It was another big sale success for RUNHAPPY on Wednesday at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale when Frank Fletcher Racing went to $700,000 to secure his colt out of Sue’s Good News.
Signed for by Donato Lanni as the fifth most expensive horse of the sale, the Niall Brennan Stables consignee named Runhappy is a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Tiz Miss Sue and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Bulletin.
“I like the sire,” Lanni told Thoroughbred Daily News. “I think he’s going to be really good. We bought a RUNHAPPY for Frank last year that turned out to be a nice horse.”
Unhappy’s dam Sue’s Good News was a Grade 3 winner herself and has seen her daughters produce horses such as Grade 3 winner Super Sensational, stakes winner Made Me Shiver, and three other stakes performers.
Unhappy’s granddam is also a half-sister to Grade 1 winner of Serape, whose descendants include Grade 1 winners Hawkbill and Free Drop Billy.
This colt had sold for $125,000 last year during the Keeneland September Sale to George Sharp, who admitted Unhappy was nearly scratched from the sale due to his trainer’s reports on him.
“We were seriously considering pulling him from the sale,” Sharp said to Thoroughbred Daily News. “[Trainer] Caio Caramori absolutely loved the horse. He actually asked me not to sell him. But part of this is a business and to achieve the goal of selling enough to pay for the other ones, we needed to sell.”
This is the second major juvenile sales success for RUNHAPPY this year after he saw a colt at OBS March sell for $370,000