Into Mischief Reigns Supreme at Fasig-Tipton July

by Christie DeBernardis & Christina Bossinakis

LEXINGTON, KY – It was a very strong day of trade across the board at Fasig-Tipton's July Selected Yearlings Sale Tuesday, and, to no one's surprise, offspring of Into Mischief proved to be the auction's most coveted offerings. The Spendthrift kingpin accounted for three of the day's top four sellers, including the $800,000 sales topper (hip 123), who sold to Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and LNJ Foxwoods.

“He is an amazing stallion,” Fasig Tipton President Boyd Browning. Jr. said of Into Mischief. “He is always at the top of the boards. He produces colts, fillies, Derby winners, Classic winners, grass, dirt, short, long. He is the consummate professional as a stallion and there is a high demand for [his offspring], as there should be because of the potential reward on the racetrack.”

The stallion that broke up the Into Mischief party with the co-second highest-priced yearling was Lane's End stalwart Candy Ride (Arg). Perennial leading sires Uncle Mo, Munnings, Hard Spun and Street Sense all accounted for yearlings in the top 10. The only younger stallion to break that barrier was Practical Joke, who has his first runners this year.

Stallions represented by their first yearlings also made a strong showing at the July Sale, which opened Tuesday with the return of the freshman sire showcase. The top sale by a first-crop sire went to MGISW City of Light, who had a $230,000 yearling, and Triple Crown hero Justify was a close second with his lone offspring in the catalogue bringing $210,000. Other freshman sires who made a noteworthy impact were Army Mule, Mor Spirit, Girvin, Mendelssohn, Good Magic, Cloud Computing, West Coast, Tapwrit and Bolt d'Oro.

“It is kind of going back to our roots,” Browning said of the freshman stallion success. “For years our reputation in July was great physicals. We may be forgiving a little bit on pedigree and sire power, but if you have a good-looking colt or filly that looks precocious, that is what we are about in July. It helps build momentum for the farms as well.”

Ned Toffey represents one of those farms trying to get its first-season stallions off to a good start in Spendthrift, which offered yearlings by new stallions Mor Spirit and Free Drop Billy.

“The market has been really good,” Toffey said. “Fasig has always done such a great job with the new sire showcase. And we were obviously very happy watching our new stallions and how they were received. We sold a Mor Spirit for $200,000 and there just seemed to be good activity on all of those.”

A total of 208 yearling summoned $21,608,500 with an average of $103,887 and a median of $80,000. Sixty-nine youngsters failed to find new homes for an RNA rate of 24.9%.

This auction was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was instead combined with the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select and New York-Bred Yearling Sales and held at Newtown Paddocks in September. However, at the 2019 renewal of this sale, 202 yearlings sold for a gross of $18,621,000. The average was $92,183 and the median was $75,000. There were 98 horses led from the ring unsold for an RNA rate of 32.7%.

“It was a strong start to the 2021 yearling sales season,” Browning said. “We were very encouraged when we went to the farms to inspect yearlings by the quality of horses we were seeing, and certainly the 2-year-old sales were encouraging, so we had a lot of optimism going into the sale. I don't think any of us would have been hoping to surpass 2019 numbers, 2019 was a pretty daggone good marketplace, so to be over 2019 is very, very, very encouraging. I am proud of the group of horses our inspection team put together for this sale. Everybody in the marketplace ought to sleep pretty good tonight. It should be a very good yearling market in 2021. We are pretty optimistic about the one coming up in about three weeks [the Saratoga Selected Yearling Sale].”

Justin Casse said he felt there was some trickle down into the middle market, which is often a weak spot in the marketplace.

“The groups I am involved with are generally on the top end ones and it is hard to buy them,” Casse said. “This year is no different. I think we are getting some trickle down to the middle market, which is awesome. I think it is going to be a good year to sell stuff.”

There was a very diverse buying bench on display at this year's July sale with the top 20 horses being purchased by 20 individual buyers. There was also a healthy mix of both end-users and pinhookers buying at all levels.

“There is a depth of buyers and a variety of buyers that really makes you feel good about the spread and the balance of the marketplace,” Browning said.

One of the most active end-users was trainer Ken McPeek, who was quite busy Tuesday, buying a total of 13 yearlings for $1.4 million.

“I think the market seems fair,” the conditioner said. “It seems like there are a lot of people here that are really working it. I'm also glad to get it back to normal as compared to last year when they were all lumped into September and October which was a little bit challenging.”

On the consignor end of things, Four Star Sales accounted for three of the top 10 and Taylor Made Sales Agency and Eaton Sales each had two yearlings in the top 10.

Fasig Tipton's next auction will be held at its New York location with the highly anticipated return of the Saratoga Selected Yearling Sale Aug. 9-10, which will be followed by the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearling Sale Aug. 15-16.

Into Mischief Filly Sparks Fireworks at Fasig

A daughter of super sire Into Mischief proved to be quite a standout at Newtown Paddocks Tuesday, inspiring a furious round of bidding across the pavilion from some of the industry's heavy hitters. It came down to OXO Equine's Larry Best, bloodstock agent Steve Young, and Eclipse Thoroughbreds' Aron Wellman in the final bids, but it was Wellman who came out the victor at $800,000. Hip 123 is the second-highest priced yearling to sell at the Fasig July Sale in the last 10 years, following the Medaglia d'Oro filly Brill, who brought $1 million from Best here in 2017.

Bidding upstairs alongside bloodstock agent Jacob West, Wellman announced that Eclipse would be partnering on the filly with the Roth family's LNJ Foxwoods. The Roths' bloodstock agent Alex Solis was the first to shake Wellman's hand following the sale.

“She is an absolute queen,” Wellman said. “She really stood out heads and shoulders above everything else here, with all respect to the other entrants, of course. As soon as I laid eyes on her, I picked up the phone and called Alex within seconds of seeing her. I knew we were going to need to bring out the big guns, so I am very grateful to Alex, Jason [Litt] and their team, and of course, the Roth family. They've had extreme success with [champion] Covfefe by Into Mischief. Eclipse has had some success with the sire. She has a beautiful page on the bottom side and from a physical perspective, she's a knockout.”

As for the price, Wellman said, “She was craftily placed, that's for sure. It was no surprise that we had to go to war for her. I think all the heavyweights were on her. We were right in the neighborhood of what we thought she was going to be, maybe a bump or two more. Fillies like her are hard to get your hands on and Alex and I thought this was the right one to take a swing for the fences.”

Hip 123 is out of the unraced Indian Charlie mare Cashing Tickets, a full-sister to MGSW sire Conveyance. The Into Mischief/Indian Charlie cross has already produced the likes of Grade I winner Dayoutoftheoffice and MGSW Frank's Rockette.

Jack Sims's McKenzie Bloodstock purchased Cashing Tickets for $55,000 carrying a foal by Bayern at the 2016 Keeneland November Sale. The resulting foal is a now-4-year-old filly named Leggs Galore, who has won three stakes for her breeder and most recently finished second in the GIII Wilshire S. at Santa Anita.

“She has always been a really special horse,” said Lyn Burleson whose Burleson Farms consigned the filly. “We haven't sold over here in several years, but we had a client that wanted to bring a few over here, so we tried to round out the consignment. We decided to stick her in here thinking that hopefully she was going to be one of the better individuals in here and stand out. That was our reasoning behind it and it worked out great for us.” —@CDeBernardisTDN

Candy Ride Colt Brings $350K at F-T July

The buyers were warmed up by the time hip 111, a colt by Candy Ride (Arg), entered Fasig-Tipton's ring Tuesday afternoon. With bidding rising rapidly for the son of the 6-year-old mare Beyond Grace (Uncle Mo), the volleys slowly subsided, before finally ending with a final $350,000 bid from Baton Rouge, Louisiana resident James Bernhard, seated inside the pavilion during the bidding. The colt's breeder, Larry Best, came over to congratulate the successful bidder immediately following the sale.

“He's a lovely Candy Ride and Taylor Made did a lovely job with him. He was one of the best horses in the sale,” said Equine Analysis System's Matthew Weinmann, acting as agent for Bernhard. “We're going to go to Steve Asmussen and he's going to get broke at [Keith Asmussen]'s farm in Texas and see how he does.”

He continued, “We do run a system where we take physiological data. He came up on our model as one of the colts who are most likely to have success, so that's the reason we went after him.”

Explaining the exchange between Best and Bernhard, Weinmann added, “Larry came over to congratulate us after the purchase and to tell us he has the year-older [full-brother] to this colt and that he hoped he could have some success ahead of us.”

The Apr. 4 foal is out of Beyond Grace, a $1.5-million Fasig-Tipton Florida purchase for Best's OXO Equine. The yearling is the second foal out of the unplaced mare, who is also responsible for a year-older colt by the Lane's End sire.

“I told Larry Best that he would bring in the $250,000-350,000 range, so it was right where I thought,” said Taylor Made's Frank Taylor. “He is a very good representation of Candy Ride. He is just like his sire, he's well balanced with a beautiful head, neck and shoulder and good muscling. He's a little bit small footed, but that goes with the Candy Rides.

“I think the market is starting to realize that Candy Ride is becoming a sire of sires with Twirling Candy, and Mastery looks like he has a shot. I think in the back of some of these buyers' minds, if you get one of these Candy Rides in the summer, you will probably be in good shape.”

Later in the sale, Bernhard purchased hip 133, a colt by Empire Maker out of Clever Beauty (Indian Charlie) for $160,000.

Best Gets Good First Experience as a Seller

Larry Best has proven to be a force to be reckoned with among buyers at all the major North American Thoroughbred auctions, consistently purchasing some of the most coveted and expensive horses. The OXO Equine principal got a taste for what it's like on the other side of the sales industry, selling his first homebred, a Candy Ride (Arg) colt (hip 111), to James Bernhard for $350,000 Tuesday in Lexington.

“This is the first homebred I've ever sold and the first horse I've ever sold,” said a visibly pleased Best after shaking hands with the buyer. “It felt so good to go and congratulate the buyer! Everyone has always come up to congratulate me after I purchased their horse and now I know how it feels. It makes you want to come back. We got a fair value for the horse and hope he does well.”

Best added, “If you have quality fillies and quality horses, they should sell well. I have 35 mares and will probably go up to 40, so every year I will be a seller as well as a buyer.”

Best has been very active at the November sales the past two years as he began to build his broodmare band. Some of his top purchases include GI Breeders' Cup Distaff heroine Blue Prize (Arg) (Pure Prize), who topped the 2019 Fasig-Tipton November Sale at $5 million, and GISW Concrete Rose (Twirling Candy), a $1.95-million purchase at last term's Keeneland November Sale. Many of these mares were purchased to support his new stallions, GISW Instilled Regard (Arch) and GSW Instagrand (Into Mischief), both of whom stand at Taylor Made.

“I do like the breeding,” Best said. “I like breeding to sell and also breeding to race. With Instagrand and Instilled Regard, I am excited about keeping quite a few of those and racing them, but, of course, I will also have to sell some. We had a good year with Instagrand. He got 190 mares in his first year.”

Best has also retained some of his expensive race fillies for his breeding operation, like hip 111's dam Beyond Grace (Uncle Mo), who was a $1.5-million Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale acquisition. She is a full-sister to MSP Mighty Mo.

“Larry bought the mare at the 2-year-old sale and then he bred her and raised the foal at Taylor Made,” said Frank Taylor. “We were a little concerned that people would question why Larry would sell a horse rather than buy. But anybody who is a buyer of horses has to become a seller at some point. Larry has a lot of horses now and we went through them and he let us pick out some horses that we thought were nice and would sell well. He has a lot of really nice pinhooks that he bought as weanlings, but they had large numbers on them, so we thought that would scare people away. So having a nice homebred that doesn't have this pricetag on it is ideal. We hope he'll become known as, not only one of the great buyers of racehorses, but also a seller like WinStar and Stonestreet.” —@CDeBernardisTDN

Making Mischief Late at F-T July

The crowd had begun to thin and the action was drawing to a close Tuesday, and it appeared that the day's highlights could already be spotted in the rearview mirror. However, a filly by leading sire Into Mischief, hip 339, had yet to enter the ring, and when all was said and done, the filly garnered a final bid of $350,000. Bidding on the phone while seated inside the pavilion was Bobby Powell, general manager for Mike Rutherford's Manchester Farm. The yearling was consigned by Four Star Sales, acting as agent for her breeder, Spendthrift Farm.

“She will go to the farm tomorrow, and I'll turn her out and let her be a horse for a while,” said Powell, who confirmed that Rutherford had been on the phone throughout the proceedings. “She'll probably go to Eddie Woods some time in the fall and then we'll get her going.”

While Powell did not immediately confirm who the filly will ultimately be trained by, he mentioned that the operation currently employs several trainers, including Steve Asmussen, Bill Mott and Ken McPeek.

The Apr. 5 foal is out of MSP Anahauc (Henny Hughes), who had been purchased privately by Rutherford early on before selling to Spendthrift for $160,000 at the Fasig-Tipton November sale in 2016. Rutherford is also directly associated with the yearling's granddam Foxcaller (Beau Genius), in addition to that mare's stakes-winning offspring Gangbuster (Langfuhr) and Dreamcall (Midnight Lute) and GSP Glorified (Honour and Glory).

“[Rutherford] has four to five generations of that family,” said Powell. “And Into Mischief? What can be said about him that hasn't already been said?”

And while Manchester had previously let go of Anahauc, the farm still boards Foxcaller and Dreamcall, according to Powell.

“She was a very good individual,” he said of the purchase. “She had a lot of Into Mischief in her, but we could definitely see the family in her. We just hope she's as good to us as the rest of her family has been.”

Commenting on the amount paid for the yearling during the buoyant market, Powell added, “It was a lot of money to pay, but when you know as much as we know about the family then we thought it was fair. Spendthrift does a really good job–I stayed informed on the filly all along.”

Tuesday's yearling session highlighted yet another powerful showing by Spendthrift's marquee stallion Into Mischief, who currently leads the nation with over $13.5 million in earnings. At the conclusion of Tuesday's sale, a total of five yearlings by the sire realized $1.8 million and an average of $360,000.

“We debated a lot about what sale to take her to and we thought she would be really strong here,” explained Spendthrift General Manager New Toffey. “She is quick-looking and athletic. She's typical of the Into Mischiefs and is very good minded. She was just an overall nice individual. It's a good position to be in because if we didn't get her sold, we were happy to race her ourselves.”

In total, Spendthrift sold four of six of its yearlings Tuesday, with the Into Mischief filly topping the nursery's receipts for the day.

“Most everything that we have comes through the ring and we just try to put a fair valuation on them,” he explained. “If we get it, then that's great, and if we don't, we're happy to go on and run them. It was very fair money for that filly.”

Into Mischief Filly Bound for Juvenile Sale

Those who took a liking to hip 320, a daughter of red-hot sire Into Mischief, will get another chance to take her home next year at a 2-year-olds in training sale, according to Justin Casse, who purchased the filly Tuesday for $345,000. The bloodstock agent, who signed the ticket as Bullet Bloodstock, was acting on behalf of an undisclosed pinhooking syndicate.

Casse was quite familiar with the bay's family as he pinhooked her mother Vaudevillian (Distorted Humor), a $170,000 KEESEP buy who sold privately after RNA'ing for $215,000 at EASMAY. The now 7-year-old mare is a half-sister to MGISW and millionaire Life At Ten (Malibu Moon).

“When you find something you like by that sire, I think you have to dig in deep to buy it,” Casse said. “I had actually pinhooked the mare. I bought and sold the mother. She was a nice model and I think this individual is a good representation of both the sire and the dam's sire [Distorted Humor]. She looks fast, looks powerful, looks quick. She has a nice hip and is a good mover.”

The filly was consigned by Taylor Made on behalf of her breeder, PTK.

To no one's surprise, the offspring of leading sire Into Mischief continued to be in high demand during Tuesday's auction. He was represented by a total of five yearlings who sold for $1.8-million and averaged $345,000, including the $800,000 sale-topping filly. —@CDeBernardisTDN

Munnings On the Money at F-T July

Holding the distinction as one of only six horses to surpass the $300,000 mark at Fasig Tuesday was hip 178, a filly by Munnings out of the 8-year-old mare Haraawa (Medaglia d'Oro). Consigned by Four Star Sales, the Feb. 3 filly was purchased by Jacob West, acting as agent for Robert and Lawana Low.

“She is a beautiful filly, well bred and well prepared,” said West, explaining the dark bay's allure. “She was well spotted in this sale and as a result, a lot of people were on her. It was right where we had priced her and we were lucky to get her.”

The Florida-bred filly, who was purchased for $92,000 at the Fasig-Tipton November sale last fall, is the second foal out of his unraced dam, also responsible for 3-year-old Gregory's Pride (Tamarkuz).

Hip 178's $300,000 price tag represents a notable increase over the Coolmore stallion's highest-priced yearling in 2020, a filly out of Show Me (Lemon Drop Kid) that brought $240,000 at Keeneland September before being pinhooked for $550,000 at the OBS March sale earlier this season.

“At the end of the day, Munnings is a very good racehorse sire and a good sales sire, obviously,” West said. “He is just a solid stallion. A son of Speightstown and he was very talented himself and he is passing that on to his offspring, including [Grade I winner] Kimari.”

According to West, the filly will go to newly named Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, who also trains Grade I winner Colonel Liam (Liam's Map) for the Lows.

“She is the standard type of horse that they like: well bred and good physicals, they rely on me for that,” said West. “Mr. and Mrs. Low are not just hands-off owners. I would put them up against many of the sport's pedigree experts out there. They know a lot about families. So when they check those boxes, they let me be my guide, which is how this filly came up. This horse checked all the boxes. We were happy to get her.”

McPeek Strikes Early and Often

Trainer Ken McPeek came out swinging right from the start of Tuesday's Fasig-Tipton July sale, kicking off the day's purchases with hip 2 before ultimately signing the ticket for 13 yearlings for a total of $1.4 million during the one-session auction.

Hip 2, a colt by first-season sire Tapwrit, brought a final bid of $100,000. Consigned by Four Star Sales, the yearling is out of the Curlin mare Black Coronas.

McPeek's other early expenditures Tuesday included a $160,000 son of Cloud Computing (hip 51). Out of My Lady Lauren (Hard Spun), the dark bay was consigned by Gainesway. The colt hails from the family of Pioneerof the Nile.

During the early action, McPeek purchased eight yearlings within the first 76 offerings, all of them by first or second-crop stallions.

“It's just the way it landed,” he said of his early purchases. “I called my clients and told them it's going to be a lot of gunfire early.”

Also among the first-season sires secured by McPeek Tuesday were: hip 4 (f, Mo Town); hip 6 (c, Free Drop Billy); hip 18 (f, Awesome Slew); hip 31 (c, Good Samaritan) and hip 76 (f, Always Dreaming).

“This crop of first-season stallions seems to be pretty impressive,” he said. “The Cloud Computing I thought was just a fantastic colt. The Always Dreaming filly was a beautiful horse out of a Pure Prize mare. I also bought a Tapwrit who is out of a Curlin mare and he was a beauty, too. The Awesome Slew is a Florida-bred and although I try to stick with Kentucky-breds, she was really well made. She looked like she would be fast and we spend time in Florida, so it seemed like it was worth the shot.”

While some of his purchases appeared to be a chip off the old block, McPeek explained that wasn't always the case.

“I don't think [the Free Drop Billy] looked anything like his sire,” he said. “He is out of a Bertrando mare and he was a very good horse. I didn't see on the pedigree where it was coming from among the physicals. But I thought the Always Dreaming filly really looked like her daddy.”

The Kentucky-based trainer also secured hip 19, a filly by first-season sire Collected. The chestnut is out of Film Idol (Bernardini), a half-sister to the Grade I winning turf mare Film Maker (Dynaformer).

“I thought the Collected filly was exceptional, physically speaking,” McPeek said.

Asked whether he had made a concerted effort to buy yearlings by young stallions, he said, “I buy a lot of horses by first-season sires. And I buy them on physicals. And I think Fasig does a great job recruiting horses by first-crop stallions that have great conformation. I am not scared of buying those horses.”

Later in the session, McPeek bagged his most expensive purchase of the afternoon, a colt by Dialed In who sold for $185,000. Consigned by Burleson Farm, hip 146 is out of Dreamy Lady (Giant's Causeway). McPeek also secured a filly by Goldencents (hip 272) for $175,000 and hip 177, a Midshipman filly out of Grouse Grind (First Samurai), for $100,000.

Graves Hits Another Homerun With Army Mule Colt

Brian Graves has enjoyed plenty of pinhooking success at the yearling sales through the years and Tuesday was no different. The horseman purchase hip 8, a colt from the first crop of Army Mule, for $40,000 at OBSWIN and sold him to WinStar's Maverick Racing for $200,000 at Newtown Paddocks.

“I bought him with Danielle Jones at OBS,” said Graves, who offered the colt in the Gainesway consignment. “Danielle had him the whole time and did a good job with him, so I was glad to see her do well.”

He continued, “We are always pleased when we can make a profit, but we are even more pleased when we can watch them go on to do good things on the racetrack. [WinStar's] Elliott Walden has done really well with a lot of the horses he has bought from us in the past. One of them was [MGISW] Audible (Into Mischief). We appreciate his support and wish him the best.”

When asked what attracted him to this Florida-bred son of Congarette (Congaree), Graves said, “He was a refined horse with real definition to his neck and shoulder. He also had a good hip and hind leg, but he moves really freely and loosely.”

A $35,000 EASOCT yearling turned $825,000 EASMAY 2-year-old purchase, Army Mule (Friesan Fire) made just three starts, but won them all impressively, capping his career with a win in the GI Carter H. He stood for $10,000 when Caperlane Farm bred this colt in 2019 and now stands for $7,500 at Hill 'n' Dale.

“I saw several Army Mules that I liked,” said Graves. “It seems he is getting a nice refined horse and that is the type of horse that I like.”

Four yearlings by Army Mule grossed $455,000 Tuesday with an average of $113,750. —@CDeBernardisTDN