A swift Medaglia d'Oro filly established a record for a female Thoroughbred sold at public auction in Maryland when she brought $650,000 May 17 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training in Maryland. She also is the second-highest-priced Thoroughbred of either sex sold in the state.
Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke, in the name of their Stonestreet Stables, purchased the bay juvenile. Fasig-Tipton's Boyd Browning, who kept in touch with key Stonestreet adviser, John Moynihan, via cell telephone, made the winning bid for the wine moguls, who are the principal owners of 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra (by Medaglia d’Oro). The immediate underbidder was Buzz Chace, who said he was representing Lewis Lakin and West Point Thoroughbreds. Chace opened the bidding at $300,000, and the price remained at that amount for a while before climbing to the unprecedented level.
“He (Moynihan) told me every time to bid,” Browning said. “I had no idea when he was going to start and when he was going to stop. All I was was the messenger.”
The filly is the first foal out of the stakes-winning Valid Expectations mare Chit Chat Pam. The bay juvenile worked an eighth of a mile in :10 1/5 during the auction’s under tack show, sharing the fastest time for the distance with five other horses.
"She's a gorgeous filly, and Jess and Barbara like the stallion," Moynihan said in a telephone interview after the record-setting 2-year-old was sold. "She worked beautiful on that track, and it isn't easy to do that on that track."
Bradley Thoroughbred Brokerage, Cherokee Equine, and Pomerol Pty. Ltd. bred the filly in Kentucky.
“I’m talking from the sale company’s perspective not for him (Moynihan),” Browning said. "She’s by one of the best stallions in the world; she worked fabulously; she made a great video; and she looked the part at the end of the shank. She literally ticked all the boxes; she’s a beautiful horse.”
Eisaman Equine consigned the filly for the estate of Edmund Gann, who died in February. Gann,who raced Medaglia d'oro, had purchased her privately when she was a yearling.
“She’s a good-minded, fast filly that’s the right sex by the right stallion,” Shari Eisaman said. “She brought a little more than we thought she would bring.”
The filly had a reserve. She was on the market at $200,000, according to Eisaman.
"Barry Eisaman breaks and trains horses for my friend Martin Cherry, and he (Eisaman) has been raving about her," said Moynihan, who saw the filly during a trip earlier this year to Central Florida. "That carried a lot of weight. He has a lot of horses to compare her to."
During the bidding, Moynihan was talking to Jackson on one phone and Browning on the other.
"When I heard it opened at $300,000, I thought, 'Oh boy, this isn't going to be easy,' " Moynihan said. "The price was high, but with that kind of filly you know it's going to be. A Limehouse filly brought $500,000 at OBS (Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.) in April, and a More Than Ready filly brought $650,000 at OBS in March. I thought it (the price for the Medaglia d'Oro filly) would be $500,000, but I didn't know how much more it would be. I was hoping that people had already filled all their orders (because the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale is later in the year than many other juvenile auctions) ."
Trappe Shot, a Tapit colt, is the most expensive Thoroughbred ever sold in Maryland at public auction. He brought $850,000 last year at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic juvenile sale.