Cheekaboo sells for $300,000 as F-T Kentucky winter mixed sale opens

Grade 2 winner Cheekaboo lived up to high expectations by selling for $300,000 to Japanese interests as the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale began with gains on Monday.

The two-day sale in Lexington, Ky., marking the final major-market mixed auction before Northern Hemisphere breeding sheds open for business, moved 146 horses during its opening session for revenues of $4,677,200. That marked a gain of 13 percent from last year's opening session, when 181 horses sold for $4,134,200.

The average price, $32,036, was up 40 percent from $22,841, while the median soared 80 percent, to $18,000 from $10,000.

The buyback rate finished at 29 percent, compared to 26 percent.

Cheekaboo, a 6-year-old California-bred daughter of her state's late leading sire Unusual Heat, sold to K R Japan as a broodmare prospect. The mare was scratched from the Grade 3 Astra Stakes in January at Santa Anita because of heat in a foot, after she had already been cataloged for this sale. Small Batch Sales consigned the mare as agent for her owners, Ciaglia Racing, Burns Racing, and Sharon Alesio.

"Super excited for the owners," Fletcher Mauk of Small Batch Sales said. "They did a great job exercising patience with this filly, and they've been rewarded for it [at this sale], as well as during her racing career, too.

"[The price was] what you would expect from a Grade 2 winner in the last sale of the year before the breeding season opens," Mauk added. "Most of the large farms were in on her. They respect the race record."

Cheekaboo, who was trained by Peter Eurton, put together a record of 24-3-3-7 with earnings of $371,995. She earned her biggest victory in the Grade 2 Honeymoon Stakes in June 2016 at Santa Anita, edging Be Mine by a head for an upset victory that paid $49.60. Cheekaboo also won the 2016 Campanile Stakes, finished second in the 2016 Sandy Blue Handicap, and finished third in the 2016 California Cup Oaks, 2016 Melair Stakes, 2018 Fran's Valentine Stakes, and 2018 Solana Beach Stakes.

Cheekaboo is the most accomplished foal out of the winning Souvenir Copy mare Sandy Cheeks, dam of two winners from four starters. Cheekaboo's third dam is Grade 3 winner Highland Crystal, and this is the extended family of Grade 1 winners Bit of Whimsy, Miss Josh, and Royal Mountain Inn, as well as Currency, a Group 1 winner in Singapore.

"I think, for the sire, she was a bit of an anomaly, because she's a bigger-bodied horse than what most people expect from an Unusual Heat," Mauk said. "[She has] that long shoulder, high withers, beautiful hip."

The session's top yearling was a filly by leading juvenile sire Into Mischief, purchased for $200,000 by Irish Meadow Stable from the consignment of Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services, as agent. The filly was the only yearling by her sire in the sale.

"She's a big, strong filly," Ron Blake of Blake-Albina said. "She has a beautiful walk. We were really thrilled with her as she grew and developed. We think a lot of her. I think anybody that has her would be proud to have her."

The filly is out of the winning Mizzen Mast mare Kashami, a full sister to stakes-placed Francisca. Their dam, Grade 3-placed De Aar, also produced multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Willcox Inn. Grade 1 winners Cetewayo and Dynaforce appear on the catalog page.

Day two of the sale is Tuesday.

For hip-by-hip results, click here:
www.fasigtipton.com/2019/Kentucky-Winter-Mixed