Harness: Lexington Selected Yearling Sale begins, Walner filly out of Mission Brief leads session

First-crop sire Walner got an immediate feather in his cap during Monday night's opening session of the 2020 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale as his filly Kadena, the second foal out of world champion Mission Brief, topped the proceedings, going to Anders Ström's Courant Inc. for $725,000.

Selling as HIP 89, Kadena sold from the consignment of agent Hunterton Sales Agency and was purchased by Marcus Melander for Courant. Mission Brief's initial offering Adriondack (by Father Patrick) went for $400,000 last year at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale and has one win from four starts in 2020, that coming in a division of the Kentucky Commonwealth Series at The Red Mile.

"Sabine Kagebrant, who is running the Courant Group told me, based on the model we use and the data points she got from Marcus Melander, (Kadena) scores equally or better than Greenshoe, Gimpanzee, and Green Manalishi," said Ström. "Normal bid would be to go to $500,000, which was Marcus's instruction - in the spur of the moment he knew we wanted the horse, so he bid up. Marcus knows Courant well."

Melander added that Kadena was at the top of the board for them and was very pleased to have been able to get her.

"She has a great conformation. She looks great and stands good," he said. "Her pedigree is outstanding. We really liked her from the beginning. She was our number one. He's (Ström) thinking about the future and is probably already thinking about breeding her to Greenshoe, so I just have to do good work with her in between.

"(The price was) maybe a little higher than we thought. We knew for sure she would be expensive. The yearling from her went for $400,000 last year, and she was a nice filly, but this one in my opinion looks a bit better. We thought she would be one of the higher priced yearlings."

Checking in behind Kadena at $600,000 was HIP 64 Bonanza, a Muscle Hill colt sold by Kentuckiana Farms as agent. Bonanza, who was purchased by agent Nancy Takter, is out of Designed To Be, making him a half-brother to Greenshoe and to last year's $1.1 million yearling in Lexington, Maverick. Takter remarked that Bonanza was one she had her eyes set on all along.

"Obviously look at Greenshoe, and Al Libfeld and Marvin Katz breed and raise great horses, and just look at Kentuckiana Farms and Walco Farms. It's like a home run working with them," she stated. "And then there's Maverick. He trained down great, and Tony (Alagna) and everyone just love him. He probably got sick, and it could have slowed him down a little bit, but I'm sure Tony will figure it out. He'll show he's everything everyone also thought he was."

HIP 62 Monkey Queen, a daughter of Chapter Seven, sold to Lindy Farms and M&M Racing to grab the third spot on the list during Monday night. Monkey Queen, offered by agent Concord Stud Farm, is out of the Muscle Massive mare Steamy Windows, making her a full sister to two-time Breeders Crown champion Gimpanzee and to New York Sire Stakes and Kentuckiana Stallion Management champion Iteration.

"We've been in the business a long time, and those are the types of fillies that keep you in the business," said Frank Antonacci Jr. from Lindy Farms. "You have to buy top-pedigree fillies. You like having sisters to stallions or potential stallions, and that's what you have here with Gimpanzee. At the end of the day, we are trying to breed potential stallions, and hopefully this is a foundation mare to do that. We don't have that pedigree in our broodmare band. Once you get over $200,000 or $300,000, it's anybody's guess as to price. We were happy with where we bought her at.

"She's athletic. She's big but looks like she'll develop even more. She's refined but has the substance to be a top horse."

Andy and Julie Miller won the recent Mohawk Million with Venerate and were very active during the night, purchasing HIP 37 Knights Guard and HIP 40 Trunk Bay, both Muscle Hill colts from the consignment of agent Kentuckiana Farms, for $400,000 each. Knights Guard, out of Stubborn Belle, is a full brother to the stakes-winning filly Ms Savannah Belle, and Trunk Bay is the first foal out of Sunshine Delight, a stakes winning mare who earned $354,847 in her time on the racetrack.

"Right when I got the catalog, these horses jumped off the page at me because of how much I liked their pedigrees," said Julie Miller. "Then when we went to Kentuckiana, they just both stood out. I'm just fortunate it worked out in my favor, and I'm bringing them home.

"God bless, something like this could happen for someone like me. I'm very lucky."

Melander also went home with HIP 76 No Ball Games, a Muscle Hill colt from the Concord Stud Farm consignment, for $340,000. No Ball Games, who is out of Amour Heiress, is a full brother to stakes winner King Alphonso.

"He's a really nice colt. It will be for a group of owners, but I'm not sure yet which ones," said Melander.

Muscle Hill led the way again on the list of sires that had multiple sellers, with his 25 babies bringing an average of $192,400. Walner had a great night, with an average of $155,294 for 17 yearlings, and right behind him was pacing stallion American Ideal at $133,750 for four horses. Captaintreacherous, who had the night's highest-priced pacer (HIP 124 Lightnier, $375,000) had an average of $126,667, and first-crop sire Huntsville was fifth at $125,000.

Kentuckiana Farms ($217,917) led the average list for consignors, followed by Northwood Bloodstock Agency, Inc. ($195,000), Concord Stud Farm ($175,222), Hunterton Sales Agency, Inc. ($163,278), and Preferred Equine, Inc. ($131,000).

Tonight's gross was $15,237,000 for 118 yearlings sold, good for an average of $129,127. While down from last year's records of $18,206,000 total and $154,288 average, both numbers are up from 2018 ($12,900,000 / $126,471).

"Prices were still high. There were fewer people than normal, but otherwise it seemed about the same," said Melander about the night's action.

Julie Miller agreed with his assessment, saying, "I think the top horses went for the prices they would have always brought (even during COVID-19). I'd like to see the numbers, and we'll know more tomorrow, but when we saw these horses, and I approached my ownership and partnership groups they were all for it.

"I think it was a really good night for buyers and sellers. Fortunately, things have started to straighten out. New Jersey received their appropriation, New York is back up and running, and Pennsylvania is strong. The Ontario program is phenomenal. So, we can buy horses because they have places to go."

Sale co-manager Randy Manges was also quite pleased with how the sale started off and noted that there was a good amount of interest in the online bidding option that is being offered.

"I thought it was a very good sale overall, and it should set the tone for the rest of the week," Manges remarked. "Everyone that brought horses to sell here were pleased and so were the buyers.

"Although a lot of the people that were not normally here, which certainly can be understood, there was a good crowd, and we had a lot of bidding online. We did not sell many horses online, but there were a lot of bids. We should have the numbers for that tomorrow, and I look forward to seeing them."

Attention now shifts to Tuesday night's session that will see HIPs 135-316 offered starting at 7 p.m. Prior to that, beginning at 6:45, is a charity auction to benefit the Standardbred Transition Alliance and the Breeders Crown Charity Challenge. That event includes bidding on an Ernst Benz watch and breedings to several top stallions.

--quotes courtesy of Derick Giwner and Kimberly French--