By Sarah Mace
The New York-bred male and female toppers at this week’s 2023 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings sale in Timonium, MD were both produced by relatively young broodmares with multiple significant updates on their catalogue pages. In keeping with the forward-looking profiles of the toppers, they were both also sired by first-crop stallions. The two yearlings changed hands in the second session of the two-day auction, which took place on Monday and Tuesday, October 2 and 3.
The New York-bred top-seller was Hip 267, a dark bay or brown colt by Tom’s d’Etat whose first foals are yearlings of 2023. Bred by Big Dom Racing Stable LLC, the youngster was foaled on March 24, 2022 at Stonegate Stables in Fort Edward and was consigned by Turning Point Bloodstock. Calumet Farm signed the ticket for $85,000. Previously offered by Turning Point Bloodstock at the Fasig-Tipton New York Fall Mixed sale last year, the colt fell short of his reserve on a final bid of $30,000. Virtual inspection.
The sale colt is the third foal out of New York-bred mare Pursing Justice, whose lone foal to race, Lady Arwen, by Audible, won a maiden special weight at Saratoga on August 24 in her second career start for a significant catalogue update. Pursuing Justice produced a filly by Yaupon on March 29, 2023 and was bred this year to Mo Donegal.
The colt’s second dam is Seeking the Ante, a Chester and Mary Broman homebred from one of the couple’s most productive families. A graded winner in her own right, she went on to produce multiple stakes winner Mineralogist, dam of stakes winner Can You Diggit. Mineralogist’s winning daughter Rock Ave. Road produced Aspirant Stakes and New York Breeders’ Futurity winner Acoustic Ave, who added to her earnings bankroll this summer with a pair of races at Saratoga. Seeking the Ante is also the dam of stakes performer Risk a Chance, dam of graded winner Un Ojo, by Laoban, who improved his record on September 10 with a runner-up finish in the Polynesian Stakes at Pimlico. Seeking the Ante is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner and sire Friend’s Lake, both of them out of the colt’s third dam, multiple Grade 1 winner Antespend.
The top-priced New York-bred filly at the Midlantic Yearling sale was Hip 180, a chestnut filly by first-crop sire Complexity. Bred by Newtownanner Stud Farm, she was foaled on March 12, 2022 at Jack’s Farm on the Hill in Millbrook. Offered by Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services, Agent I, she went to Chief Horse Futures LLC for $70,000.
The Complexity filly is the first foal out of Newtownanner homebred Just Like the Moon, an unraced daughter of Malibu Moon who is a full-sister to multiple graded stakes performer Cue the Moon. Cue the Moon went on to produce stakes performer Ontheonesandtwos, who recently updated her resume with an allowance win at Saratoga on August 25.
Two more members of this clan received recent updates. Hang the Moon, a daughter of Moondance–another full sister to Just Like the Moon–upped her earnings with a fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Pucker Up Stakes at Ellis Park on August 6. Just Like the Moon’s half-sister Red Hot Maria is the second dam of Red Hot Moon, who added to her bankroll when she finished fourth in the Columbine Stakes at Arapahoe.
The sale filly’s second dam is Red Hot Bertie, dam of Red Hot Buddha and stakes performer Knockout Bertie. The family of the filly’s third dam Clever Bertie includes such luminaries as Grade 1 winner and sire Traitor, and Grade 2 winner and multi-millionaire Sun King.
Just Like the Moon’s 2023 foal, a full-sister to the sale filly, unfortunately did not survive. She was bred this year to Yaupon.
Over the two sessions of the sale, 68 Empire State-breds passed through the ring and 48 sold (including one post-sale) for $834,500 in total sales. The New York-bred average price was $17,385 and median was $8,500 with an RNA rate of 29.5%. The sale as a whole posted a $24,421 average, a $12,000 median and 21.2% RNAs.
