LEXINGTON, Ky. – Grade/Group 1 winners McKulick and Ramatuelle sold for $6 million and $5.1 million, respectively, and recent Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Moira brought $4.3 million, that trio glittering atop the lineup of stars offered at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale on Monday night.
Fasig-Tipton reported 172 horses sold at this sale – appropriately dubbed “the Night of the Stars” – for gross receipts of $93,948,500. At last year’s sale, 154 horses brought $101,281,000.
A total of 25 fillies and mares sold for seven-figure prices, matching the number to do so last year. However, only nine horses crossed the $2 million threshold, compared to a wider group of 16 to do so last year, when the sale was led by a pair of $6 million champions in Nest and Goodnight Olive. As a result of that, as well as more horses sold overall, this year’s average price dipped 17 percent, to $546,212 from $657,669 in 2023. The median was $250,000, dropping 15 percent from $295,000.
The buyback rate was 27 percent, compared to 25 percent last year.
Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said he was “all in all, very pleased” with the results despite the declines.
“The market is certainly not easy, and it’s discriminating,” he said. “If you give people a reason not to bid, they don’t bid, and that’s what we’ve seen – it’s a selective marketplace at all levels, in everything we do. But when the stars line up, and when you lead a beautiful one in there, and she has a good race record . . . the horses were zooming past reserves.”
The mixed-sale season that the bloodstock industry is now entering has its own unique characteristics. The marketplaces for younger horses, such as the yearling and 2-year-old sale seasons, develop trends that carry from sale to sale throughout the season, or even from year to year, more subject to external factors such as the purse structures for those racing prospects and the world’s economy.
In contrast, the marketplace at individual mixed sales can shift capriciously, even at this more insulated upper end, based on the accomplishments of the individual horses cataloged. Because of that, the recruitment of top horses is a crucial factor in a sale’s success. Browning has often noted that the building of a catalog such as Monday’s, with highly accomplished and highly sought broodmares and prospects, can be a multi-year process as it requires building strong relationships with owners and consignors.
However, even if top horses are recruited for a sale, the nature of the mixed market means plans for horses can quickly change. Connections may enter a sale early to keep their options open, but then choose to withdraw and retain stock to race another year if the horse is on the upswing. On the other side of the coin, connections may supplement to a sale late, seeking to strike while the iron is hot with a horse with a big catalog update.
Fasig-Tipton November began with an initial catalog of 300 hips, which grew to 321 in the catalog by sale time, with prominent supplements including Ramatuelle.
However, 81 cataloged lots also were withdrawn, with some of those changes occurring as recently as Monday evening during the sale. High-end withdrawals included 2021 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Pizza Bianca, who was privately purchased back by breeder Bobby Flay last month; Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Soul of an Angel; and additional Grade 1 winners including Candied – third in the Breeders' Cup Distaff – and Power Squeeze. Five horses were buybacks for seven-figure final bids.
“A coworker texted me after one of the Breeders’ Cup races, and when a filly won, he said, ‘Is that good or bad?’ and I said, ‘It’s to be determined,’ ” Browning laughed. “That’s the nature of our November sale, in particular – flexible, dynamic, looking for opportunities. . . . Sometimes the updates encourage people to sell, and sometimes the updates encourage people to retain their horse.”
Of the horses who went through the ring Monday, it was McKulick who rose to the top among the stars. She was purchased for the sale-topping $6 million by bloodstock agent Emmanuel de Seroux’s Narvick International, on behalf of Grand Stud of Japan.
The 5-year-old McKulick was the only mare in the sale by unbeaten two-time European Horse of the Year and prominent sire Frankel, who de Seroux characterized as “the best stallion in the world.”
The agent said that McKulick would eventually head to Japan for her broodmare career, but that plans for her first mating were yet to be determined. Occasionally, Japanese buyers leave their mares in the United States to be covered before shipping.
“She’s a beautiful filly,” de Seroux said. “She’s fantastic.”
McKulick’s purchase led a big night for Japanese buyers. Grand Stud purchased two seven-figure horses, and various other Japanese-based farms signed for another seven of those high-ticket lots. De Seroux said he was not surprised by having to stretch to those high prices for quality horses.
“At that level, you have to keep going if you want them,” he said.
McKulick, foaled in England, was purchased as a yearling at Tattersalls October for Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables. Trained throughout her career by Chad Brown – and named for the late Mary McKulick, Brown's first employee when he hung out his own shingle – the mare put together a career record of 20-7-5-3 for earnings of $1,955,290.
McKulick’s biggest career score came in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational in 2022. She won five other graded stakes – the Grade 3 Jockey Club Oaks Invitational in 2022; the Grade 2 Glens Falls and the Grade 3 Waya in 2023; and another edition of the Glens Falls, plus the Grade 3 Orchid this year. She was on the board in eight other graded stakes.
McKulick, who is out of the Group 3-placed Makfi mare Astrelle, is a half-sister to group stakes winner Fearless King and Just Beautiful. She was consigned by Elite Sales, as agent.
“We weren’t expecting that,” Elite’s Bradley Weisbord said. “The reserve was half of that.”
In contrast to McKulick, who was foaled overseas but came to the United States to race, Ramatuelle, who brought the second-highest price of the night, was foaled in Kentucky, but sold as a yearling in France and raced in Europe. She shipped back to the country of her birth to train toward the Breeders' Cup Mile, but was a veterinary scratch last Friday after a PET scan revealed “signs of bone remodelling,” according to a press release distributed by her connections.
Ramatuelle was offered as a racing or broodmare prospect, and M.V. Magnier of the international Coolmore group signed the $5.1 million ticket on the filly. Ramatuelle, by Triple Crown winner and Coolmore sire Justify, will now head back to Europe to be bred to a Coolmore Ireland sire, Wootton Bassett, in 2025.
“She’s a lovely filly,” Magnier said.
Ramatuelle put together a racing record of 9-4-3-2 and earned $641,762. She emerged as a solid juvenile last year, winning the Group 2 Prix Robert Morny and Group 3 Prix du Bois. After knocking at the door with three Group 1 placings – including a third in the English 1000 Guineas in May – she broke through with her biggest score in what proved her career finale, taking the Group 1 Prix de la Foret for the partnership of Infinity Nine Horses, Arthur Hoyeau, Ecurie des Monceaux, Hollymount Stud France, Ilse Smits, and Clement Tropres and trainer Christopher Head.
Ramatuelle, who is out of the Group 2-winning Raven’s Pass mare Raven’s Lady, was consigned by Bedouin Bloodstock, as agent.
Just two days after the biggest win of her career, Moira stepped into the ring at Fasig-Tipton draped in the purple cooler she was awarded after winning the Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar. She ultimately sold for $4.3 million on an online bid, to a buyer using the moniker “Bayles.”
Browning characterized the buyer as an international breeding group with a variety of farms. Specific plans for the mare were not immediately available.
Ontario-bred Moira was Canada’s Horse of the Year and outstanding 3-year-old filly of 2022, when she won a pair of classics in the Woodbine Oaks and Queen’s Plate. Those were among six stakes wins in her career, which finally culminated in an elusive Grade 1 score last Saturday at Del Mar. Fifth in the 2022 Filly and Mare Turf at Keeneland, and third, beaten just more than a length, last year at Santa Anita, Moira powered clear in the stretch of this year’s edition, then held on by a half-length at the wire over favored Cinderella’s Dream for Madaket Stables, SF Racing, and X-Men Racing and Kevin Attard, who trained the Ghostzapper mare throughout her career.
“Just a true champion,” Attard, who was on hand at the sale, said post-race Saturday. “Horse of the Year in Canada. I’d have to think now she’s a champion turf filly in the U.S., North America. Just to see her get that Grade 1 win is really very special. She’s been really deserving of it. I’m just so proud of her. . . . I'm going to miss her. Just so happy and so proud of her.”
Moira, who is out of the stakes-winning Unbridled’s Song mare Devine Aida, concluded her career with a record of 17-7-6-2 and earnings of $2,996,017.
While the accomplishments of the broodmares and broodmare prospects on offer garnered them the bulk of attention, the evening also featured a group of weanlings selected on strength of pedigree and conformation. Leading that group was a colt from the first crop of unbeaten Horse of the Year Flightline, purchased for $675,000 by bloodstock agent David Ingordo, on behalf of a partnership.
Ingordo was a key member of the team that purchased Flightline as a yearling for his racing partnership and is a bloodstock adviser to Lane’s End Farm, where the horse now stands at stud. Lane’s End also consigned this colt, as agent for breeder Ranjan Racing.
“I got to watch that horse grow up on the farm and really liked him,” Ingordo said of the weanling. “We want to support the stallion. We believe in Flightline. So when there’s a good one we’re gonna try to buy them.”
Ingordo said this partnership is seeking to buy “a number” of young horses; some will be retained to race, while some “may come back next year” as yearling pinhook prospects.
The colt is the first foal out of the Medaglia d’Oro mare Star of India. She is out of the Group 2 winner Up, dam of Grade 2 winner Aspray, Group 1-placed Monarch of Egypt, and Group 3-placed Khartoum. Group 1 winner Dutch Art appears on the catalog page.
Overall, 79 weanlings were sold for a gross of $13,893,500, resulting in an average price of $175,867. Following the Flightline colt were a $550,000 son of Triple Crown winner Justify, purchased by Legion Bloodstock, and a $500,000 daughter of leading sire Into Mischief, purchased by Tropical Racing. That matched the number of weanlings sold for $500,000 or more last year. However, while the top of the marketplace was strong, the weanling sales were even more selective than the overall marketplace, finishing with a 31 percent buyback rate.
Browning said that can be partially attributed to sellers feeling less pressure at this stage of the game.
“The yearling market was good, and people were not going to give a weanling away tonight because they had confidence . . . that the 2025 yearling market will be very good,” Browning said.
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