After the Auction: K. O.'s Touch

As an avid fan of sales with possible aspirations to become an adviser/bloodstock agent, auctions are one of my favorite topics to write about on Past the Grandstand. This is the tenth edition in a blog series called "After the Auction" that will feature horses I selected in sales that have found success after the sale. 

Whether a horse is being pointed toward the Triple Crown or not, the beginning of a Thoroughbred’s sophomore season is always an exciting time. It is especially exciting when such a commencement is the kick-off of that horse’s career. For K. O.’s Touch, a Triple Crown bid is not the plan, but this filly seems to have a bright future ahead.

Upon debut, K. O.’s Touch set the pace in a six-furlong maiden special weight over Tampa Bay Downs’ dirt surface. Though pressured by rivals to the inside and outside of her down the backstretch, the dark bay filly only had one opponent alongside her as the field rounded the far turn. She led by about a length as the field entered the homestretch, but the favorite, Putitinmypocket, caught her in the final strides, defeating K. O.’s Touch by ¾ of a length.

After finishing third in her next start, K. O.’s Touch found the path to the winner’s circle. Breaking sharply from the rail in a seven-furlong maiden over a sealed Tampa Bay oval, K. O.’s Touch achieved an early, easy lead. After being pressed by rivals in the early stages, the filly edged away from her adversaries to lead by a comfortable distance down the backstretch. She accelerated going into the far turn, putting more ground between herself and the others. Leading by 4 ½ lengths as the field turned for home, K. O.’s Touch remained clear of her opponents, effortlessly coasting to a near-3-length victory.

A full sister to the multiple graded stakes-winning and multiple grade one-placed Crown of Thorns, K. O.’s Touch is sired by Repent, a multiple graded stakes winner that has also produced the graded stakes winners Atoned, Diva Delite, and Sweet Repent. With Preakness Stakes (GI) winner Louis Quatorze as her grandsire, Repent descends from the Northern Dancer sire line, which has been responsible for an astounding plethora of champions. In the 1970s, the Canadian-bred champion was the leading sire once in North America and four times in the United Kingdom, as well as the twentieth century’s most successful sire.

The dam of K. O.’s Touch, Crowning Touch, is a half-sister to the grade one-winning champion Smoke Glacken, the multiple graded stakes-winning Smokey Glacken, the stakes-winning and graded stakes-placed Capote’s Crown, and the graded stakes-placed Argyle Pink. Crowning Touch is a daughter of Thunder Gulch, a champion who captured three classics as a three-year-old. Sire of classic winners like himself in Point Given and Spain, Thunder Gulch has been successful as a broodmare sire, yielding the dams of the likes of the graded stakes winners Daddy Nose Best, Get Square, and Star Billing.

K. O.’s Touch’s fourth dam is 1996 Maryland Broodmare of the Year, the black-type-placed Turn Capp, who produced several black-type horses: Capp Ice, Capp it Off, Capp the Power, Say Capp, and Twilight Prince. This filly is thus a direct descendant of the Reine de Course mare, Chelandry, who is the foundation mare of family 1-n. Other direct descendants of this outstanding racemare and broodmare include Americain, Bodemeister, and Swale.

Offered as hip 125 at the 2012 Keeneland April Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale, K. O.’s Touch was one on my selections at that auction and has since become the eleventh winner of my juvenile sales picks from 2012. What K. O.’s Touch will accomplish in the future is unknown, but whether she finds more success or not, she will remain on my radar.