Colt bought by bloodstock agent Donato Lanni for $320,000

• By Ron Mitchell

There were high fives all around at Keeneland during the Sept. 21 session of the September Yearling Sale after a Not This Time colt (Hip 2739) was sold for $320,000 to top the auction’s eighth session.

Consigned by Stuart Morris, the Louisiana-bred colt’s sale to agent Donato Lanni—who was acting on behalf of a unidentified client—represented a major home run for breeders Phillip and Nancy Stelly.

By Taylor Made Stallions’ Not This Time—the son of Giant’s Causeway whose first crop to race as 2-year-olds this year includes Del Mar Debutante (G1) winner Princess Noor—the colt named Mardi Gras Time is out of the winning More Than Ready  mare Ready At Nine, who has also produced stakes-placed Drummer Boy.

The colt was the first at Keeneland for the Stellys, who have been breeding since 2011. They credited Morris as well as Al and Salley Pike, and the Pikes’ son Colt, for their big score in the sale ring. Colt Pike had helped obtain the mating to Not This Time, and his parents had prepped the colt for auction.

“I just couldn’t be any more excited; it’s like catching lightning in a bottle,” said Phillip Stelly, who resides in Louisiana and said that both his father and grandfather were self-described “backyard trainers.”

“We’ve raised some babies and I always thought they were nice, but this is the nicest one we’ve ever raised,” he added.

Lanni said the early success of Not This Time played a role in the purchase.

“The sire has done his job,” Lanni said. “You have to respect any yearling by that sire. He was a strong horse and straightforward, good-looking horse.”

The colt’s extended female family includes grade 1 winner Classy Cathy—the dam of British group 2 winner Placerville—millionaire Rieno Tesoro, and Xpressbet Florida Derby (G1) winner Audible .