THE US yearling sales season kicked off on Tuesday with a rewarding edition of Fasig-Tipton’s July Sale. The sale’s average and median were the highest since the benchmarks set in 2007.

“It was a strong start to the 2021 yearling sales season,” said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning. “We were very encouraged when we went to the farms to inspect yearlings by the quality of horses we were seeing, and certainly the two-year-old sales were encouraging, so we had a lot of optimism.”

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and LNJ Foxwoods joined forces to take home the top-priced yearling of the sale, an $800,000 daughter of Into Mischief, offered by Burleson Farms. Current leading sire and two-time champion sire Into Mischief is represented by a pair of Eclipse Award winning female sprinters in Gamine, who won the most recent Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, and LNJ Foxwoods’s Covfefe who won the race in 2019.

The sale-topper is out of the unraced Indian Charlie mare Cashing Tickets, a full-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Conveyance. Cashing Tickets is the dam of three winners from as many runners, including multiple stakes winning filly Leggs Galore. This is the immediate family of multiple Grade 1 winning millionaire Plum Pretty.

“He’s an amazing stallion,” Browning said of Into Mischief, who sired three of the top four yearlings sold. “He is always at the top of the boards. He produces colts, fillies, Derby winners, classic winners, grass, dirt, short, long. He is the consummate professional as a stallion and there is a high demand for him, as there should be because of the potential reward on the track.”

The sale’s top colt was a son of Candy Ride who sold for $350,000 to James Bernhard from the consignment of Taylor Made Sales Agency. The colt is the second foal out of an Uncle Mo mare, and hails from the immediate family of Group 1 winner Moriarty.

Also realising $350,000 was a daughter of Into Mischief purchased by Mike G. Rutherford from the consignment of Four Star Sales, agent for Spendthrift Farm. The filly is out of the multiple stakes-placed winning Henny Hughes mare Anahauc, and she comes from the family of Grade 1 winner Diplomat Lady.

Taylor Made Sales Agency sold a filly by Into Mischief to Bullet Bloodstock for $345,000. She is a daughter of a Distorted Humor half-sister to the Grade 1 Beldame Stakes and Ogden Phipps Handicap winner Life At Ten.

Showcase return

Tuesday’s sale marked the return of the Freshman Sire Showcase, featuring 103 yearlings by first-crop sires. Colts by Grade 1 winners Army Mule and Mor Spirit were the top sellers in this section of the sale, fetching $200,000 each.

Maverick Racing struck early to snap up a son of undefeated Grade 1 Carter Handicap winner Army Mule from the consignment of Gainesway. The colt is out of the winning Congaree mare Congarette, from the immediate family of Grade 1 winner Home At Last. Army Mule’s 2019 stud fee was $10,000, as was Mor Spirit’s.

Woodford Thoroughbreds purchased the colt by multiple Grade 1 winner Mor Spirit for $200,000 from the consignment of Eaton Sales, acting for Spendthrift Farm. He is a half-brother to Grade 2 winner Kalypso who sold at this sale in 2019. The colt’s dam is also a half-sister to the dam of stakes winner Josie, who fetched $300,000 at the previous day’s July Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale.

Mendelssohn

A pair of fillies by Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf champion Mendelssohn sold for $185,000 each during the opening section. “It’s kind of going back to our roots,” Browning said of the return of the Freshman Sire Showcase.

“For years, our reputation in July was great physicals. We may be forgiving a little bit on pedigree and sire power, but if you have a good-looking colt or filly that looks precocious, that is what we are about in July. It helps build momentum for the farms as well.”

Not offered in the Showcase, a first-crop filly by multiple Grade 1 winner City Of Light was purchased by Selective LLC/Cary Bloodstock for $230,000. Consigned by Bluewater Sales, the filly is out of an unraced Giant’s Causeway half-sister to track-record setting Grade 1 winner Rail Trip.

In total, 208 yearlings changed hands for $21,608,500, up 16% from when 202 sold for $18,621,000 in 2019. The average rose to $103,887, a 13% increase. The median rose 7% to $80,000 from 2019. The average was the fourth highest ever for sale, while the median ranked second.

Browning added: “Everybody in the marketplace ought to sleep pretty good tonight. It should be a very good yearling market in 2021.”

Front Run The Fed stays ahead of the rest

FASIG-TIPTON held two sales on Monday as a forerunner to their yearling sale, the inaugural July Breeding Stock Sale which featured the Far From Over/Fountain of Youth Dispersal, and the annual July Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale.

The latter saw 79 horses of racing age sold for $5,905,500, up 16% from last year. The average rose 19% to $74,753, while the median rose 67% to $50,000. Fifteen horses sold for $100,000 or more compared to 11 in 2020. Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said: “It was a very active market with very competitive bidding throughout the day.”

Front Run The Fed, a five-year-old stakes winning son of Fed Biz, topped the sale when sold for $440,000 to George Sharp. ELiTE consigned the multiple graded stakes-placed horse who has earnings of $392,150. He has won four of his 13 starts and was placed this year in the Grade 3 Poker Stakes behind Grade 1 winners Oleksandra and Raging Bull.

Recent Iowa Derby winner Stilleto Boy was the second highest-priced lot, selling through Paramount Sales for $420,000 to Steve Moger. The three-year-old Shackleford gelding has earned $249,675, and been in the money in all of his seven career starts.

The top-priced filly was Josie and she got the sale off to a great start when selling for $300,000 to KatieRich Farms. Also consigned through ELiTE, the four-year-old Race Day filly won the Iowa Distaff Stakes on July 3rd to increase earnings to $266,867. Josie has won three of her four starts this year. She is one of seven winners out of the stakes winning Awesome Again mare Spirited Away, who has also produced Grade 2 winner Prospective.

Inaugural sale

Jeweled Princess, a stakes winning daughter of Cairo Prince, topped the July Breeding Stock Sale when selling for $225,000 to Stoneriggs Farm. Part of the Gainesway draft, the four-year-old is carrying her first foal, by Horse of the Year and leading first-crop sire Gun Runner. Jeweled Princess is out of a Scat Daddy half-sister to stakes winner Miss Brazil.

Colonial Creed, a multiple graded stakes placed daughter of Jimmy Creed, took the top broodmare prospect spot when sold for $175,000 to agent Andre Lynch. The five-year-old mare, who earned $223, 881, is from the immediate family of Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Line Of Duty.

The most expensive broodmare with a foal at foot was multiple stakes winner Too Much Prada. She sold for $150,000 to The Elkstone Group with her 2021 Violence filly. Stuart Morris acted as agent for Far From Over/Fountain of Youth Dispersal who consigned the eight-year-old. She is a full-sister to stakes winner Prada’s Bling.

“In the grand scheme of things, it was encouraging,” Browning said of the sale which was a late addition to the calendar. “People that tried it with an open mind were pretty well rewarded.” A total of 44 fillies and mares changed hands for $2,012,000, producing an average of $45,727 and a median of $31,000. The clearance rate was 86%.