West Point Thoroughbreds owns one mare — a 2011 model named Recoupe by Indian Charlie. Each year, she’s bred, and the resulting offspring are sold as yearlings. We’ve never kept any of her progeny to race…until now. Bloodstock agent David Ingordo and well-respected consignor Archie St. George told us they thought we were nuts to let the horse go. And we just couldn’t.

“He’s got all the parts,” said David Ingordo. “If he were by Tapit, Constitution, or Not This Time, he’d bring several hundred thousand.”

“We raised him on our farm and have loved him since day 1, ” said consignor Archie St. George. “I told Terry and Erin that I can’t quite put my finger on it but there’s just something about him I really like.”

It’s time to make some magic with Dallas Stewart again.

The hammer dropped at just 5k more than Commanding Curve—our over-achieving son of Master Command who took us and Dallas to the Kentucky Derby, where he finished a terrific second to Hall of Famer California Chrome at 37-1—Hip 2691 is similar in his sturdy, athletic build.

The main difference between the two is Hip 2691 brings much more sire power to the table, being by a Belmont Stakes winner who’s responsible for 27 stakes winners including Grade I conquerors Paradise Woods, Express Train, Free Drop Billy, and Union Strike.

Out of a mare by terrific broodmare sire Indian Charlie, his second dam is a half to Group 1-placed Rebuttal and multiple stakes winner Summer Cruise, who produced nine winners as a broodmare, including graded stakes winner Sandbar.

With an extremely muscular shoulder and powerful hind legs for a yearling, Hip 2691 is sturdy, correct, and has a great walk. He has a similar look to Union Rags, and with Dallas at the helm, we know we’ll get every ounce of talent out of him.

Dallas said the colt is comparable physically to what he saw many months ago in Bourbon’s Fault, a 2-year-old colt who ran a promising third in his debut on September 22 at Churchill Downs.

He said, “Kind of like when we bought Bourbon’s Fault, this Union Rags is a big, lengthy colt with a lot to grow into himself. He should get bigger and stronger as time goes by. As an individual, you can see he has a lot of great parts and you put those together on a big, strong colt, thinking a year down the line to what he will look like when he’s 2 about to be 3, that’s what gets us excited and gets us up and at ’em in the morning.”

Syndication price includes all veterinary, training, acquisition, and legal costs until January 1, 2025.

Watch the buying team talk about the Union Rags colt in our post-sale webinar.