Into Mischief filly goes for $800K as Fasig-Tipton July kicks off yearling season with a bang

LEXINGTON, Ky. - An Into Mischief filly lit up the bid board at $800,000 as the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale returned to its place on the calendar to kick off the North American yearling marketplace in solid fashion on Tuesday.

This single-session yearling sale, conducted at Fasig-Tipton's Newtown Paddocks headquarters in Lexington, Ky., was among the canceled events of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Hopes were high for this year's sale, preceded by a session of horses of racing age and breeding stock on Monday, as a strong 2-year-old season created optimism for market momentum.

Fasig-Tipton reported 208 horses sold on Tuesday for gross receipts of $21,608,500. With the cancellation of this sale in 2020, there are no truly comparable year-to-year figures. When last held in 2019, this sale grossed $18,621,000 from 202 yearlings sold.

Tuesday's average price finished at a strong $103,887, with a median of $80,000. Both of those figures trended upward from the most recent edition of this sale in 2019, with those numbers checking in at $92,183 and $75,000, respectively.

"A hell of a start to the 2021 yearling sales season," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. "We were very optimistic and encouraged when we went to the farms this year to look at yearlings, with the quality of horses we were seeing, and certainly the 2-year-old sales were encouraging throughout the spring, so there was a lot of reason for optimism heading into the sale. I don't think any of us would have been hoping to surpass 2019 numbers - 2019 was a pretty daggone good marketplace. ... Proud of the group of horses our inspection team put together."

The buyback rate in a selective marketplace finished at a 25 percent. In 2019, the figure was 33 percent.

"Yesterday we sold good, we sold like 27 out of 28, for what they were, they sold well," Frank Taylor of Taylor Made Sales, a perennial leading consignor, said. "Today we've missed the mark on a few of them. The ones that have vetted out really good and shown [well] have been well received."

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and LNJ Foxwoods teamed up to secure the sale-topping daughter of two-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief, the sire of consecutive champion female sprinters in Covfefe (2019) and Gamine (2020). Covfefe was campaigned by the Roth family's LNJ Foxwoods.

Not only did this filly's price thoroughly eclipse the high-water mark from the most recent edition of this sale, the $440,000 paid for a Flatter colt in 2019, it was the second-highest price in the last 10 editions of this sale, trailing only a $1 million Medaglia d'Oro filly in 2017.

"She's a filly who was a total standout here, and we knew we were going to have to come with the heavy artillery," Eclipse founder and president Aron Wellman said. "She really stood out head and shoulders above anything out here - all respect to the others."

Wellman said there were no immediate plans as to who might break or eventually train the filly, saying that he and bloodstock agent Alex Solis II, who advises LNJ Foxwoods, "will huddle up now that the dust has started to settle here."

The sale-topping filly, who was consigned by Burleson Farms, as agent for breeder McKenzie Bloodstock, is out of the unraced Indian Charlie mare Chasing Tickets, a full sister to multiple graded stakes winner Conveyance. Chasing Tickets is the dam of three winners from as many starters, including multiple stakes winner Leggs Galore. Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty appears on the catalog page, as do Grade 1 winner Secret Hello and graded stakes winners Cavalia, Hadif, and Silent Account.

Crossing Into Mischief over Indian Charlie mares has resulted in Grade 1 winner Dayoutoftheoffice, multiple graded stakes winner Frank's Rockette, and multiple Grade 1-placed Rowayton.

Tied for the second-highest price of the sale at $350,000 were another Into Mischief filly and a Candy Ride colt.

The Into Mischief filly sold late in the sale to Mike Rutherford. She was consigned by Four Star Sales as agent for Spendthrift Farm, which bred her and which stands her record-setting classic sire.

"We debated a lot what sale to take her to, and we thought that she would be really strong in here," Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey said. "She's quick-looking, she's athletic. I think she's fairly typical of the Into Mischiefs. She's good-minded, direct."

The filly is out of the stakes-placed Henny Hughes mare Anahauc, dam of one winner from a pair of starters. Anahauc is a half-sister to stakes winners Gangbuster and Dreamcall, as well as to Grade 1-placed Glorified, the dam of stakes winner Anythingyoucando, and to the unraced Oblige, dam of Grade 1 winner Hunter O'Riley. It is the family of Grade 1 winner Diplomat Lady.

The filly capped another big day in the commercial arena for her sire, as Into Mischief finished with five yearlings sold, including three of the top four lots overall, for an average of $360,000.

"He's the consummate professional as a sire, and there's great demand for him, as there should be," Browning said.

The sale's highest-priced colt was the $350,000 son of Candy Ride purchased by James Bernard of Louisiana, with Matthew Weinmann, CEO of Equine Analysis Systems, advising.

"We run a system where we take physiological data, and he came up on our model as one of the most likely to have success on the racetrack," Weinmann said.

Weinmann said that the colt will eventually be trained by Steve Asmussen, after first being broken at his parents' farm in Texas.

The colt, who was consigned by Taylor Made Sales as agent for breeder Larry Best's OXO Equine, is the second foal out of the unplaced Uncle Mo mare Beyond Grace. The young mare, a full sister to stakes-placed Mighty Mo, is from the extended family of Group 1 winner Moriarty and graded/group stakes winners Lotus Pool, Group 2 winner Lear Spear, Lotus Pool, Montgomery's Arch, and S'Maverlous.

A filly by Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and Pegasus World Cup winner City of Light sold for $230,000 to fetch the top price for a first-crop sire. She was purchased by Selective LLC with Cary Bloodstock as agent from the consignment of Bluewater Sales, as agent. The filly is the second foal out of the unraced Giant's Causeway mare Grand Sofia, a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Rail Trip and from the family of Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice.

The only yearling in the sale from the first crop of Triple Crown winner Justify, a filly out of Grade 1 winner Emma's Encore, sold for $210,000 to The Elkstone Group, the second-highest price for a first-crop sire.

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