Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Uncle Mo filly brings $1.5M to top Fasig-Tipton auction
This year’s Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale of selected 2-year-olds in training continued to grow the auction’s profile in its third renewal since moving to the south Florida racetrack, posting acrossthe-board gains fueled by a $1.5 million Uncle Mo filly.
Wednesday’s single-session auction saw 74 horses sell for $25,115,000, a 16 percent increase in gross from last year’s edition, where 66 horses brought $21,590,000. The average sale price rose 4 percent to $339,392, while the median grew 8 percent to $270,000.
Though the figures continued the upward momentum of the Gulfstream sale, FasigTipton president Boyd Browning noted that the auction still revealed the realities of the marketplace at large.
“It’s really good when you get the stars lined up, but it’s not easy to get the stars lined up,” he said. “It never has been, and probably never will be in a 2-year-old sale, but you can bet there’s a lot of people that want to buy a good horse.
“There was probably more faces and activity than I’ve seen in recent years here, so that bodes well for the rest of the 2-year-old season,” Browning added. “Horses are still going to have to work well, vet well, and have decent conformation on the end of the shank in order to sell well.”
Three horses sold for seven figures Wednesday, one fewer than last year. The number sold for $500,000 or more rose to 16 from 11, while the number of horses sold for $250,000 or more rose to 41 from 35.
The buyback rate closed at 15 percent, a sharp improvement from last year’s figure of 31 percent. But Browning also noted the scratch rate, as 87 horses went through the ring from a catalog of 162.
“It’s the lowest RNA rate in the history of this sale, but I think the reality is we continue to live in a polarized market,” Browning said. “One of the reasons the RNA rate was so low was because the scratch rate was high. That’s not rocket science.”
Leading the sale was an Uncle Mo filly who sold to Larry Best’s OXO Equine for $1.5 million.
The bay filly is out of the winning Grand Reward mare Flowers Athefinish and is a full sister to the stakes-placed Mighty Mo. She is from the family of Australian Group 1 winner Moriarty, English Group 2 winner Lear Spear, Grade 3 winner Lotus Pool, and Grade 1-placed Golden Larch. The filly breezed an eighth of a mile in 10.20 seconds during the presale under-tack show.
“I like well-bred fillies,” Best said. “Uncle Mo obviously is a highlight in the industry, and I tend to buy fillies that I think can win graded stakes races and at the same time have some residual value.”
Best, a relative newcomer to the industry, also purchased a More Than Ready colt for $1.1 million near the end of the sale. He said trainer Chad Brown gets most of his horses. Both of Best’s purchases were consigned by bloodstock agent Cary Frommer.
Frommer bought the Uncle Mo filly for $250,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale. The filly was bred in Kentucky by Machmer Hall.
“I did not see that coming,” Frommer said after the fall of the hammer. “I knew she was going to bring a lot of money, but I didn’t see that coming. In fact, even my partner [Barry Berkelhammer], who’s always a little more bullish than I am, didn’t see it coming. I guess people just got into it with each other, and that’s what we love to see.”