LEXINGTON, Ky. – Eclipse Award champions Nest and Goodnight Olive are both slated to return to the races in 2024 after they shared the sale-topping $6 million hammer fall at the star-studded Fasig-Tipton November sale on Tuesday night, with the auction posting double-digit gains in its average and median figures. Fasig-Tipton reported 154 horses sold for gross receipts of $101,281,000 at its Newtown paddocks headquarters in Lexington. At last year’s sale, 171 horses totaled $101,289,000 in receipts. This marks the third year in a row the sale has topped $100 million in gross sales, a milestone achieved in 2021. Last year, Fasig-Tipton’s November sale, dubbed the “Night of the Stars,” was topped by the $7 million sale of champion Gamine. While Tuesday’s sale did not top that high-water mark, it, crucially, spread the wealth. A total of 16 fillies and mares sold for $2 million or more, compared to a group of 10 to reach that mark last year. With that, the average price finished at $657,669, rising 10 percent from $595,818 in 2022. The median jumped 18 percent, to $295,000 from $250,000. The buyback rate also was improved, at 25 percent compared to 30 percent. “Just another remarkable evening of horse sales,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. “I’m kind of blown away that we grossed over $100 million. It’s a testament to people bringing us, and trusting us, with the absolutely best product, and the people on our team recruiting the absolutely best product.” The marketplaces for younger horses develop trends that carry from sale to sale throughout the season, or even from year to year, more subject to external factors such as the purse structures for those racing prospects and the world's economy. In contrast, the marketplace at individual mixed sales can shift capriciously, even at the more insulated upper end, based on the accomplishments of the individual horses cataloged. Because of that, the recruitment of top horses is a crucial factor in a sale’s success. Browning noted that the building of a catalog such as Tuesday’s, which featured three Eclipse Award champions and two Sovereign Award champions, among other Grade/Group 1 winners or producers, can be a multi-year process as it requires building strong relationships with owners and consignors.   “I think we’ve clearly established a lot of really wonderful relationships, and the trust and confidence in the marketplace,” Browning said. “It’s remarkable what happens when you get entrusted with fillies like Goodnight Olive and fillies like Nest … I could go on and on, because there’s a whole lot of ones who sold remarkable well. It all comes down at the end of the day to, every sale’s pretty simple – it’s about the horse. We had a wonderful collection of horses on the sales grounds.” Among those horses was 2022 Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old filly Nest, with Mike Repole going to $6 million to buy out racing partners Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House. Sending a horse through the public auction ring is a common practice in partnership dissolutions – especially with racing fillies and mares where not all the partners may be involved in breeding – in order to establish a fair market value. Nest, who was consigned by Highgate Sales, as agent, was designated as a racing or broodmare prospect, and Repole said his goal is to send the Curlin filly back to trainer Todd Pletcher for a 5-year-old campaign in 2024. If the filly should be unable to return to training, Repole does have interests in several stallions, including classic sire Uncle Mo. “But I really think that the objective and the goal would be to bring her back,” Repole said. “I think she has unfinished business.” To date, Nest has won 8 of 14 starts for earnings of more than $2.1 million. A graded stakes winner in each of her three seasons of racing, she won the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes, Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, Grade 1 Alabama Stakes, and Grade 2 Beldame Stakes in her championship campaign, along with finishing second in both the Belmont Stakes and Kentucky Oaks. Nest won once from three starts this year in a campaign that was abbreviated after a fever delayed her season debut. "I think if we get off to a better start and space her properly this year, I think she's good for” a good campaign, Repole said. A racing-partnership dissolution also was the reason Goodnight Olive went through the ring, a few days after winning her second edition of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint to likely lock up another divisional Eclipse. The mare was consigned as a racing or broodmare prospect by Elite Sales, as agent for the racing-focused group of First Row Partners and Team Hanley. John Stewart, a major new player on the auction scene, made his biggest splash yet with the purchase of Goodnight Olive, leading seven purchases for a total of $13,350,000 on Tuesday night at Fasig-Tipton. Stewart, who made his first Thoroughbred purchases in 2022, was among the Keeneland September yearling sale's leading buyers by gross this fall. He is focused on setting up his breed-to-race program, as he is under contract to buy a former Shadwell Farm property in Midway, Ky. But before joining his bourgeoning broodmare band there, Goodnight Olive will return to trainer Chad Brown for one more campaign, Stewart said. "We bought a lot of yearlings, and so we wanted some horses that have potential to run – she fits the bill of that," Stewart said. "I think we could have a lot of fun with her this year . . . and hopefully have her defend her title at the Breeders' Cup. I think there's an opportunity for her to run at Del Mar and do that. Really excited about it." Goodnight Olive, a 5-year-old daughter of Ghostzapper, has won 9 of 12 starts to date, earning more than $2.1 million. In addition to the 2022 Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeenland, and last Saturday's renewal at Santa Anita, she won the Grade 1 Ballerina last year and the Grade 1 Madison this year. The five top horses, all fillies and mares who were active on the track in 2023, were purchased by five different buyers. Behind Nest and Goodnight Olive, French Group 1 winner Sauterne fetched the third-highest price, as Japan's Grand Stud, working with Emmanuel de Seroux of Narvick International, went to $4.2 million. The Kingman filly, who placed in three additional Group 1 races, is a half-sister to Eclipse Award champion and French Group 1 winner Stacelita, who has gone on to produce Japanese champion Soul Stirring. Sauterne will likely be bred to a Kentucky stallion before shipping to her home in Japan next year, de Seroux said. Godolphin made an addition to its U.S. broodmare band with the $4 million purchase of Grade 1 winner Faiza. Rounding out the top five prices, Grade 1 winner Search Results is headed to Northern Farm in Japan after Katsumi Yoshida purchased the mare for $3.6 million. Japanese interests were strong in the marketplace, despite a poor exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar. Yoshida made three other purchases at the sale, including 2022 Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old filly Wonder Wheel for $3.2 million. Alongside Northern Farm and Grand Stud, Shadai Farm and K I Farm also made seven-figure purchases. “There was great international participation tonight,” Browning said. “It probably wasn’t as reflected on the sheets because of the number of people who got outbid constantly, but great, competitive bidding.” While the racing fillies and broodmares were the star attractions of the evening, Fasig-Tipton did catalog weanlings before this highly selective marketplace, with youngsters chosen for the elite catalog possessing strong pedigrees and/or stellar conformation, even at this early stage. A total of 73 weanlings sold Tuesday night, contributing $13,126,000 to the gross sales. That made the average price for a weanling $179,808, from what Browning said was a reduction of the number of young horses in the catalog. "We thought we had strength in our weanling group this year," he said. The top-priced weanlings were a Munnings filly, a Maxfield colt, and an Into Mischief colt, each sold for $500,000. The Munnings filly was purchased in the early hours of the sale by Shadwell Racing, from the consignment of St George Sales, as agent. This Ontario-bred filly is the first foal out of Grade 3 winner Summer in Saratoga. That Hard Spun mare is, in turn, out of Grade 1 winner Love Theway Youare. Later in the evening, a colt from the first crop of Maxfield matched the price when sold to Enfuego Stables, from the consignment of Taylor Made Sales, as agent. The colt is out of the unraced Ghostzapper mare Belle's Finale, making him a half-brother to Up to the Mark, who swept a trio of Grade 1s in the Old Forester Turf Classic, Manhattan, and Coolmore Turf Mile, and finished second in last Saturday's Breeders' Cup Turf. Finally, from the supplemental catalog late in the night, a colt by four-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief also matched the top price for his class when purchased by Margaret Duprey, also from the Taylor Made consignment. The colt, one of just two weanlings in the sale by his sire, is out of the stakes-placed Victory Gallop mare Day of Victory. She is the dam of Grade 1 winner Finley'sluckycharm, and Grade 1 winner Pure Clan also appears on the catalog page. Last year's weanling market at Fasig-Tipton November was led by a $1.35 million Uncle Mo filly, who was among six youngsters sold for $500,000 or more. For hip-by-hip results from Tuesday's sale, click here. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.