Saint Liam Mare Louisiana-bound

Evelyn Benoit of Brittlyn Stables provided a wake-up call early in Friday's Keeneland November session when fending off all challengers to take home SW/MGSP Moment of Majesty (Saint Liam) for $850,000. The 9-year-old was consigned to the sale by Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency as hip 917 while carrying a foal by Hill 'n' Dale resident Curlin.

Grovendale's James Keogh, acting on the new owner's behalf, said Moment of Majesty will next year visit Benoit's $1.75-million earner Star Guitar, who stands at Clear Creek Stud in Folsom, LA.

“She was our pick of the sale,” offered Keogh. “She just said, 'Buy the mare.' She's a huge Curlin fan–Ms. Benoit loves to race, and she has horses in foal to Curlin, so that was a bonus.”

Trained by Roger Attfield for Nat Rea's Regis Racing, Moment of Majesty hit the board in a number of salty spots up in Canada, including the Woodbine Oaks–in which she was only beaten a head–GII Dance Smartly S. and GII Canadian S. She annexed the 2012 GII Belle Mahone S. on the Woodbine Polytrack, and earned more than $630,000.

Moment of Majesty's second dam is champion turf mare Fiji (GB) (Rainbow Quest), who also produced French Classic-placed Marcus Andronicus (Danehill). This is the family of GI Toyota Blue Grass S. winner Java's War (War Pass).

“I loved Fiji–she was a champion grass mare from a wonderful, old family,” Keogh said. “It's just one of those classy pedigrees that's been around forever and a lot of people have done well by it. I was a big fan of Saint Liam's–I thought he died way too young. This mare had a lot of race class.”

Moment of Majesty's weanling colt by Tiznow (hip 918followed her into the ring and brought $90,000 from Jumping Jack Racing.

“I thought the mare was going to make $600,000-plus. You don't know where that finish is, but I thought that was the higher end of her valuation,” noted Hill 'n' Dale's John Sikura. “In each book, there are fewer and fewer quality offerings. I thought she stood out on the page. She was a very good racemare, and I think the Curlin cover really helped the mare. It was a great sale, and I hope they have much success with the mare. It's been a week where we've had ups and downs, but this was a good, strong sale… I makes you consider that if you disperse your quality offerings through a couple books, maybe it's easier to focus upon them and have them really stand out in the crowd, rather than sort of overwhelm them all in one book.”