

"He is a very racy-looking horse and he’s got a good mind and a good attitude - I’m just as excited about racing him as I would be to sell him here," Gunther said after the bay colt, offered as hip 106, had left the ring.

A number of factors probably contributed to the colt not being sold, a result that left many sale pavilion onlookers deflated.

"How many opportunities do you get to buy a colt by the sire of a Triple Crown winner who also is a half-brother to a Triple Crown winner?” asked Keeneland announcer John Henderson when bidding
stalled.

Hip 106 lacked a little of the size of his illustrious half-brotherCredit: Michele MacDonald

"Being by Pioneerof The Nile, I think a lot of people expected a bigger size; I think a lot of people compared him to Justify - Justify was such a big, strong colt,” said Gunther, noting that the yearling is a medium-sized individual as compared to the nearly 17-hand Justify.

"He is a really nice colt, he has a great walk and a really nice presence about him,” Gunther added. "I think a lot of the big buyers looked at Justify and they looked at him and wondered, especially since a lot of the Pioneersof The Nile are big, too. But his size didn’t bother me.

"It’s really weird, because a lot of people loved him, but some thought he was probably out of their price range. It scares people away because they think he is going to sell for too much. That’s what
happened. But I’m excited about racing him."

Gunther, who also bought back a Will Take Charge half-brother to Justify at last year’s Keeneland September sale for $1.75 million, said he has not decided on a trainer for the yearling. The now two-year-old Will Take Charge colt, who is named One More City, is in pre-training and has not gone to a racetrack trainer yet.

Overall, nine yearlings by Pioneerof The Nile, who died aged 13 of an apparent heart attack after covering a mare in March, were led into the Keeneland ring during Monday’s opening session of the September sale.

Seven were reported sold for a total of $4.2m and an average price of $600,000. Two of the sire’s sons were sold for seven figures each back-to-back late in the session.

Hip 173, a colt out of Galileo’s multiple stakes-winning daughter Up, drew $1m from a partnership of MV Magnier and Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm, the same owners that bought the colt’s three-quarter brother, Monarch Of Egypt, at this sale last year for $750,000.

Monarch Of Egypt, by Pioneerof The Nile’s Triple Crown-winning son American Pharoah, became his sire’s first winner in April at Naas under the supervision of Aidan O’Brien and has gone on to finish
second in two stakes races including the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes last month.

Since Up is a half-sister to sire and multiple Group 1 winner Dutch Art, there is plenty of stallion potential in the pedigree of the colt, who was bred by RanJan Racing.

Hip 174, a colt who is the first foal out of stakes winner Uptown Twirl, brought a final bid of $1.05m from agent Ben McElroy. Bred by Three Chimneys Farm, the colt is a close relative of champion Classic Empire as his dam is a half-sister to that son of Pioneerof The Nile, who now stands at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud.

The next most expensive Pioneerof The Nile, a colt out of Kentucky Oaks runner-up Shook Up, was purchased by White Birch for $775,000, with Brant accompanied at the sale by trainer Chad Brown. That colt was also bred by Three Chimneys, which paid $1.65m for the dam at the 2015 Keeneland November sale.

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