Drosselmeyer filly highlights solid Equine Sales of La. auction

A filly from the first crop of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Drosselmeyer brought $80,000 to top the Equine Sales Co., of Louisiana select yearling sale on Wednesday. The auction also featured a handful of horses of racing age as part of the Coteau Grove Farms reduction, and the stakes winner Afternoon Tango was the top seller from that group at $100,000

Equine Sales Co. reported 135 yearlings sold for $1,475,400 on Wednesday, for an average of $10,929. The seven horses of racing age that sold brought a collective $307,000, for an average of $43,857. The total gross for the sale was $1,782,400 – an auction record for the sales company – while the combined average for the yearling and horses of racing age was $12,552.

The combined gross rose 4 percent compared with the 2013 sale total, while the average declined 3 percent. Last year, the Equine Sales Co. select yearling sale that also featured some horses of racing age grossed $1,714,300, for a combined average of $12,987.

“We catalogued nearly 60 more yearlings to this sale compared to last year, so it’s no surprise that the average dropped a bit,” said Foster Bridewell, sales director for Equine Sales Co. “But we couldn’t be more pleased to record total sales of nearly $1.8 million. The Coteau Grove Farms supplement attracted some serious bidding, and we had 24 yearlings sell for $20,000 or more, so there was plenty of strength there, too.”

The sales-topping yearling is out of the unraced Forest Wildcat mare Art of Illusion, making her a half-sister to My Spanx, a multiple stakes winner of $134,930. The filly is from the female family of I Ain’t Bluffing, a multiple Grade 1 winner of $582,069. Laroux Stables bought the Drosselmeyer filly from the consignment of her breeder, 4M Ranch.

Afternoon Tango was purchased by Big Aut Farms. Her stablemate, Union Builder, was a $90,000 purchase at the auction, by George Kerr. Union Builder is entered in the colts and geldings division of the $100,000 Louisiana Stallion Stakes at Louisiana Downs on Saturday. Both of the Coteau Grove horses were consigned by Select Sales, agent.

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