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| Staff Writer |
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Torrential rain may have forced the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2YOs in Training Sale into a single day, but the 12-hour marathon still produced record-breaking figures with gross sales of US$44,192,500, up 18.5 per cent on the previous best.
A striking Girvin filly topped the sale at US$1.1 million as the average price rose 42.1 per cent to US$135,560 and the median jumped 20 per cent to US$60,000, with a clearance rate of 75.8 per cent.
Fasig-Tipton president and CEO Boyd Browning Jr. had been battling the elements all week as excessive rainfall deteriorated the track, leading to breezing being cancelled and replaced with galloping for many horses.
"I think it shows the resilience of the consigners," Browning said. "It shows the resilience of the buyers. It shows how adaptive horse people are under difficult circumstances, and when you sometimes least expect it, and you think things might be really difficult, people tend to kind of step up and fill the voids and try to take advantage where they perceive as opportunity."
Bloodstock agent Kerri Radcliffe secured the sale-topping Hip 368, a Girvin filly, for US$1.1 million on behalf of Memo Racing and AMO Racing – their first purchase as a team.
"So, get the Memo with AMO," Radcliffe quipped moments after signing the sale ticket. "I know AMO Racing's Kia Joorabchian from home, and I would do a bit of work for Kia. We chatted and we said, 'This is the best filly in the sale.' Memo have only been buying colts, so we needed to get a filly."
The filly, who worked a furlong in 10.20 seconds in the slop, will be trained by Chad Brown. Consigned by Wavertree Stables, she is out of the winning Broken Vow mare Scarlet Dixie and was bred in Kentucky by Twin Oaks Bloodstock.
After waiting nearly 11 hours, bloodstock agent Donato Lanni secured the second-highest price of the day when purchasing Hip 544, a Violence colt, for US$1,050,000 on behalf of Zedan Racing.
"This is going to be a sale like you're going to say, 'I remember when I was there. You know, top 10. I remember I was there.' It's a crazy night," Lanni said.
"We love this horse," Lanni exclaimed. "He sold himself, and he's just a specimen of a horse. He's a magnificent-looking horse. It's hard to try to find a horse that looks like that."
The chestnut colt, who will be trained by Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, was consigned by Top Line Sales and didn't even breeze during the under-tack show, proving that quality can still shine through without the times.
April Mayberry signed for Hip 79, a colt by Nyquist, for US$1 million on behalf of an undisclosed partnership. Consigned by Wavertree Stables, the colt went one furlong in 10.40 seconds and was the first horse to reach seven figures on the day.
The Kentucky-bred colt is out of Deja Vu, a half-sister to Group One winners Madcap Escapade and Dubai Escapade and was a US$240,000 pinhook out of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Completing the million-dollar quartet was Hip 334, a bay colt by leading sire Into Mischief who sold for US$1 million to Mahmud Mouni, representing Tagermeen Racing – a group of five Libya-based owners who spent US$2,795,000 on six horses at the sale.
"Honestly, we are so happy what we did, but I was not expecting to reach that price, to be honest," Mouni admitted. "But the horse deserves it; It had a very nice breeze, very smart."
Mouni said all horses purchased would stay in the United States with trainers like Todd Pletcher and Steve Asmussen being considered for the Into Mischief colt. Besides their headline purchase, Tagermeen Racing also secured Hip 187, a Galilean colt for US$700,000; Hip 136, a Yaupon colt for US$700,000; Hip 147, another Uncle Mo colt for US$290,000; Hip 130, a Blame colt for US$75,000; and Hip 471, a Vino Rosso gelding for US$30,000.
Trainer Bhupat Seemar went to US$750,000 for Hip 199, a Maxfield colt consigned by Hartley/de Renzo Thoroughbreds, on behalf of Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid Al Nuaimi's RRR Racing.
"We've had such great success. We've won the Guineas, we've won some good races buying horses over here. It's been a great hunting ground, and praise God, we can do it again," Seemar said.
The colt worked a furlong in 10.20 seconds. "He's just a beautiful, well-balanced horse," Seemar said. "He's got a great stride, good pedigree behind him. Great mind. He's got a beautiful head. Everything about him is good."
Ramiro Restrepo's Marquee Bloodstock purchased Hip 55, a Constitution colt, for US$975,000. The colt is out of the Orb mare Chic, who is a half-sister to graded stakes winners Corfu and New York Central.
"Constitution is a monster stallion," Restrepo said. The colt was one of those that breezed, going a furlong in 10.60 seconds for consignor Grade One Investments.
"The colt handled the off-going, handled the turns like a Porsche, and, at these 2YO sales, it's always the bottom line – how do they do it? Just in hand, super professional horse, great bone, and very athletic," Restrepo said. "You just got to hope that he wants to do it in the afternoon."
Restrepo's Marquee Bloodstock also signed for a colt by Justify, consigned as Hip 440 from SBM Training and Sales, for US$650,000.
The partnership between owner Gus King and trainer Steve Asmussen continues as Asmussen signed the ticket on behalf of King for Hip 137, a bay colt by late sire Uncle Mo, for US$975,000.
"We're all hoping for the same dream, and I'm glad the dream exists, and we'll try again," said Asmussen, who didn't want to put Kentucky Derby expectations on the colt just yet.
Mayberry and her partnership struck again later in the sale, returning to the Wavertree Stables consignment for Hip 189, a Tiz the Law colt out of the stakes-placed Broken Vow mare Janis's Joy, for US$750,000.
"The client really likes Tiz the Law," Mayberry said. "We've tried to get a couple at previous sales. I didn’t get them. This horse is nice and fluid. The way he moves, just a really nice way about him."
Second crop stallion Tiz the Law is sire of this year's Gr.2 Louisiana Derby winner and Gr.1 Kentucky Derby contender Tiztastic.
There had been speculation that Wavertree Stables' Ciaran Dunne was planning on retiring. If that's true, his consignment's performance might be caused to reconsider.
Among the hips that he represented were four of the top eight by sales price, including two of the top three. Wavertree was the only consignment to have consigned two million-dollar hips at the sale. Overall, Wavertree had 15 head sell for US$5,357,000.
"It's been a good day. We can't argue with that," Dunne said. "Look, it's nice when it all works, isn't it? We got fortunate. We had some really nice horses coming up here. I think they showed themselves well. And they were rewarded for it."
As for whether there was any truth to the retirement rumours, Dunne said, "I've been considering retiring since the day I started. But we'll see a few things. We'll see what happens this year."
The unusual weather conditions that forced many horses to gallop rather than breeze during the under-tack show created an interesting market dynamic. Approximately two-thirds of all horses that sold for more than US$300,000 had breezed.
"It's just very hard to differentiate," said trainer Bhupat Seemar. "The horses that just galloped, they could be good horses, but who knows how much talent they have."
There were exceptions, most notably the Violence colt that sold for US$1,050,000 to Zedan Racing despite not breezing.
"I may be in the minority, but maybe I'm not," said Marquee Bloodstock's Ramiro Restrepo. "But I will say this I see millions of dollars being spent on horses that walk. And the old joke is, I don't see any walking races. Horses show that athleticism, and it's up to the horsemen to analyse them in motion and see if they think that a horse has all the qualities that deserve a big price."
At the end of the long day, Fasig-Tipton's Browning reflected: "Nobody believes me. I don't care about records. This wasn't about setting records. This was about perseverance. And I think that we and our customers persevered."