Whisper Hill Farm

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, which opened Monday with figures on pace for a third year of records, concluded Tuesday with an electric session which demolished the sale's previous high for gross, average, and median. At the close of business Tuesday, 154 yearlings sold for $82,160,000--highest ever in the auction's 103-year history, surpassing the previous record of $75,055,000 set last year. The average of $533,506 also improved on the 2023 record figure of $487,370, while the median of $425,000 bettered the...

Returning to the races off a year layoff, Tapit Trice marked his return in style, rolling home a 5 1/4-length winner over Highland Falls in the GIII Monmouth Stakes. A beat slow out of post 8, Tapit Trice was fanned four wide heading into the first turn as Counterspy (Gun Runner) went to the front, carving out an opening quarter in :24.14. A three-wide third following a :49.15 half, the grey held a slight advantage over favored Highland Falls, who was pinned along the inside and in need of racing...

Bolt D'Vine (Bolt d'Oro--Perfectly Divine, by Vindication) was one of two runners in the field with no prior experience, but you'd never know it judging by her performance here. Cruising home as easily as she pleased, the filly carrying Michael House's colors sailed over the wire and earned the 'Rising Star' nod in the process. Off at 3-1 and vying from off the rail up the backstretch through :22.36 and :45.53 fractions, it looked briefly like her early rival might make a race of it, but when Bolt d'Vine took...

3rd-GP, $60k, Msw, 3yo, f, 6f, post time: 2:14 p.m. ET In the name of her Whisper Hill Farm, Mandy Pope went to $1.3 million for a son of Tapit out of MSW & GSP Danzatrice (Dunkirk) at the 2021 Keeneland September, and that looked like money well spent when Tapit Trice went on to a victory in the 2023 GI Toyota Blue Grass S. while placing in the GI Belmont S. and GI Travers S. Pope was so enamored of her purchase that she went back to the well...

Billed as a showdown between the top three finishers of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, Keeneland's opening day GI Central Bank Ashland S.--worth not just $600,000 in purse money but also GI Kentucky Oaks points on a 100-50-25-15-10 scale--instead featured the blossoming of Whisper Hill Farm's 'TDN Rising Star' Leslie's Rose (f, 3, Into Mischief--Wildwood Rose {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}), who left no doubt about the top filly on the day with a three-length tour de force. George Krikorian's Breeders' Cup winner and Eclipse champion Just F Y I...

2011's GI Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty (Medaglia d'Oro) died Monday at Gainesway Farm according to a release from the farm. The 16-year-old was a multiple Grade I winner throughout her career for Peachtree Stable and trainer Bob Baffert and ultimately captured the lilies before retiring in 2012 with earnings of over $1.7m and a final record of 12-5-2-3. A $130,000 OBS yearling, Plum Pretty would last secure a final bid of $4.2m from Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm at KEENOV in 2012.  She produced a total of 8 foals...

8th-GP, $89K, Msw, 3yo, 1m, 3:37 p.m. ET. For a $1-million price tag, Sean Flanagan secured TOP CONOR (Twirling Candy) for his stable at last year's OBS March Sale, which tied the colt for the fourth-highest at the auction and made him his sire's highest-priced 2-year-old in 2023. Previously going for $200,000 during Keeneland September, the Chad Brown trainee is out of GSP Divine Dawn (Divine Park), who International Equities acquired with a filly by Nyquist in-utero for $285,000 at the Keeneland November Sale in 2017. A full-sister to GSW/MSW...

The TDN's popular annual series 'Mating Plans, presented by Spendthrift,' continues today in a conversation with Whisper Hill Farm's Mandy Pope.   Shedaresthedevil, 7, Daredevil—Starship Warpspeed, by Congrats. To be bred to Into Mischief. When we planned Shedaresthedevil's first mating, we chose Gun Runner because we loved the physical match and we also liked the Storm Cat and A.P. Indy in her pedigree for him.   She foaled January 29th, and the filly is everything that we had hoped and dreamed she could be! She is a big, strong chestnut filly...

2nd-GP, $89K, Msw, 3yo, f, 7f, 12:38 p.m. ET. Whisper Hill homebred TAP MY BELLE (Tapit) makes her first start for trainer Ralph Nicks. The gray is out GI Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic heroine Unrivaled Belle (Unbridled's Song), who was bred and raced by Gary Seidler and Peter Vegso. Initially, she was purchased by Brushwood Stable for $2.8 million as the fourth highest price at the 2011 Keeneland November Sale. Five years later at the same auction, Whisper Hill made the mare the sales topper when Mandy Pope took her...

2nd-GP, $89K, Msw, 3yo, 7f, 11:30 a.m. The inside four horses, all first-time starters, headline Pegasus World Cup day at Gulfstream Park Saturday. BATTEN DOWN (Tapit) kicks things off for Bill Mott who looks to capitalize on a huge Eclipse Awards night with this Juddmonte homebred. A son of champion older mare Close Hatches, this colt is out of a full-sister to MGISP Lockdown, herself the dam of newly-crowned champion 3-year-old filly Idiomatic (Curlin). He is also a full-brother to MGSW/MGISP Tacitus and from the family of G1 Tattersalls Irish...

1st-AQU, $80k, Msw, 3yo, f, 1m, post time: 12:50 p.m. ET WEATHER DELAY (Curlin), the first foal out of MGISW American Gal (Concord Point), kicks off her career for Repole Stable and trainer Todd Pletcher. The 3-year-old was a $500,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase. Carrying the colors of Kaleem Shah, American Gal captured the 2017 GI Longines Test S. at Saratoga and the following term's GI Humana Distaff S. at Churchill Downs. She was also third as the favorite in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. American Gal brought $3...

6th-Gulfstream, $72,000, Alw (NW1X)/Opt. Clm ($75,000), 1-11, 3yo, f, 7f, 1:23.36, gd, 1 length. LESLIE'S ROSE (f, 3, Into Mischief--Wildwood Rose {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}) earned 'TDN Rising Star' honors when she won by 9 1/4 lengths in her first start at Aqueduct Nov. 19. Through the ring as one of the top ten prices, the Keeneland September graduate made her 3-year-old debut with Lasix and was well-backed as the heavy 1-5 favorite here. The filly allowed Gun Song (Gun Runner) to take the lead from her up the backstretch....