It was a five-horse field depleted by as many scratches, but I'm impressed that Patrick Biancone was able to win Saturday first out in a maiden special weight with a horse (Innocent Man) who cost just $18,000 in December. That was at Timonium and Innocent Man was part of the Flying Zee dispersal. Biancone has trained for Flying Zee, remember, so I'm sure it's not a coincidence that he bought this horse (or one of his clients did, anyway). He also trained Innocent Man's sire, Henny Hughes. Innocent Man's stock had really fallen, because he was a $150,000 weanling, and a $125,000 yearling. I don't know what kinds of works he was posting before his sale in December, but he worked a best-of-35 58 2/5 at Santa Anita on March 1. He's now a gelding; he wasn't listed as one in the catalogue for the sale.
Perhaps there are some bargains to be found at these dispersals? For instance, the Tampa Bay Derby favorite and 4th-place finisher Spring Hill Farm also sold comparatively cheaply ($60,000, I think) not long before he made his debut. He was part of Ned Evans' dispersal. He's much better bred than Innocent Man, so the two horses probably weren't assessed that differently before they were sold, despite the gap in prices.
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