'Bird's baby brother goes to the dogs ...

Errr, that is, to Dogwood Stable.

The Blood-Horse reports that a half-brother to Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird has sold this morning at the Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic sale of 2-year-olds for $485,000.

The colt actually has 2009 Triple Crown ties on both sides of the family. In addition to being half-brother to the Derby champ and Preakness-placer (both being out of the Smart Strike mare Mining My Own), the sales colt is a son of Yonaguska, sire of Musket Man, who was third in both races. (And who won the Illinois Derby-G2.)

Yonaguska, who started his stud career in Kentucky but who now stands at Elite Thoroughbreds in Folsom, La., has a 2-year-old sales average entering 2009 of just $57,299 by comparison. So this is a big sales success for the sire ... thanks of course in large part to the dam and the sibling.

That price, by the way, is a darn sight loftier than the figure Mine That Bird sold for as a yearling: $9,500.