The marathon Keeneland September Sale offers an unmatched opportunity to find exciting yearlings each year. Our acquisition team has done just that over the years, with stars like Wicked Strong, Preservationist, and Rocketry to their credit. This year appears to be no exception. The three colts that comprise the Gold Star, LLC bring together elite pedigrees and outstanding physicals. Each possesses the tools to develop into superior racehorses and in-demand sires. They are:
- Hip 582: Tiz the Law – Katie’s Keepsake, by Medaglia d’Oro
- Hip 671: Street Sense – Puzzling, by Ghostzapper
- Hip 767: Nyquist – Year of Promise, by Gio Ponti
UNNAMED BAY COLT
TIZ THE LAW – KATIE’S KEEPSAKE by MEDAGLIA D’ORO
Purchased for $375,000
From the first crop of classic winner Tiz the Law comes this colt out of a young, stakes producing half-sister to a current Champion.
Winner of the Champagne Stakes (G1) at two, Tiz the Law dominated his crop for much of the year at three, capturing the Holy Bull Stakes (G3), Florida Derby (G1), Belmont Stakes (G1), and Travers Stakes (G1). Tiz the Law, a son of Tapit’s sensational son Constitution, is represented by his first crop of yearlings in 2023.
The dam of this colt, Katie’s Keepsake, is a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, one the world’s most respected international sires, represented by champions on four continents. Notably, Medaglia d’Oro is the broodmare sire of nearly 100 stakes winners, 36 graded, including 2023 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner and 2024 Pegasus World Cup (G1) victor National Treasure, 2023 Del Mar Futurity (G1) captor Prince of Monaco, and fellow grade one winners Rock Fall, Santin, Olympiad, Competitionofideas, and Rachel’s Valentina.
Katie’s Keepsake is the dam of two foals of racing age, both winners. Her first, Aquila Moon, is a three-time winner who fell just a head short of victory in this year’s Wilma Mankiller Stakes. Her second foal is the 2023 maiden special weight winner Fourth Street.
Katie’s Keepsake is a half-sister to a true celebrity in the shape of the prodigiously talented Goodnight Olive. Undefeated Champion Female Sprinter in 2022, Goodnight Olive is currently a winner of 9 of 12 starts, including the two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) and victories in the Madison Stakes (G1), and Ballerina Handicap (G1). In between her second Breeders’ Cup victory and second Eclipse Award presentation, she commanded $6,000,000 at public auction. She remains in-training and thus may provide further updates to this colt’s page.
The dam of Katie’s Keepsake and Goodnight Olive is Smart Strike’s highly accomplished daughter Salty Strike, winner of seven black-type events, including the Dogwood Stakes (G3) and Gardenia Stakes (G3). Like Medaglia d’Oro, Smart Strike is a highly sought after broodmare sire around the world, with active multiple Japanese classic winner Stars On Earth to his credit, along with Centennial’s own multiple graded stakes winner Rocketry. Salty Strike is a half-sister to four other black-type horses, including Iroquois Girl, the dam of the 2023 Ontario Colleen Stakes (G3) winner Mohawk Trail.
Katie’s Keepsake’s fourth dam, Muriesk, is a stakes winning half-sister to the breed-shaping sire Halo. Both were out of Cosmah, a stakes winning daughter of Almahmoud, the granddam of Northern Dancer and ancestress of nearly 50 group or grade one winners, including the highly influential sires Danehill, Arctic Tern, and Machiavellian.
This colt is bred on the Constitution/Medaglia d’Oro cross, which is rated A++ by TrueNicks having produced two stakes winners and a grade one placed horse from only five starters.
UNNAMED BAY COLT
STREET SENSE – PUZZLING by GHOSTZAPPER
Purchased for $500,000
By Kentucky Derby winning champion Street Sense, this colt is out of a stakes-placed daughter of Ghostzapper from a fabulous Phipps family.
The first horse to capture the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) and Kentucky Derby (G1), Champion Two-Year-Old Street Sense has gone on to become a prolific sire with nearly 100 stakes winners to his name, 41 group or graded. Twelve of these are grade one winners, including four-time Grade One winner McKinzie and three-time Grade One winner Sweet Reason, along with Maxfield, Wedding Toast, Dixie Blossoms, Speaker’s Corner, Aubby K, Callback, and Street Fancy.
This son of Street Sense is out of the New York stakes-placed Puzzling. She is by Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, the broodmare sire of 66 stakes winners, including undefeated Triple Crown hero Justify, Champions Drefong and Up to the Mark, and Grade One winners American Gal and Silent Poet. Both Justify and Drefong have stamped themselves as terrific young sires.
Puzzling is the dam of six winners with her first six foals, including Star Command, a winner of $223,993, the 2023 three-year-old stakes performer Clever Thought, and Your Inheritance, earner of over $100,000 to date. On January 14, 2024, her three-year-old, Mystifying, debuted with an impressive victory in maiden special weight company at Gulfstream Park.
Puzzling is a three-quarters sister to Satisfaction, the dam of stakes winning and graded placed Miss Yearwood and graded placed Tuggle. She is also a half-sister to the Manhattan Handicap (G1) victor Dancing Forever, to Castanet, the dam of Top Flight Handicap (G3) winner Carrumba, and to Remember, the granddam of Red Danger, a multiple stakes winner of over $500,000.
Dancinginmydreams, the second dam of this colt, is a Grade One placed sister to Grade One winner Oh What a Windfall and Champion and Hall of Famer Heavenly Prize, herself the dam of Grade One winner Good Reward, graded winner Pure Prize, and stakes winner Cosmic. She is the ancestress of eight other stakes winners, including Persistently, who defeated Rachel Alexandra in the G1 Personal Ensign Stakes, and Grade One winners Instilled Regard and Queen Goddess.
Dancinginmydreams’s dam, Oh What a Dance, a sister to a pair of Grade One winners, is out of Blitey, the ancestress of 56 stakes winners, 18 of them Grade One. That includes the undefeated Champion Flightline, Fantastic Find, Furlough, Finder’s Fee, We Can Seek, Bigger Picture, Wapi, Furia Azteca, Soqui, and Wellington.
The cross of Street Sense with mares by Ghostzapper, as here, has a TrueNicks rating of A++.
A video of the colt walking taken in advance of the sale can be viewed here.
UNNAMED BAY COLT
NYQUIST – YEAR OF PROMISE by GIO PONTI
Purchased for $200,000
By a Champion and Kentucky Derby winner, out of a three-quarters sister to a Champion, and out of a mare by a Champion, this is a son of the red-hot Nyquist.
Only the second horse to win both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) and Kentucky Derby (G1), Champion Two-Year-Old Nyquist is already the sire of 22 stakes winners, including Champion Two-Year-Old Filly Vequist and Grade One winner Gretzky the Great. Last year alone, he was represented by Randomized, successful in the 2023 Alabama Stakes (G1), Grade Two winner New York Thunder, Royal Ascot sensation Crimson Advocate, and Slow Down Andy, one of the leading older males in California.
The dam, Year of Promise, is by the three-time Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti and is three-quarters sister to Champion Two-Year-Old Filly She’s a Tiger, herself already a graded stakes producer. Additionally, Year of Promise is a half-sister to the outstanding sprinter Smiling Tiger, winner of seven graded stakes events, including the Bing Crosby Stakes (G1), Triple Bend Handicap (G1), and Ancient Title Stakes (G1), and runner-up in six grade one events, including two runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1). Another half-sibling, Smiling Causeway, was successful in the Turf Amazon Stakes and Lightning City Stakes, and placed in five other stakes, including when second in the Royal North Stakes (G2). Year of Promise, She’s a Tiger, Smiling Tiger, and Smiling Causeway are all by Storm Cat-line stallions.
This colt’s second dam, Shandra Smiles, is a stakes winner, and is out of Beyond the Storm, a 10-time winner who is a three-quarters sister to Love That Mac, winner of the Carter Handicap (G2) and runner-up in the Vosburgh Handicap (G1). Beyond the Storm’s granddam, Stormy Love, is a half-sister to Esdee, dam of French Oaks (G1) heroine Escaline.
This colt is bred on the Uncle Mo/Storm Cat cross which has produced not only Nyquist himself, and Nyquist stakes winners Breakthrough and Curly Girl, but a total of 30 stakes winners, including other Grade One winners Leave No Trace and Adare Manor.
A video of the colt walking taken in advance of the sale can be viewed here.
At this time, our minimum subscription amount is 2.5% ($45,000) with a total capitalization of $1,800,000. That accounts for all of their expenses through 2024 and includes contributions to our Equine Retirement Fund. All three colts have already arrived in Middleburg, where they will be made eligible for the lucrative Virginia Residency Program. Please contact the office for more information or if you would like a hard copy brochure.
