Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale ends with rise in average, drop in gross

The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale closed the breeding stock sale season with a drop in gross but improved average and median figures compared to last year's renewal.

The two-day sale in Lexington, Ky., marking the final major-market mixed auction before Northern Hemisphere breeding sheds open for business, finished with 327 horses sold for total gross receipts of $9,659,400. The gross represented a 7 percent decline from the 364 horses sold for $10,436,800 in two sessions last year.

The cumulative average price was $29,539, finishing 3 percent up from the $28,673 in 2018. The median rose 43 percent, to $15,000 from $10,500. The cumulative buyback rate finished at 20 percent, an improvement in a selective market compared to 23 percent last year.

"It was a competitive marketplace from start to finish," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said. "The first horse in the ring yesterday sold very well, and the last horse in the ring today sold very well."

Led by Grade 2 winner Cheekaboo, who sold for $300,000 to Japanese interests during Monday's opening session, a total of six horses fetched $200,000 or more, compared to the eight to meet that price point during the 2018 auction. There was diversity at the top of the buying bench, as those six horses sold to six different homes.

"There was a great range of buyers," Browning said. "There was no 'market-maker.' ... It does show you some strength and spread and the broadening of the market."

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Cheekaboo sold to K R Japan as a broodmare prospect. Small Batch Sales consigned the mare as agent for her owners, Ciaglia Racing, Burns Racing, and Sharon Alesio.

"Super excited for the owners," Fletcher Mauk of Small Batch Sales said. "They did a great job exercising patience with this filly, and they've been rewarded for it, as well as during her racing career, too.

"[The price was] what you would expect from a Grade 2 winner in the last sale of the year before the breeding season opens. Most of the large farms were in on her. They respect the race record."

Cheekaboo, who was trained by Peter Eurton, earned her biggest victory in the Grade 2 Honeymoon Stakes in June 2016 at Santa Anita, edging Be Mine by a head for a $49.60 upset. Cheekaboo also won the 2016 Campanile Stakes, finished second in the 2016 Sandy Blue Handicap, and finished third in the 2016 California Cup Oaks, 2016 Melair Stakes, 2018 Fran's Valentine Stakes, and 2018 Solana Beach Stakes.

Cheekaboo, a California-bred by her state's late leading sire Unusual Heat, is from the extended family of Grade 1 winners Bit of Whimsy, Miss Josh, and Royal Mountain Inn, as well as Currency, a Group 1 winner in Singapore.

"I think, for the sire, she was a bit of an anomaly, because she's a bigger-bodied horse than what most people expect from an Unusual Heat," Mauk said. "That long shoulder, high withers, beautiful hip."

While Cheekaboo headlined an opening session that posted double-digit gains in gross, average, and median, Tuesday's closing session was quieter compared to the 2018 finale. Multiple stakes-placed La Manta Gris sold for $285,000 as the final horse of the sale to lead the 181 horses who sold on the second day. The session grossed $4,982,200, a dip of 21 percent from the 183 sold for $6,302,600 in the comparable 2018 session. The average price was $27,526, dropping 20 percent from the $34,440 last year, while the median remained even at $13,000.

David Ingordo, bloodstock agent for Lane's End, signed the ticket as Jacques Sparrow Bloodstock on La Manta Gris, essentially buying out one client for another. Ingordo had scouted out the daughter of Lemon Drop Kid on behalf of client Rocco Baldelli, purchasing her for $130,000 out of the 2016 OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training. Baldelli elected to sell the mare, and she was offered as a racing or broodmare prospect at Fasig-Tipton via the Lane's End consignment, as agent. Ingordo said that plans for the mare's first mating have yet to be finalized, but she could be bred to the farm's standout sire Quality Road or his recently retired son City of Light.

"I thought she was gonna be a nice addition to our broodmare band at the farm," Ingordo said. "I bought her off of Barry Eisaman as a 2-year-old. She had one of those little, tiny vet issues as a 2-year-old that everybody talks about, scared a lot of people, but it didn't scare us. Rusty Arnold did a great job with her, and her pedigree speaks for itself. It's a rare pedigree."

La Manta Gris last started on Jan. 26, when she finished 11th in the Grade 3 La Prevoyante Stakes on yielding turf at Gulfstream. Earlier in her career, she finished third in the 2017 Dueling Grounds Oaks at Kentucky Downs, a race won by Kentucky Oaks runner-up and eventual Grade 1 winner Daddys Lil Darling. La Manta Gris went on to finish third in the Keertana Stakes last May at Churchill Downs.

La Manta Gris is one of three winners from as many starters out of the winning Lasting Approval mare Quiero Ganar, a full sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Honey Ryder. Quiero Ganar is also a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Cuando Puede, stakes winner Cuando, and Grade 3-placed Cuanto Es. Cuando Puede is the dam of Grade 3 winner Hit It Rich and stakes winner Spanish Mission, while Cuando is the dam of Grade 2 winner Dominus. It is the extended family of Kentucky Oaks winner Sun and Snow.

The Fasig-Tipton February sale's top yearling was a filly by leading juvenile sire Into Mischief, purchased for $200,000 on Monday by Irish Meadow Stable from the consignment of Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services, as agent.

"She's a big, strong filly," Ron Blake of Blake-Albina said. "She has a beautiful walk. We were really thrilled with her as she grew and developed. We think a lot of her. I think anybody that has her would be proud to have her."

The filly is out of the winning Mizzen Mast mare Kashami, a full sister to stakes-placed Francisca. Their dam, Grade 3-placed De Aar, also produced multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Willcox Inn. Grade 1 winners Cetewayo and Dynaforce appear on the catalog page.