$850,000 Frosted Filly Shines for First-Crop Sire

A marble-gray Frosted  filly set a record for her first-crop sire Aug. 6 at The Saratoga Sale, bringing $850,000 from Larry Best's OXO Equine.

Not only is the daughter of the Darley stallion the most expensive yearling to date by her sire, she is the highest-priced yearling by a freshman sire to sell this season.

Consigned as Hip 130 by Denali Stud, agent for breeders Bayne and Christina Welker et al, the filly was produced from the multiple stakes-winning Victory Gallop mare Swingit, also the dam of multiple grade 1-placed millionaire Neolithic .

"She is a beautiful filly," Best said. "I like the cross with Victory Gallop. She looks the part, and I don't think you can lose in the long term. She's a good buy at $850,000. I love Frosted and I love Victory Gallop. The physical matched the promise. I expected to go in this (price) range. She was never in the stall. I'm surprised she's still standing—I'm surprised I'm still standing."

The filly was bred in Kentucky by the Welkers and Denali. Chris Welker bought the mare from Denali's consignment to the 2016 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale for $50,000 carrying a Bodemeister  colt. The mare foaled an American Pharoah  colt in 2019.

"We've had that mare at the farm, and when we sold her, when we have our selling hats on sometimes, we just become uber-focused on selling our horses, and my dad always jokes that we really missed the boat on that one," said Denali's Conrad Bandoroff. "She's just an amazing mare. She gets you a really high-caliber, high-quality foal.

"This filly was all class. She was beautiful, all the superlatives out there. She was beautiful, she didn't put a step out of place. She did really well. That was so beyond our expectations. We're thrilled for the horse, thrilled for the connections, and thrilled for the Welkers."

Frosted had seven yearlings sell at the two-day sale. His next-highest price was Hip 24, consigned by Lane's End for breeder Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Equine and purchased by agent Mike Ryan during Monday's first session for $575,000. Named Silver Strand, the filly was bred in Kentucky out of the grade 2-winning Hennessy mare India, who produced 2018 Yasuda Kinen (G1) winner Mozu Ascot (by Frankel) and black-type winner Kareena (by Medaglia d'Oro ).

Frosted also had a $500,000 yearling go through the ring Monday, when Spendthrift Farm purchased Hip 7 from Summerfield's consignment for breeder Best A Luck Farm. Out of the Saint Ballado mare Flirting With Fate, the Florida-bred colt is a half brother to grade 1 winner Dance With Fate.

"If he can get you a physical like that consistently, I think he'll be in the headlines," Bandoroff said of Frosted. "We've had a lot of people tell us that they're nice, the ones we've seen confirm that, and we've got some nice ones at home. We've been a fan ever since he was a racehorse of just what a tremendous athlete he was, and you saw a lot of his best attributes in this filly. She was one of those that didn't take much imagination. You could see the tack on her already."