Mendelssohn colts take top two slots at surging FT Midlantic yearling sale

The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale opened the final month of the yearling sales season in North America with no signs of slackening enthusiasm in a marketplace that has roared back from 2020. Topped by a $235,000 Mendelssohn colt, the sale concluded with gains across the board, including record average and median figures.

Fasig-Tipton reported that 381 yearlings sold over the two days of the sale at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium for a total of $11,269,400 – the sale's fifth highest gross all-time, and its best since 2007, when 574 horses sold for $13,331,400. Last year, 379 horses garnered receipts of $9,120,700.

The average was $29,578, good for a 23 percent increase over last year's average of $24,065. The median checked in at $20,000, soaring 43 percent over last year's median of $14,000. The previous records for both categories were established in 2013, when the sale posted an average of $25,847 and a median of $17,000.

The buyback rate was 16 percent, improving from 22 percent last year and marking the lowest at this sale since 2013.

The sale-topping Mendelssohn colt was purchased in Tuesday's second and final session by Scanlon Training and Sales, from the consignment of Northview Stallion Station, as agent. The colt keyed an outstanding sale for his first-crop sire, as Mendelssohn was also represented by Monday's session topper, a $230,000 colt who checked in as the second-highest price of the sale overall.

Mendelssohn, by the late classic sire Scat Daddy, is a half-brother to Grade 1 winner and leading sire Into Mischief, as well as to Eclipse Award champion Beholder. The young stallion won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and was a stakes winner on both dirt and synthetic, with multiple Grade 1 placings on dirt in the United States. He stands at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky and proved popular in his first season, covering 252 mares, according to The Jockey Club's Report of Mares Bred, tying him as the busiest stallion in the country in 2019. He is now averaging $153,392 at public sales from his resulting first yearlings, against an introductory stud fee of $35,000.

Mendelssohn's sale-topping colt, a Kentucky-bred, is out of the unraced Malibu Moon mare Grace Is Gone. That mare is out of Grade 1-placed Grace Anatomy, making her a half-sister to stakes-placed Retro. Grace Anatomy's granddam is Grade 1 winner Plenty of Grace, a half-sister to champion Soaring Softly. Graded/group stakes winners Diabolical, Lookin to Strike, and What a Name appear on the catalog page.

Monday’s session-topping colt by Mendelssohn was purchased by Oracle Bloodstock from the consignment of Dreamtime Stables, as agent. The colt, who is a Kentucky-bred and also Delaware-certified, is out of the Malibu Moon mare Tasha's Moon. Her first starter is stakes-placed Juror Number Four, by Mendelssohn's half-brother Into Mischief. Tasha's Moon is a half-sister to Japanese stakes winner Esmeraldina; Grade 1 winner Off the Tracks appears on the catalog page, as do graded stakes winners Concord Point and Tasha's Miracle.

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