Filly by Violence Tops Early at F-T July Sale

Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners went to $235,000 to purchase a filly from the first crop of Violence   durign the first session of the Fasig-Tipton July selected yearling sale. The filly was consigned as Hip 61 by Taylor Made Sales Agency.

A precocious son of Medaglia d'Oro   whose three wins from four career starts included the CashCall Futurity (gr. I), Violence stands at John Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms near Lexington. Violence’s 2016 fee was $15,000, the same as in 2014 when the current yearling crop was conceived.

"She was just a big, gorgeous filly," Wellman said. "She had a ton of presence. She's a very correct individual, smooth walker, very light on her feet for such a big filly, just a lot of presence about her. At all times--we inspected her on several occasions throughout the last few days —from the first moment we laid eyes on her until she literally just left the ring. She had an incredible amount of class, intelligence, and quality to her."

The filly was produced from the unraced Pioneerof the Nile   mare Stella’s Dream, a half sister to stakes winner Little Miss Zip, and from the family of track-record holder and grade II winner Forty One Carats.

Wellman said he found the July sale to be a good opportunity because some buyers prefer to wait for the F-T Saratoga or Keeneland September sales.

"I think that this is a great opportunity to buy quality horses because people tend to keep their money in their pockets waiting for Saratoga and (Keeneland) September," he said. "I think they definitely bring good horses to this sale and good horses come out of this sale every year. Both these fillies, I have no doubt, if they were up in Saratoga or in September I think probably would have commanded a little bit more money. It's early, but we're certainly not afraid to go ahead and bid one in if we think the value is there and it's the right individual."

Wellman said the July sale mirrored other public auctions over the past 1 1/2 years.

"Same as it has really for the last 18 months. The quality's bringing solid money and everything else is a struggle. We come in here looking to buy the real stuff and hopefully find a little value for our money as well. From a buying perspective, I think the 2-year-old sales were a little light this season, so those guys are hurting a little bit and for end-users like Eclipse there's certainly opportunity for us to capitalize on that."

Claire Novak contributed to this story