Indy Five Hundred got the Fasig-Tipton November select mixed sale off to a fast start Sunday in Lexington, bringing $3 million as Hip No. 19 in the catalog. Sheikh Mohammed's bloodstock manager, John Ferguson, purchased the 7-year-old grade I-winning A.P. Indy mare, which is in foal to Kingmambo.
"She's a beautiful mare, a grade I winner," Ferguson said. "Her mother (Lyphard's Delta) won the Nassau (Eng-II); and her mother (Proud Delta) was a champion, so you've got three generations of real high performance. Therefore, we feel this mare has a huge opportunity to continue the excellent record of her family so far. Obviously, she's in foal to a horse that we've been lucky with, and it's a factor, but, ultimately, it's the mare we wanted."
Indy Five Hundred captured the 2003 Garden City Breeders' Cup Handicap (gr. IT) and is a full sister to grade III winner Delta Princess. William S. Farish's Lane's End consigned the mare for Peter Minikes, who purchased her as a yearling for $210,000 from Lane's End, agent, at the 2001 Keeneland September sale. The mare produced a War Chant colt last year and a Seeking the Gold filly earlier this year.
Indy Five Hundred's price was "right in the ballpark of what we were expecting," said Bill Farish of Lane's End.