Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale closes with gains across the board

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Auctions during this North American mixed sale season, which began in November, generally posted gains, as the Thoroughbred marketplace recovered from the economic restraint and uncertainty of the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale rode that momentum into this week and brought the curtain down strong as the final sale of this season. With international attention for broodmare prospects and a hot market for yearlings by promising young sires, the Fasig-Tipton sale finished with double-digit gains Wednesday evening.

Led by Grade 1-placed Brilliant Cut, who sold for $750,000 as a supplemental entry in the closing session, Fasig-Tipton reported 431 horses sold during the two-day auction for gross receipts of $17,245,500. Last year's two-day sale finished with 425 horses sold for $12,506,700.

The sale's cumulative average price was $40,103, rising 36 percent from $29,428 in 2021. The median figure spiked 60 percent, to $16,000 from $10,000. The buyback rate also improved, checking in at 11 percent compared to 19 percent.

"The fireworks are always going to take care of themselves," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said of the top prices. "The fireworks are great, but it's the trading of 90 percent of the horses that walk through here [that's promising]. The base and backbone of the industry is being able to support the men and women that are in the trenches."

Sale-topper Brilliant Cut was purchased by Katsumi Yoshida, who bid via the internet. The 4-year-old Speightstown filly was consigned as a racing or broodmare prospect by Highgate Sales, as agent, giving Jill Gordon and Jacob West's new venture a smashing success from its first consignment.

"We couldn't be more thankful to the owners that entrusted their horses to us," Gordon said. "You can only sell what people are willing to give you."

Excluding dispersals, Brilliant Cut is the second most expensive filly or mare sold at the Fasig-Tipton February auction, trailing only Better Begin, who sold in foal to Northern Dancer for $900,000 at this sale in 1984. A trio of mares have sold for more out of dispersals – which can supercharge a sale as outlying events – in the intervening years including Grade 1 winner Pool Land, in foal to Smart Strike, for $900,000 in 2013, Canadian champion Roxy Gap for $850,000 in 2013, and French champion Tropicaro, in foal to Kris, sold for $825,000 in 1984.

"February has clearly established itself as a meaningful sale on the calendar that people can and should point horses to in the future," Browning said. "The ones that brought horses that were really of some quality were richly rewarded over the last two days."

Brilliant Cut has won twice from 10 career starts – one of those being a maiden-claiming victory in November 2020, when she was picked up for $50,000 by trainer Doug O'Neill for ERJ Racing, Dave Kenney, and Bill Strauss; Boom Racing later joined the partners. Brilliant Cut bookended her 2021 campaign with strong performances, as she was third in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes in January and was second in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes in December in her most recent start.

"She's been a filly that was a really shrewd claim by some very smart connections," Gordon said. "She's just been, since the day they claimed her, the gift that keeps on giving. Every time she headed to the starting gate, she runs her race. She's a tryer."

Brilliant Cut is out of the unraced The Factor mare Polish a Diamond; both of her starters are winners, with Brilliant Cut joined by stakes winner Lemieux. Polish a Diamond is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Diamondrella, Grade 1-placed stakes winner Bonnie Blue Flag, and stakes winner Highest Honors. Diamondrella is the dam of Australian group stakes winner Spectroscope, who also is group stakes-placed in France; another half-sister to Polish a Diamond, the unraced Scarlet Slipper, is the dam of Grade 3 winner Nikkis Smartypants.

Meanwhile, Bonnie Blue Flag has continued to provide this catalog page with major updates, as she is the granddam of Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Life Is Good, who ran away from the field to win the Pegasus World Cup last month.

Japanese interests bidding via the internet also secured the second-highest price of the sale, $450,000 Bodhicitta, sold to K I Farm during the opening session. The 6-year-old, British-born daughter of Showcasing was offered as a racing or broodmare prospect by consignor St. George Sales, as agent.

Bodhicitta was second in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes in May 2020, then won the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap in her subsequent start. She went winless in eight starts following that effort, although she was third in both the Gamely and the Grade 2 John C. Mabee Stakes last year, and was second in the Grade 3 Robert J. Frankel Stakes on New Year's Day for former connections Calvin Nguyen and trainer Richard Baltas.

Bodhicitta, who is out of the winning Teofilo mare Solfilia, is from the extended family of a number of notable international runners, including European Horse of the Year Kingman, a four-time Group 1 winner. Other standouts in the family include Beat Hollow, a Group 1 winner in France and third-place finisher in the Epsom Derby before coming to the United States to score Grade 1 wins in the Arlington Million, Turf Classic, and Manhattan. Bodhicitta also is from the extended family of European champion sprinter and successful sire Oasis Dream, French Derby winner New Bay, Irish Oaks winner Wemyss Bight, French 1000 Guineas winner Zenda, and additional Group 1 winners Dariana, Hero's Honour, La Collina, and Reefscape.

Offspring of the white-hot young sires City of Light and Gun Runner fetched the top prices among the yearlings at this sale.

A colt by City of Light, purchased by Peter Pugh, agent for Cherry Knoll Farm, sold for $260,000 to lead the way in the category. This is the second crop for City of Light, whose first crop was in strong demand at last fall's yearling sales. Led by a $1.7 million colt who topped the Keeneland September yearling sale – a rarity for a first-crop sire – City of Light averaged $318,017 from 75 yearlings sold last year.

"Everyone believes in that horse," said Mark Taylor of consignor Taylor Made Sales. "I've never seen a horse so universally embraced. I've never heard anybody knock City of Light. And this was a really nice individual, I thought."

The New York-bred colt is out of the unraced Broken Vow mare Spoken Not Broken, whose first starter is stakes-placed Eloquent Speaker. Spoken Not Broken is a half-sister to Grade 3-placed stakes winner Bridgehampton, dam of stakes winner Amundson, and to stakes winner Stormy Novel.

This is the family of Grade 1 winner Behrens and graded stakes winners Called to Serve, Cowboy Cal, Hot Novel, Legislator, and Mississippi Delta.

A filly from the third crop of Horse of the Year and record-setting freshman sire Gun Runner sold for $225,000 to Stock Thoroughbreds also from the Taylor Made consignment. Joe Pickerell, who signed the ticket, said the Pennsylvania-bred filly is a pinhook prospect.

"We thought she was probably the best filly in the sale, for what we're looking for – she's the right kind," Pickerell said. "By the hottest sire in the world, the hottest young sire coming up. And the kind that look like her and move like her are hard to buy.

“We're not sure where [we'll re-sell her] yet, but we'll let her grow up and develop and make a plan for her."

The filly is the second foal out of the Discreetly Mine mare Sororitysweetheart, a full sister to Grade 3 winner Classy Class and Grade 2-placed Full House.

For hip-by-hip results, click here.