Lemieux goes for $400K to top Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The stakes-winning broodmare prospect Lemieux sold for $400,000 as the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale concluded a solid two-day run on Tuesday evening.

The winter mixed sale, which takes place just prior to the start of breeding season -- many prominent Kentucky farms are opening their breeding sheds this Friday, Feb. 10 -- was coming off a record renewal in 2022, meaning some declines in the figures were not unexpected. Still, this year's numbers checked in among the auction's best. Fasig-Tipton reported 402 horses sold in this two-day auction for gross receipts of $14,105,200, the second highest in sale history. At last year's sale, 431 horses grossed a sale-record $17,245,500. That sale was topped by $750,000 mare Brilliant Cut, who, excluding dispersals, was the second most expensive filly or mare in sale history.

This week's average price finished at $35,088, a year-to-year drop of 12 percent. The 2022 sale posted an average of $40,013, the highest for this sale in a non-dispersal year. This year's median was $15,000, dropping just six percent from last year's record-tying $16,000. The average and median, the latter considered a key figure in assessing market health, slotted into third, historically, for this sale.

The cumulative buyback rate was a strong 14 percent, after finishing at a stellar 12 percent last year in what has been a selective marketplace.

“I think that if you are trying to buy horses, you can buy the horses you want to buy, but you might have to pay a little more than you wanted to," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. "If you’re selling horses, if you’ve got quality, you’re probably getting what you thought, maybe a little more. But there’s no euphoria. I think it’s a fair marketplace.”

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Lemieux, a 4-year-old daughter of successful young sire Nyquist, was purchased by Nice Guys Stables to lead the sale. The filly, who was a supplemental entry to the sale, was consigned as a broodmare prospect by Taylor Made Sales, as agent, and kept the sale-topper title in the family. Out of unraced Polish a Diamond, by The Factor, Lemieux is a half-sister to Grade 1-placed Brilliant Cut, last year's leader.

Florida-bred Lemieux owns two wins and two seconds from 10 career starts. The filly won the Brethren Juvenile Fillies Stakes against her fellow statebreds in the fall of 2021. This is the immediate family of Grade 1 winner Diamondrella, and also appearing on the catalog page is multiple Grade 1 winner Life Is Good.

The sale's leading short yearling was a filly by Good Magic, purchased for $225,000 by Champion Equine, LLC. The filly, who was consigned by Vinery Sales, as agent, is from the third crop of Good Magic, a champion juvenile who finished among last year's leading freshman sires.

The filly is out of the winning Not For Love mare Rich Love, dam of four winners from five starters. Rich Love is a half-sister to Grade 3-placed stakes winners Concealed Identity and Peach of a Gal.

For hip-by-hip results, click here.

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