Flying Zee Stable dispersal boosts Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale

Phase II of the late Carl Lizza’s Flying Zee Stable dispersal pumped up sales figures Monday at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic’s December mixed sale, leading to gains across the board.

The one-day auction in Timonium, Md., sold 260 horses for $3,739,350, almost four times more than last year’s $968,100 total for 158 horses. The majority of income was due to the sale of 96 Flying Zee horses who grossed $2,315,350, averaged $24,118, and had a median price of $15,000.

The sale’s average and median more than doubled. Average rose from $6,127 last year to $14,382, and median soared from $2,000 in 2010 to $5,200 this year. Buybacks were 23 percent, down markedly from 43 percent last season.

The Flying Zee dispersal, handled by consignor Hidden Brook, produced the sale-topper when Grade 3 winner and stakes-producer Salty Romance brought $260,000 from buyer Blue Devil Racing. The 10-year-old Salt Lake mare already is the dam of stake-placed Luxury Appeal, by Johannesburg, and she was offered in foal to Lemon Drop Kid’s son Cosmonaut. Cosmonaut’s first weanlings are on the ground this year, and this auction sold five for an $11,020 average and $11,000 median.

Salty Romance was one of two horses to bring more than $200,000. The other, also from the Flying Zee dispersal, was a weanling Hard Spun colt that sold to Dundrum Farm for $205,000. The May 6 foal is out of the unraced Unbridled’s Song mare The Real Melody. The dam is a half-sister to the dam of Grade 1 winner Carson Hollow and to the second dam of champion She Be Wild.