White filly to be offered at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky sale

Registered white Thoroughbreds are a highly uncommon sight at public auction, but Polar Foxx is an even more exclusive vintage among that select group.

The 2-year-old daughter of Silver Mountain will be just the third white filly offered at a North American auction since 1999 when she goes through the ring on Monday at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale.

Polar Foxx also holds the distinction of being the first Indiana-bred registered as white by the Jockey Club, bred and consigned by Charlie White’s Sundance Thoroughbreds.

White, a former afternoon drive-time disc jockey and longtime bloodstock agent, said the novelty factor of his uniquely-colored horse ought to keep the filly showing steadily in the days leading up to the sale.

“If Lady Godiva rode through the arena buck naked on the back of a horse, do you think she’d get some looks? I think she probably would,” he said. “She’s so unusual they can’t not look at this filly. White horses grab your attention.”

Polar Foxx is solid white, save for the inside cups of her ears, a near photocopy of her mother, the unraced Airdrie Apache mare P D F Snow Drift. She is the dam’s second foal after the Hat Trick filly Snow Shark, who was flashy, but not enough to avoid being registered as dark bay or brown by The Jockey Club.

“She is the most attractive white filly I’ve seen, and I’m not just saying that because she’s mine,” White said about Polar Foxx. “She’s just got a beautiful head, and so many of the ones I’ve seen go through the sales in the past look more Quarter Horsey than they do a more elegant Thoroughbred.”

White also campaigned and stands the filly’s sire, the Grade 3-placed Victory Gallop ridgling Silver Mountain, who resides at Nicks Farm in Sellersburg, Ind.

The influence for the filly’s name was twofold, borrowing from the first name of White’s grandson Foxx, who himself was named after White’s on-air handle, “Charlie Foxx.” His other grandson is named Chas, short for “Charlie,” completing his son’s tribute to the on-air persona.

Polar Foxx will be the 13th registered white Thoroughbred to be offered at public auction in North America since 1999. The previous 12 white horses have gone through the ring 14 times, with nine completed transactions for an average price of $37,724.

Most recently, Painted Patchen, a son of Thunder Gulch from the noted white-producing Patchen Wilkes breeding program, sold to Stoneway Farm for $29,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale.

The previous two female white horses to sell since 1999 were Silver Mystique, who brought $85,000 at the 1999 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale, and Turf Club, who first brought $40,000 at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale, then later sold in foal to Old Fashioned for $10,000 at the 2013 Keeneland January horses of all ages sale.

This filly’s sire, Airdrie Apache, has become one of the most prolific sources of registered white Thoroughbreds, siring 23 white horses from 114 foals and extending the population even further as his foals began to reproduce. He stood the bulk of his stallion career at Dalene Knight’s and Don Irvine’s Painted Desert Farm in Redmond, Ore.

The late son of Naevus resembled a sabino paint, blending splashes of white and chestnut across his body, and was registered as a chestnut. Curiously, despite his propensity for siring white foals, his lineage does not trace back to White Beauty, the first registered white Thoroughbred by The Jockey Club in 1963, and the foundation mare for Patchen Wilkes Farm.

White has plenty of experience with this particular bloodline, dating back to the early days of Airdrie Apache’s dam, Not Quite White.

“Twenty years ago, I was sitting in Brereton Jones’ office [at Airdrie Stud] and we were talking about some seasons to his stallions, and he said, ‘You’ve gotta come down to the barn and see this foal we had last night,’ “ White said. “So he takes me down to the barn and he’s got a really dark bay mare, and lying in the stall was this white filly. The only thing about the filly was she had a couple marks that were chestnut. It was like a negative of a picture. What was normally white was red and what was normally red was white. She was kind of an unusual filly and they named her Not Quite White.

“Not Quite White then produced Airdrie Apache that Dalene Knight stood at stud, and she has produced a handful of white foals through his breeding,” he continued. “She seems to have unlocked the whole mechanism of how this is done, and she seems to know more about it than anyone else I’ve ever talked to. I bought one of her weanling babies [P D F Snow Drift], raised her, was going to race her but she got hurt, and I bred her to my stallion. She produced a white filly that is the one we’re talking about.”

While Polar Foxx will sell as a racing or broodmare prospect, White was keenly aware that the value of a white Thoroughbred extends far beyond the racetrack. The group of white horses used to portray “Silver” in the 2013 film adaptation of The Lone Ranger featured several Thoroughbreds, including Arctic Bright View, whose broodmare sire is also Airdrie Apache.

Prior to the auction, White said he emailed Bobby Lovgren, a notable Hollywood horse wrangler whose credits include Seabiscuit, War Horse, and The Lone Ranger, to let him know that his unique filly would be available in the Fasig-Tipton February sale.

“Maybe she winds up in the movies,” White said. “It’s always good to end up with a second career if she doesn’t make it as a racehorse.”