Gormley colt goes for $425,000 at Fasig-Tipton 2yo opener

Gormley’s $425,000 colt, hip 56, breezing at Timonium – Tibor photo

Gormley had the highest-priced colt by a freshman sire during Monday’s opening session of the May 17-18 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds sale when hip No. 56 sold for $425,000 to Joe Besecker.

“When I saw this horse yesterday, I was there for about 45 minutes, and it’s a very bad thing to fall in a horse, but I fell in love with this horse,” Besecker said. “Luckily, I will have some partners on him. This is way above my pay grade. I usually stay in the middle range. But I have a couple of partners and we decided we wanted to get one–ONE–expensive horse.”

The chestnut colt was consigned by Robert Brewer and was bred in Kentucky by Small Batch Thoroughbreds and Robert Fetkin. His dam’s lone runner to date is the stakes-placed filly Nicky Scissors.

“He’s a (May) foal and he looks like a 3-year-old,” Besecker added. “I thought personally–I don’t care what any of these other horses sell for–I will tell you in the last three years going to Kentucky, going to Florida, to my eye and I’m not really good at it, but to my eye that was the best-looking horse I’ve seen in three years.”

Gormley’s first crop has come out running, already scoring a pair of maiden wins from his first three starters. His top-selling 2-year-old to date was a $550,000 colt named Headline Report sold at the OBS March 2-year-old sale.