Harness: Deja vu during Wednesday's session at Lexington Selected Yearling Sale

Wednesday's second session of the 2021 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale ended up looking a lot like the first night, as Walner had the top two spots on the list with trotting fillies, and Nancy Takter bought the highest-priced horse.

The big ticket was HIP 268 Wall To Wall, who sold for $525,000. A Walner filly consigned by Preferred Equine, Inc. as agent and raised at Lindy Farms, she is the third foal out of the Italian stakes-winning Love You mare Pearl Axe It (1:56 2/5, $229,231).

"Marvin Katz, Brixton Medical, and Bud Hatfield are going to buy her. Obviously she's a very well put together Walner filly. She's got an interesting pedigree. She's got some European pedigree in her and she's a nice individual. We'll go from there," remarked Takter. "When you buy a horse, being well put together is actually eliminating some risk, but the Walners are fast. I think he's proven that this year as a stud. This filly, she was another dual-eligible one, and I think that's going to be a big thing going forward for people.

"I never like to go over half-a-million, but that's what you've got to pay."

Checking in behind Wall To Wall at $510,000 was HIP 264 Singeth With Joy. A Walner filly consigned and raised by Hunterton Sales Agency and purchased by Ken Jacobs, she's the second foal out of the Muscle Hill mare Lonely Lady, a full sister to Bar Hopping.

"She was my number two horse. If I want them, I'm going to get them. She's a Walner, she's a nice, put together filly, and I just love them," said Jacobs, who added that Chris Ryder will train the filly. "I think I have the best colt (HIP 54 Earthquake Bi) and now I think I have the best filly, and they're both Walners."

Walner also was responsible for the #3 horse on the list, HIP 170 Double Dippin. Purchased by agent Lucas Wallin and consigned by Cameo Hills Farm, this colt is out of the Credit Winner mare Borrow And Spend ($159,370), a full sister to $1.1 million earner Dejarmbro.

"I liked the page first of all, and then I liked the video. He's a very, very nice individual. I've been to Cameo Hills a couple of times. We scoped him and x-rayed him, so we knew everything was okay," stated Wallin. "Maybe he went for a little too much, but it looks like the ones you really like, you have to overpay a little bit. I talked to a lot of guys before, so we haven't really decided on a percentage and everything yet, but it's going to work out.

"It's getting tougher and tougher. It's very tough to find the stars if you buy the $25,000 or $30,000 horses. If you want to race on the Grand Circuit, that happens, but it makes it a lot tougher. It's a good feeling to get a chance to buy a colt like that, for sure."

Three by Captaintreacherous followed the Walner brigade, with HIP 151 Shining Rocks going to Dana Parham for $270,000, HIP 342 Captain Picasso to Diamond Creek Farm for $260,000 and HIP 258 Cabot Beach to agent Tony Alagna for $250,000. Shining Rocks, a filly consigned by Anvil And Lace Farm, is a half-sister to Peaky Sneaky (1:48, $699,407), Captain Picasso, a colt consigned by Brittany Farms, is a half-brother to the likes of Heart Of Mine (1:53 2/5, $346,761), and Cabot Beach, another Brittany Farms offering, is a brother to Pebble Beach (1:48 4/5, $237,300).

"Naturally he's a Captain. Pebble Beach has done so much and he's by a son of Somebeachsomewhere [Downbytheseaside], and our horse [Captaintreacherous] is a son of Somebeachsomewhere. There's a lot of correlation," said Alagna. "It's not an overly big family, so being medium-sized is good for us. He was a real athlete out in the field. We've got a partnership put together already, so it'll be a lot of similar guys that have owned horses."

Alagna also noted that it's been a pretty standard sale for him and his owners so far, keeping with tradition.

"Brad Grant was here to support Stay Hungry because that's what we always try to do, support any stallions we have when their offspring go to the sales," stated Alagna. "Brad came to town just to support his horse, and we're happy he's here.

"[Our numbers] are about par with what we usually are. I think we've bought maybe 22 at this sale so far. You take Maverick out of the equation a couple years ago and I think we're on par with what we normally spend. Maybe a little bit higher on the pacing fillies than we normally are, but the Captain fillies have shown they're a premium, so you've got to dig deep if you want one."

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The session kept up the record pace that started on Tuesday night as the average was $84,164 and the gross was $17,927,000 for 213 horses sold. For comparison's sake, in the 2019 sale, which is the standard up to this point, night two had an average of $75,103 and a total of $13,068,000 for 174 yearlings sold. The average also topped 2018's $83,748 (163 yearlings went through the ring that night).

Thursday's action at Fasig-Tipton gets underway at 3 p.m. and HIPs 351-579 will be offered.

--quotes by Derick Giwner--