On-Track Performances Have Impact on Consignors

Consignors live for major updates to the catalog pages of horses they are offering for sale, and the results from two major stakes Feb. 2 were impactful to two consignors at the Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale, but with different outcomes.

As buyers took advantage from a break in the winter vortex that locked onto Central Kentucky last week, there was a buzz at Barn 6 as the staff of Select Sales could not get a break from showing Hip 419, the 11-year-old mare You Laughin, Sunday morning.

The day before at Gulfstream Park, the mare's 3-year-old colt, Zenden, posted a game second-place finish in the Swale Stakes (G3). The effort was the first loss in the three-race career for the son of Fed Biz  who previously broke his maiden and won the Buffalo Man Stakes at the south Florida track.

"It's fantastic," Select Sales' Carrie Brogden said. "(You Laughin) has already been very popular."

Produced from the stakes-placed Mt. Livermore mare Livermore Leslie, the mare is a half sister to multiple grade 1 winner Sweet Reason and grade 3 winner and grade 1-placed Don't Forget Gil.

Even with Zenden's performance helping to draw additional attention to the mare, Brogden said her owner is a committed seller who is practical in his expectations.

"He's thrilled and delighted, but he is very realistic and realizes better stuff can happen going forward," the consignor said.

For South Point Sales, a victory by Excessivespending in the Nelson J. Menard Memorial Overnight Stakes led owner Joey Keith Davis to scratch the 5-year-old daughter of Shackleford , consigned as Hip 114, from the sale. The victory in the 5 1/2-furlong turf test increased the mare's earnings to $305,348 gleaned from six wins and six placings in 23 starts for the half sister to stakes winner and grade 2-placed Sweet Marini.

South Point's Mike Recio said owner and trainer Chris Hartman plans to keep Excessivespending in stakes company and offer her for sale at a later date.

"You're hedging your bets (by entering an active horse in the sale)," Recio said. "Sometimes people sell and try to capitalize off a performance like that but she's probable in the best form she's been in so they want to ride the momentum through the year and see where it takes them."

South Point's consignment also lost another of its key offerings when Sweet Candy Dance (Hip 363), a grade 3-placed daughter of Twirling Candy , was unable to ship to Fasig-Tipton because she is stabled at Parx Racing, where an EHV-1 quarantine is in effect.

"She is another scratch that we were really counting on, and she was right on the cusp of being let out of jail (from quarantine)," Recio said, adding the 4-year-old mare is available for sale privately. "She is a very nice mare."

Despite those defections, Recio said he has a solid group of broodmare prospects, including Spring Tempest (Hip 495), a stakes winner and grade 3-placed daughter of Spring At Last, and Frost Wise (Hip 481), a New York-bred, stakes-winning daughter of Frost Giant .

"I like to point to this sale," Recio said. "This is the last time to buy broodmare before the breeding season and that is why it has become a solid sale."

The Feb. 4-5 Fasig-Tipton auction in Lexington begins at 10 a.m. EST daily.