Thursday, February 2, 2023
Next week, Highgate Sales returns to where it all began when we offer 10 horses at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale on February 6 and 7 a year after making our consignment debut at the same sale.
It was at that sale that Highgate Sales registered our first sales topper when Grade 1-placed Brilliant Cut brought $750,000 from Katsumi Yoshida. All ten offered in that inaugural consignment sold for an average of $121,600 with a gross of $1.216 million.
This year, Highgate has a lone offering during the first session of the two-day sale with the winning Evoking selling as Hip 146. Seeing champion Waya as her fourth dam, Union Rags daughter Evoking was a debut winner over six furlong on the Belmont Park dirt and hails from the famed George Strawbridge breeding program.
The mare’s dam is the multiple stakes placed Smart Seattle, whose three winners include Evoking’s four-time winning full brother Smart Rags. Smart Seattle is one of seven straight dams on the page to either perform at the stakes level or produce a stakes performer with five of those producing stakes winners.
Pigeon Cay kicks off the second day of selling for Highgate as Hip 323.
Working regularly at The Thoroughbred Center, Pigeon Cay placed last year as a juvenile going five furlongs on the turf as a half-sister to four winners out of stakes placed Trade Only. Trade Only has produced two stakes winners with Fully Vested and Midnight Watch. Midnight Watch is the dam of winner Ready At Midnight, who scored a victory to end 2022 before starting 2023 with a runner up finish on January 28.
Each of Pigeon Cay’s first eight dams have produced stakes performers with her third dam being the bluehen broodmare Weekend Surprise. That mare produced dual Grade 1 winner Summer Squall and Horse of the Year A.P. Indy in addition to passing on her broodmare talent with five of her daughters also producing stakes performers. Pigeon Cay’s granddam is Amirati, the dam of two stakes performers and three stakes producers.
Hip 371 comes through the ring with a recent stakes update after her dam’s half-sister produced a stakes winner in Roaring Forties. That 7-year-old gelding won the Sunshine Turf Stakes on January 21 for his sixth career victory to take his earnings to $280,924. A stakes placed runner herself, Senora Roma won five of 15 starts with eight other top three finishes for $209,428.
Senora Roma is a half-sister to the stakes-placed, eight-time winner Takeittotheedge and out of Willathewest. That mare is a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Willa On the Move and three other stakes performers with four of her siblings producing stakes winners.
Carrying her first foal by Liam’s Map on a March 21 cover, Serene Pauline goes through the ring as Hip 375. Serene Pauline is a Stonestreet Thoroughbreds-bred out of the Grade 2 winner and Grade 1 placed Teen Pauline, who also produced stakes winner Cambria.
The family shows that she should have plenty of talent as a producer with her first seven dams producing stakes winners and her first 10 dams all producing stakes performers.
The stakes placed Fast and Flirty finished second in a Gulfstream Park Allowance Optional Claiming race on January 28 by a neck and enters the ring as Hip 481 on February 7. A half-sister to multiple stakes winner Split Time, she broke her maiden in her second start in a Churchill Downs Maiden Special Weight going a mile on the dirt as a juvenile before finishing third in the Cash Run Stakes on New Year’s Day in 2022.
Ready to go straight back to the track, Fast and Flirty carries all her conditions and is eligible for N1X/NW2 in addition to being eligible for Santa Anita and Del Mar’s lucrative Ship and Win program.
As a broodmare prospect, Fast and Flirty is by Into Mischief whose daughters have produced nine stakes winners and 17 stakes performers including Grade 1 winner White Abarrio. Each of her first eight dams have also proven to be good producers with each producing at least one stakes performer with that group led by Grade 1 winner Without Feathers.
Back Channel sells as a broodmare prospect as Hip 494 after a successful career that saw her finish in the top three in 12 of 22 starts for $188,449 in earnings. A $400,000 Keeneland September Yearling purchase, Back Channel won four of those starts from six to seven furlongs on both dirt and turf.
As a broodmare prospect, Back Channel is by an Unbridled’s Song son with Unbridled’s Song granddaughters producing 31 graded stakes winners and 101 stakes winners led by seven Grade 1 winners. She is out of the stakes placed Divergent View with 10 stakes performers listed under her four dams on the page. Each of her first five dams earned blacktype themselves with five of her first six producing runners who earned blacktype for the family.
Hip 527, Point Wild, is carrying a foal by successful sire Ghostzapper. That stallion added another accomplishment to his resume last month when his daughter Goodnight Olive was named 2022 Eclipse Champion Female Sprinter. The foal Point Wild is carrying is bred on the same Ghostzapper x Dynaformer mare cross as Grade 1 winner Stately Victor, four other graded stakes winners, seven stakes winners, and 11 stakes performers with 23 winners from 31 runners.
Point Wild brings a big family to the ring as a half-sister to MSP Readyforprimetime with the duo out of a half-sister to G1W Power Broker. Two of her first three dams have also produced top-level winners with second dam Shop Again producing Grade 1 winner Power Broker and third dam Shopping producing Miss Shop. Blacktype features prominently on the page with 12 stakes winners, five graded stakes winners, and 20 stakes performers under her first three dams.
Two-time winner Voila Baby sells as Hip 544 only a little over a week after her Grade 1 winning half-brother Speaking Scout finished third in the G1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational. Voila Baby is one of two winners from two to race out of the stakes placed Miss Scout, one of three stakes producers out of the stakes winning It’s Over.
The dam of a yearling American Freedom colt, Voila Baby sees nine stakes performers under her first two dams with five of her first six dams producing stakes performers. In addition to her own Grade 1 winning half-brother, there are five other stakes winners on the page as well. Voila Baby is by an Into Mischief son with Into Mischief’s own daughters producing nine stakes winners and 17 stakes performers including Grade 1 winner White Abarrio while daughters of Pleasant Tap mares have produced 19 graded stakes winners, 37 stakes winners, and 72 stakes performers, led by four Grade 1 winners.
Highgate Sales’ second to last offering at the sale is Hip 559, a Game Winner yearling half-sister to multiple graded stakes placed Dream Shake. That runner is bred similarly to this filly as a son of Twirling Candy, who shares a sire with Game Winner.
Their two-time winning dam Even Song is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner and Grade 1 placed Synchrony and Grade 3 winner Chocolate Kisses – who is also by Candy Ride. Stakes form runs strongly through this family with each of the yearling’s first seven dams producing stakes performers with all but her first dam producing stakes winners.
Street Cry mares like Even Song have produced 62 graded stakes winners, 123 stakes winners, and 218 stakes horses with that group led by champion Vino Rosso and 2022 G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Rebel’s Romance among 20 Grade 1 winners.
Supplemented to the sale this week is Hip 589, the well-bred racing and stallion prospect Park Place, a grandson of Grade 1 winner Pleasant Home.
Carrying all his conditions, Park Place has been second in both his starts at the Maiden Special Weight level with the second coming on January 26 by a neck going six furlongs at Turfway. The colt is a half-brother to two winners from two others to race out of Chuckling with that duo including nine-time winner Positive Phil.
Chuckling herself is a half-sister to eight winners from nine runners out of their Grade 1 winning dam with three of her half-sisters producing stakes performers. That group is led by Magical World, who produced three-time winner Guarana and stakes winners Beat Box and Magic Dance.
Pleasant Home is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner and graded stakes producer Country Hideaway and to two-time winning Matlacha Pass. That mare produced five-time Grade 1 winner Point of Entry and dual Grade 1 winner Pine Island among her four stakes performers.
Ready to go straight back to the track, Park Place is eligible for Santa Anita and Del Mar’s lucrative Ship and Win program.
The 2023 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale takes place on February 6 and 7 with each session starting at 10a.m. ET. You can see a PDF with the pages of Highgate Sales’ offerings here.
