Among first-crop weanlings, their initial appeal in the market can be shaped by how their sires performed at 2. Instagrand 's success by 10 1/4 lengths in the Best Pal Stakes (G2) seems to have helped put him among the top five first-crop weanling sires by average after the first five sessions of the on-going Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
The 6-year-old son of Into Mischief has been represented by six sold from six offered with a $105,333 average. He ranks fourth among the first-crop weanling sires so far behind Spendthrift Farm's Authentic ($213,750 from eight sold), Gainesway's McKinzie ($142,273, 22 sold), Lane's End's Game Winner ($125,250, eight sold), and ahead of Three Chimneys Farm's Volatile ($104,618, 17 sold).
At $7,500, Instagrand stood for the lowest entering-year stud fee among the leaders of his sire class by weanling average and leads by number of weanlings to be offered in Keeneland November's Book 4 that begins Nov. 12. The sire has 11 weanlings being offered as of Nov. 11. Instagrand's top seller so far is a $300,000 colt (Hip 244) out of the Broken Vow winner Academic Break that Taylor Made Sales Agency sold to Castleton Racing. Barry Dale Fowler bred the colt in Kentucky.
"I think he has all the ingredients: he's by Into Mischief; he was very, very fast; and, a high-dollar 2-year-old," said Frank Taylor, vice president of sales at Taylor Made Farm. "Physically he is just a great-looking horse and his babies look like him. They are well-muscled horses with good angles, so we have high hopes."
Instagrand stands at Taylor Made Stallions as the property of owner/breeder Larry Best, who acquired the horse in 2018 for $1.2 million from Eddie Woods' consignment at The Gulfstream Sale, Fasig-Tipton's select 2-year-olds in training sale in South Florida. Best raced the colt under his nom de course OXO Equine. The colt won both his starts at 2, including the Best Pal, and at 3 was third in the Gotham Stakes (G3) and a close third in the Santa Anita Derby (G1), in which he led from just after the break to within a furlong from the wire. The colt got injured in May of his sophomore season and recovered but didn't return to his previous racing form. He retired at 4 with two wins and three thirds from nine starts and $316,760 in earnings.
Best turned his focus to Instagrand's stud career and has supported the horse with high-quality mares, including Indian Miss—the dam of champion sprinter Mitole and grade 1 winner Hot Rod Charlie—who he bought for $1.9 million during the 2020 Keeneland November Sale from Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency.
"Her foal is probably the best Instagrand foal we got," Taylor said.
Mill Ridge Farm has consigned one of Instagrand's Book 4 weanlings, a Maryland-bred filly (Hip 2116) out of the stakes-placed Rockport Harbor mare Rockport Dancer that will be offered Nov. 12. The filly was bred by Wasabi Ventures Stables, Larry Davis, Greenspring Mares, and others.
Price Bell Jr., the farm's general manager, said the filly has a lovely shape and a particularly strong-looking hip.
"She is a late April foal but you can see what she will blossom into. She has lovely balance and seems to have a good mind," he said. "I really take my hat off to Mr. Best. He believes in this horse and now he has put that belief to work and supported the horse with nice mares. From what I have seen, it is encouraging."
Several consignors noted that the progeny of sires like Instagrand are particularly attractive to buyers who pinhook horses as 2-year-olds because they put a premium on precocious speed.
"There are a lot of the 2-year-old pinhookers buying weanlings these days. They like getting them into their program early. I do see them reselling them as yearlings and if it doesn't work out, they go to the 2-year-old sales," said Derek MacKenzie, co-owner of Vinery, which has an Instagrand filly cataloged as Hip 1957 selling in the Nov. 12 session.
This weanling is a New York-bred and the first foal out of the New York stakes winner Goodbye Brockley, a daughter of Cosmonaut. The filly was bred by Irish Hill Century Farm and Dr. Morgan O'Brien.
"You see a lot of Instagrand in her," MacKenzie said. "She has his shape, balance, color, and a good length of frame."
He added that Instagrand's brilliance at 2 made him an attractive new sire of 2021.
"When we went to look him, it was like, wow, he's a nice physical. So we recommended a few clients to breed to him, and we are liking what we are seeing," he said.
Terrazas Thoroughbreds consigns the third Instagrand weanling being offered Nov. 12 as Hip 1982. The bay colt is the second foal out of the winning Big Brown mare I Am Miss Brown, a daughter of grade 3-placed, multiple stakes winner Formal Miss. She was bred in Kentucky by Jennifer Terrazas and Elena Hernandez.
Keeping an eye on the future, Best is introducing a new incentive for the 2023 breeding season for breeders who have sent mares to Instagrand and Best's other stallions Instilled Regard and Rowayton . All breeders who bred a mare to Instagrand, Instilled Regard, or Rowayton and paid the stud fee will receive a complimentary no-guarantee season for 2023 to Instilled Regard or Rowayton. Also if breeders send an approved mare to Instilled Regard or Rowayton for 2023, they are eligible for a complimentary season to Instagrand, subject to approval of the mare.
"Larry is a win-win thinker. He is appreciative of the breeders who have supported his three stallions, and he wants the breeders to make money and be successful," Taylor said.
