By Sarah Mace
When Fasig-Tipton rang down the curtain on the 2023 North American juvenile sales season on Wednesday, June 28 at the sale company’s inaugural Midlantic June Sale, the New York-bred foal crop of 2021 had yet one more top-flight 2-year-old to unveil: an Arrogate filly who brought $225,000 as the second-highest priced horse of the single-session auction.
At the first iteration of this relatively small-scale sale, where a total of 59 horses sold, nine New York-breds changed hands (of 13 offered) for an average price of $46,889, which outperformed the overall sale average of $44,018. The New York-bred median of $26,000 was a tick off the $27,000 sale median.
The $225,000 New York-bred star of the day, offered as Hip 78 by Cary Frommer LLC Agent, went to Hillwood Stables after breezing an eighth in :10 3/5 in Tuesday’s under-tack show. Breeze video. Inspection video.
The youngster was bred in partnership by Hidden Lake Farm, where she was foaled on March 11, 2021, and 3C Stables. She was well-received when first offered as a yearling by RFHF Bloodstock at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton New York preferred New York-bred sale in Saratoga, bringing $170,000 from Frommer.
The filly’s dam Summer Shade, a winner at two and three by Stephen Got Even, has produced a pair of winners, including stakes-placed runner Harmon, who has earned $223,657 to date. Summer Shade is also a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Hot Summer. Fourth dam Key to the Bridge boasts such luminaries in her family as Havre de Grace, Tonalist and Riskaverse. Hidden Lake Farm/Halmar purchased Summer Shade at the 2016 Keeneland November sale for $22,000.
The top New York-bred colt of the session was Hip 70, a chestnut individual from the first crop of Catalina Cruiser bred by Barry R. Ostrager and foaled, like the topper, at Hidden Lake Farm on April 17, 2012.
The colt’s dam is stakes winner Royale Michele, by Elusive Quality, who captured the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie H. and won or placed in three more stakes races. A veteran of the auction ring, the colt RNA’d as a weanling in the Fasig-Tipton New York fall mixed sale, and sold the following year at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sale for $45,000. An RNA for consignor Navas Equine at OBS Spring earlier this year, he breezed a panel in :10 1/5 seconds for Navas at the Midlantic sale before being purchased by Hugh McMahon, Agent, for $47,000. Breeze video.
Ostrager purchased Royale Michele at the 2020 Keeneland November breeding stock sale for $20,000. She has produced four winners, including Royale Paradise, who has produced a pair of stakes performers.
Breeders, consignors and prospective owners now turn the page to the all-consuming business of buying and selling yearlings. First up is the Fasig-Tipton July sale of selected yearlings in Lexington on July 11, but the real action for the New York-bred program will take place closer to home in August at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale on August 7-8 and the New York-bred preferred yearling sale, also at Saratoga, on August 13-14.
