MONOMOY Girl was one the stars at the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday, and the following day she was crowned queen of the sale ring when she sold for a breath-taking $9.5 million to B Wayne Hughes Spendthrift Farm, a world record for a racing/broodmare prospect sold at public auction.

While we were digesting this news, it was revealed by Spendthrift’s general manager Ned Toffey that the dual Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner would return to Brad Cox and race on as a six-year-old.

This was one of the highlights on a spectacular night of selling which saw in excess of $80 million traded, up 18%, and the second highest aggregate in the sale’s history. A larger catalogue and more lots sold contributed to a decrease in the median, but the average rose by six points.

Demand at the upper echelons of the market continues to be strong and there were 22 lots sold for a million dollars of more, four more than a year ago.

Monomoy Girl’s sale for $9,500,000 tied for the third highest price ever realised at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. The daughter of Tapizar, bred in partnership by Olive and Brendan Gallagher and Michael Hernon, is a seven-time Grade 1 winner whose victories at that level include the Kentucky Oaks. Monomoy Girl has won 13 of her 15 starts and amassed earnings of $4,426,818. She was the most expensive of a dozen lots purchased by Spendthrift Farm which totalled $25 million.

Monomoy Girl was consigned to the sale by Elite, a selling partnership between Bradley Weisbord and Liz Crow. They sold seven mares at the sale for a shade over $22 million, and Crow had a special reason for being happy to consign Monomoy Girl. She bought the champion for $100,000 as a yearling.

Runner-up the day before in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, Rushing Fall won the 2017 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and she was hammered down at $5.5 million to Jamie McCalmont, acting for M.V. Magnier. The five-year-old daughter of More Than Ready was a Grade 1 winner every year she raced from two through to this year. Six times successful at the highest level, Rushing Fall won 11 of 15 career starts, was runner-up three times and earned $2,893,000. A 2021 spring mating with Galileo awaits.

Last year’s Eclipse Champion Older Dirt Female Midnight Bisou rounded out the top three lots when sold as a broodmare prospect to Chuck Allen, one of the racing partners in the mare, for $5 million. She won or placed in all of her 22 career starts, with 13 wins, all in graded stakes and five of them Grade 1, and earnings of $7,471,000. Midnight Bisou retired this year as the leading North American-based dirt female of all time by winnings.

Spendthrift splashes the cash

THE sale’s top broodmare was dual Grade 1 winner Bast, purchased for $4.2 million by Spendthrift Farm, and she is carrying her first foal by 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. Trained by Bob Baffert, Bast holds the distinction of being the only juvenile of either sex to win three Grade 1s in 2019. She won the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes on her only run this year.

Spendthrift’s buying spree included a $3 million spend on this year’s Grade 1 Ogden Phipps winner She’s A Julie. This was one of seven wins for the five-year-old Elusive Quality mare who also landed the 2019 Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes. A close relation to Ambassadorial, a stakes winner at two in Dundalk, She’s A Julie comes from the family of Grade 1 winner and Kentucky Derby runner-up Bodemeister and it is expected that she will visit Into Mischief.

A recent Grade 3 win pushed the earnings of Got Stormy past the $2 million mark. Winner of the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga last year, she was then runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. She cost Spendthrift $2.75 million and will continue to race in 2021 for trainer Mark Casse. A dual stakes winning daughter of Pioneerof The Nile, Mother Mother was placed three times at Grade 1 level. This half-sister to Kentucky Derby runner-up Commanding Curve sold to Spendthrift for $1.8 million.

The final seven-figure sale to Spendthrift was another four-year-old daughter of Pioneerof The Nile. This was Positive Spirit and she won the Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes at two. One of three stakes winners out of her dam, the Grade 3 winning Above Perfection, Positive Spirit’s siblings include the Kentucky and Florida Derby winner Always Dreaming and the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes heroine Hot Dixie Chick.

Uni is obvious choice for Brant

WHITE Birch Farm went to $4.1 million to secure last year’s Eclipse Champion Turf Female Uni, a now six-year-old daughter of More Than Ready. A stakes winner in France, she blossomed in the USA where she is a four-time Grade 1 winner. She beat the boys in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, set a course record in the First Lady Stakes and won the latter race again this year. She is out of a half-sister to the stakes-winning dam of Rathbarry Stud’s James Garfield.

White Birch Farm owner Peter Brant is well acquainted with the filly as he purchased her dam a couple of years ago at Arqana.

A covering by the 2020 champion sire-elect Into Mischief was just one of the attractions for OXO Equine as they spent $1.3 million for the graded stakes-placed One True Kiss, a half-sister to Grade 2 winner and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up Shancelot. Into Mischief is also the covering sire for the stakes winner Velvet Moon, a half-sister to Grade 1 winning juvenile Wicked Whisper and from a very active family. Jon Clay’s Alpha Delta Stables paid $1 million for the latter and spent the same amount on Grade 2 Canadian winner Rideforthecause, a Candy Ride half-sister to Grade 1 winner Say The Word.

Million dollar earner and Grade 3 winner Lady Apple sold to Ger Butler for $1.2 million, while stakes winner Desert Style, a Bernardini sibling to three stakes winners by A P Indy, cost Hill ‘N’ Dale $1.1 million. She is in foal to American Pharoah.

Japanese buyers snap up eight millionaires

JAPAN-BOUND possibly, following their purchase by Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida, are a quartet of seven-figure purchases.

Champion and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Saint Liam’s stakes-winning half-sister Miss Besilu was the most expensive of them, costing $2.2 million. Grade 1 placed herself, Miss Besilu is also a half-sister to the Grade 2 winner Quiet Giant who is dam of the Horse of the Year and another Breeders’ Cup Classic winner in Gun Runner. Miss Besilu’s first foal is the graded-placed Gun It, a $2.6 million yearling, and the mare was sold in foal to leading sire Into Mischief.

Another on the same buyer’s ticket was the winning Bernardini mare Paris Bikini and her first foal is this year’s Grade 1 CCA Oaks winner Paris Lights. Sold in foal to Uncle Mo, Paris Bikini cost $1.95 million. For $1.1 million Yoshida acquired the Group 2 Prix Sandringham winner La Sardane, a daughter of Kingsalsa. A Grade 3 winner in the USA, La Sardane is carrying her first foal by Justify.

Red-hot sire Constitution is the covering sire of the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes winner Mirth. This is her first covering and she sold to Katsumi Yoshida for $1.05 million.

The Japanese buying bench was strong on the day. Nobutaka Tada bought Indelible for $1.6 million, not long after giving $1.1 million for Dancing Rags. The unraced Tiznow four-year-old Indelible, carrying her second foal to a cover by Nyquist, had one of the best updates as her half-brother Essential Quality extended his unbeaten run to three after he won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. This is also the family of the brilliant, and unbeaten, 2020 Japanese Triple Crown winner Contrail.

Grade 1 winner Dancing Rags, a daughter of Union Rags, is in foal to Curlin.

The 2018 Grade 1 American Oaks winner Competitionofideas, by Speightstown, heads to Shadai Farm following her sale for $1.3 million, while Lake Villa Farm paid $1 million for last year’s Grade 1 winning three-year-old Street Band.

Selective trade for foals

TRADE for foals was highly selective. Heading this part of the sale was a colt from the first crop of Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner City Of Light. He sold for $600,000 to OXO Equine. The colt was bred by Camas Park Stud and is out of the winning Into Mischief mare Breaking Beauty, from the family of European champion Bakharoff. The Hyde family purchased Breaking Beauty last year for $300,000 carrying this foal.

A pair of weanlings sold for $400,000. The first to do so was a filly from the first crop of Justify purchased by Breeze Easy LLC. The filly was bred in Kentucky by Magnolia Bloodstock and Lynch Bages and is from Lastofthesummerwine who was purchased last year for $775,000.

The third last lot through the ring was a colt by soon-to-be two-time leading sire Into Mischief out of Greenfield D’Oro, purchased by Jess Amorella. The colt’s grandam is the champion sprinter and Ballerina Stakes winner Maryfield.