Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
BIG NAMES IN ALL CATEGORIES AT FASIG-TIPTON SALE
Less than 24 hours after racing at the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs, some of the same Thoroughbreds will come before the same leading judges of bloodstock gathered at Fasig-Tipton’s headquarters up the road in Lexington for the annual auction billed as the “night of the stars.”
Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky fall selected mixed sale, colloquially known as the November sale, begins at 3 p.m. on Nov. 4. The catalog for the single-session auction currently numbers 247 entries, but Fasig-Tipton will continue to review and accept supplemental entries through the Breeders’ Cup, seeking to further burnish a solid group.
“Our November sale is known for quality, and this year’s catalog is one of the deepest and most internationally diverse that we have offered,” FasigTipton president Boyd Browning said. “Buyers will find tremendous quality from cover to cover. [The catalog includes] a spectacular group of champions, international racing stars, and high-class broodmares. In total, this year’s catalog features 69 graded stakes winners or producers, 32 of which are Grade 1.”
It will be hard to top the fireworks from last year’s Fasig November sale, when $9.5 million champion Songbird and $8 million champion Tepin led 115 head sold for a record gross of $74.2 million. The average sale price, $645,217, was the auction’s third highest all time, and the median, $250,000, was the second best. The buyback rate also improved substantially, checking in at 18 percent, compared with 28 percent in 2016.
This year’s catalog highlights include a pair of champions in Cartier Award European champion Lady Aurelia and Eclipse Award champion Caledonia Road.
Lady Aurelia, by the late Scat Daddy, won or placed in seven
stakes in the U.S. and Europe, including a pair of victories at the renowned Royal Ascot meeting. The filly is owned by Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Farm and Peter Leidel. One potential outcome of the filly’s trip through the sale ring is for Banke to buy out her partners, as public auctions are often used to fairly dissolve partnerships. However, Lady Aurelia is sure to attract international attention, and Banke does already own the filly’s dam and a half-sister.
“Lady Aurelia is the embodiment of Stonestreet’s breeding program,” Banke said. “A brilliant filly out of a champion, she took on all comers across the globe at the pinnacle of our sport. The first Americantrained Cartier winner when she was named 2-year-old filly of the year, her talent and raw speed were breathtaking.
“The racetrack successes of the horses we breed and raise are both our reputation and legacy. We are a commercial breeder and were lucky enough to stay in after her sale as a yearling and enjoy her success with our partners. We remain involved in the family through her dam and a half-sister, and I look forward to watching Lady Aurelia take her many talents to her broodmare career.”
Caledonia Road, winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, will be offered as a racing or broodmare prospect.
“She should have broad
appeal to leading racing and breeding programs around the globe,” Hanzly Albina of consignor Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services said of the Quality Road filly.
Grade 1 winner Finley’ s lucky charm, among the favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, leads the contingent of expected entrants for the Breeders’ Cup entered to sell at Fasig November who are eligible for major catalog updates. Three of her likely challengers – Selcourt, Separation of powers, and Skye Diamonds – are also cataloged.
Breeders’ Cup Distaff candidate Champagne Problems is also cataloged at Fasig-Tipton. A Raving Beauty, pre-entered in both the Filly and Mare Turf and Mile, and Fourstar Crook, a Filly and Mare Turf contender, also are cataloged to sell. A Raving Beauty was a stakes winner in her native Germany and Group 1 placed in Italy before coming to the United States to become a multiple Grade 1 winner this season. Fourstar Crook, who hasn’t hasn’t been worse than second this year, recently scored her first Grade 1 victory in the Flower Bowl Stakes after six previous graded stakes wins or placings.
“She’s a really consistent horse . . . She seemed very deserving to finally win a Grade 1,” trainer Chad Brown said. “When you look at who she’s beaten when she’s not in Grade 1’s, and who she’s lost to by short margins, this filly is very deserving to finally achieve that, and remarkable at age 6.”
The catalog also includes Grade 1 winners American Gal, Belle Gallantey, Capla Temptress, Carina Mia, Constellation, Daddys Lil Darling, Fault, La Coronel, Moonshine Memories, Pretty City Dancer, and Salty.
Prominent producers in the catalog are led by Love the Chase, dam of two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome. The mare sold for $1.95 million at this auction two years ago, and is now wheeling back in foal to Uncle Mo. Her weanling colt by Pioneerof the Nile is also on offer.
Other broodmares in the sale could pick up major updates from the performances of their offspring in the Breeders’ Cup, including Akron Moon, dam of Bellafina (Juvenile Fillies); Diva Delite, dam of Midnight Bisou (Distaff); Drumette, the dam of Monomoy Girl (Distaff); Loving Vindication, dam of Wonder Gadot (Distaff); Silky Serenade, dam of Restless Rider (Juvenile Fillies); and Song of Bernadette, dam of Catholic Boy (Classic).
Continuing the format of the last several years, Fasig November will begin its single session with weanlings before moving into broodmares and racing or broodmare prospects. The 116 weanlings cataloged include representatives by firstcrop sires including California Chrome and fellow champions Air Force Blue, Nyquist, and Runhappy. Other first-crop weanling sires with youngsters selected include Brody’s Cause, Cinco Charlie, Exaggerator, Frosted, Hit It a Bomb, Mshawish, Not This Time, Speightster, Tourist, and Upstart.