$230,000 Mendelssohn colt tops first day at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale

A $230,000 colt from the first crop of Mendelssohn led the way as the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale posted gains in its opening session Monday, with the regional sale continuing to display the strength seen across the board this year as the marketplace roars back from the last year’s pandemic-hampered season.

Monday's first of two sale sessions at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium finished with 149 yearlings sold for gross receipts of $4,577,300. In last year's comparable opening session, 122 horses sold for $2,983,600.

The session's average was $30,720, rising 28 percent from $24,065. The median jumped 43 percent, to $20,000 from $14,000. The buyback rate also improved, finishing at 16 percent compared to 25 percent.

The session-topping colt purchased by Oracle Bloodstock from the consignment of Dreamtime Stables, as agent, keyed a big day for his sire. Mendelssohn recorded two of the top three prices on the day, as following the colt on the leaderboard were a $220,000 Union Rags colt sold to Mac Robertson, as agent for Novogratz Racing Stables; and a $160,000 Mendelssohn filly purchased by bloodstock agent Donato Lanni on behalf of Caroline and Greg Bentley.

Mendelssohn, by the late classic sire Scat Daddy, is a half-brother to Grade 1 winner and leading sire Into Mischief, as well as to Eclipse Award champion Beholder. The young stallion won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and was a stakes winner on both dirt and synthetic, with multiple Grade 1 placings on dirt in the United States. He stands at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky and proved popular in his first season, covering 252 mares, according to The Jockey Club's Report of Mares Bred, tying him as the busiest stallion in the country. He is now averaging $152,505 at public sales from his resulting first yearlings, against an introductory stud fee of $35,000.

Mendelssohn's session-topper, who is a Kentucky-bred and also Delaware-certified, is out of the Malibu Moon mare Tasha's Moon. Her first starter is stakes-placed Juror Number Four, by Mendelssohn's half-brother Into Mischief. Tasha's Moon is a half-sister to Japanese stakes winner Esmeraldina; Grade 1 winner Off The Tracks appears on the catalog page, as do graded stakes winners Concord Point and Tasha's Miracle.

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