Harness: Beautiful Sin soars to top of Lexington Selected Yearling Sale

Late into the night in the second session of the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale, HIP 239 Beautiful Sin had the board popping when she fetched $480,000 from Lennart Agren's SRF Stable to top not only the second day but the sale overall.

Selling from the Northwood Bloodstock Agency Inc. consignment, Beautiful Sin is a Muscle Hill filly out of Sina (Cantab Hall, $144,994). Sina was stakes-placed at two and three and took her mark of 1:54 3/5 as a 4-year-old. This was her first foal.

“I thought that day two was better this year and she was really special. She was absolutely one of the two this day that I wanted,” said Agren, who admitted the price was higher than he expected.

She is expected to race in the U.S. but he has not picked a trainer yet for her.

“This is our first horse together, Monica and I. She is the brains of the operation,” said Paula Gural, who owned part of Beautiful Sin with Monica Bencal and Jeff Gural.

“Never in a million years did I expect that price. I was hoping for just over $100 (thousand), so this is tremendous,” added Bencal.

Prior to Beautiful Sin becoming the top seller, HIP 130 Spectrum had equaled Rifleman's $330,000 purchase price from Tuesday's opening night action. Spectrum, a colt by A Rocknroll Dance and the first foal out of Somwherovrarainbow (Somebeachsomewhere), a Dan Patch Award-winning millionaire and world champion, was purchased by Adam Bowden's Diamond Creek Racing.

Diamond Creek bred the filly with Ted Gewertz, and a decision was made to put him through the sale for partnership dissolution purposes.Derick GiwnerSpectrum in the sales ring

“We talked in March and decided the fairest thing was to put him through the ring, and that’s what we did,” said Bowden about dissolving Diamond Creek’s partnership with Gewertz through the sales ring. “We liked him from day one. If we had owned him 100% he wouldn’t have been here. It was the fairest thing to do to dissolve the partnership.

“When they choose the days we weren’t quite sure because A Rocknroll Dance was still in the infancy of his 2-year-old year. We always believed in him, but I wanted to make sure he stood out wherever he was because he was that type of horse. I also knew with all the first year stallions he could get overshadowed, so day two was the best option.”

Bowden also commented on the sale overall for Diamond Creek to this point, saying, “I’m thrilled with our consignment and even more so with the stallions we stand; from Father Patrick to Sweet Lou to A Rocknroll Dance. I’m proud. We invested a lot of money in these horses and so have the breeders that have supported all of the stallions, especially Sweet Lou, and they are getting rewarded for that tonight.”

There were five other yearlings to bring $200,000 or more on night two, including three more by Muscle Hill. They were HIP 221 Practical Cat, who fetched $230,000, HIP 103 Gerry, who was purchased for $225,000, and HIP 218 Muscle T, who was taken for $200,000. Jimmy Takter purchased Muscle T, and after shelling out $210,000 also went home with HIP 194 Im All Pink, an Explosive Matter filly who is a full sister to Pinkman. Also in the $200,000+ sellers club was HIP 180 Money Never Rests, a Somebeachsomewhere colt who brought $260,000 from Determination (Serge Godin).

In total Wednesday saw 158 yearlings sold for a sum of $12,146,000 and an average of $76,873. This average was up 8.4% from last year when 146 horses went through the ring for a total of $10,351,000 and an average of $70,897.

“It is pretty unusual,” said Sales Manager Randy Magnes on having a sale-topper on the second session. “We sold seven more $100,000 horses on the second night this year than last year and overall I think we have sold 20 more than last year.

“I think we still have a lot of depth in the sale. I think tomorrow is a good session."