Fasig-Tipton Florida: Half brother to Bayern sells for $1.4 million

by Joe Nevills and Nicole Russo

A half-brother to Breeders' Cup Classic winner Bayern provided long-awaited fireworks at the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale of selected 2-year-olds in training Wednesday evening at Gulfstream Park, with M.V. Magnier of Coolmore Stud signing the ticket for $1.4 million.

The Scat Daddy colt was consigned by Crupi's New Castle Farm, as agent. The colt had worked a furlong in :10 1/5 seconds during Monday's under-tack preview at Gulfstream.

"He's a fantastic mover, and his brother's a very good horse," Magnier said of the purchase. "[Bayern's] a fantastic horse and his mother can obviously breed a good horse. Let's hope she does it again. If he's anything like [fellow son of Scat Daddy] No Nay Never, he'll be good. We'll bring him back to the farm for a couple weeks and decide [future plans] then. He's a very good mover with a lot of quality. He breezed very well. All the guys said he was a good breezer."

Out of the unraced Thunder Gulch mare Alittlebitearly, the colt is a half-brother to three winners, led by Bayern, who captured four graded stakes in 2014, topped by the Breeders' Cup Classic and Haskell Invitational. The colt's third dam is blue hen Courtly Dee, whose stakes winners include champion Althea. Grade 1 winner and prominent sire Arch also appears on the page, along with fellow Grade/Group 1 winners Acoma, Balletto, Ali Oop, Ketoh, Aldiza, and Azzaam.

The sale-topping purchase continued an active evening for the Coolmore team, which earlier purchased a $900,000 Tapit colt, and a $900,000 Bernardini colt in partnership with Stonestreet. Coolmore stands this colt's sire, Scat Daddy, at its Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky. It also stood pensioned broodmare sire Thunder Gulch.