Big Brown colt leads Colorado yearling sale

A yearling colt by champion Big Brown brought $26,000 to top the Colorado Thoroughbred Breeders Association’s Silver Cup auction last Saturday at Arapahoe Park. The Colorado-bred was one of two leading purchases by Annette Bishop, who races the popular multiple stakes winner Get Happy Mister. She also took home a Mr. Nightlinger colt for $21,000.

The CTBA reported 43 yearlings sold for $255,300, a 6 percent increase in gross sales compared with last year’s auction, when 25 horses sold for $240,800. The average Saturday was $5,937, down 38 percent from last year’s $9,632, but on par with the sale’s 2012 average of $5,868. The median price of $3,700 was also down 38 percent compared with $6,000 in 2013. There were 21 horses that did not sell Saturday.

The unnamed Big Brown colt is out of the Langfuhr mare Leniently, who won 2 of 10 starts and $73,188. Leniently has produced four winners and is a half-sister to Grade 1-placed Easy Grades, who earned over $550,000. The colt was consigned by the Menoken Farms operation of Linda Wood. Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2008.

The Mr. Nightlinger colt was the second highest seller. He is out of the stakes-producing Dixieland Heat mare Spooner. The colt was bred in Oklahoma. The consignor was Bill Stivers.

Horses that were in the sale Saturday are now eligible for divisions of next year’s Silver Cup Futurity at Arapahoe.

For hip-by-hip results, click here.