Valley Victory & Sons vie with Pine Chip for top of trotting market

The recently concluded Lexington sales gave us a very good chance to analyze the state of the trotting market in North America. From any angle, and by any yardstick, the trotting market here has never been healthier.

Trotting in North America is really in a state of transition. For much of the past quarter century, Super Bowl and Speedy Crown dominated the market. In the '90's, Valley Victory arrived on the scene, and quickly has come to the forefront of most buyer's attention. Valley Victory is, without question, as great a sire as trotting has ever seen. He has never had a large number of foals in any crop, (Muscles Yankee is one of only 47 foals of 1995) and with his well-publicized breeding problems, he probably never will have. The hope, of course, is that several of Valley Victory's quality sons will attain at least a modicum of their own sire's wonderful success. We already have Victory Dream, Donerail and Dancer's Victory in production, Lindy Lane and Mr. Vic will follow next year, with Yankee Glide joining the fray the year after that.

VICTORY DREAM--A GREAT RACE HORSE

Victory Dream was one of our favorites when he raced. Few horses ever had his combination of good looks, gait, speed, and most importantly, courage. He is a spectacular individual and he was an uncommonly brave race horse who had the admirable ability to throw away his soreness when he saw the mobile gate, and give his all.

Victory Dream was a realtively sound horse at Hambletonian time, but by the time of the World Trotting Derby and then the Kentucky Futurity, he was not the same horse. But he still won heats of those important races, and fought gamely to the wire in raceoffs of both the World Trotting Derby and Kentucky Futurity. In the Breeders Crown at Garden State Park that fall, he raced gamely, but could not hold off the charge of Incredible Abe.

Victory Dream's first crop of two-year-olds are racing, and he has already impressed us with his siring abilities. His good-looking colt Self Possessed is the current season's leader with his 1:55 4-5 triumph at Du Quoin, and his filly Softly Dream has been a major factor on the Grand Circuit, including a recent win during the second week at Lexington. Sadly, it looks as if Victory Dream's exciting promise will be short-lived, as he is experiencing difficulties in the breeding shed. It has been reported that he has but three mares in foal from the 1998 breeding season.

Needless to say, his second crop of yearlings were very well-received at the recent Lexington sales. At the Kentucky Standardbred sale, 18 yearlings by Victory Dream were offered, and they averaged nearly $55,000. Seven fillies averaged nearly $71,000, led by the $182,000 sale of the filly from Catchy Little Tune, an unraced full sister to Hambletonian winner Harmonious. Victory Dream's top-selling colt was the sharp youngster from Fiesta Bowl.

DONERAIL HAS A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY

Donerail is still the fastest two-year-old colt that Valley Victory has sired at 1:55 4-5. Donerail was as exciting a two-year-old trotter as I ever saw, although he was a very aggressive colt. He had the kind of raw speed and rapid acceleration that only the great horses of the breed possess. The fact that his three-year-old season did not deliver on the exciting promise of his first campaign does not seem to have bothered the buyers.

There were 28 Donerails sold at Kentucky Standardbred, and 11 more were offered at Tattersalls. Three of his yearlings sold for more than $100,000, led by the $135,000 for the filly from the world champion mare Wordly Woman, who is by Speedy Somolli, who is Donerail's paternal great- grandsire. At Tattersalls, a bid of $107,000 was necessary for the colt from Foot Loose, a Speedy Crown mare, giving this youngster a rather interesting 5x2 cross to Speedy Crown. The other six-figure yearling for Donerail was the $100,000 for the filly from Final Tribute, a Crowning Point half-sister to millionaire Firm Tribute.

Donerail's yearlings averaged $35,179 at Kentucky Standardbred, and nearly $40,000 at Tattersalls. Like most of the trotting sires in Kentucky, the filly average was stronger than the colts. The fillies at both sales averaged nearly $43,000, while the Donerail colts at both sales averaged a solid $32,000.

I was impressed with the Donerail yearlings. They are built very much like their sire, and have a lot of Valley Victory's most positive traits (i.e. good heads, long bodies, good attitude, natural ability.)

Valley Victory was not upstaged by his precocious sons. Once again, his offspring grabbed many of the headlines from these recent sales, and there is evidence to suggest that the upcoming sale at Harrisburg will evidence more of Valley Victory's strong backing.

VALLEY VICTORY'S YEARLINGS AVERAGED MORE THAN $130,000 IN KENTUCKY

There were only 15 yearlings sold by Valley Victory in Kentucky, and another 16 will be offered at Harrisburg. To give you an idea of the strength of this market, only seven of the 15 were fillies, but they averaged an astounding $154,571. These sales included $260,000 for the filly from Armbro Divine; $190,000 for the filly from Miss Flirt; $180,000 for the filly from Higher Love; $160,000 for the filly from Miss Marita; and $150,000 for the filly from Golden Path.

A Valley Victory colt from Raging Sam, a Lindy's Crown mare who has already produced the top race mares Raging Samantha and Raging Goal, was the highest-priced trotting yearling in Lexington, bringing $270,000. The Valley Victory colts averaged more than $108,000, which is some $46,000 less than their filly counterparts.

PINE CHIP HAD ANOTHER STRONG SALE

A year ago, the first crop of Pine Chip's sold to almost universal praise, and averaged more than $65,000 at all of North America's major sales. The fact that Pine Chip's first crop has raced with great success (the young sire has 10 in 2:00) and that trainers are impressed with the way his first crop trained, led buyers back into the fray once again, bidding for his get with real gusto.

Needless to say, Pine Chip is a very important horse for the Tattersalls sale. As evidence, consider that Pine Chip's 51 yearlings were responsible for more than $3 million in gross sales. This represents a sizable percentage of the entire sales gross of just under $8 million.

There were nine Pine Chips that brought bids of $100,000 or more at Tattersalls, including a top sale of $250,000 for the filly from Nan Hanover, the granddam of trotting sensation Moni Maker. Also at $200,000 was the pretty filly from world champion Winky's Gill. The top-selling Pine Chip colt at Tattersalls was the $170,000 for yet another good-looking colt from super-producer Flory Messenger.

Pine Chip fillies held the most attraction for buyers, as only two other colts sold for more than $100,000, including the colt from Delmary Hanover (the dam of Personal Banner) and the colt from Wee Caitlin. The filly from Foreign Waters, the dam of Toss Out, brought $155,000; the filly from Breeders Crown winner Me Maggie sold for $150,000; the filly from Norse Goddess, a young Supergill mare brought $130,000, and the filly from Playful Aunt (imm. family of Peace Corps) brought $115,000. At Tattersalls, the Pine Chip fillies (26 of them) averaged nearly $70,000, while the colts averaged just less than $50,000.

PINE CHIP WAS ALSO IN DEMAND AT KENTUCKY STANDARDBRED

There were an additional 25 Pine Chip yearlings sold at Kentucky Standardbred, and five of them commanded $100,000 bids, topped by the $190,000 sale of the filly from Dream On Victory, who is a sister to Victory Dream. The colt from Armbro Nun, a Speedy Crown mare from the immediate family of Donerail, sold for $110,000, while the filly from Sizzling Charm brought $100,000. One of the best-looking Pine Chips was a powerful colt from the Dream Of Glory mare Armbro Lantern, who sold for $90,000. He was a real eyeful!

But then, many of the Pine Chips are well-made, smart-looking horses. They are a very appealing type, since they almost uniformly are reminiscent of their world champion sire. They are good-headed, high-withered horses with great forearms and strong shoulders.

One of the considerations that no doubt led to such a strong showing for Pine Chip fillies is that breeders have realized the value of his fillies as potential breeding animals. They will, of course, cross well with all of Valley Victory's sons, and with Malabar Man, Balanced Image, and all of the other players in the trotting market. And the fact that so many were out of mares the caliber of a Winky's Gill, a Dream On Victory, a Me Maggie, and so on, led to their strong support in the market. Pine Chip does not have a major, high-profile racing filly in his first crop, although both Chiptease and first-time starter Chips Ahoy raced very well here in Lexington last week.

The upcoming sale at Harrisburg a little over a month from now will give us a chance once again to assess the strength of the trotting market.

NEXT WEEK, A LOOK AT THE INTRIGUING PEDIGREE OF KENTUCKY FUTURITY WINNER TRADE BALANCE