Lady Aurelia sells for $7.5 million to lead Fasig-Tipton November sale

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Last year's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale set a high bar for this year's renewal to clear, as a pair of dual Eclipse Award champions fueled some of the best figures in the auction’s history. But Sunday’s action at the star-studded single-session sale was strong from start to finish, and, improbably, improved on last year’s excellent outing, with record gross receipts and strong average and median figures.

European champion Lady Aurelia lit the bid board up at $7.5 million, as breeder and co-owner Barbara Banke bid out her partners to dissolve a partnership. Led by that champion, $4.4 million multiple Grade 1 winner Stopchargingmaria, and Stopchargingmaria’s $1.9 million filly who established a weanling record at this sale, a total of 140 horses sold for gross receipts of $89,473,000.

That figure eclipsed the record mark established last year, climbing 21 percent from $74.2 million. The 115 horses sold in the 2017 renewal were led by $9.5 million champion Songbird and $8 million champion Tepin.

The average sale price finished at $639,093, a minor decline of 1 percent from last year's figure of $645,217, but still the fourth-highest in auction history. The median price was $327,500, the second-highest in sale history and a gain of 31 percent from $250,000 in 2017. The record figure in the category is $377,500, established in 2016.

“If someone would have told me a year ago, looking forward to 2018, when we started the recruiting process, that we didn't have [Songbird and Tepin], I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how we're going to replace $17 million in sales," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said. "To still have the growth that we demonstrated is pretty remarkable.”

Activity was robust at the top of the market, as 10 horses sold for $2 million or more, compared to eight who broke that ceiling in 2017. Overall, seven-figure purchases rose to 22 from 19.

The buyback rate was the one blight on the rose, sitting at 27 percent after finishing last year's edition at 18 percent.

"There's tremendous demand for quality," Browning said. "Buyers are willing to pay for quality – but they still pay for quality with some level of restraint."

Sale-topping Lady Aurelia, by Scat Daddy, was bred by Stonestreet, which offered her via agent James M. Herbener Jr.'s consignment at the 2015 Keeneland September yearling sale. George Bolton and Peter Leidel partnered to buy the filly for $350,000, and Stonestreet re-joined the action by buying back an interest in the partnership before Lady Aurelia began her racing career. Stonestreet then bought out Bolton's share before Lady Aurelia's 3-year-old campaign in 2017. When the filly was retired from racing this summer, the decision was made to offer her at public auction as a broodmare prospect in order to fairly dissolve the remaining partnership at market value. Hill 'n' Dale Sales consigned Lady Aurelia as agent for the partners.

Lady Aurelia drew an opening bid of $2 million, and it jumped in $1 million increments up to $5 million before the action slowed and it steadily inched its way upward from there. With Lady Aurelia standing toward the front of the auction ring, curiously eyeing the full pavilion, with several cellphones held aloft to capture the action, Banke, who was bidding via Browning on the phone in the back of the room, won out in action coming from multiple different points in the pavilion.

"We're looking forward to her next plans," Banke said. "I've had wonderful partners in the horse."

Lady Aurelia was twice a winner at the renowned Royal Ascot meeting in England, taking the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes en route to her Cartier Award as Europe’s champion juvenile filly, and the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes over older males the following season. She also won the Group 1 Prix Morny Stakes in France during her championship campaign and was Group 1-placed in England at both 2 and 3.

Lady Aurelia's first two dams are Puerto Rican champions. Banke purchased her dam, D'Wildcat Speed, for $1 million out of the 2005 Keeneland November breeding stock sale and also currently owns the mare's yearling Munnings filly.

"Her mother was a very hard-knocking mare with a lot of durability and broke track records, so was very fast," Banke said. Lady Aurelia “has a lot of innate muscle and muscle tone and speed. What we really like is the speed. We hope she passes that right on."

Banke has yet to finalize mating plans for Lady Aurelia, saying that choosing between American or European options for her globetrotting star will be the biggest challenge.

"If it's America, it will be Curlin," she said, adding that there were more widespread options in Europe.

Along with Stonestreet's stellar group of mares, Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm broodmare band is among the most star-studded in Kentucky. Pope went to $4.4 million to acquire 2015 Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Stopchargingmaria and to $1.9 million for the mare's first foal, a filly by Pioneerof the Nile. The weanling's price broke the Fasig-Tipton November record in that category established by a pair of $1 million youngsters last year.

Pope said she may sell the filly at Keeneland next year as a yearling, but said she had not yet made up her mind and that the filly would be sent to Florida in the meantime.

Pope had made broodmare purchases earlier in the evening, including multiple Grade 1 winner American Gal for $3 million, but she pulled back on the action after that to await Stopchargingmaria's turn in the ring.

"We passed on a couple of other mares after I bought the first one, conserving money for this because there were a couple of lovely mares in between that we didn't bid on because we were waiting on this one," Pope said.

Both Stopchargingmaria and her weanling were consigned by Taylor Made Sales, as agent for Three Chimneys Farm. The latter outfit purchased the mare for $2.8 million at this sale two years ago.

Stopchargingmaria, by Tale of the Cat, was a multiple graded stakes winner as a juvenile and broke out at age 3 to win the Alabama and Coaching Club American Oaks, both Grade 1 events at Saratoga. She added the 2015 Distaff over subsequent Eclipse Award champion Stellar Wind. In total, she won or placed in 13 graded stakes, earning more than $3 million.

After delivering her Pioneerof the Nile filly in February, Stopchargingmaria was bred back to perennial leading sire Tapit.

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– additional reporting by Matt Hegarty