Into Mischief Colt Leads Keeneland's Fifth Session

Consignors don't mind putting a higher-quality horse deeper into a sale like the Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale, reasoning the entrant will attract more attention and, hopefully, a higher price. Buyers, meanwhile, hope to get a bit of a discount on a horse that sells later.

In today's market, this scenario mostly benefits consignors. 

Case in point is a bay weanling son of Into Mischief  consigned as Hip 1574 that Eaton Sales sold Nov. 9 during the fifth session of the Keeneland November sale for $300,000 to Brian Graves on behalf of his pinhooking partnership named Clear Ridge Stables. 

"You might think in Book 3 you get a little bit better deal, but when a nice horse walks in the ring, it is expensive," Graves said. "He is a well-balanced, leggy colt with a good walk. I think he'll be attractive in the market next year. The sire is doing great, and that number was within his average at the sales. I think the value will only go up."

Through the fifth session, Spendthrift Farm's Into Mischief has been represented by 11 weanlings sold for an average of $285,000. His top seller was Hip 499, which brought $500,000 during the second session. The sire has had nine weanlings sell for $200,000 or more.

Samantha Will-Baccari, who bred three-time grade/group 1 winner Mind Your Biscuits, also bred the $300,000 Into Mischief colt, which she intentionally put into Book 3.

"Some people would discount his pedigree," she said, noting the colt is out of a Friends Lake mare that only placed on the racetrack. "But the family is starting to get live. There is a 2-year-old, stakes-placed winner under the second dam. If you look at the day and the sire power, he was one of the strongest horses."

The Into Mischief colt is out of Daryanna, a half sister to Mind Your Biscuit's dam, Jazzmane. Will-Baccari bought Daryanna privately from Black N Blue Racing Stable, which had been campaigning her at Emerald Downs, after Mind Your Biscuits won his first graded stakes in the 2016 Amsterdam Stakes (G2).

Daryanna joined a broodmare band of 10 that Will-Baccari keeps at her farm named Parkland near Georgetown, Ky. Though Will-Baccari is married to owner/breeder/consignor Chris Baccari, they have "his" and "hers" farms because they got married after both were already involved in the business.

"We breed to sell, and we race what we don't sell. We do everything in-house. I was blessed to breed Mind Your Biscuits off a small farm," said Will-Baccari, who added that the Into Mischief colt reminds her a lot of the brilliant sprinter who has been lauded with four championship titles in New York and was named the state's Horse of the Year in 2016-17.

"Same personality, super chill, and really, really smart," she said. "This baby has a little more scope than most Into Mischiefs, a little stretchier. I asked (Florida pinhooker) Nick de Meric, who has bought a lot of Into Mischiefs, what the best Into Mischiefs look like, and he said most have been mid-sized and stretchier, and that is what this colt looks like. 

"I'm super happy Brian got him because he does a great job, and this colt has only gotten better, better, better, in my opinion" Will-Baccari continued. "It was a good day at the office."