Uncle Carm hangs on at Woodbine to become winner No. 93, one away from a magic number

Getting away with easy fractions under jockey Tyler Pizarro and hanging on in deep stretch to win by a neck at Woodbine, Uncle Carm on Thursday became the 93rd maiden-breaker from this blog's list of recommended prospects at the 2-year-old sales of 2010.

With 187 horses on that list, the class is now just one broken maiden away from cresting the 50 percent-winners mark worldwide, with currently 49.7 percent of all selections having managed to win at least once.

Uncle Carm, a gray or roan son of Bluegrass Cat-Lady Cruella, by Capote, nearly broke through two starts back, losing by a neck at Keeneland. He collects his first win in his ninth lifetime start, all among maiden special weight company. The winner benefited from slow early fractions of 24.63 and 49.82, giving him the energy to narrowly hold off a charging even-money favorite in Rise to Glory in the closing strides. Final time for a mile and a sixteenth over the Polytrack was 1:46.64.

Uncle Carm was bred in Kentucky by Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds, and the tandem of Dean De Renzo and Randall Hartley retain ownership of the colt after the $90,000 bid he drew as Hip 45 failed to meet the horse's reserve price at last year's Keeneland April sale. Mark Casse is the trainer. Uncle Carm has now earned $53,146.

I tabbed this half-brother to G2 millionaire LEAH'S SECRET and G3-winning juvenile BEAR TOUGH GUY as a possible "Second-Chance Deal" out of that KEEAPR sale, a list of what I believed were the better RNAs to pass through the ring there; horses that might be purchased privately or entered in another sale later. Of the 11 horses on my Second-Chance Deal list, seven are now winners.

Click here to follow all 187 of my sales picks from 2010, plus a handful of pans.