Longtime Maryland owner and breeder Ellen Charles has always wanted to own a horse by Uncle Mo and her dream came true late in Tuesday’s session when she made the winning $385,000 bid on a Maryland-bred colt by the top young sire. He was the top-priced short yearling on the day.

“I liked everything about him,” commented Charles, who breeds and races as Hillwood Stable just as her mother did before her. “He’s just a beautiful colt. Rodney Jenkins trains for me and he trains for the breeder of this colt [Nicewonder Stable] and I know all the family. Uncle Mo comes from my mother’s breeding with her partner Mike Cavey, so it was kind of all in the family. I’ve wanted an Uncle Mo and he seemed like the right one, so we’ll see.”

Charles added, “We don’t usually come to this sale, but this colt was here so we thought we’d come down and see him.”

Consigned by Warrendale Sales, Hip 745 is a son of Gone to Utah (Salt Lake), who has also produced SW Away We Go (Tizway); MSP Powder Mountain (Whywhywhy) and Quiet Hour (Quiet American); and SP Gallivanting (Henrythenavigator).

The Uncle Mo purchase came not long after Charles snapped up a Flatter colt for $220,000. Bred by Martha and J. H. Mulholland, Tom Grether Farms, Sheffer Equine Partners and L. M. Powers, Hip 716 was offered here by his co-breeder’s Mulholland Springs. The Feb. 27 foal is the first offspring out of the 6-year-old mare Dulce Periculum (El Corredor).

“He’s just a handsome, well-made, beautifully-moving colt. He’s strong and just a very, very nice colt,” offered Charles while sitting alongside Jenkins near the front of the pavilion. “We will race him. He will come home to Maryland and we will race him in Maryland with Rodney.”

Also headed back to the state where she was born is Hip 458, a yearling filly by The Factor. Consigned by Eaton Sales and bred by Dr. & Mrs. A. Leonard Pineau, the gray is the second foal out of stakes winner Music Please (Bowman’s Band), herself a daughter of stakes winner Lady Beaumont (Lord Gaylord).

“I bought a The Factor filly earlier,” Charles remarked. “I love The Factors. You can really tell [when one’s] a ‘Factor.’ They’re very much of the type. She’s a lovely filly and Rodney trained her mother and a lot of the family. Plus, she’s a Maryland-bred.” –@CDeBernardisTDN

Courtesy of the TDN