What started out as an experimental $25,000 claim six years ago has turned into the score of a lifetime for 32-year-old trainer and breeder Sam Wilensky. Drop a Hint (Into Mischief), who helped solidify Wilensky's desire to follow his father into training after she became a stakes winner, brought the story full circle this week at Keeneland when her Cody's Wish colt sold for $850,000.Wilensky, the son of veteran South Florida trainer Herman Wilensky, grew up around the track but wasn't always certain he wanted to make horse racing his life's work. In 2020, he decided to try claiming a few fillies with good pedigrees to race them with his father and then launch a commercial broodmare band. Wilensky's first acquisition was Drop a Hint.“I claimed her when she was a 3-year-old from Todd Pletcher, which is probably something most people wouldn't recommend, but we won a shake with her and the rest was history,” Wilensky recounted.Drop a Hint quickly became a cornerstone of the stable for the father-son duo. Over the next two years, she hit the board in five stakes, including a third-place finish in the 2020 GII Sands Point Stakes. She capped her career with a win in the 2022 Minaret Stakes, leading a 1-2 finish for the Wilenskys ahead of My Destiny (Majesticperfection), another mare they had claimed for the same project.Drop a Hint's yearling colt by Cody's Wish | Matt GoinsAfter Drop a Hint retired to Wilensky's fledgling broodmare band, her second career got off to a rocky start when her first foal—one of the very first Wilensky had ever bred—suffered a paddock injury and was unable to make it to the sales. Her second, an Essential Quality colt, brought $150,000 as a yearling. Then Wilensky decided to send the mare to Cody's Wish.Early feedback on the resulting foal confirmed Wilensky had hit the mark.“Honestly, I don't even know what I'm looking at with foals because I'm so used to looking at racehorses,” he admitted “But all the people at the farm and with Keeneland loved him. They thought he'd be roughly a $600,000 horse and I didn't want to get my hopes up even that high. I was thinking if we brought $400,000 or $500,000, it'd be a hell of a day.”In the time since Drop a Hint retired from racing, Wilensky had taken over the reins of training from his father. After wrapping up this summer's meet at Del Mar, Wilensky was able to go back home to Florida for a day or two before heading to Kentucky to watch his colt sell with the Lane's End consignment during Book 1's second session.Bidding quickly blew past Wilensky's expectations and the hammer finally fell at $850,000 to the partnership of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Bridlewood Farm and Robert LaPenta.Now a few days removed from the fireworks, Wilensky admits he is still in shock.“It was unbelievable to go that high,” he said. “I didn't expect it and it still hasn't settled in yet. I have an eight-month-old baby who had just got home and settled in after Del Mar, so it was very strange to not have my family here with me because we do everything together. We've been looking forward to this for so long and obviously to have a horse in Book 1 has been a dream.”Wilensky didn't have much time to celebrate the monumental day before rushing to catch a plane to New York, where his trainee Adios Cole (Adios Charlie) runs on opening day at Belmont Park.Drop a Hint and My Destiny hit the exact in the 2022 Minaret Stakes SV Photography | SV Photography“He had a disaster trip at Del Mar the other day and this is a very, very tough race, but he's training excellent and he's a super cool horse,” Wilensky reported.Next month, Wilensky will be back in Kentucky to watch a few more of his yearlings–sired by Jack Christopher, Taiba and Essential Quality–go through the ring. He is also looking forward to welcoming some of his own horses to his stable soon, including an Elite Power filly out of Minaret Stakes runner-up My Destiny.“Now that we were able to sell a horse for that much, it gives us the opportunity to bring some of the other ones in ourselves and train them,” he said.Though Wilensky was once on the fence about following his father into racing, he now can't imagine doing anything else. For him, the passion is rooted in a horseman's mindset.“I played football my whole life, so I think the competition side of it is what kind of drew me in,” he explained. “I know some people say this, but I truly mean it: I love the animal. When someone claims a horse from me, it's somewhat devastating in a way, just because you put so much time and effort and love into it. I only train roughly 10 to 12 horses at a time because I really do want to pay close attention to them.”That genuine devotion to the horse is Wilensky's priority, even amidst the whirlwind of his first Book 1 score. While in Kentucky, he made sure to visit Drop a Hint, who has a Flightline colt this year and is in foal to Sierra Leone, before leaving town.“Since I had just flown in the prior night, the morning of the sale I went to the farm to see her,” he shared. “But I forgot to go to the store to get carrots and mints for her, so after the sale on the way to the airport, I stopped there again and took care of her. She deserved it.”The post A $25,000 Claim Pays Off at Keeneland for Owner-Trainer Sam Wilensky appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.