Eclipse Thoroughbred Fillies Trending in the Sales Ring and in the Breeding Shed

For over a decade, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners has built a reputation for racing Grade I-winning fillies who go on to prove successful, both in the sales ring, and then in the breeding shed. The operation was part of the partnership which sold champion Nest (Curlin) for $6 million last year and it sold Feathered (Indian Charlie), who subsequently produced superstar Flightline (Tapit), for $2.35 million in 2016. Eclipse will once again be loaded with top-shelf fillies on offer at next week's breeding stock sales in Lexington.

“From the get-go, we made a concerted effort to focus our stable predominately based on fillies for this very reason,” said Eclipse president and founder Aron Wellman. “At the end of the day, if we are doing our job, these fillies will create some inherent residual value for our partners. We've now been in business for 13 years and–I would have to look at the stats to verify–but I think the vast majority of those years we have sold at least one, if not multiple, seven-figure fillies. And this year we are in line for another streak extender, so to speak.”

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners has three mares catalogued for Monday's Fasig-Tipton November Sale and another three catalogued in Book 1 at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale across town Tuesday. Whether all six keep their engagements in the sales ring could be determined Saturday, with three of the six seeing action on championship weekend at Del Mar.

Leading off the group is Grade I winner Queen's Goddess (Empire Maker), who is catalogued as hip 179 at Fasig-Tipton. The 6-year-old mare, who won the 2021 GI American Oaks, as well as the 2023 GIII Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational Stakes and two other graded events, will sell in foal to Into Mischief.

“Queen Goddess is sure to bring seven figures, plus,” Wellman said. “It's a beautiful pedigree, she's a beautiful physical and she's in foal to the man himself, Into Mischief.”

Queen Goddess, whose last race was a troubled ninth-place effort in her Pegasus defense in January, is the only one of the six Eclipse offerings to be offered in foal.

Next up in Eclipse's Fasig-Tipton line-up is multiple graded stakes winner Solo Album (Curlin) (hip 190). The 4-year-old filly is out of Grade I-placed Summer Solo (Arch), who is a half-sister to the dam of recent GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup winner She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}).

“Solo Album is a gorgeous daughter of Curlin, right off the racetrack, a multiple graded stakes winning mare with a very active pedigree,” Wellman said. “We are really excited to bring her to market.”

Also catalogued to Fasig-Tipton's boutique auction is Grade I winner Candied (Candy Ride {Arg}) (hip 232). The 3-year-old filly won last year's GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes and was runner-up in this year's GI Coaching Club American Oaks and GI Alabama Stakes before a third-place finish in the GI Juddmonte Spinster Stakes. The filly, who is entered in Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, is unlikely to keep her sales engagement Monday evening in Lexington.

“Candied will not go to the sale, as of right now, unless something unforeseen happens after the Breeders' Cup,” Wellman said. “As of right now, she will probably bypass the sale and race another season.”

Anisette | Benoit

That formula worked for Eclipse last year when the operation took Anisette (GB) (Awtaad {Ire}), already winner of the GI Del Mar Oaks, out of the Keeneland November sale and the dark bay filly won an additional two Grade I races–the GI American Oaks and GI Gamely Stakes–as well as the GII Yellow Ribbon Stakes. The 4-year-old goes postward in Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup F/M Turf and is catalogued for this year's Keeneland November sale as hip 229.

“Anisette is such an exciting prospect,” Wellman said. “She had an incredible 3-year-old season last year. We did not run her in the Breeders' Cup. We felt she needed another year to mature to be able to deserve that opportunity. So we brought her back at age four. That strategy of holding on to her for another year and bypassing last November paid off, thankfully.”

Anisette enters the Breeders' Cup off a narrowly beaten third-place effort in the Sept. 7 GII John C. Mabee Stakes.

“She was taken a little bit out of her game in the John Mabee, but that race was really designed as a prep to get her to the Breeders' Cup in the best of shape,” Wellman said. “Now she is fresh. The Filly and Mare Turf is one of the best renditions of this race in Breeders' Cup history, so she is going to have the opportunity to prove she belongs with the best fillies and mares in the turf in the world.”

Whether Anisette takes her place at Keeneland next Tuesday is also dependent on her performance Saturday, according to Wellman.

“We will see how she performs on Saturday before determining whether she shows up at Keeneland or not,” Wellman said. “She is a filly that we feel like falls into the gray area of whether you bring her back for another season at age five because she's just so consistent at an elite level. But we have to treat this as a business at times as well. We are predominantly a racing partnership, but we have to be prudent and responsible when it comes time to consider liquidating really high-end assets.”

Another filly with a European pedigree who will see action for Eclipse in the F/M Turf–and possibly in the Keeneland sales ring–is Sunset Glory (Ire) (Cotai Glory {GB}) (hip 79). The 4-year-old returned from a year and a half on the sidelines to break her maiden at Santa Anita in April. She added a Del Mar allowance in July before winning the CTT and TOC Stakes at the oceanside oval in August. She was most recently fifth in the Oct. 5 GII Rodeo Drive Stakes.

“She is extremely talented,” Wellman said of Sunset Glory. “We have always thought the world of her. Unfortunately, she faced a few minor setbacks that held her out of the races for over a year and she came back and won three in a row off long layoffs, including a stakes win. She was extremely troubled in the Rodeo Drive last time and that's why we are willing to take a monumental shot in the F/M Turf. We just think on talent alone, she deserves the opportunity. She's certainly going to have to step up in a humongous way in terms of class to be able to be competitive. Her performance on Saturday will largely determine whether she goes to market this season or we hold on to her because we have more to prove with her over the course of the next year.”

Asked whether wins on championship weekend made it more or less likely that horses like Anisette, Candied, and Sunset Glory  would be offered at auction next week, Wellman laughed.

“That's a really good question and I hope it's a question that we have to answer on Saturday night,” he said. “That's a first-world problem that we will have to answer, but it's one of those things where you just kind of have to go with your gut. Fortunately, we have been down this road many a time in the last decade, plus, with these top-shelf fillies coming to market and we have been able to top several of these sales over the years.”

Rounding out Eclipse's Keeneland Book 1 offerings is the stakes-winning broodmare prospect Atomically (Girvin) (hip 118), who was third in last year's GIII Forward Gal Stakes.

Atomically | Lauren King

Eclipse fillies will continue to be on offer at Keeneland, with graded-placed Frosty O'Toole (Frosted) (hip 991) and stakes winner Golden Canary (Medaglia d'Oro) (hip 1005) among its offerings later in the auction.

“It doesn't stop with just Book 1 at Keeneland,” Wellman said. “We have a really healthy draft of very attractive fillies with lots of black-type on their race records and attractive pedigrees who might not be quite Book 1 quality on paper, but still are really solid six-figures, plus, type mares that are also very important to the program as well, aside from just these seven-figure marquee mares.”

While primarily a racing partnership, and despite its niche as a seller of high-end fillies and mares, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners is also active in the breeding business.

“We have a boutique breeding operation that we try to keep as selective as possible,” Wellman said. “It's mostly comprised of fillies that we raced or ones that failed to make the races that we had an inside track on and believed that they have more talent than the commercial market would appreciate. We do have several stallions in Kentucky right now that we have retained an interest in, including Independence Hall and Aloha West, so we want to support those stallions with our seasons as well.

“We sort of play on the come as to whether we sell [the foals] and turn revenue for the partners that are involved in those breeding partnerships or if we race them,” Wellman continued. “It's a neat little diversification of what we offer our partners, aside from just the racing partnerships. But the goal, of course, is for them to do well enough on the racetrack that they are too expensive for us to be able to retain.”

Those fillies too expensive to retain have built quite a resume for Eclipse graduates–from its first Grade I winner Byrama (GB) (Byron {GB}), who went on to produce GI Curlin Florida Derby winner Known Agenda (Curlin), to a mare like Feathered, who won a graded stakes in its colors before selling for over $2 million and producing champion Flightline.

Asked what it was like to watch the success of graduates like Feathered, Wellman said, “It's hugely gratifying. Would we have loved to retain Feathered? Of course we would. But financially, speaking, at that moment, it just wasn't viable for us to do so. She was an incredibly profitable partnership.”

Wellman continued, “We are really proud and gratified when progeny of former Eclipse fillies do go on to succeed. That just enhances the Eclipse fillies moniker that we have worked so hard to brand over the course of the last decade plus. When we bring these fillies to market, it's incredibly important for buyers to know that these mares that we race so successfully are capable of going on and producing at the highest level. That's just an added value for our partners.”

Other Grade I-winning Eclipse graduates to bring seven figures in the sales ring include Curalina ($3 million in 2016); Illuminant ($1.1 million in 2017); In Lingerie ($2.4 million in 2013); and Valiance ($3 million in 2021).

“We have established this hashtag moniker, #eclipsefillies that I think the industry has picked up on globally,” Wellman said. “It's all part of the program, and the overall strategy, that we try to construct for our partners. Hopefully, we can identify fillies at a young age, either as yearlings or early in their careers, that go on and take them on a wonderful ride on the racetrack and then be able to cash in when their racing careers are over, so that the cycle can come full circle and they can take those proceeds and hopefully go and try to find another one.”