"I rang back my man over there and told him not to let me miss her; as soon as she comes up for sale I want her. He said, 'I haven’t mentioned a price.' I told him, I don't really care."
When Aussie native Peter Tritton was told last year that a New Zealand-bred pacing mare named Sell A Bit might soon be for sale Down Under, he decided to take a look at several of the horse’s races. He then wasted no time in responding.
"I just liked her from the first day I saw her," Tritton said. "She just looked all class then. She’s a big long-going great-gaited mare. And she showed a lot of toughness. That’s what I liked about her. Even if she had a hard run she still kept digging at the finish. Those horses are hard to find, and usually when you find them they’re not for sale."
Tritton bought Sell A Bit for owner Harry Von Knoblauch in early July. After arriving in the U.S., she won seven of 12 races and earned $149,370. She concluded 2015 with a five-race win streak, all in the Fillies & Mares Open Handicap at Yonkers Raceway. The six-year-old mare makes her 2016 debut in the same class on Friday night as she gets ready for the upcoming Blue Chip Matchmaker Series at Yonkers.
“Oddly enough, I don’t think Yonkers is really her track,” Tritton said. “I think she would be better on a big track. But this is where we race and she’s adapted to it.”
Tritton, who turned 65 on Monday, has enjoyed success bringing horses from Down Under to the U.S., with some of his recent imports being Malak Uswaad, Texican, For The Ladies, Mainland Key, and Second Wind. That group has earned $2.13 million in purses since arriving in the States.
Last year, Tritton set a career-high with $1.22 million in purses and posted 54 wins, just two shy of his career best.
Sell A Bit won nine times racing downunder, where she was trained by Brent White. A daughter of stallion Julius Caesar (by In The Pocket) out of the mare Nomorenuki (by Live Or Die), her wins last year included the Southern Belle Speed Series for mares. She finished her career in New Zealand with a sixth-place effort in a Group 1 race.
In August, she won her stateside debut in 1:51.2 at Harrah’s Philadelphia, beating a field that included stakes-winners Charisma Hanover and Jerseylicious. Her most recent victories have all come in gate-to-wire fashion, but she is no one-trip pony in the eyes of her trainer.
“She can leave the gate hard, or sit in and sprint home, or come first over,” Tritton said. “I think she’s better from behind, but when you’re racing (at Yonkers) you’re better off near the lead. She can really leave fast if you want to and it gets you out of trouble. She’s just a good versatile mare that enjoys racing. She’s got no downside to her at all.”
Sell A Bit raced from off the pace in her first several starts, but readily adjusted to using her early speed.
“That’s a big part of her game, which I never really knew she had until we left with her a couple times and she got the idea of it,” Tritton said. “Even when you leave really hard, she’ll come straight back to you straightaway. She’s just a great mare. She’s got a good head on her shoulders.”
If all continues to go well, Tritton will send Sell A Bit to the Matchmaker Series and hope for invites to the Van Rose Memorial and Betsy Ross.
“I haven’t put her in any early closers because the Matchmaker Series goes for six weeks,” Tritton said. “If she gets through all them maybe we can look at a few of the early closers for the following year.
“She’s not fashionably bred, but she gets the job done,” he added. “She looks like a stallion; she’s big and strong with a big chest. She’s the whole package. If she had been really well bred we might not have been able to buy her. It worked out good. She’s pretty exciting. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.