$700,000 Tapit colt tops first session of Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A Tapit colt who was among the first 20 horses through the ring kicked off the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale with fireworks, selling for $700,000. By the end of the evening, Monday’s opening session of the yearling sales season finale had concluded with a bang, finishing with across-the-board gains.

Fasig-Tipton reported 274 horses sold Monday during the first of four sessions for gross receipts of $11,016,900. During last year's corresponding opening session, 248 yearlings sold grossed $8,393,800.

Monday's average price was $40,208, rising 19 percent from $33,846 in the comparable 2020 session. The median jumped 13 percent, to $17,000 from $15,000. The buyback rate also improved slightly, checking in at 20 percent compared to 22 percent.

"I don't think there was any surprise that there was a lot of demand," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. "We've seen strength in the yearling sales from start to, hopefully, finish. . . . Spirited bidding at all levels, lots of competition, very diverse crowd. I think we've got a lot of real quality horses still to sell in the next three days."

The session-topping son of perennial leading sire Tapit sold to bloodstock agent Donato Lanni, on behalf of the partnership of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stables. SF, via its SF Bloodstock moniker, also was involved in the colt's upbringing, breeding him in partnership with Henry Field Bloodstock, and is now staying involved as an owner with different partners.

The colt's high price tag, achieved so early in the sale, may indicate a strong upper market for the rest of this sale's run. His $700,000 final bid would have topped each of the last three editions of the Fasig-Tipton October sale; he is the most expensive horse sold at this auction since a $700,000 Medaglia d'Oro colt topped the 2017 edition, which set records for gross and average.

The Tapit colt was consigned by Bedouin Bloodstock, as agent. He is the first foal out of the stakes-winning Shanghai Bobby mare March X Press. The young mare is a half-sister to stakes winner Harlan's Holiday, dam of stakes-placed Song River. Stakes winners Bryceslittlesecret, Joyous Melody, Joyous Song, Rhapsodist, Secret Rhapsody, Tensas Yucatan, and Tytus appear on the catalog page, and this is the extended family of Grade 1 winner Big World.

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