Plenty of Money Still In Play at FTKOCT

LEXINGTON, KY – Buyers continued to zero in on the perceived top lots during the third session of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearling sale, with the first, second and fourth-priciest purchases of the sale thus far all coming Wednesday.

Topping trade was an Uncle Mo colt (hip 1033) acquired by agent Mike Ryan from the Indian Creek consignment for $410,000.

With a somewhat softer market for the lower-priced lots than was seen during the first two days of the four-day auction, the average ($34,909) and median ($10,000) dipped slightly. Wednesday's gross sales totaled $8,378,100 and the RNA rate was 26.4%.

Cumulative numbers for the sale continue to stack up well against figures from 2018. Seven-hundred forty horses have sold for $27,577,200 at an average of $37,266 ($35,576 in 2018) and median of $13,000 ($15,000 in 2018). The buyback rate sits at 26.2% for the sale so far–it was 22.7% for the entirety of last year's auction.

“Three straight days with increases in average and increases in gross [compared to last year's corresponding sessions] are certainly very encouraging,” said Fasig-Tipton President and CEO Boyd Browning, Jr. “The resilience and the depth of the market never ceases to amaze me. Historically, this sale has been strong throughout all four days and there continues to be lots of activity. There might be a few less people here in person, but they've certainly left plenty of money with other agents or associates to be able to bid on horses. That was what was really encouraging. Tonight, I spent the last 30 minutes in the back walking ring outside and there were still hundreds of people here for the last 10 or 15 horses… It's been three really good days so far. We've got one more day to go, and we certainly have no reason not to be optimistic that tomorrow will be a continuation of the strength that we've seen for these first three days.”

At least the day's top four lots were horses who had been rerouted or withdrawn from an earlier yearling sale for one reason or another.

“I think that sellers now know that there's a legitimate marketplace here to bring a quality animal,” Browning said. “If you have a situation where the additional time, or a change in circumstances or change in environment or whatever factor might make you say that, whether it's from July, or August, or September to being in the latter stages of October will improve the marketability of that horse, they've got the confidence to do that, whether it's a $20,000 horse, or a $50,000 horse or a $250,000 horse… This is a tough game we play. Sometimes a horse might get a little sick or come up with a cough. It might have a minor X-ray blemish that was unexpected. There are all sorts of facts or circumstances that lead to horses moving from one sale to another sale, and a lot of horses just benefit from the additional time. You see a lot of horses blossom. There were some beautiful horses offered here the first three days and there are some damn fine ones who will walk through this ring tomorrow.”

The final session of the final yearling sale of 2019 kicks off Thursday at 10:00 a.m.

Ryan Snags 'Magnificent' Mo Colt

Agent Mike Ryan, perched in the second floor press box, fended off challenges from throughout the sales complex Monday to land the session-topping Uncle Mo colt for $410,000. Shack Parrish's Indian Creek consigned the Mar. 13 foal as hip 1033. Breeder Meg Dumaine paid $350,000 for his unraced dam Picardia (Stormy Atlantic), a half to Grade I winners Lear's Princess (Lear Fan) and Pretty City Dancer (Tapit), while she was carrying the colt at the 2017 Keeneland November sale.

“I thought he was magnificent,” said Mike Ryan, who was bidding on behalf of a client of trainer Chad Brown's. “I thought he was the best horse in the sale. In fact, he's one of the best Uncle Mos I've seen since [champion 2-year-old and GI Kentucky Derby winner] Nyquist–that's why I liked him so much. I thought he was exceptional. In any sale, he was a serious horse. I told Chad that he'd probably top the sale and it would take a bit of money to buy him. He's a summer 2-year-old, and if he's good he's got a stallion's pedigree.”

Of the price paid, Ryan continued, “I felt $400,000, up around there, that's what it was going to take to buy him. There's still good money for the right horses. The colt looked magnificent. It took no genius to find him. He stood out–he sold himself. He comes off a great farm. They raise a great horse and do a good job.”

As for the October market, he said, “It's still solid. When you find something that you like and want to follow up there, you're not by yourself. Obviously, it's extremely selective. We're down to the last [yearling sale] of the year, and a lot of people have already filled their quotas. This horse was for a client of Chad's, and he's already got plenty of yearlings, but I said, 'This is a horse you need to have in your barn.' And he said, 'Well then let's try and get him.'”

A 'Happy' Accident for Woods Edge

While the Runhappy filly (hip 1090) Peter O'Callaghan paid $215,000 for last year at Keeneland November and was pointing to Keeneland September suffered a setback after getting sick over the summer, she headed into October in fine fettle and the shrewd Irishman was rewarded Wednesday. Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner's Speedway Stables paid $400,000 with the help of agent Marette Farrell.

The Feb. 24 foal's stakes-winning dam was purchased for $10,000 in foal to Value Plus at KEENOV '10 by Virginia-based Morgan's Ford Farm of Wayne and Susie Chatfield-Taylor. She has since produced MSW Queen Caroline (Blame) and MSP K P Slickem (Include), and her 2009 foal became a graded-placed juvenile. This is the extended female family of champion 2-year-old filly Folklore (Tiznow).

“She was a great foal when we bought her, and she'd come from great breeders,” O'Callaghan said. “We stretched for her when we bought her, and we had a bit of bad luck with her midsummer. She got sick, so we missed our appointment in September with her. So, we put her on the back burner and got her ready for this and she bounced out of it beautifully. Everybody loved her here. There was an army of people in to bid for her. There were telephones in every corner of the ring there. We're delighted. October's a great sale, and a lot of good horses come out of here, but you can never come in here with lofty expectations. You're often on a salvage mission, and the fact that we got such a good result, it's very rewarding. She was such a beautiful filly all along, and it was so disappointing that she missed September. To come here and get such a good result, it's great for everyone.”

Money has been showing up for the perceived top lots on offer, and O'Callaghan said he knew hip 1090 was among the most popular, but still wasn't sure quite how high she might go.

“There aren't that many people walking around with four-hundred grand,” O'Callaghan acknowledged. “When you're in Saratoga or Keeneland, if you have a nice horse you have those sort of expectations, but here, when you've missed your slot, you have to be a lot more tempered in your expectations. But it became pretty clear here in the last 24 hours or so that she was going to sell very well. I was pretty confident she was going to break $300,000 as the day went along, but to get to $400,000 was just perfect.”

Hip 1090 will be trained by Bob Baffert, who conditions Speedway's Grade I-winning 'TDN Rising Star' Roadster (Quality Road).

“We're thrilled to get her,” Farrell said. “She's actually the only horse we bid on for [Speedway] this whole sale. We waited for her. She's got a lot of upside for us. She's got a beautiful pedigree–it's Folklore's family, by a hugely exciting sire in Runhappy and she's a beautiful physical. She's bred by Morgan's Ford Farm. They are the organic of the organics. It's very good land that she was raised on, and she was pinhooked by an excellent judge in Peter O'Callaghan, whose track record speaks for itself.”

Pharoah Colt Another Big Sale Out of Red Carpet Miss

Gabriel “Spider” Duignan and partners continued to rack up big sales out of unraced mare Red Carpet Miss (Malibu Moon) Wednesday when Team Casse snagged her American Pharoah colt (hip 1124) for $385,000 out of the Paramount Sales draft.

Duignan paid $255,000 for the daughter of MGSW Stylish (Thunder Gulch) while carrying her first foal by Declaration of War at the 2014 Keeneland November sale. That colt was a $400,000 KEESEP yearling, and was followed by a $535,000 son of Speightstown and $265,000 daughter of Uncle Mo. An Into Mischief colt follows the American Pharoah in the pipeline.

“Pharoah's not hard to pick out,” said Duignan when asked about the decision to mate his mare to the Triple Crown winner and now leading freshman sire. “I just love Pharoah, and I thought he was good value. I've been a big fan of his the whole way along, still am, and [hip 1124] is a beautiful horse. The mare gets a good foal. He is so like Pharoah, that horse. He's like a reincarnation of him; exact same head, exact same outlook. Just a beautiful horse to be around. I'm glad he's gone to a good home.”

Speightstown Colt to Starlight

A Speightstown half-brother to the unraced but highly touted $1.8-million Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale topper Gamine (Into Mischief) was scooped up by Starlight Racing representative Frank Brothers Wednesday for $300,000. Hip 1018 was consigned by Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck's Summerfield on behalf of Barbara Banke's Stonestreet Foaled and Raised.

The Feb. 16 foal is out of stakes-placed Peggy Jane (Kafwain). Gamine, who was a $220,000 KEESEP buy for Brad Grady's Grand Oaks Farm, was purchased in Timonium on behalf of Michael Lund Petersen before joining Hall of Famer Bob Baffert's barn.

“It was the upper end of what we thought he'd bring,” said Francis Vanlangendonck. “With the sister out in California with Bob, and Bob has really been touting the filly, a lot of people knew about it and wanted to be in on that family. We had him in [the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale]. We thought there was going to be a pretty good update, so we scratched him and brought him here. The filly came up with a little issue that's been taken care of, and he improved, so it all worked out.”

Vanlangendonck added, “He's real athletic and correct with a lot of bone. Everybody who looked at him liked him. Even in the back ring people were looking up and all of a sudden looking at the page to try and see who it was. He's a very athletic colt. Frankie Brothers found him and that's Frankie's kind of horse. He's picked out a lot of good horses and I knew when he looked at him he'd like him.”

Stonestreet has had an extremely strong yearling sales season as a seller. Banke's operation sold four youngsters at the Saratoga sale for a combined $2.6 million, and 48 at Keeneland September for $16,790,700, including $4.1-million and

$2.15-million colts. A Ghostzapper filly consigned by Denali Stud as hip 1032 brought $245,000 from EQB's Patti Miller as the dust was settling after hip 1018's sale, and another daughter (hip 1181) of the same Adena Springs inmate and also offered by Summerfield fetched $170,000 from agent Liz Crow late in the session.

“Stonestreet's pretty sharp on that stuff,” Vanlangendonck said of the decision to remove hip 1018 from the boutique Saratoga sale. “Normally, they don't scratch to come here unless they have to if they're already in another sale. We did point several horses for this sale knowing later was good. They're not scared of this sale–they've done well here before. It's a good sale, so with quality horses they sell really well.”

Munnings Filly Provides Nice Return

A Munnings filly (hip 935) from the War Horse Place consignment proved one of the more profitable transactions of Wednesday's sales session after bringing $180,000 from Shepherd Equine Advisors, agent for Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsch.

Just a $30,000 Keeneland November purchase, her 3-year-old half-brother Prince Pierce (Cairo Prince) became stakes-placed in the interim. Her second dam is MSW and MGSP Bedroom Blues (Cure the Blues). This is the extended female family of Grade I-winning filly I'm a Chatterbox (Munnings).

“The breeding was, obviously, the most important thing,” said War Horse Place owner Dana Aschinger, who founded the Lexington nursery with husband Gerry Aschinger, who passed away earlier this year. “She had all the right parts. She's just a very correct filly, looked great and never missed a beat in the sales prep. She's just a well-bred filly… We thought she had a lot of potential, and everyone seemed to like her back at the barn. She showed herself well.”

Aschinger said hip 935 was owned by the Marengo pinhook partnership, which included herself, War Horse farm manager Rachel Holden and others.

The Apr. 14 foal had not been previously offered at an earlier yearling sale.

“When they've already seen a horse, they kind of skip over them,” Aschinger said when asked if she thought that detail might have helped the final price. “They want to go to the originals; the ones they haven't seen before. She's just a very impressive filly; she doesn't have any faults with her. She has a really good attitude. Every time she showed, she was professional about it, and I think they like to watch how they handle themselves through three or four days of showing. When you have people come back to the barn two or three times and they're still showing and presenting themselves well it shows that they've got a lot of class. She's done that, and we're happy.”

It's All About the Karma

Hip 1049, a Super Saver filly profiled in yesterday's TDN story about breeder Sandee Schultz, who runs a program to help at-risk women who work on her New York farm caring for horses, was purchased by an all-female syndicate, It's All About the Girls. “I didn't even realize it,” said the syndicate's Anna Seitz. “But as soon as I signed the ticket, my partner, Kerry Millikin, came running up to me and said, `that's the horse they wrote about in the TDN!' It was karma. It was like we were meant to have the horse.”

Seitz said she expected to have to pay more than the $12,000 they got her for.

“She was really pretty and athletic-looking, and we liked that she was a New York-bred,” said Seitz of the Taylor Made Sales consignee. “She had a really good presence about her in the back walking ring. We were like. `We have to have this one, and we got her.'”