Fox Hill Mares in Demand at Strong February Sale

Spirited bidding for several young broodmare prospects helped produce strong figures for the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale, which concluded its two-day run in Lexington yesterday. Leading the way was Cinnamon Spice (Candy Ride {Arg}), who topped both Tuesday's session and the sale overall when she was hammered down for $700,000.

Oussama Aboughazale's International Equities Holding Co. bought the 6-year-old racing/broodmare prospect, who was offered as hip 345 by Taylor Made Sales Agency on behalf of owner Rick Porter's Fox Hill Farms. Fox Hill Farms was also the seller on the day's second-highest offering, the racing or broodmare prospect Glory (Tapit), who sold for $300,000.

“She captured everybody's attention,” Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning said of Cinnamon Spice. “As soon as anyone with significant racehorses saw her, they wanted to own her. If you didn't have significant horses, you said, 'Wow, I wish I could own her,' but you knew you couldn't. She was a beautiful filly.”

Cinnamon Spice fetched significantly more than the sale topper in 2016. Last year, graded stakes winner Flashy American (Flashy Bull) brought $395,000 from Blue Sky Stable. The hammer price was the largest at the February sale since 2013, when horses from the dispersal of Eugene Melnyk were front and center. Pool Land (Silver Deputy) topped that year's event on a bid of $900,000.

A total of 351 horses were sold over the course of the two-day February sale, leading to a gross of $9,501,800, which was up 15% compared to last year. Overall, the average was $27,071 (+11.7%), and the median was $9,000 (-5.3%). The buy-back rate of 25.5% was up slightly. In 2016, 341 horses sold for a gross of $8,260,600.

In all, 23 horses brought six figures. Fourteen reached that threshold a year ago.

“Overall, it was a very positive two days,” said Browning. “I think we were pleasantly surprised at the level of activity and just the mood. Buyers found it generally tougher to buy than they thought they were going to, and I think sellers may have found a little more activity in the marketplace than they had anticipated coming into the sale.

“The average is up and the gross is up, but you have got to be realistic and you have to evaluate your horses objectively, not emotionally. It is still no fun when you have a 14-year-old mare that hasn't produced anything and is in foal to the wrong stallion or in foal really late.”

During the second day of the sale, 187 horses sold for a gross of $4,799,500, leading to an average of $25,666 and a median of $8,000. The buy-back rate was 19.7%. In the same session last year, 157 horses sold for a gross of $4,966,100. That led to an average of $31,631 and a median of $12,000.

The highest-priced short yearling of the sale also sold during Tuesday's session. Makes Mo Cents (hip 492), a son of hot sire Uncle Mo, went to Michael and Julia O'Quinn for $172,000. He was consigned by Bluewater Sales.

Cinnamon Spice was far from the only young mare to bring a significant sum across the two days. Monday's session topper, Grade III winner Super Majesty (Super Saver), was also the second-highest priced horse overall. Consigned by Darby Dan Farm on behalf of owners LNJ Foxwoods, Super Majesty was sold to Susan Chu's Baoma Corp. for $475,000.

She's All In (Include), who was also offered during the opening session, brought the third-highest price of the sale. Offered by Vinery Sales as part of the dispersal of Rockin' Z Ranch, She's All In went to RML, agent, for $325,000. Ran Leonard bought the millionaire, who was offered in foal to Magna Graduate, on behalf of an undisclosed client.

The last horse offered in the sale, Glory, brought the fourth highest-price overall when Abdullah Saeed Almaddah went to $300,000 to secure her. Like Cinnamon Spice, Glory (hip 640) was offered as a racing/broodmare prospect by Taylor Made Sales Agency on behalf of Fox Hill Farms.

“When the sale history on a broodmare comes in and she was bought by Fox Hill, you know she is going to be good looking, you know that she was treated right, and you know she is going to have every opportunity,” said Browning. “It gives people a lot of confidence. It is a racing program that is associated with excellence at the highest level, and they are straight-up legitimate, good people. People have confidence doing business with them, and it showed again today.”

Better Late than Never

The fact the February sale is the last chance to buy or sell a mare at auction before the breeding season gets underway once again led to competition for quality lots on Tuesday.

Cinnamon Spice (Candy Ride {Arg}) set off fireworks early in the session when Oussama Aboughazale's International Equities Holding Co. went to $700,000 to secure the well-bred broodmare prospect. Out of the Gone West mare Violent Beauty, Cinnamon Spice is a half-sister to Grade I winner Violence (Medaglia d'Oro) and hails from the family of champion Sky Beauty.

“She did cost a little more than we were expecting, but the quality always rises to the top,” said bloodstock advisor Frances Relihan, who signed the ticket. “We knew we would have a challenge to get her, so we were happy. She's a beautiful mare, obviously. We looked at her and thought she was the best physical in the sale. There is great depth in her pedigree. She had a lot of ability from what we could see on the track. She didn't get black-type, but she trained really well and she did really show some brilliance.”

Cinnamon Spice won four of nine starts and earned $144,820 on the racetrack. She was most recently fourth in the Tiffany Lass S. at Fair Grounds last December.

In addition to topping this year's sale, Cinnamon Spice became the most expensive horses to sell at the February sale since 2013. That year, Pool Land topped the sale at $900,000 as part of the Eugene Melnyk dispersal. Breeding plans for Cinnamon Spice are undecided.

“Mr. Aboughazale is looking to add quality mares to his broodmare band, and we thought this nice young mare would be ideal,” said Relihan. “She comes from a very good program from Fox Hill. Tom McGreevy, as we all know, always buys such an amazing yearling that we were very happy to pursue her.”

Taylor Made Sales Agency consigned Cinnamon Spice on behalf of Rick Porter's Fox Hill Farms, which purchased the chestnut for $350,000 out of the 2012 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. McGreevy is Porter's bloodstock advisor. That connection is something that Mark Taylor felt may have led to such high interest in the 6-year-old mare.

“There is a brand-name association that goes with Fox Hill,” said Taylor. “As soon as they see them in the catalogue, they know they are going to be good looking, most of them can run, and they don't buy horses with bad pedigrees. So you have all those factors built in, and I think they bring more money because of it.”

Cinnamon Spice was originally slated to sell at the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, but had to be withdrawn for reasons that had nothing to do with her.

“She was scheduled to go in January, but she got caught up in the quarantine thing coming out of the Fair Grounds, so we had to scratch her out of there,” said Taylor. “This was the last spot to try and sell her. I think these kinds of horses, wherever they show up, people are going to identify them as quality.

“This mare, we've had her on the farm for awhile leading up to the sale and there were a lot of inquiries about her privately. We had several of our customers trying to buy her. She was one of those mares I was desperately wanting to go back to Taylor Made because, if she reproduces herself physically, she's going to sell really high dollar yearlings for a long time.”

Relihan had experience with Cinnamon Spice long before she was offered as a broodmare prospect.

“I had seen her previously,” said Relihan. “I was the farm manager at Vinery for many years, and we used to lay up a lot of horses. We had horses for Mr. Porter. I had her for a couple months after he purchased her as a yearling back then, so I knew what she was like and knew what she looked like.”

Aboughazale, a perennial leading owner in Chile, races in the United States under the moniker Sumaya U.S. Stable, which is named after his mother, and he recently purchased a farm in Paris. During the February sale, he also purchased a number of mares to support his young stallion Protonico, who stands at Taylor Made.

Aboughazale was also active at the Keeneland January sale, where he purchased 11 horses for a total of $2,251,000, including the $700,000 Delightful Joy (Tapit).

Pinhooking Purposes

Michael and Julia O'Quinn went to $172,000 on Tuesday afternoon to secure Makes Mo Cents (hip 492), the highest-priced short yearling of the sale. The Uncle Mo colt is the first foal out of the winning Stormy Atlantic mare Infliction.

“He was a very nice colt,” said Michael O'Quinn. “It was a little bit more than I really wanted to spend on him, but my wife and I have a little pinhooking deal that we do. We try to get a few elite horses, and we keep it small. It's just us. All we can do is just hope for the best.”

Bluewater Sales consigned the colt, who was foaled last February and was the only Uncle Mo yearling in the sale. The colt was bred by TNIP, which purchased Infliction with this foal in utero for $100,000 at the 2015 Keeneland November sale.

O'Quinn plans on pinhooking Makes Mo Cents later this year.

“It'll either be here in July or in Saratoga,” said O'Quinn. “He's just got to keep going, keep growing, doing everything that he's got to do. The main thing is we've just got to stay out of his way and let him do what he's going to do. If you force it, it'll come back and bite you. You've just got to hope he'll be the horse we expect him to be later on.

“(Uncle Mo) just gets runner after runner. If you want to play at the top end, you've got to go with those type of sires, so that's what we did.”