LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale is the last breeding stock auction of the season – the last chance to acquire mares at public auction before the breeding sheds open this month, and the last chance for pinhookers to pick up prospects for the yearling sales later this year. Some of the last horses into the catalog for this particular auction figure to play a prominent role. Fasig-Tipton released an initial catalog of 580 horses for this sale, set for Monday and Tuesday at its Newtown Paddocks headquarters in Lexington. It has continued to accept supplemental entries for the sale, adding nearly 100 hips to the catalog in the last month. The supplemental entries include the promising 3-year-old colt Hello Hot Rod, winner of his stakes debut last Sunday and announced as a catalog addition on Wednesday. Hello Hot Rod, a Maryland-bred by the state’s leading freshman sire, Mosler, has won 3 of 4 career starts. After taking an allowance race going a mile on Dec. 13 at Laurel, he won the seven-furlong Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct. “Hello Hot Rod is an exciting addition to our Kentucky winter mixed sale,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said. “It is rare for a 3-year-old colt, coming off a stakes win, to be offered at this time of year. He is the ‘now horse’ for those that want a colt for the Kentucky Derby trail.” Indeed, 3-year-olds can be in high demand at this time of year, as illustrated last month at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale. Carillo, coming off a maiden special weight win, sold for $875,000 to lead the horses of racing age on offer, and is expected to chase Derby points this winter and spring. Hello Hot Rod is trained by Brittany Russell, who co-owns him with Dark Horse Racing. A $10,000 yearling purchase for his connections, he will be consigned by Elite Sales, as agent, at Fasig-Tipton. “This is a business, and it just seemed like sort of a good business move after winning the stake up there,” Russell said. “I have some friends between Fasig and Elite Sales, and I thought it was a good move. Naturally, I’d love to have him in the barn and keep him and race him, and maybe that can still happen, but we’re going to put him through and just see what happens.” The broodmares and broodmare prospects added to the catalog as supplemental entries also include a star in Shieldmaiden. She is the dam of two winners from three starters, led by Fair Maiden, winner of the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes in December at Santa Anita. Shieldmaiden, a winning Smart Strike mare, is from the immediate family of Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Status and several other Grade/Group 1 winners. Consigned by South Point Sales, as agent, she is in foal to graded stakes winner Passion for Action, a Speightstown horse whose first foals will race this year. The market for foals of 2020, offered as weanlings last fall and as short yearlings this winter, has been competitive, with end users seeking value outside of the fall yearling markets coming in early to vie with pinhookers seeking future prospects. The stallions with first-crop yearlings in 2021 are a varied lot and figure to continue to play a factor in this market close-out. The only Fasig-Tipton February offerings by Triple Crown winner Justify and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and Pegasus World Cup winner City of Light, commercial leaders of this class so far, have been withdrawn prior to sale, leaving room for others to step up. First-crop yearling sires with offerings remaining in the catalog include Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and champion Accelerate; the versatile globe-trotting Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Mendelssohn, a son of the internationally popular Scat Daddy; Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and champion Good Magic; Grade 1 winner Mo Town, by emerging sire-of-sires Uncle Mo; classic winners Cloud Computing and Tapwrit; and champion West Coast. Last year’s Fasig February sale finished with 368 horses sold for $9,777,100, led by the $570,000 broodmare prospect Lady Mason, a graded stakes-placed granddaughter of blue hen Leslie’s Lady. The average price was $26,568, down 10 percent from 2019; the median dropped 43 percent, to $8,500.