By Sarah Mace
A dark bay or brown filly from the first crop of New York-based Grade 1 Hopeful winner Boys At Tosconova (Questroyal North) brought $165,000 to become the top-selling New York-bred juvenile in Monday’s opening session of Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training.
Hip 82, a February foal bred by Rhapsody Farm LLC, was purchased by Cromwell Bloodstock from the Eddie Woods consignment after drilling a sharp :21 2/5 quarter in the under tack show. The filly changed hands previously when picked up by Turtle Hatch Farm at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton Fall Mixed sale in Saratoga for $60,000.
The filly’s dam is winner-producer Miss Trudy, whom Rhapsody Farm acquired for $3,500 at the 2011 Keeneland January sale. All four of her foals to start are winners, led by stakes placed Sidearm (Kodiak Kowboy), who has bankrolled over $200,000. Miss Trudy is a half sister to stakes winner and graded placed runner Texturizer and a trio of other stakes performers.
Woods said before the sale, “Some people are not that familiar with the stallion, but he was a great 2-year-old and she’s a lovely filly.”
Another top performer from the New York contingent on Monday was Hip 252, a bay Congrats filly who was hammered down to L.E.B. for $150,000. Consigned by Grassroots Training & Sales, she failed to attain her reserve when bid up to $47,000 last summer at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale. She posted an eye-catching :10 1/5 furlong in the under tack show.
Bred by Wellspring Stables, the Congrats filly is out of Starry Pursuit, a winner of two stakes races, who was purchased by Robert Vukovich for $95,000 in 2012 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale. A chestnut daughter of VanNistelrooy, Starry Pursuit has a stakes winning full brother and has produced two winners from two starters. She currently has a yearling full sister to the sale filly, as a well as a Mineshaft filly on the ground this year.
Of the 31 New York-breds offered in the opening session after outs, 21 changed hands (including one private sale) for an average price of $53,595 and $25,000 median. Five individuals brought six-figure prices ranging from $110,000 to $165,000. As a whole Monday’s session posted a $68,253 average and $34,000 median, falling off 33.3 percent and 28.9 percent from $102,732 and $45,000 at last year’s first session.
The sale’s second session on Tuesday, begins at 10 a.m. Eastern.
