LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale marks the end of the breeding stock sale season in North America, and the end of an era. The sale’s catalog has gotten a boost from the addition of dispersal stock from the late Robert Lothenbach’s Lothenbach Stable, with his broodmares and yearlings lined up here. This sale, taking place Monday and Tuesday at Fasig-Tipton’s Newtown Paddocks, is the final opportunity to acquire a broodmare or prospect at public auction before the North American breeding season begins. For example, Spendthrift Farm, with a large roster led by five-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief, opens its breeding shed Feb. 10. This also is the final opportunity for pinhookers to acquire young prospects foaled in 2023 before the formal yearling sale season, which runs from July to October. Those shoppers have a catalog of 532 hips to parse through, including 65 broodmares, broodmare prospects, and yearlings from the Lothenbach dispersal, the majority of those in the Tuesday session. The Fasig-Tipton February sale marks one part of a three-pronged dispersal. Lothenbach’s horses of racing age are being dispersed in a special sale on Fasig-Tipton’s digital platform. The dispersal continues with Lothenbach’s 41 juveniles that are cataloged to the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March sale of 2-year-olds in training next month. Minnesota native Lothenbach died Nov. 14 at age 64. The owner and breeder raced horses for more than 30 years. According to Equibase statistics, since 2000, runners under the stable’s banner have won 804 races and earned more than $30.6 million. His stable ranked 10th nationally by earnings in 2020; 10th by wins in 2021; ninth by earnings and sixth by wins in 2022; and seventh by wins last year. Lothenbach’s top runner was Bell’s the One, who he purchased as a yearling and placed in training with Neil Pessin. The mare earned more than $2 million in a five-year career in which she won 11 stakes, highlighted by the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff in 2020. She placed in another eight stakes, including a third in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. The stable’s other standouts included Grade 1 winner Mayo On the Side, who edged champion Azeri in the Humana Distaff – the former moniker of the Derby City – in 2004; millionaire Vacare, whose four graded stakes wins included the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup in 2006; millionaire gelding Mister Marti Gras, a multiple graded stakes winner; and graded stakes winners including Bearpath, Captivating Moon, Happy American, She Can’t Sing, and Sonic Boom. “Mr. Lothenbach’s breeding program was old-time – pedigrees he had developed as part of an operation that was 100 percent breed to race,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said in a press release. “His families have never been offered on the public market, and his yearlings have been raised with one goal – to be racehorses. “Mr. Lothenbach’s passing is an immense loss to Thoroughbred racing, as he loved and participated in all aspects of our sport as an owner and breeder, while also highly active at auctions,” Browning continued. “We are honored that his family has chosen Fasig-Tipton for the dispersal of the majority of his Thoroughbred holdings.” Bell’s the One and She Can’t Sing are among those cataloged at Fasig-Tipton February. Both are consigned by Vinery Sales, as agent, with Taylor Made Sales, which is handling the racing-age dispersal, also working with the consignment as agent. Neither of these mares is currently in foal. Bell’s the One aborted her first foal, to the cover of Flightline, while She Can’t Sing ran her last race in November. Distorted Music, the dam of She Can’t Sing, and her colt by Into Mischief also are notable offerings. The dispersal’s other lots include Grade 2-placed stakes winner Audrey’s Time, carrying her first foal, by Into Mischief; No Retreat, a half-sister to Mister Marti Gras who has produced two stakes-placed runners; Sales Call, carrying a full sibling to her stakes winner It’s Bob’s Business, and her Medaglia d’Oro colt bred on the same cross; and Sharp Current, dam of multiple stakes winner Midnight Current. Other short yearlings in the group include representatives of prominent sires such as American Pharoah, Candy Ride, City of Light, Ghostzapper, Gun Runner, Twirling Candy, and War Front, as well as popular first-crop sires Essential Quality and Maxfield. These offerings give the Fasig-Tipton February sale a shot at competing with the strong numbers from last year’s renewal. Topped by the $400,000 broodmare prospect Lemieux, 402 horses sold over two days for $14,105,200, the second-highest gross in sale history, behind only 2022’s record-shattering gross. The average was $35,088, for the third best in sale history. The median was $15,000, tied for third best. The buyback rate was a strong 14 percent in a selective marketplace. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.