NEWS: SALES

Top New York-breds pop in Book 2 at Keeneland, led by $650,000 Into Mischief colt

Sunday, September 15th, 2019

Hip 1239 (Keeneland photo)

By Sarah Mace

A select group of top New York-bred yearlings commanded hefty price tags when Keeneland resumed business on Friday following the three sessions of Book 1 (Monday through Wednesday) and a Thursday dark day. Book 2 of the auction company’s annual September sale, which spanned Friday and Saturday (Sessions 4 and 5 overall), produced fresh New York-bred colt and filly toppers. The average price for 10 New York-bred youngsters sold through the first two books came in at a robust $259,000.

The overall New York-bred top-seller to date emerged during Saturday’s Session 5, when the powerhouse partnership of SF / Starlight / Madaket went to $650,000 for a bay Into Mischief colt catalogued as Hip 1239. He was one of four New York-breds to change hands in Session 5, all for $125,000 and up, and the co-second top colt of the day.

Bred and consigned by Sequel Stallions New York, LLC, the Into Mischief yearling was foaled relatively late, on May 24, 2018. His dam is Keysong, by Songandaprayer, who was purchased in 2015 by Alpha Partners I for $75,000 out of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale.

Sequel’s Becky Thomas said, “The mares that I bring to New York are mares that I would bring anywhere. I try to produce winners. She is a very pretty Songandaprayer mare — she’s really racy. She is a big, scopey mare. So I thought it was a good cross for Into Mischief. Into Mischief is one of those sires that all along the way, I’ve tried to breed to. He’s a wonderful sire.”

A multiple winner and winner-producer, Keysong is out of stakes winner Key to the Cat and a half-sister to stakes winner Miss Catalyst. Keysong has a juvenile Alpha colt named Prota who has not yet started, no 2019 foal, and was bred to The Lieutenant this year.

“This was a horse that [Stonestreet’s] John Moynihan identified as a horse they loved also,” said SF’s Tom Ryan. “Into Mischief [currently leading the general sire list] is a very established stallion that everyone wants a piece of at the moment.” Ryan indicated that colt will go to California to the barn of trainer Bob Baffert.

The top-selling filly thus far was offered on Friday as Hip 621, a bay filly from the first crop of Runhappy, who was hammered down to Steve Young, Agent, for $325,000.

Bred by Hidden Lake Farm, LLC and Fred Rosen, the sale filly was foaled on April 19, 2018, and consigned by Peter O’Callaghan’s Woods Edge Farm, Agent. Hip 621 is the second foal out of Sentimental Lass, a precocious New York-bred race mare by top-tier New York sire Freud. She first sold as a short yearling in January at the Keeneland sale where she was purchased by AROC Bloodstock for $170,000.

Sentimental Lass, who was bred by Windhorse Thoroughbreds LLC and raced in the colors of J Z B Racing Stable, LLC, won the Maid of the Mist at two, placed in an open black type event at three, and earned more than $160,000 before retiring to broodmare duty. Out of a stakes-winning Cherokee Run mare Scottish Bubbly, Sentimental Lass is also a half-sister to stakes winner Chasing Bubbles. She has been bred this year to Classic Empire.

The top filly of Saturday’s session went to Jim and Susan Hill for $220,000. A bay by Quality Road out of a producer of five winners, the filly was consigned by James B. Keogh (Grovendale), Agent XII and offered as Hip 1073. Bred by Dr. Jerry Bilinski and Harry Patten, Hip 1073 turned heads first as a short yearling at the Keeneland January sale, where she went to K. M. C. F. F. Stable for $200,000.

The filly’s dam As Promised, a placed Kentucky-bred mare by Century City (IRE) campaigned by Darlene Bilinski and Harry Patton, is out of stakes winner Roan Promise (Wise Exchange) and has produced five winners from six starters, led by top-earner Flattermefabulous ($141,528). As Promised is a half-sister to stakes winners Daytime Promise (Five Star Day) – also a graded stakes performer – and Promiseville (Alwasmi). Promiseville went on to produce Small Promises, the Sovereign Award-winning Champion Older Mare of 2002.

Alex Solis and Jason Litt paired up to buy the top colt of Friday’s session four, Hip 671 by Uncle Mo, who is out of another solid and precocious New York-bred race mare, Temper Mint Patty (Congrats). Bred by Repole Stable, Inc. and consigned by Lane’s End, Agent, the colt hammered down for $200,000.

Repole bought Temper Mint Patty (Congrats), who was bred Gallagher’s Stud, at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky selected horses of racing age sale for $350,000 after she recorded a second stakes victory for owner Mark Stanley in the New York Oaks. As a juvenile she won Belmont’s Joseph A. Gimma and over the course of two seasons earned $415,916

The sale colt’s second dam is stakes-winning turf router His Beauty, a Gallagher’s Stud homebred by Gallagher’s Adcat. Under the fourth dam we find Deja, a multiple turf stakes winner in France. Temper Mint Patty has an unraced juvenile filly by Uncle Mo, a weanling colt by Overanalyze and was bred this year to Outwork.

Through the first five sessions of the Keeneland yearling auction (Books 1 and 2), 10 New York-bred youngsters sold of 16 offered for a relatively high 37.5% buyback percentage. The other indicators, however, are very strong: the average price came in at $259,000, while the median was $210,000.

The final bids for the RNAs were strong, six figures in all  but one case, and topping out at $210,000. This could suggest seller confidence that the yearlings will increase in market value by the time they are two, whether as sale prospects or runners, given the lucrative juvenile stakes programs for New York-breds on the NYRA and Finger Lakes circuits.

The New York-bred yearlings of Keeneland Book 3 will be offered on Sunday and Monday, with sessions beginning at 10:00 a.m.

Click here for auction hips, links to catalogue pages & current registration status.

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