Mage's story: Little

Mage goes from auction in Timonium to winning the Kentucky Derby

Mage goes from auction in Timonium to winning the Kentucky Derby

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Mage goes from auction in Timonium to winning the Kentucky Derby

The owners of Kentucky Derby winner Mage are celebrating the 3-year-old colt's return to Baltimore as a champion.

A year ago, at the Fasig-Tipon Auction in Timonium, a group bought Mage, thinking they saw something special. More than 14,000 horses are sold through auction each year, so trying to find a superstar can be tough.

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Becky Thomas and her assistant, Carlos Manresa, of Sequel Bloodstock, a boutique horse-trading group, found their diamond in the rough in September 2021, when they purchased Mage from the Keeneland Auction for $235,000.

"He really stuck out as being one of the most athletic individuals that we had seen at Keeneland," Manresa said.

"We are essentially trying to find diamonds in the rough," Thomas said.

The intent all along, though, as Pinhook agents, was to flip Mage in Timonium. In May 2022, Romero Restrepo -- a sometimes owner, sometimes thoroughbred broker -- along with Gustavo Delgado Jr. -- an assistant trainer with whom he has a good working relationship -- saw their diamond in the rough at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

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"Junior and I were walking around the sales grounds and we had seen his breeze. He had had this phenomenal workout. We really loved how he finished up after the wire," Restrepo said.

Mage's bloodlines are good, as the son of Good Magic -- who finished second to Justify in the 2019 Kentucky Derby -- Mage showed promise, if not superstar status. And that's the key.

"When you're operating with limited budget, limited salary cap, unlike some of the bigger players, you have to find angles," Restrepo said. "When you go after sons and daughters of big-named, high-priced horses, even if I love them, I can't afford them. So, you have to find, kind of zig when people zag, I guess, is a way to put it."

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Even so, they almost lost out on Mage. The $200,000 budget was long gone. But when Delgado was about to board a plane at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, he encouraged Restrepo to bid again.

"So, I had Junior on the phone as I was bidding, and when we got to our ideal number to spend, or our ideal budget, he could hear the auctioneer asking for a bid from me, and he just exploded into a non-Disney script of just, letting me have it, 'You better keep going,'" Restrepo said.

At $90,000 over budget, it almost seems like a pittance now, as Mage, if sold again, would fetch a solid seven figures -- and that's before Mage takes a run at the middle jewel of the Triple Crown at Saturday's Preakness Stakes in Baltimore.