SATURDAY’S brilliant Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint winner Ways And Means topped the Fasig-Tipton November Sale at $5,000,000, on a night when 33 fillies and mares reached the million mark.

Chad Brown and Klaravich Stables’ three-time Grade 1 winner was knocked down to Brittany Linton, bidding on behalf of Randy and Jenny Boyd’s Boyd Racing, who have yet to decide whether the daughter of Practical Joke will race on as a six-year-old next year or join their broodmare band at Killora Stud.

Offered by Elite Sales, the five-year-old held added appeal as a half-sister to Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes winner Surge Capacity and Monmouth Cup victor Highly Motivated. Their stakes-winning dam, Strong Incentive, sold to MV Magnier and White Birch Farm at the 2024 renewal for $2,750,000.

Kia Joorabchian, meanwhile, is confident that Cy Fair will race on next year after Amo Racing gave $4,200,000 for last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner, days after she finished a gallant second to Bacio in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.

“If we decide to keep her racing, which I think we will, she will stay with George [Weaver] – why mess a good thing?” Joorabchian reported after Jamie McCalmont struck the winning bid on Amo’s behalf.

“We’ve been concentrating on buying fast fillies and our concentration this year has been to develop our American operation. She is sensational; she won the Breeders’ Cup as a two-year-old, she came second at the Breeders’ Cup this year against all the boys and I think she got a very bad trip, in fairness, when she did come second.

“And then the stallion – probably one of the best stallions in the world; we are very hot on Not This Time. She was a must-have.”

Team USA

On the appeal of the American market, Joorabchian continued: “The American market is just buoyant. There are a lot of buyers, a lot of people involved in it. You just have to look at Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga Sale and you see the diversity of buyers, and when you look at England, it’s the same three or four people buying [at the top].

“And for us, it’s all about the next generation. We have an amazing group of foals right now and a great broodmare band. For us, it’s always been the long game and we’re hoping to build that long game in America.”

The strength of the market was evident in 13 fillies and mares selling for $2 million or more at the select sale, and the fact that turnover breached $100,000,000 for the fifth year in a row. Turnover dropped marginally, as did the average price to $719,627, but the median grew by almost 12% to $360,000. The clearance rate improved two points to 83%.

Following the sale, Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning commented: “Overall, we’re very pleased with the sale. As usual, there was strong international participation. Our friends from Japan were certainly major participants in the marketplace tonight. I think we probably had a little bit more European participation this year than we had in the past and that was kind of a result of the catalogue.

“There were a lot of turf influences in the catalogue this year, which made sense that there would have a little more attraction to some of our European buyers. We had participation from the Saudis, we had participating, bidding on horses from the Australian segment. So, it was truly an international bench of buyers.”

Japanese buyers

Katsumi Yoshida’s spend of $10,900,000 saw the Northern Farm director top the buyers’ table, his six purchases led by dual Grade 1 winner Kathynmarrisa, whose sire American Pharoah now stands at Shizunai Stallion Station.

Trained by Chad Brown for Michael Dubb and Michael Caruso, the five-year-old was consigned by Gainesway following a career-best performance at Keeneland, where she beat a highly-regarded field in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

Five lots earlier, Yoshida gave $2,500,000 for Grade 1-winning sprinter In Our Time, offered by Elite Sales on behalf of John Stewart’s Resolute Racing. The daughter of Not This Time has come a long way in two years, having gone unsold for $9,000 in January 2024, when offered as an unraced three-year-old, and went on to win at Gulstream Park two months later.

Haruya Yoshida’s sole purchase of the sale was Chad Brown and Klaravich Stables’ Just A Game Stakes winner Dynamic Pricing, sold by Elite Sales for an even $2 million. Bred by Denis Brosnan’s Epona Bloodstock, the three-time graded stakes winner by Night Of Thunder was sourced by Mike Ryan at Tattersalls Book 1 for 170,000gns.

Shadai Farm signed for a pair of mares, both twice Grade 1-placed, at $1,500,000 apiece. All in all, 17 fillies and mares were knocked down to Japanese buyers during the sale.

Perfect endings

Scottish Lassie will remain in the US after Spendthrift Farm bought the MicKinzie mare for $3 million, providing the perfect ending to the fairytale of Parkland Thoroughbreds’ $80,000 buy.

Sent to Jorge Abreu, she went on to break her maiden by nine lengths in the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes and doubled her top-flight tally last season with a fifteen-and-a-half-length win in the American Oaks.

Monday’s price was welcomed by Steve Weston of Parkland Thoroughbreds, who raced the mare with Sportsmen Stables, and said: “When she went for $3,000,000, I was quite surprised; quite surprised and very happy. It’s been a great couple of years with her.”

Bless The Broken repaid a much braver investment when knocked down to Fiona Craig of Moyglare Stud Farm, joined by trainer Miguel Clement, for $2,900,000. The now four-year-old was offered by Hunter Valley Farm, whose Fergus Galvin sourced the Laoban mare at last year’s renewal for $950,000, when best known as a listed winner, who finished third in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks.

Switched to Brad Cox by Hunter Valley Farm, Qatar Racing and Mountmellick Farm, she returned to place in three Grade 1s before landing a Grade 2 at Kentucky Downs. A close third in the First Lady Stakes on her penultimate start, she was beaten a length and three quarters in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at the weekend.

Full of Mischief

Two of the top three in-foal mares of the sale were offered in foal to Into Mischief, covered at a cost of $250,000. St Elias Stable gave $2,300,000 for Running Away, a Grade 3-winning daughter of Gun Runner, while Al Ruwais Stables stretched to $2,100,000 for the dam of dual Grade 1 winner Englishman.

St Elias Stables later gave $1,425,000 for Willie McCreery’s talented Tamayuz mare Jancis, consigned by Brookdale on behalf of Chilean-based owner/breeder Arturo Cousino. A Group 3 winner as a three-year-old, the chesnut progressed to win the Group 2 Dahlia Stakes in May, before claiming second at Royal Ascot.

She flew home to finish third, beaten a neck, in the E.P. Taylor Stakes at Woodbine and finished with a similarly late flourish to take third in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf on Saturday.

Two weanlings sold for seven figures, with Caitlin Dunne signing for both on behalf of Roger Tovar’s Asagi Stables. A daughter of Into Mischief led the way at $1,150,000, justifying Payson Stud’s $800,000 spend to reacquire her dam Solo Album, a dual Grade 3 winner bred by Charles Shipman Payson’s operation.

Gainesway consigned the top-priced weanling, though Taylor Made Sales’ Not This Time filly came close at $1,000,000. The bay is the second foal out of stakes winner Feeling Mischief, who was bought by Hugo Merry for $625,000 in 2022.

A lifetime breeding right to Breeders’ Cup Classic victor Sovereignty also reached seven figures, with White Birch Farm providing the final bid of $1 million.

A five-time Grade 1 winner for Bill Mott and Godolphin, the son of Into Mischief begins his stallion career at Jonabell Farm for a fee of $150,000.