Mi Explosivo brings $650,000 at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale

Hip 13 delivered the kind of payoff that keeps pinhookers in the game. Mi Explosivo, a colt by Volatile, brought $650,000 from Zedan Racing just a few hips into the opening session of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in Timonium, Maryland, turning an $18,000 yearling purchase into a major commercial score for Clovis Crane and his family.

The colt was bought as a yearling, developed through the winter, and presented at the sale as a gray or roan colt foaled Feb. 19, 2024. Donato Lanni signed the ticket for Zedan Racing, which has long chased athletic juveniles with upside, and the result fit that model cleanly. For the Cranes, the number in the ring was only part of the story. What sold was months of hands-on preparation, patience, and a horse that had kept improving into the spring.

Mi Explosivo’s page helped explain why buyers leaned in. He is out of the Pulpit mare Yadira and is a half-brother to stakes-placed Cibolian. Yadira’s family also includes graded-stakes names such as Mr Freeze, Dilemma and Heavenly Ransom, giving the colt the kind of pedigree depth that still moves money when the physical horse matches the page. Volatile’s catalog profile added another layer of appeal, listing 87 winners and $8,614,655 in progeny earnings at the time of the sale.

The breeze and the body finished the job. Crane said the colt had been brilliant all winter and had one of the sharpest works of the day, even if he was not the first horse every buyer circled going into the preview. Fasig-Tipton used an untimed under-tack preview for the first time at the sale, and the format still produced a market that rewarded the horses that looked the part when it mattered.

The opening session backed up the appetite behind the price. Fasig-Tipton reported 175 horses grossing $26,365,500, for an average of $150,000 and a median of $75,000. Last year’s Midlantic May sale set higher totals with 327 juveniles sold for $44,317,500, but Mi Explosivo stood out as a reminder that the right horse can still separate himself fast.

Zedan’s bid also fit a familiar pattern. In 2025, Lanni bought a Violence colt for the same operation for $1,050,000 at the Midlantic sale, showing how aggressively Zedan will push for the right young horse. On this day, the Cranes were the ones collecting the return, and Mi Explosivo was the proof that careful work still pays.