Songandaprayer filly tops Texas Thoroughbred Association yearling sale

A filly by Songandaprayer brought $30,000 on Monday to top the Texas Thoroughbred Association’s summer yearling sale at Lone Star Park near Dallas.

Susan Naylor purchased the unnamed Louisiana-bred from Clear Creek Stud, agent. The filly is out of the stakes-placed Lion Heart mare Those Lion Eyes, who from one foal to race has produced a three-time winner in Mexico named Kalahari.

The Texas Thoroughbred Association reported 44 of 82 yearlings sold Monday for a total of $414,300. The buyback rate was 46 percent. At the corresponding sale a year ago, when a pair of Texas-breds topped the auction at $100,000 each, 59 of 90 yearlings sold for a total of $681,800. The average Monday was $9,415, down from $11,556 in 2017.

“Obviously, we would have liked to see some bigger numbers today, but overall the middle and lower-end of the market seemed fine,” Tim Boyce, sales director, said in a press release. “We just didn’t have the really exceptional individuals we had last year, so the average was down a bit, but it’s encouraging that the median jumped almost 75 percent. It was also good to see the mixed session numbers jump compared to last year.”

A mixed session of broodmares and weanlings following the yearling portion of the sale, and Naylor also bought the topper, going to $19,000 for a weaning filly by Too Much Bling. The Texas-bred is from the stakes-placed Valid Expectations mare Positive Spin, who has two winners from two foals to race, with one of them the stakes-placed Grass Court. The consignor was Benchmark Training Center as agent for the Estate of Ed Few.

The Texas Thoroughbred Association reported 18 of 24 lots sold during the mixed session for a total of $93,100. Last year, 13 of 36 horses during the mixed session sold, for a total of $30,000. The average Monday was $5,172 compared to $2,357 in 2017.

The next auction for the Texas Thoroughbred Association is a 2-year-olds in-training sale April 9 at Lone Star.

The next yearling sale in the region is Sunday, at the Oklahoma State Fair Park in Oklahoma City. The Carter Sales Co. auction has a catalog of 81 yearlings and this year the book has been expanded to include a mixed session for broodmares, weanlings, and horses of racing age.

The auction action then shifts to Louisiana, where the Equine Sales Co. in Opelousas offers 219 yearlings on Sept. 6.