Gallo Stays in on 'Monster' $495K Uncle Mo Filly

Thomas Gallo III thought too highly of the Uncle Mo   filly he consigned as Hip 341 to the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearlings Sale to let her go completely. When the filly hammered at $495,000 Aug. 15 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., it was the name of Dream Maker Racing, of which Gallo is the managing member, on the ticket for the session's top-priced horse.

"I bought out some of the other partners. Mary Kopley and Michael Newton stayed in," Gallo said. "We liked the horse enough. We put a price on her, and if she didn't bring half a million, the partners would figure it out from there. I was just offered another partner to come in. We're open to bringing in more partners.

"She's a monster," Gallo added of the lone representative of her Ashford Stud sire in the catalog. "We had a lot of interest in her. I was a little bit surprised she didn't get to half a million."

Hip 341 was bred by Mia Gallo, Kopley, Newton, and Elizabeth Weese out of the winning Distorted Humor   mare Averymerrymoment, whose six foals of racing age are all winners, including stakes-placed Satisfy , who has earned $262,218.

"The horse will go to Bill Mott, who's trained all of (the mare's) offspring," Gallo said. "Because we've managed the whole family, we'd like to continue to manage the horse."

Other half siblings to the session-topping filly include seven-time winner Rectify , an earner of $366,036; Sanctify , who in 2015 set a course record of 1:08.15 for about 6 1/2 furlongs on the Belmont Park inner turf en route to earnings of $174,968; and Big Bobby , who debuted this year at age 3 and has a win and two seconds in three starts.

Averrymerrymoment, whom Gallo had in training with Barclay Tagg on the track, is a half sister to stakes winners Gratiaen and Cute Cognac, the latter the dam of grade 3-placed Tesseron. This is also the family that produced French group 3 winner and Etihad Airways Prix Jean Prat (G1) second Oiseau de Feu, as well as stakes winner Melodic. Del Mar Oaks (G1T) winner Rutherienne  is also from this family.

"I use Alan Porter for pedigree consulting," Gallo said. "He's been a friend for 30-plus years. He's one of the top genetics guys. We've had a lot of luck with him.

"We're not at all disappointed to keep her. It would have broken my heart to sell her. In fact, if we sold her, I would have asked to keep a percentage of her, and that's what I told everyone, we're willing to stay in for 25%, 30%."