Fasig-Tipton Kentucky: $500,000 Bernardini, Into Mischief colts top Day 2

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Steady trade continued as a $500,000 Bernardini colt and a $500,000 Into Mischief colt led the second session of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale Tuesday.

Fasig-Tipton reported 260 yearlings sold Tuesday, in the second of four sessions at this sale at its Newtown Paddocks headquarters in Lexington, for gross receipts of $12,856,500. In last year's second of four sessions, 265 yearlings brought $15,752,400.

The session's average price was $49,448, a drop of 17 percent compared to $59,443 in last year's corresponding second session. The median was unchanged, at $25,000. The buyback rate was 24 percent, compared to 18 percent.

"Another solid session today," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. "We saw the continuation of the same trends we've seen throughout the yearling sales season."

Session-to-session comparisons for this sale, which wraps up the North American yearling sale season, will be less meaningful than the final figures at the end of the sale. Although this is a large sale, with 1,605 yearlings cataloged – second only to the Keeneland September auction in terms of size – this event is an open sale and is not divided into books or sessions based on the perceived quality of the horses. Yearlings are instead slotted alphabetically based on their dam's name. Because of that, horses targeted by different segments of the marketplace could come in any session, thus affecting that day's comparable figures.

Striking first as a high-ticket horse during the Tuesday session, the Bernardini colt was purchased by agent Jesse Longoria, on behalf of Zane Kiehne and Grier Brunson. It is their first Thoroughbred purchase. His price matched the $500,000 Justify colt who led Monday's session as the top price of this sale overall thus far, with that colt also going to a relatively new buyer – John Stewart, who made his first yearling purchases in 2022.

This co-session-topper, a March foal, is from the final crop of champion and prominent sire Bernardini. He was consigned by Scott Mallory, as agent for Determined Stud.

The colt is the second foal out of the stakes-placed Medaglia d'Oro mare Knarsdale, a half-sister to stakes-placed American Lincoln. Graded stakes winners American Sailor, Chilito, Cosmic Tiger, Passion for Action, and Payton d'Oro appear on the catalog page.

Late in the session, the colt by four-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief matched the $500,000 high-water mark when sold to a familiar partnership – SF Bloodstock, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stables, with Donato Lanni acting as agent. The colt was consigned by Taylor Made Sales, as agent.

The colt, an April foal, is out of the Grade 2-placed Tiznow mare Live for Now, who has one winner from three starters. Live for Now is a half-sister to Horse of the Year Point Given, as well as to stakes-placed Deher's Turn and Point Gained. Multiple graded stakes winner Street Story also appears under the second dam.

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