LEXINGTON, Ky. – Streak of Luck, the dam of presumptive juvenile champion Ted Noffey, sold for $6.2 million to shine brightest of all on the "Night of the Stars," as the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale is colloquially known, as the boutique sale posted gains on Monday night.
Fasig-Tipton reported 138 horses sold Monday night at its Newtown Paddocks in Lexington for gross receipts of $102,027,000, with no private sales yet added to those figures. Last year, 178 horses sold, including six post-ring private transactions, for receipts of $96,423,500.
Monday's average price was $739,326, up 36 percent from $541,705 in 2024. The median rose 20 percent, to $300,000 from $250,000.
“Overall, very pleased with the results,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. “Tremendous, tremendous support from international buyers – I think it was probably very surprising to see the extent and depth of support from international buyers. The market was very, very good, but the market is still rational, and I think that’s one of the things we’ve seen in recent years, is there’s still a sense of rationality to it.”
The buyback rate was 22 percent, compared to 25 percent even after private sales last year. There were several high-ticket buybacks, including Grade 1 winners Scottish Lassie at $3.8 million and Ag Bullet at $2.9 million.
“Sellers were pretty aggressive in setting some reserves in spots, because there are alternatives for some of these horses,” Browning said. “It’s not like the men and women that own them had to sell them tonight. They’ve got some opportunities to go back to the track or to breed them, whatever the case happens to be.”
Ben McElroy, on behalf of AMO Racing, signed the sale-topping $6.2 million ticket on Streak of Luck. The mare is the dam of two winners from as many starters, led by Ted Noffey, who is unbeaten this season. That includes consecutive Grade 1 triumphs in the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga, Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland, and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last Friday at Del Mar to assure him of a divisional Eclipse Award.
“We remember him as a yearling – he made our lists as a yearling. Unfortunately, we weren’t smart enough to buy him,” said McElroy with a laugh of the Into Mischief colt, who eventually went to Spendthrift Farm.
But AMO was smart enough to push to the sale-topping price for Streak of Luck, a 10-year-old daughter of Old Fashioned. The mare, a Grade 2-placed stakes winner, is in foal to red-hot sire Not This Time, who is second to Into Mischief on the general sires list.
“She was probably the one that came in here with all the momentum . . . . She’s a young mare in foal to a great stallion,” McElroy said.
The mare, who was a supplemental additional to the catalog, was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency on behalf of Marie Jones, who purchased the mare for $620,000 at the 2021 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, while she was carrying her first foal. Her second foal was Ted Noffey, and her value has skyrocketed.
“Obviously very rewarding to see a horse that came in late that got a significant update top the sale,” Browning said, while praising the program of the late Aaron Jones and Marie Jones. “Mr. and Mrs. Jones have been longtime patrons not just of our sales, but of our industry, and it’s nice to see her achieve the success at this stage that she did tonight with an absolutely beautiful mare that all the stars aligned with.”
Streak of Luck, who is in foal on a late February cover, will now be boarded at Archie St. George's Brookstone Farm in Paris, Ky. A decision has not been made on her 2026 mating, but her new connections could go back to the well for a full sibling to her Breeders’ Cup winner.
“I thought the hardest part would be trying to get her,” McElroy said. “Probably, Into Mischief would be the most obvious.”
Following Streak of Luck as the second-highest price was last Saturday's Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Shisospicy, in what was essentially a partnership buyout. After she drew a high bid of $5.2 million, the filly was initially listed as a buyback, before Morplay Racing was listed as her official buyer. Morplay campaigned the filly on its own before Qatar Racing bought into her in the spring.
Shisospicy, by Mitole, also won the Limestone Stakes, Grade 3 Mamzelle Stakes, and Grade 2 Music City Stakes this year before she became the first 3-year-old filly to ever win the Turf Sprint last Saturday at Del Mar. After that race, Rich Mendez of Morplay suggested it would be difficult to part with the filly.
“She’s become a family member,” Mendez said in the post-race press conference. “It’s going to be hard. To be honest, I don’t know if I want to pull the trigger on selling her."
Shisospicy will presumably remain with trainer Jose D'Angelo and target a 2026 campaign.
Rounding out the top three prices was reigning Broodmare of the Year Puca at $5 million. Agent Paul Curran signed the ticket in the name of Raging Torrent Syndicate. Curran said he was representing Ace Stud, a stallion brand affiliated with the international Yulong Investments of Zhang Yuesheng.
"We're thrilled," Curran said. "We've probably picked up one of the best broodmares in the U.S. at the moment. Just phenomenal and really, really exciting. . . . It's really, really special now that she's ours."
Puca, a 13-year-old daughter of Big Brown who was a Grade 2-placed stakes winner in her own right, was not sold in foal. She is currently the dam of four stakes horses from as many starters, three of them Grade 1 winners. After her first runner was stakes-placed Gunning, she produced 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage, 2024 Belmont Stakes and Haskell Invitational winner Dornoch, and this year's Pennsylvania Derby winner Baeza, who was multiple classic-placed. She is one of just nine broodmares to produce multiple American Triple Crown race winners.
This past April, not taking Baeza’s season into account, Puca was honored as the 2024 Broodmare of the Year by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders. The Broodmare of the Year award, first presented in 1946, is considered the de facto national award and one of the most prestigious accomplishments in Thoroughbred bloodstock. Since 2000, only two other Broodmare of the Year honorees have been sold at public auctions after officially being presented with that award, led by Better Than Honour, who was sent through the ring for a partnership buyout at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton November sale and brought a staggering $14 million, a record.
Curran admitted he was somewhat surprised by Puca's price.
"To be fair, I thought it'd be a little bit more," he said. "We were waiting and waiting to see what we would do."
Ace Stud is shopping at the major Kentucky sales this week for mares to support its two new U.S. stallions at Lane's End Farm - Raging Torrent, whose multiple Grade 1 wins included the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, and who Yuesheng co-owned, and multiple Grade 1-winning turf miler Carl Spackler, who he privately purchased earlier this year. Two tickets worth $6.5 million total were signed Monday night in the name of the Raging Torrent Syndicate, while one mare was purchased for $1.2 million in the name of the Carl Spackler Syndicate.
Curran stopped short of committing Puca to one of the Ace Stud stallions for 2026, indicating options remained open, although she will likely go to one of their stallions in the future.
"We're gonna have a discussion about that," Curran said. "Let's digest what just happened."
Puca was consigned by Elite Sales, as agent for John Stewart's Resolute Farm. Stewart struck a deal to purchase the mare privately from Robert Clay’s Grandview Equine for $2.9 million at the 2023 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. That came after she drew a high bid of $2.8 million in the ring, which did not meet her reserve.
On Monday night, Resolute announced that Chelsey Stewart, John Stewart's wife, would assume his role as chief executive officer of the farm. The farm owner said that his primary focus is on managing MiddleGround Capital, the private equity firm he launched in 2018, a few years before his splashy entrance into high-end Thoroughbred ownership.
"I remain very focused on the day-to-day operations of MGC and do not see myself stepping back from my responsibilities in the near future," John Stewart said in a release. "This change in roles at Resolute is meant to clarify the role Chelsey has served since inception. My role is limited to supporting and advising her and the team on strategic direction and decisions."
In addition to Puca, Resolute sold three other horses on Monday night for a combined $3.85 million.
While the accomplishments of the broodmares and broodmare prospects on offer garnered them the bulk of attention, the evening also featured a group of selected weanlings, cataloged on strength of pedigree and conformation. That group was led by an $800,000 filly by Triple Crown winner and prominent young international sire Justify, with an equally appealing female family. The filly, consigned by Gainesway, as agent, is out of the winning More Than Ready mare Summer Sweet, dam of multiple Grade 1 winner She Feels Pretty, who finished a strong second in Saturday's Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
"She's a sister to a very, very good horse indeed," said bloodstock agent Hugo Lascelles, who signed the ticket for an undisclosed European client. Lascelles later went back to the well to purchase Summer Sweet herself for $3 million.
"A very, very good European family," he said. "A May foal, got a lot of maturing to do, but one day will be a really nice filly."
The Justify filly surpassed last year's top weanling price of $675,000 at Fasig-Tipton November. A total of four weanlings sold for half-million or more, compared to three to meet that threshold last year. A pair of weanlings sold for $500,000 to trainer Wesley Ward, and one for that price to prominent owner Tracy Farmer. All of these top-priced youngsters went to end users, suggesting they were getting out ahead of a strong yearling market that is expected to continue in 2026.
However, Lascelles said that wasn't a factor for him, and that he was simply attracted to the quality of this offering.
"For me to shop in the weanling market, they have to be very top drawer, and she was," he said. "You don't get too many like her."
Pinhookers did express confidence in the continuation of a strong yearling market as they played at a high level Monday night.
"You'll see him as a big sale in the future," agent Billy Love said after signing in the name of One Percent Investments for a $425,000 colt from the first crop of Horse of the Year Cody's Wish.
Overall, 65 weanlings sold for a gross of $13,302,000, an average price of $204,646. Last year, 79 weanlings sold for $13,893,500, resulting in an average of $175,867. Showing the strong demand, the buyback rate for this segment of the marketplace was an outstanding 11 percent, compared to 31 percent last year.
“We took a big slice out of the weanlings in terms of the numbers from last year to this year, and that was primarily by design,” Browning said. “We felt like after last year we needed to tighten up the parameters of what we accepted in terms of the weanlings, and I think the market reacted very positively overall.”
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