Salt Lake Mare Tops FT Midlantic Auction

Salty Romance, a stakes-winning daughter of Salt Lake, was purchased by Carlos Martin, agent for Blue Devil Racing Stable, for $260,000 to top the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December mixed sale. The one-day auction was conducted Dec. 5 in Timonium, Md.

Winner of the Boyd Gaming Delta Princess Stakes, Salty Romance was consigned to the sale as Hip No. 312 by Hidden Brook as agent for the Phase II Dispersal of the late Carl Lizza, Jr.’s Flying Zee Stable.

Produced from the unraced Affirmed mare Checkerspot, Salty Romance has produced multiple stakes-placed Luxury Appeal and was sold in foal to Cosmonaut.

The Flying Zee dispersal boosted the sale to huge increases over the comparable auction a year ago. FT reported 260 horses grossed $3,739,350, compared with the $968,100 aggregate paid for 158 head a year ago. This year’s average price of $14,382 and median of $5,200 more than doubled last year’s respective average of $6,127 and $2,000 median. The 79 horses not sold in 2011 represented a 23.3% buyback rate, compared with 43.2% a year ago.

The sale’s second-highest priced offering also came from the Flying Zee dispersal with Dundrum Farm going to $205,000 for a Hard Spun   colt out of the unraced Unbridled's Song mare The Real Melody.

The New York-bred colt, consigned as Hip No. 328, is out of a half sister to two stakes winners including Duck Trap, granddam of champion filly She Be Wild.