Sired by its grade 1 winner Collected and from one of Canada's top-producing female families, Speedway Stables couldn't pass up a filly from the first crop of the Airdrie Stud stallion at the Sept. 21 eighth session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
On behalf of Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner's Speedway, agent Marette Farrell signed the $320,000 ticket for the filly consigned as Hip 2622 by Anderson Farms. The filly was the top price of Tuesday's session.
"We looked at all the Collecteds and we're really thrilled with how they use themselves and how they moved," Farrell said. "We're very excited about him to be one of the top 2-year-old stallions next year."
The chestnut filly, bred in Ontario by Anderson Farms, is out of the unraced Medaglio d'Oro mare Bezzera, who is a full sister to 2018 Canadian Horse of the Year Wonder Gadot—a multiple graded stakes winner who captured two legs of Canada's Triple Crown and was second in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1)—and stakes winner Solemn Tribute. Bezzera is also a half sister to Hard Not to Love (Hard Spun ), winner of the 2019 La Brea Stakes (G1).
"This was the one Collected filly that I loved since day one," said David Anderson of Anderson Farms. "She's out of a tremendous family. I'm a commercial breeder and I have to sell horses but if I wanted to keep one in the lot this is the one. She almost looked like a colt with her strength and balance and body size, but she could move like a cat. She was really an athletic filly and we're proud she's going to a great home in Speedway Stables."
Those same traits, as well as characteristics of Collected, attracted Farrell to the filly.
"I knew this family very well and it's one of the key inner circle families," Farrell said. "She looked very much like Collected. She's got a great demeanor, very forward thinking like him, great musculature, very athletic. Obviously Wonder Gadot is in that family and Hard Not to Love is in that family, so we're hoping she'll be one of those."
Hip 2622 is currently the highest-selling yearling by Collected. A chestnut son of City Zip, Collected is a 2014 Keeneland September grad having sold for $150,000 to SGV Thoroughbreds out of Runnymede Farm's consignment. Speedway secured Collected for $170,000 from SGV's consignment to the 2015 Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.
Collected was a dual graded stakes winner at 3, but shined as a 4-year-old when he won four consecutive races, three graded, topped by the $1 Million TVG Pacific Classic (G1). He won eight of 15 starts and retired in 2018 with earnings of $2,975,500 before standing his first season at Airdrie in Midway, Ky., in 2019. Collected has stood for an advertised fee of $17,500 each season.
