For Midlantic Sale, 'Timing is Everything'

For Fasig-Tipton, the results of two grade I stakes Oct. 1 at Santa Anita could not have been more timely, coming three days ahead of the sale's company's annual Midlantic yearling sale.

First, last year's champion 3-year-old filly Stellar Wind, bought by Barbara Houk for $86,000 at the Midlantic sale in 2013, upset three-time champion Beholder a second time when she won the Zenyatta Stakes (gr. I). 

Then, Speedway Stable's 2-year-old filly Noted and Quoted won the Chandelier Stakes (gr. I) for trainer Bob Baffert, providing a significant upgrade to the already strong catalog page of a Malibu Moon   filly entered in the Oct. 4 yearling sale at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, Md.

"Timing is everything," said Midlantic sales director Paget Bennett. "Stellar Wind's win gets everybody's attention. The Malibu Moon filly is already a very lovely filly and to have something like that (Noted and Quoted's victory) can only increase her value. It's all good."

Consigned as Hip 357 by CandyLand Farm, the Malibu Moon filly is a half sister to three stakes winners, including Silver Cub, the dam of Noted and Quoted. Even before the Chandelier success, the filly's first dam was already loaded, as she is also half sister to hard-knocking multiple stakes winners Silver Heart and Aspenglow, who had  15 and 14 wins, respectively.

Aspenglow is the dam of a Malibu Moon filly purchased by Ellen Charles for $200,000 from CandyLand to top the 2015 Midlantic sale and recently broke her maiden by five lengths.

Mike Palmer, CandyLand's general manager, said he hopes the filly, the only yearling consigned to the sale sired by Malibu Moon, can replicate the success the farm had at the sale last year.

In addition to the Malibu Moon filly, CandyLand's offerings include a filly by leading freshman sire Union Rags   and an Into Mischief   colt whose half brother brought $1 million at this year's Fasig-Tipton 2-year-olds in training sale at Gulfstream Park.

Palmer said bringing yearlings sired by Kentucky stallions into a regional market such as the Midlantic sale has proven successful for CandyLand over the last 10 years. Located on 160 acres near Middletown, Del., CandyLand was established by retired New York business executives Herb and Ellen Moelis. In addition to their successful farm, together with the late Allaire DuPont the couple founded Thoroughbred Charities of America (TCA).

"Kentucky has the most and the best stallions," Palmer said, adding that the quality of stallions in the Mid-Atlantic region is on the improve. "But the regional sales don't see a lot of them (yearlings by top Kentucky sires)."

Citing the Malibu Moon filly as an example, Palmer said rather than send her into one of the Kentucky sales where she would be competing with dozens of other yearlings by Spendthrift Farm's top sire, he likes that she is the only one in Tuesday's sale.

"Why would I want to have one of 50 yearlings by him in a sale," Palmer asked. "If we have the only one in this sale, they (buyers) have to come up here."

The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic yearling sale begins at 10 a.m. EDT.