Fasig-Tipton sale: Malibu Moon filly leads session in Maryland

Fasig-Tipton Midlantic’s May 2-year-old auction got off to a quick start Monday at the Timonium fairgrounds in Maryland, where horses with fast times at the under-tack preview brought some of the opening session’s highest prices.

Trainer Bob Baffert went to $390,000 for Hip No. 5, a Malibu Moon half-sister to champion turf horse Paradise Creek. The bay filly, currently named Eden’s Moon, was the highest-priced horse at 3:30 p.m. with the session still under way. Consigned by Bridlewood Farm, agent, she also is a half-sister to Grade 1 winners Forbidden Apple and Wild Event and to Paradise River, the dam of English champion David Junior.

A daughter of the Northfields mare North of Eden, the filly was one of four sale horses timed in 21.6 seconds for a quarter-mile work at the May 18 under-tack preview. That was the fastest time for the distance.

There were seven six-figure prices at that time. The highest-priced colts, and second most expensive juveniles overall, were a pair of $200,000 colts. Hip No. 25, a son of Any Given Saturday and Fabulous Finish, went to Stanley Hough, agent, and Hip No. 86, by Henny Hughes out of Hi Lili, sold to Joseph Bucci. Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree agency consigned the Any Given Saturday colt, who shared the bullet 21.6-second quarter-mile time with the session-leader at the auction’s preview. The Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds agency sold the Henny Hughes colt. He, too, was one of the under-tack show’s fastest workers with a one-furlong time of 10.2 seconds. That topped the May 18 under-tack preview and was second-fastest overall at the two-day show.

The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May juvenile auction was to continue through Tuesday, with the final session starting at 10 a.m. at the Timonium sale pavilion.