Armitage Farm, a newcomer to the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale, served notice that they may be a force in the breeding and selling market when their HIP 182 Jimdougie Armitage fetched $750,000 to lead Tuesday's session. That put Jimdougie Armitage fourth overall on the board and made him the highest-priced colt. A Captain Corey colt, Jimdougie Armitage is the first foal out of Quick Bet, a full sister to Winner's Bet (1:49 3/5, $1,364,508). He was purchased by agent Ake Svanstedt. "He's a good-looking horse and the family is good also," said Svanstedt, who purchased the horse for three of Captain Corey's owners, plus one new owner, all from Sweden. "Conformation was good. He's a big horse, but Captain Corey was a big horse also. They really wanted to have him." Based in Midway, Kentucky, Armitage Farm is owned by Dr. Rita Armitage and Jim McLane. They've had success on the racetrack as owners with fillies such as R Melina and R Dutchess recently, and today represented the breeding operation's high-water mark thus far. "This is our first consignment. These are out of mares that we bought two years ago," noted Armitage Farm's general manager Dale Holly. "We got quite fortunate that there were some nice mares available publicly that we were able to get. We got a few privately as well. We're in the early stages of building our broodmare band and getting the farm started. "The price was a surprise, but we knew he was a good horse. He's a big, strong, correct horse that everyone likes. We had a lot of vet work on him, but $750,000 is completely a surprise to us. We're lucky that we had two or three people that were on him. It is satisfying to have a big horse like that, of course," he said. "At the end of the day, you're always going to have some surprises and some disappointments, and you hope that it all kind of averages out at the conclusion of the sale. We're very happy to have such a good horse." ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Holly is hopeful that the sale of Jimdougie Armitage leads to the farm's reputation only going up, and that they can draw more attention from the harness racing industry as they continue to bring yearlings to sales. "Any disappointments, the sting is kind of softened a little bit with that horse. We're very excited about getting our first consignment over and we're really happy with the way that we've been received by people in this industry," he stated. "It takes a while to get your name and people being comfortable with you that you can raise good horses. We have yet to prove that, but I hope that in the years to come that we prove that we can raise good horses and people can feel confident buying from us." Another trotting colt in HIP 184 Kountry Win was the second-highest seller on Tuesday, going to Brad Grant for $425,000. Kountry Win is the second foal out of the Credit Winner mare Winndevie ($787,646, 1:53) and a half-brother to Winnpanzee ($196,676, 1:52). He was bred and consigned by Ola Yoder's Kountry Lane Standardbreds. "He is Ontario (eligible), which I want to get more and more into. I'm a big fan of King Of The North. This colt, to me, showed me everything you want in a trotter," Grant remarked. "I think I was at my limit there. Did we overpay? Maybe, but at the same, he's one I really loved. I've had people ask about him. I might keep for myself. I just haven't decided yet. Since late July, Grant has been a part-owner of Winnpanzee, who won a leg of the Kentucky Commonwealth Series and two prelims in the Kentucky Championship Series. "Since we got her, she's just been outstanding, and, of course, that piqued my interest that much more," he added. Ron Burke trains Winnpanzee and will also handle Kountry Win. In total, seven yearlings - six trotters and one pacer - brought $250,000 or more on Tuesday. As was the case yesterday, today's Lexington Selected Yearling Sale session was down year-over-year in both average ($86,333 this year versus $97,678 last year) and gross ($19,166,000 for 222 horses sold today versus $22,173,000 for 227 yearlings sold in 2024). While noting that some evaluations will have to be made, co-sales manager David Reid remained upbeat about how things have gone thus far. "Here again, I thought the market was pretty strong there today. We had a good run in the afternoon, but there are definitely some soft spots. I'll go through the makeup and see what the components were to that," he said. "If the numbers prove to be that we're down eight, ten percent or something like over that over last year, I'm still happy. "You can't go up every year. They have to level out to a degree. To me it's a healthy marketplace, we've had a good flow and good rhythm. The market tells you what they're worth, and it doesn't matter what the statistics show. Overall I'm happy enough with the sale." Three days remain in the 2025 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale. Wednesday's action will begin at 1 p.m. and see HIPs 363 through 597 available for purchase. --quotes by Derick Giwner--