Afleet Alex filly leads Fasig-Tipton session at $105K

LEXINGTON, Ky. – With two sessions in the books with mixed results, Fasig-Tipton’s October yearling sale entered its last session Wednesday with a $105,000 Afleet Alex filly the leader at 4 p.m.

The Afleet Alex filly, cataloged as Hip No. 1020, sold to agent Bo Hunt from the Darby Dan Farm consignment. The bay filly is out of the unraced Forestry mare Summer Forest and hails from the family that produced Group 1-placed Firm Pledge.

Hip No. 1020 was one of two yearlings to bring six figures Wednesday by that time. The other was Hip No. 1014, a $100,000 Mr. Greeley colt that Pacific Ocean Stables bought from the Woodford Thoroughbreds consignment. A dark bay or brown son of stakes-winner Stormy Venus, he is from the same family as champion Serena’s Song and graded winners Sophisticat and Grand Reward.

The expanded auction’s Monday and Tuesday sessions both showed increases in gross receipts and average price, but the median was down both days. The Tuesday session produced the sale-leader with its top price of $310,000 for a Hard Spun filly out of champion Hollywood Wildcat. Lakland Farm bought the filly from the Irving Cowan dispersal handled by Taylor Made Sales. The filly is a three-quarter-sister to 2000 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner and sire War Chant. She also is a three-quarter-sister to Grade 1-placed Ivan Denisovich and a half-sibling to graded-placed Double Cat, Ministers Wild Cat, and Shintoh.

Tuesday’s session ended with 237 yearlings sold for $3,630,800, up 29 percent from last year’s total for 192 yearlings. The $15,320 average price was up 4 percent. But median fell by 35 percent, from last year’s $7,750 to $5,000. Buy-backs were 26 percent, up from last year’s 22 percent.