Coolmore Goes to $950,000 for Son of American Pharoah

Coolmore continued its staunch support of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah  Aug. 6 at The Saratoga Sale when it purchased a colt from the Ashford Stud sire's second crop for $950,000.

Consigned by Archie St. George's St. George Sales, agent, the colt was the highest-priced American Pharoah from six sold at Fasig-Tipton's selected yearling sale. He was produced from the multiple stakes-winning, grade 1-placed Malibu Moon  mare Bon Jovi Girl, a half sister to three-time champion and sire Gio Ponti , who earned more than $6.1 million.

"We're very happy to buy one from Archie; he does a great job," said Ashford's Adrian Wallace. "Obviously, we're very gratified by how the American Pharoahs are selling, and it's great to see how well they're running on dirt and turf. The best is hopefully yet to come, but if you'd told us by the end of July, beginning of August that he already would have had seven winners and a few stakes horses here and in Europe, I think it's very gratifying to the breeders who bred to him and for us to stand him. Obviously, we support a lot of them ourselves, but we're looking to pick up a few more hopefully here and in September."

The colt was bred in Kentucky by Bryant Prentice's Pursuit of Success.

"He's a lovely horse, very well-prepared," Wallace said. "He came up here and he jumped through all the hoops. We loved him from the moment we saw him. He's a lovely horse, very free-moving, a very athletic horse, lots of quality, a lovely size to him, and out of a nice mare. She's a young mare from the family of Gio Ponti, so if he can go on and be competitive, we think we've got a very nice horse."

"He's a very nice colt and he was very well received. He had a lot of big players on him," St. George added. "I'd like to wish the buyers well and congratulate Mr. Prentice and his whole team on breeding such a nice horse. I wish them all the best of luck with him, and hopefully we'll see him down the road. It's just a pleasure to be able to sell a horse like that."

M.V. Magnier also partnered with Peter Brant's White Birch Farm to land another son of American Pharoah (Hip 129) for $800,000. The colt bred by Baoma Corp. is the first foal out of the grade 3-winning Super Saver  mare Super Majesty, who produced a Pioneerof the Nile filly in 2019.

American Pharoah's next-highest-priced yearling was Hip 151, a $650,000 filly purchased by agent Steven Young. Bred by Flaxman Holdings, Ted Folkerth, Double K, Jack Swain III, and Fred Seitz out of the Kingmambo mare Visual Mind, a half sister to 2019 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner War of Will, the filly was consigned by Brookdale Sales.

The other American Pharoah yearlings purchased during the two-day sale were Hip 166 (a $325,000 pick by Mike Ryan from Taylor Made Sales Agency's consignment for Town and Country Horse Farms), Hip 199 (a $210,000 selection by Thomas Haughey for PTK from Taylor Made's offerings), and Hip 109 (a $200,000 purchase by Ryan from the Lane's End consignment).