Fasig-Tipton Kentucky: Smart Strike filly sells for $800,000

The early offerings in the final session of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale produced a new sale-topper when a Smart Strike filly went to Borges Torrealba Holdings for $800,000, the second-highest price paid for a yearling at the October sale through 1980.

The dark bay or brown filly, who bloodstock agent Doug Cauthen signed for, is out of Grade 1-placed stakes winner Handpainted, whose three winners from as many foals to race include Grade 3-placed stakes winner Patena and stakes-placed winner Oil Painting. The yearling’s sale price easily made her the most expensive foal sold at public auction out of Handpainted.

“She’s a very elegant filly,” said John G. Sikura of co-breeder and consignor Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm. “She was an end-of-May foal. She was nominated and accepted to Book 1 of the [Keeneland] September sale, but she needed more time. She got to the grounds and just really thrived. Her quality and class projected and I thought that was seen by people.”

The filly is a third-generation product of the Hill ‘n’ Dale breeding program, co-bred in Kentucky by N.E.T.P., and she was consigned by Hill ‘n’ Dale Sales Agency, as agent.

She is from the family of Canadian Horse of the Year With Approval, Belmont Stakes winner Touch Gold, Canadian champion Serenading, Grade 1 winner Brilliant Speed, and Japanese Group 3 winner Touch Me Not.

“It’s fantastic,” Sikura said. “One of the things as a breeder you look forward to accomplishing is producing branches of pedigrees specific to your farm, and you’re identified with the successes of those pedigrees. Hopefully we’re on our way to doing that with a few pedigrees, including this one.”

The filly ranks second by price at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale since 1980, behind Pure Charm, a Storm Cat filly purchased by Robert and Beverly Lewis for $925,000 in 1999.

The filly surpassed Saint Ballado colt Big Unit, who sold to agent Buzz Chace at the 2000 October sale for $750,000, for the second-highest price. It was the highest price reported at the sale since 2005, when a Distorted Humor colt eventually named Happy Humor went to Stonestreet Stables for $600,000.

The Torrealba family owns Stud TNT in Brazil and recently made a major investment in Three Chimneys Farm to advance its U.S. operations. In January, Borges Torrealba Holdings purchased the Lexington, Ky., farm of Padua Stables’ Satish Sanan, which was managed by Three Chimneys, for a reported $8.8 million.