Paris Lights among several high-dollar future broodmares to sell at November auctions

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Grade 1 winner Paris Lights brought the hammer down at $3.1 million late in the Keeneland November breeding stock sale’s Book 1 session Wednesday, bringing the curtain down on an outstanding run this week for the WinStar Farm breeding program.

WinStar, which also campaigned Paris Lights with its WinStar Stablemates Racing syndicate, earned the Eclipse Award as outstanding breeder in 2020 as its graduates on the track included Eclipse Award winner Swiss Skydiver, Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil, and Grade 1 winner Paris Lights. Those three sold for a combined $12.8 million this week between the elite Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland November sales, helping to fuel market gains as Kentucky kicked off its mixed sales.

“It’s absolutely thrilling,” said Mary Cage, director of WinStar Stablemates. “I really think it speaks to the breeding program that we have and our broodmare band and the work that our bloodstock team puts into determining the matings, producing these champions and these horses that people want to have in their own breeding programs.”

Both Shedaresthedevil and Swiss Skydiver are from the first crop of Daredevil, who WinStar stood at the time of their conception. The farm sold Shedaresthedevil as a weanling, and Swiss Skydiver as a yearling, and both went on to decorated racing careers. Shedaresthedevil, winner of the 2020 Kentucky Oaks and a pair of Grade 1 events this season, led the way as she sold for $5 million Tuesday evening at Fasig-Tipton to the partnership of Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm, Staton Flurry’s Flurry Racing, and Qatar Racing. She is scheduled to remain in training for 2022.

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Swiss Skydiver was the 2020 Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old filly, with five graded stakes victories including the Preakness Stakes over Kentucky Derby winner Authentic. She will begin her broodmare career for Northern Farm in Japan after selling for $4.7 million at Fasig-Tipton.

The next day, at Keeneland November’s Book 1 session, Spendthrift Farm outlasted other outfits in a spirited bidding duel to secure Paris Lights for $3.1 million. Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey said that the royally bred filly, who was offered as a racing or broodmare prospect, will be bred to Spendthrift’s two-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief.

“Very classic American racehorse,” Toffey said. “Big, scopey filly. I think she will fit Into Mischief really well. We are happy to have her.”

Paris Lights, a 4-year-old Curlin filly, was consigned to Keeneland by Elite Sales, as agent, on behalf of WinStar Stablemates. The Stablemates program was born in 2011 as a virtual program and fan club that provided an inside look into WinStar’s operations, with the aim of involving and educating fans. It evolved into a racing syndicate that provided an entry point into Thoroughbred ownership without an exorbitant buy-in fee or ongoing expenses.

Paris Lights was an early and top-level success for the syndicate. The filly won 3 of 4 outings last year, including the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga. Away from the races for more than eight months following that victory, she returned to win the Grade 3 Distaff Handicap in April at Aqueduct. She placed in two other stakes this year, at Churchill Downs and Colonial Downs.

“For her to be our first Grade 1-winning filly in such a short time period is very special in and of itself,” Cage said. “And for her to then be able to come to Keeneland November and sell for such a high price tag really speaks to the quality of fillies and mares that we’re able to offer to these people to be part of the ownership experience.

“Partnerships and syndicates are so important to getting people into the sport for a fraction of the cost, a fraction of the risk. And to be able to do it at this level, I think is a second-to-none sort of experience that they’re gonna remember forever.”

Paris Lights sports a stellar pedigree for a broodmare prospect, as her family is full of prominent producers. She is out of Paris Bikini, a winning half-sister, bred on the same A.P. Indy-line cross as America, a Grade 3 winner and also multiple Grade 1-placed. America is the dam of the Curlin colt First Captain, a seven-figure yearling who won this year’s Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes.

Paris Bikini’s great-granddam is Kentucky Oaks winner Blush With Pride, a daughter of Broodmare of the Year Best In Show. Blush With Pride’s daughter Better Than Honour was also a Broodmare of the Year honoree, producing classic winners Rags to Riches and Jazil, Breeders’ Cup winner Man of Iron, and Grade 2 winner Casino Drive.

“She comes from as good a family as we have in the stud book,” Toffey said.

Keeneland November starts strong

The Keeneland November breeding stock sale began its 10-day run on Wednesday with the single-session Book 1 portion, which closed with double-digit gains in average and median.

Keeneland reported 118 horses sold in the single-session Book 1, which opened the 10-day run of the November sale, for gross receipts of $50,634,000. In last year’s Book 1 session, 128 horses brought $49,775,000.

Paris Lights led the way at $3.1 million. The second-highest price of the session was fetched by multiple graded stakes winner Pink Sands, sold carrying her first foal, by Into Mischief. The young mare sold for $2.3 million to Japanese owner and breeder Masahiro Miki. Those two led seven fillies and mares traded for seven figures, which fueled by Book 1’s average price of $429,102, a 10 percent jump from $388,867 last year. The median – which many consider a more important indicator of market health because it is less influenced by outlying horses the way the average can be – rose 18 percent, to $330,000 from $280,000. The buyback rate remained relatively steady, ticking up to 29 percent from 28 percent.