A son of Maria’s Mon topped the opening session of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern fall yearling sale Oct. 1 at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, Md.
The session-topping colt was purchased for $190,000 by Florida pinhooker Nick de Meric on behalf of an undisclosed client who plans to race him. “The man I bought him for is quite private, but I can tell you that it is likely he will race in New York and will be sent to (trainer) Rick Violette,” de Meric said.
In the first of three sessions, Fasig-Tipton reported 175 head sold for a gross of $4,269,800. The average was $24,399 and the median $10,000. The number of horses not sold was 85 (32.7%).
Compared with a year ago, when more horses were offered and sold (225), the gross dropped 23.4% and the average dipped 1.5% from $5,574,900 and $24,777, respectively. The median fell 13% from last year’s figure of $11,500. The number of horses not sold in 2006 was 97 (30.1%).
Despite the downturns for the day, Fasig-Tipton president Walt Robertson was optimistic and believed by the end of the sale, which concludes Oct. 3, the average price will surpass last year’s mark.
“It is just exactly what you would hope for, looking at the whole year, what all the yearling sales have been, I think,” Robertson said. “We’re pleased with the way things got started. By the end, the average price will be greater than last year. With this sale, you have to look at the whole picture.”
The session-topper was consigned by Welker Sales Agency and was bred in Kentucky by Ron Perozzi’s Casino Royale Farm. The gray or roan colt was originally slated to be sold at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale, but injured his foot and was scratched from that auction in favor of the Midlantic fall sale.
“We just hoped he would stand out (at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic) pedigree-wise and individually-wise,” consignor Bayne Welker said.
Produced from the Fred Astaire mare Jinger Feathers, the colt is a half-sister to grade II stakes winner Caught in the Rain (by Petionville). Jinger Feathers is back in foal to Petionville.
De Meric described the session-topping colt as a big-walking, big-moving, two-turn type of horse. “He doesn’t look like an early 2-year-old and we have no intention of trying to make him one,” he said. “I have a mental picture of him sweeping around the wide turns at Belmont early in his 3-year-old year, and that is the type of program we intend to make out for him.”
The day’s top-priced filly was a New York-bred daughter of Not For Loveout of the Red Ransommare Near and Dear who was purchased for $155,000 by Buzz Chace on behalf of Terry Finley’s West Point Thoroughbreds.
“She really looked like a two-turn type of filly,” Chace said. “She is a versatile type of filly. She is not a quick horse, but she has some distance in her pedigree.”
The filly, bred by Mrs. Gerald Nielsen, was consigned by Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck’s Summerfield and is the second foal from her dam and is from the family of stakes winner Without Feathers.
Chace and Finley also teamed up for the day’s second highest-priced colt, a son of Forest Campout of the Louis Quatorzemare Hope’s Diamond. The bay colt was purchased out of the Candyland consignment for $180,000 by Chace, agent for L&F Stables, a pinhooking partnership of West Point and Lewis Lakin.
Finley said the colt would go to M&H Training Center near Ocala, Fla., and would be pointed toward the Fasig-Tipton Calder selected 2-year-olds in training sale next February.