The Coolmore wave that swept through Keeneland this past weekend, when the international superpower captured three Breeders’ Cup races, continued its momentum Nov. 6 at The November Sale, Fasig-Tipton's marquee breeding stock sale near Lexington. As nightfall descended upon the sales grounds, the global operation had dropped a hefty $17.9 million in securing a quartet of star race mares.
Coolmore's M. V. Magnier was quick to acknowledge that the weekend’s success on the track left all of the operation’s partners ravenous for more come ring time on Sunday. After acquiring multiple grade 1-winners Campanelle and Bellafina for $5 million and $4 million apiece, respectively, in addition to the blue-blooded Uncle Mo mare Donna Veloce for $1.9 million, Coolmore’s appetite was only quelled when it landed the champion race mare Gamine for a sale-topping $7 million.
“(The Breeders’ Cup success) definitely helps,” Magnier said. “All of our guys are in it for the love of racing and they want to win Breeders’ Cup races. Hopefully, (Gamine) will breed another one for them.”
Gamine’s racetrack brilliance dazzled Magnier, who called the daughter of Into Mischief “an absolute freak of a racehorse.” Campaigned by Michael Lund Peterson and trained by Bob Baffert, Gamine set or equaled two stakes records, one over a mile in a 18 1/2-length runaway in the 2020 Longines Acorn Stakes (G1) and another that year when sailing home by seven lengths in the seven-furlong Longines Test Stakes (G1). Despite those otherworldly performances, the flashy bay had saved the best for last to cap her championship campaign, cruising to a track-record score in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Keeneland. Little did the town of Lexington know that the mare would be back two years later, receiving another crescendo of applause of a different kind when she left the sales ring at Fasig-Tipton.
“It’s a very big price but at the end of the day she was an absolute champion,” Magnier said. “The good thing about this country is the way prize money is, it makes these animals worth a lot of money.”
Gamine bankrolled more than $1.7 million in 11 starts and failed to find the winner’s circle only twice. Retired after a third-place finish in the 2021 Filly & Mare Sprint, she was sent to John Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Lexington.
“(She’s an) easy mare to be around, she got in foal right away, and everything fell into place,” Sikura said. Gamine was offered as Hip 289 as part of the Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa consignment. She’s in foal to top stallion Quality Road , the sire of 2022 grade 1 winners Emblem Road and Bleecker Street. “She has so much quality and so much class. You can tell she’s special, and obviously the ultimate judges recognized she’s special, too. I’m not surprised she topped the sale—that was our expectation.”
Magnier indicated that Gamine would likely be sent to Coolmore stallion Justify , who stands at the operation’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky. The 2018 Triple Crown winner, third on the first-crop sire list, boasts 23 individual winners and four graded stakes winners this year.
“(Gamine is) just so unique," Sikura said. "Every year there’s champions (at this sale) but she cost $1.8 million as a 2-year-old, she had freaky ability, and she won grade 1 races by double digits.
"If you look at her physically, you’d think she’s a stud horse," he continued. "(She has an) elegant, beautiful face. A big, long beautiful body. She’s just a queen. One of the most fantastic physical specimens you’ll ever see on top of unique, hard-to-find ability. The people here at the highest end, the Coolmore team, they want the very best, and the least important thing to them is what they cost.”
Magnier also signed the ticket on outstanding race mares Campanelle and Bellafina. Following Campanelle’s European success, it wasn’t much of a surprise to see the Coolmore outfit pick up the Irish-bred daughter of Kodiac.
Consigned as Hip 272 from Eaton Sales, Campanelle was victorious three times overseas against top-level company in the 2020 Darley Prix Morny (G1) and Queen Anne Stakes (G2) as well as the 2021 Commonwealth Cup (G1), where she defeated males at Royal Ascot.
Running for Stonestreet Stables, Campanelle took the Giant’s Causeway Stakes and Mint Ladies Sprint Stakes (G3T) stateside with a gallant third-place effort in Royal Ascot’s Platinum Jubilee Stakes (G1) sandwiched in between. She closed out her 4-year-old campaign with a seventh-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1T).
The final two Coolmore purchases, Bellafina and Donna Veloce, were both instances in which the operation bought out its partner Kaleem Shah. Both mares were campaigned initially by Shah, who was joined by Coolmore connections after their talent became apparent.
Purchased in foal to 2020 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) hero Tiz the Law , the three-time grade 1-winning Quality Road mare Bellafina was consigned as Hip 294 from Eaton Sales.
“(Bellafina and Campanelle) are two of the prettiest mares I’ve been involved with in my 40 years in the business,” Eaton Sales president Reiley McDonald said. “They are stunners. Both beautiful, both incredible racehorses.”
Bellafina created a stir at the beginning of the sale when her first foal, a weanling filly by Uncle Mo consigned as Hip 128, dropped the hammer for $1.35 million to Paramount Bloodstock.
“I’m not at all surprised at the figures (Campanelle and Bellafina) brought," McDonald added. "Whenever you’re in seven figures, who knows where you exactly end up. Both of the prices I thought were expected based on the whole package (each of these mares offered). Coolmore plays at the top of the game and they want the best broodmares.”
Donna Veloce, another Eaton Sales offering, going through the ring as Hip 281, was also sold in foal to Tiz the Law.
“(Tiz the Law) was an exceptional racehorse, it was just unfortunate to be in the COVID year,” Magnier said. “He probably would have won the Kentucky Derby.”
Donna Veloce comes from the immediate family of grade 1 winners Cash Run, Shared Interest, and Forestry. Twice grade 1-placed, including a neck loss to British Idiom in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), Donna Veloce earned $502,500 in her brief career. An $800,000 2-year-old purchase, she earned graded-stakes glory in the 2020 Santa Ysabel Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park, stamping her ticket to the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1).
And $17.9 million later, the Coolmore ship sailed out of Fasig-Tipton, closing a memorable weekend.
