Harbor Mist Brings $230,000 During Book 3

Harbor Mist, a 9-year-old, stakes-winning daughter of Rockport Harbor in foal to Frosted , was hammered down for $230,000 about five hours into session four of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Californian Tom Bachman signed the ticket, then quickly left the sale pavilion to catch a flight home.

Harbor Mist was consigned to Book 3 of the sale by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent. She sold to WinStar Farm for $410,000 in 2015 while in foal to Speightstown  and was an RNA during last year's November sale at a final price of $270,000 while in foal to Distorted Humor . She was covered by Frosted May 10.

"She's going to California," Bachman said. "I'm a breeder, and I sell yearlings for a living under Fairview Farm. We've done well over the last few years. This is a young mare in foal to Frosted, who I think is going to be a really good sire, and we'll breed her to a horse in California and make it a Cal-bred."

Harbor Mist won five of 22 starts, including the Anne M. Clare Stakes for New York-breds at Saratoga Race Course in 2011. She placed in five other black-type events in New York while earning more than $260,000.

"My broodmare band is getting up in average age, so I'm trying to drop it down a bit," Bachman said. "I bought a Malibu Moon  mare earlier in the sale, and she's going to be part of the same program."

Bachman purchased the 7-year-old Moon River Gal (Hip 487) in foal to Nyquist  for $270,000 during the sale's second session from Castle Park Farm. The mare is out of grade 1-placed High Heeled Hope.

"A young, good-looking mare that is bred right is very tough to buy," Bachman said of the 2018 breeding stock marketplace. "I was an underbidder four times yesterday. It's tough."

And Bachman was on the run, heading toward the airport soon after signing the ticket.

"What's going to happen is everyone is going to focus on the same ones because it's getting thin. The nice mares with pedigree … everybody's on the same ones."