A filly by City of Light was the sale topper at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Yearlings Sale Oct.1 in Timonium, Md. Trainer Butch Reid went to $165,000 on behalf of LC Racing to secure the Maryland-bred filly.
Consigned as Hip 49, the filly is a half sister to graded stakes-placed Monday Morning Qb, a son of Imagining who was formerly trained by Reid for LC Racing Cash Is King Stables and captured the 2020 Maryland Million Classic for those connections. Hip 49 is also a half sibling to the Nyquist filly Asawer, third in the 2023 U.A.E Oaks (G3).
Becky Davis, agent, consigned Hip 49 on behalf of breeders Bowman and Higgins Stable.
"Lovely horse, Maryland-bred, raised and sold, it was great that a Maryland-bred topped the sale," said Paget H. Bennett, Midlantic sales director at Fasig-Tipton.
"It was a good day, good buyer turnout," she added.
The filly's dam, the Not for Love mare How My Heart Works, is a half sister to Awesome Flower, the dam of Cyberknife , who won the 2022 Haskell Stakes (G1) and the Arkansas Derby (G1). Awesome Flower was a multiple-graded stakes placed mare and banked more than $500,000.
Davis also consigned the sale's highest-priced colt for Bowman and Higgins Stable. The colt, consigned as Hip 206, is a bay son of Nyquist out of the Midnight Lute mare Alottalute. He sold for $150,000 to Scanlon Training and Sales, and is a half brother to multiple stakes winner Street Lute.
During Tuesday's session, Fasig-Tipton reported 181 head sold out of the 256 to go through the ring for a total of $4,307,700, including private sales. The average was $23,799, with a median of $15,000. Seventy horses failed to meet their reserve, resulting in an RNA rate of 29.3%.
"We'd love to have more to present, but we did the best we could with what we were given. A one-day sale is easier for people to come in and look at the horses one day and buy the next" said Bennett.
This year saw a change in the catalog, with a one-day sale replacing the two-day sale format, with 128 fewer horses cataloged. In 2023, 290 horses sold out of 370 offered, for $7,082,000, including private sales. The average was $24,421 and the median was $12,000. The RNA rate was 21.6% for the 78 horses who did not sell.
Northview Stallions was the leading consignor with 32 head selling for $811,000. Cash Is King, known for its 2005 Preakness Stakes (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) hero Afleet Alex, was the leading buyer, with five purchases for a total of $259,000. Grassroots Training and Sales was also very active among the many pinhookers at the sale, securing six head for $237,000.
"There was a number of pinhookers we see here at the May sale (Fasig-Tipton May 2-year-old in Training Sale). They're regular consignors and we hope to see those horses back here next year," she said.
Fasig-Tipton will head to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for the Saratoga Fall Mixed Sale Oct. 15, followed by the Kentucky October Yearlings Sale in Lexington Oct. 21-24.
