Harness: Record gross achieved on Tuesday at Lexington Selected Yearling Sale

An all-time mark for a single-session gross at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale was hit on Tuesday as 239 horses brought a total of $23,242,000, eclipsing last year's first session then-record sum of $23,067,000. The year-over-year average for the second session also soared from $90,013 in 2022 to $97,247 today (10/3), an increase of eight percent.

"I'm very happy. It was a long day, and the auctioneering staff did a hell of a job. They did keep a good pace. It was a little slow to start off, but after they got a couple hours into it, I thought it rolled along really well," said co-sales manager David Reid. "Obviously we've been talking about it, just the additions of the pacers and the depth of the catalog, between those two things, I would have to imagine that's what's going to contribute to the increase. It's a fairly significant increase in gross today."

As Reid mentioned, it was a lengthy session, clocking in at over seven hours. He went on to note that they do look at how the sessions are put together, but also pointed out that big prices did continue to come in right up until the close of the proceedings.

"As soon as you say that, then you end up selling a horse for $115,000 at the end and a horse for $150,000 at the end," Reid said. "We had the charity auctions, which was a late addition to our catalog, so when we originally laid out the sessions, we didn't anticipate the charity auction, but when they came to us from the Breeders Crown to do the charity auction, we can't say no to them because we've been doing it for a long time and we want to help Hoosier. That added a little bit. It's always a fine line on how you try to lay out your sessions. It's something we review every year."

Two horses shared top honors at $350,000. The first one to reach that price was HIP 176 Phantomofthenight, who is a colt from the first crop of Tall Dark Stranger and consigned by Preferred Equine Marketing as agent. His dam, Lu's Illusion is a Sweet Lou half-sister to $2.7 million earners Rock N Roll Heaven and Clear Vision. He was the latest purchase by trainer Andrew Harris for owner William Pollock, continuing their run of acquisitions from opening night.

"Just a really good-looking individual. I had the sister to him (a Captaintreacherous filly named Donegal Spirit). She had some issues, but I knew how fast she was, so I was kind of already on to the family," said Harris. "Just from the looks of him, I thought he'd be one of the top-selling Tall Dark Strangers."

Also getting to $350,000 was HIP 333 French Riviera, a Greenshoe filly who went to Andy Miller Stable, Inc. as agent. French Riviera, who was consigned by agent Kentuckiana Farms, is out of former Hambletonian Oaks winner Creamy Mimi and a half-sister to Pennsylvania Sire Stakes champion French Wine [1:50, $754,968].

"She's a beautiful filly. We really liked her, and we have French Wine who has been really good for us this year. I won the Oaks with Creamy Mimi, so we have a good tie with the whole family," Miller remarked. "Obviously it was Greenshoe's first year. We had hoped he'd be a little better his first year, but he's got a lot of good mares, and they're going to show up. We really wanted her. We're pretty excited to have her.

"We were hoping [to pay] a little less, but we were willing to take a chance and push a little harder on her."

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Two other fillies hit $310,000 to tie for third on the day. One was HIP 296 Balcony, a Southwind Frank filly who is the second foal out of a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Bond, and the other was HIP 366 Champagne Room. The latter is a daughter of first-crop stallion Papi Rob Hanover and her dam is two-time Dan Patch Award winner See You At Peelers [1:49 2/5, $1,573,260]. Balcony, consigned by Diamond Creek, went to Ken Jacobs, and Noel Daley was the winning bidder on Champagne Room, who was consigned by All American Harnessbreds.

"I bought a Walner earlier, but this is not a Walner. I've never had a Southwind Frank, so it had to be pretty nice, but I thought I was going to steal it cheap and it didn't go cheap," Jacobs offered with a laugh. "What are you going to do? I never look at Southwind Franks, but I did this time. The reason I did, I thought I was going to buy it for like $75,000. I figured nobody's going to buy a Southwind Frank. He only had five in the whole sale.

"Everything - the conformation, the video and the family - it's coming out of Bond's family. She's just nice-looking," said Jacobs on why he made the purchase, adding that Chris Ryder will be the trainer.

With two sessions in the books, agent Tony Alagna is the top buyer as he's spent $4,075,000 on 24 horses. One of his additions on Tuesday was HIP 182 Wavemaker, a Tall Dark Stranger colt who fetched $300,000. Bred and consigned by Brittany Farms, he is the first foal out of the stakes-winning Captaintreacherous mare Making Waves. She's also a sister to millionaires American Jewel and Luck Be With You.

"I've liked all the ones we've bought. There were three pacing colts that I really wanted to come home with," noted Alagna. "One was out of Making Waves, who we bought today, one (HIP 100 Banderas, $180,000) was out of Reflect With Me because I trained her and, of course, Tall Drink Hanover's (HIP 69 Strangerinthenight, $150,000) because I trained her. They were first foals out of Captain mares, so those were ones that we were really focused on.

"We, of course, came to get Tall Dark Strangers out of Captain mares, so we've done that. Then we're just trying to buy nice horses, whatever we saw at the farms. Other than Tall Dark Stranger and Papi Rob Hanover, there wasn't anything else we really wanted to support. There aren't many Stay Hungrys in this sale, so we've got to wait until Harrisburg to try and buy those."

Alagna said what he's picked up so far is pretty much on par with his usual numbers from the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale, though he noted he was the under-bidder on the likes of the sister to Seven Colors who went to Harris and Pollock the night before for $700,000.

"We're right where we usually are. I think last year we left here with almost 40-head at this sale. Hopefully I'm going to be a little bit less yearling-wise than I was last year, but right now we're strong," he stated. "It's going to lighten up, of course, because we're going to be a little bit more selective with what we buy and let horses go as opposed to keep pushing because we bought pretty much what we wanted to on the first day."

Three sessions remain in the 2023 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale. Wednesday's action will see HIPs 379-630 in the ring and will get underway at 1 p.m. That's also the start time on Thursday, and then the sale concludes on Friday with a night session at 7 p.m.

--quotes by Derick Giwner--