The second horse by means of the ring the second evening of Fasig-Tipton’s The Saratoga Sale broke the seven-figure threshold, promoting to Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm for $1.5 million.
Hip 123 is a chestnut filly by Gun Runner , out of the a number of grade 1-winning mare Pure Clan (Pure Prize), who retired with earnings simply shy of $2 million. Bred by Three Chimneys Farm, which stands Gun Runner for a non-public payment, hip 123 is a half sister to the a number of graded stakes-placed Princesa Carolina (Tapit ), who was bred and raced by Three Chimneys.
“Clearly her mare was an excellent race mare, and we’re hoping she inherits these genes,” mentioned Pope, after backing away in mock terror when a phalanx of reporters surrounded her after the hammer dropped. “The household is a younger one with some half sisters that can hopefully go on to supply. This filly is attractive, massive, robust, and smart from what we may see.”
The proprietor of maybe probably the most prodigious broodmare band within the nation, Pope seldom hesitates to supply prime greenback for fillies and mares so as to add to her Whisper Hill Farm, however even she has been daunted by the extent of competitors on the sale.
“We paid precisely what we thought we might must pay,” she mentioned. “It is extraordinarily troublesome to purchase right here. We bought outbid fairly a bit yesterday, however you must worth them and follow your weapons.”
Earlier this yr, Whisper Hill Farm’s Leslie’s Rose gained the Ashland Stakes (G1) and ran within the Kentucky Oaks (G1), races that Pope has her eye on for this filly as properly. She is going to wait to resolve who will prepare the horse till the filly is a bit of older.
“She’ll inform us when she’s prepared what sort of coach fits her,” she mentioned. “We get the coach to swimsuit the horse, not the horse to swimsuit the coach.
The filly is Pope’s first buy at this yr’s sale. She can be providing hip 199, an Into Mischief colt out of the Unbridled’s Music mare Unequalled Belle , the winner of the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Women Traditional (G1) that earned $1.8 million.
“We’re hoping to do properly with that one,” mentioned Pope. “And we’re nonetheless trying round.”
