Lyon's Uncle Mo Colt Tops Day One Action at $1.5M

Breeder Jane Lyon of Summer Wind Equine is known to hand-pick her best for The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's select yearling sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

It was at this sale in 2019 that she sold Flightline —the $1 million Tapit   colt who has risen to become one of North America's top performers this season.

So it was no surprise when Lyon's lone offering Aug. 8 strode into the ring that the numbers on the bid board started to climb, and continued to do so until the hammer fell at $1.5 million and Lyon had herself a Day One session-topper.

Representing his breeder with class, the Uncle Mo   colt Lyon named Stop the Press and offered as Hip 68 was purchased by a partnership of West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing, L.E.B., agent. Bill Farish owns the latter and also owns Lane's End, which consigned the colt. He was bred in Kentucky out of the unraced Tapit   daughter Secret Sigh, herself out of the multiple graded stakes winner India , making the dam a half sister to multiple grade 1 winner Mozu Ascot  (Frankel ).

This is a Summer Wind family that goes back three generations to the Miswaki mare Misty Hour, the dam of stakes winner Pilfer (Deputy Minister), who produced grade 1 winners Angela Renee and To Honor and Serve. 

West Point campaigns Flightline in partnership with Hronis Racing, Siena Farm, Summer Wind, and Woodford. So Lane's End sales director Allaire Ryan was thrilled to see a few of those partners join again to take home the next generation.

"It was fun for some of those connections to come together again; hopefully maybe we have another Flightline on the horizon," Ryan said. "This was a colt that kind of separated himself from the rest of Jane's yearling crop when we started doing inspections early on in the year, just a really classy individual. He's a smart horse, a really intelligent horse, and showed himself with a lot of that professionalism that you like to see in these top colts."

For West Point's Terry Finley, the drop of the hammer brought sincere relief despite his familiarity with pursuing big-figure horses at public auction.

"I was glad when the announcer said, 'That's all,'" remarked Finley, who said the colt will head to Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. "It was getting up there but I'm sure there will be some others that we'll buy over the course of the sale season that we'll get at a discount… It's exciting for the partners all around to play a part in a good colt like this."

West Point, with L.E.B. as agent, went almost all-in on the session-topper, purchasing only one other yearling—this one on their own—Monday night. That was Hip 17, a $240,000 Practical Joke   filly out of the Malibu Moon mare Malibu Gem consigned by Four Star Sales, agent. Bred in Kentucky by Don Mattox and Pam Mattox, the filly is from the family of grade 3 winner Meadow Gem, with grade 2 winner My Conquestadory further down the page. The mare has produced four winners from five to race.

Uncle Mo was represented by three horses through the ring Monday for gross receipts of $2,310,000 with an average of $770,000. The son of Indian Charlie stood the 2022 season at Ashford Stud for an advertised fee of $160,000.