Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
$950,000 buy King Fury rewards with Lexington win
Trainer Ken McPeek went to $57,000 to acquire a Smart Strike colt at the 2005 Keeneland September yearling sale. That colt turned out to be Curlin, who went on to win two Horse of the Year titles while trained by Steve Asmussen.
Some 14 years later, with Curlin solidly established as a prominent sire in Kentucky and attracting top-class mares, McPeek zeroed in on a son of the stallion out of Grade 1 winner Taris at the 2019 FasigTipton Saratoga selected yearling sale. It was more of a stretch this time, as King Fury sold for $950,000.
“It’s the most I ever spent at auction,” McPeek said. “I’ve got this history of 30 grand, or 50 . . . maybe I’ll hit a million next time.”
King Fury is doing his best to add to the sales bankroll by living up to his price tag. The colt, trained by McPeek for Fern Circle Stables and Three Chimneys, earned his first graded stakes triumph with a 2 3/4-length score in the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland.
The Lexington was the 3-year-old debut for King Fury, who won the Street Sense Stakes last October at Churchill Downs, but finished off the board in three graded stakes attempts.
“He needed to get bigger and stronger,” McPeek said. “He’s gone from 2 to 3 like a pro.
“He’s not quite as big as Curlin. He doesn’t have the structure, the size, the massiveness that Curlin has, but he’s very well made.”
King Fury is the first foal for Taris, a Flatter mare who won five graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Humana Distaff in 2016 at Churchill Downs. She was third in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
Orb heading to Uruguay
Top breeders in Uruguay have formed a partnership to buy Kentucky Derby winner Orb, who will begin his career there with the upcoming Southern Hemisphere breeding season.
Orb has spent his stud career at Claiborne Farm, where he was born and raised, for Stuart Janney and the Phipps Stable, longtime clients of the operation. The son of Malibu Moon was standing for a private fee this Northern Hemisphere season. He covered just seven mares in 2020 at Claiborne, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred, after covering 28 in 2019 and 70 in 2018.
Orb will now stand at Haras Cuatro Piedras, owned by Uruguayan Breeders Association president Pablo Salomone. The farm also stands Horse of the Year Invasor, who rose to prominence as a Triple Crown winner in Uruguay before racing in the United States and Dubai and eventually standing in Kentucky.
The coalition that purchased Orb included Haras Cuatro Piedras, along with 21 other farms or owners from Uruguay, and two outfits from Brazil. The deal was brokered by agents Marette Farrell and Sebastian Angelillo along with David Seguias.
“With Orb, for the first time, there is a very well-balanced union in which no partner exceeds 10 percent,” Angelillo said in a press release. “We believe that this is a first step on a path that definitely leads in the right direction.”
Orb won the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth and the Grade 1 Florida Derby before winning the 2013 Kentucky Derby by 2 1/2 lengths for trainer Shug McGaughey and jockey Joel Rosario. Later that season in New York, he finished third in both the Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes.
He was retired Claiborne Farm, his birthplace, for the 2014 season. Orb’s lone graded stakes winner in the United States is Sippican Harbor, who took the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga in 2018. He also is the sire of stakes winners Autumn Warrior, Eagle Orb, Mrs. Orb, Orbolution, Trixie Power, and Whoa Nellie, and of Panamanian Group 2 winner Orb Ruler.
Orb is the sire of O Besos, third in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby and stabled at Churchill Downs training toward a start in the Kentucky Derby, if he can make the field.