Quality Road Filly Rewards de Meric Investment

When Nick de Meric of de Meric Sales and his family arrived at last year's Keeneland September Sale, they made a plan to divide and conquer. 

Scouring the barns for a potential pinhook prospect, the family eventually landed on a Lane's End-consigned bay daughter of Quality Road  out of the Accelerator mare Paris Rose. The family stretched for the filly in the ring, but emerged successful on a final bid of $220,000.

Bred in Kentucky by Ann Marie Farm, the filly was a half sister to grade 3 winner Decelerator and grade 2-placed Cool Blue Red Hot. Her second dam was Fabulous Notion, a grade 1 winner and earner of more than $700,000. All the signs pointed to a precocious youngster with a pedigree that seemed to represent speed and strength. 

"My son, daughter-in-law, myself, and my wife split up and work the September sale like we all do," de Meric said. "She was one that we plucked out of there. Obviously, we stepped up when we bought her. Quality Road, as we all know, is on a roll, and we liked that about her."

But as attractive a physical specimen as the filly was, no one could foresee what would happen next. 

Across the country in California, trainer Michael McCarthy was racking up grade 1 scores with a son of Quality Road named City of Light . With victories in the Malibu Stakes (G1), Triple Bend Stakes (G1), and Oaklawn Handicap (G2), City of Light caught the attention of the world with a dominating performance in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs before returning two months later to claim the $9 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) Jan. 26 at Gulfstream Park. 

It didn't take much for the de Merics to realize that City of Light's dam, the Dehere mare Paris Notion, was a half sister to the dam of their filly. That their filly was bred on the same cross as the multimillionaire runner was a connection that held the potential to increase the resale considerably. 

"City of Light hadn't come along (at the September sale)," de Meric said, "but we loved the filly physically. The old cliché, she checked all the boxes, it couldn't be truer of this filly. She had that panther-like walk and that demeanor that set her apart from the rest of the horses we looked at that day and, in fact, at the whole sale." 

When the filly breezed an eighth-mile April 17 in the under tack show for the OBS sale, de Meric said his nerves were more on edge than they'd been in a good while. 

"I've been doing this an awful long time, and I don't get any less nervous going into these breeze shows than I did when I started," said de Meric. "But when we've got one that we feel is special, it quadruples everything. You watch them going down the backside. … I've got a knee (problem) going on at the moment, so my son Tristan has been doing the pony side of things, so I watch from the front side of things. I know exactly what's going through his head, and he knows exactly what's going through my head. I just think, 'Is the rider going to break on time? Is she going to get the lead right? Is she going to do what we think she's capable of doing, what we believe she's capable of doing from what she's done at home?' Mercifully, the answer has been yes on all counts." 

Not failing to disappoint, the filly worked her eighth-mile over the all-weather Safetrack in :9 4/5. 

One week later, standing just inside the sales pavilion, the de Meric family could barely contain their excitement as the price on their star filly consigned as Hip 444 continued to climb. 

"We're not done yet," the auctioneer called when bidding stalled for a brief second at $950,000. 

As a few more bids were bantered back and forth, the final call came down at $1 million in favor of Emmanuel de Seroux of Narvick International. The filly was the first horse to reach the million-dollar mark at the current South Florida sale, which continues through Friday. 

"We were due," de Meric said. "It's been a little while since we've sold a million-dollar horse. But if ever there was one that looked like she could do it, this was the one. It's like she breathes different air. She's a special filly, and we wish Mr. de Seroux the best of luck with her. He bought a very, very special horse." 

"The owner prefers to remain anonymous," said de Seroux, who bid for the filly from his post in the back ring. "She will probably race in the United States.

"You look at her and you love her. She's by Quality Road, who is one of the very best sires around. She has a fantastic pedigree. She's got the same cross as City of Light, who is a champion. There is not much not to like about her. Her breeze show was excellent; very light, very easy mover. Not only did she go fast, but she did it effortlessly.  A lot of horses can go fast, but she did it in style."

"I've got to give Tristan and Valery, my son and daughter-in-law, all the credit," de Meric said following the sale. "They've had her in their division since we bought her. They've done a magnificent job with her. I've watched her right through the process, and she's done everything you could ask of a young horse in training. She's had, touch wood, no setbacks. She's never missed any time for health or soundness or mental reasons. Frankly, they don't come along like her very often, and when they do, it's wonderful when you can get rewarded a bit." 

The filly wasn't the only horse purchased by Narvick International in the ring during Wednesday's session of the four-day sale. After buying 10 horses Tuesday, Narvick also spent $285,000 on Lynnsmap (Hip 512), a son of Liam's Map  consigned by Randy Bradshaw, agent, as part of a private sale. 

"We were always hoping to go cheaper," de Seroux said about the Quality Road filly, with a smile. "We had to dig deep." 

For de Meric, the final price was icing on the cake in what has been a relatively strong sale for him. 

"As always, I think the sale takes a day or so to gather its momentum," de Meric said. "Yesterday, I think we put nine through the ring, and we sold all of them—some of them inexpensively. But that's fine, too, because inexpensive horses need to get sold as well.

"I would say, top to bottom, this looks like a very healthy market. I think it's gathering steam, and I'm sure, looking around at the buying bench, these guys are a long way from done. There are a lot of nice horses still to go, and I think there will be some fancy prices."