Sunday, December 31, 2023
Highgate Sales’ second year in operation saw the consignment reach many milestones both in the ring and on the racetrack.
In the sales ring, Highgate’s consignments were again a must-stop destination for buyers at every sale.
The consignment’s offerings were led by last year’s Champion 3-Year-Old Filly NEST, who was one of the most popular offerings at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. The three-time Grade 1 winner topped that elite sale when bringing $6 million from Repole Stable.
NEST led a group of four offered by Highgate at that sale with the quartet averaging $1.68 million. That group also included the fifth most expensive weanling of the session when Stock Thoroughbreds went to $450,000 to purchase a filly out of the stakes winner and Grade 1-placed STOPSHOPPINGMARIA.
The Uncle Mo filly is a full sister to SW MO SHOPPING and half to the MGSW ALWAYS SHOPPING. That filly was the second foal out of STOPSHOPPINGMARIA offered by Highgate this sale with the mare’s American Pharoah daughter selling for $475,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Those Fasig-Tipton November horses joined an illustrious group of graduates on the track, including stakes winners and a Breeders’ Cup runner.
China Horse Club-bred AGATE ROAD was the first Highgate graduate to give us that Breeders’ Cup milestone when he finished a close fifth 2 ½ lengths behind Unquestionable in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1). His spot in the Breeders’ Cup came via a Win and You’re In victory in the Pilgrim Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct as the first graded stakes winner for Highgate.
AGATE ROAD was the second TDN ‘Rising Star’ for Highgate after HEARTLAND, another China Horse Club-bred, earned the honor on debut at Del Mar. Just like AGATE ROAD, Heartland was a Keeneland September graduate who had sold for $575,000.
EVERSO MISCHIEVOUS, a $85,000 Keeneland November Horses of Racing Age Sale graduate, broke his maiden in his second start and followed that effort with a three-race win streak that saw him earn a first stakes victory with a 3 ¼ length romp in the Harrods Creek Stakes at Churchill Downs. That was followed up by a first graded stakes victory in the Forty Niner Stakes (G2) where he proved to be a determined runner with a half a length victory in a three-way battle for the lead .
HOT LITTLE THING, a $125,000 ’23 Kee April HORA purchase proved an astute purchase by Schumer and Howson and Houldsworth with two victories post sale including a win in the Checkered Flag Handicap, becoming Highgate’s first post-sale stakes winner!
Stakes performances weren’t a rare occurrence for Highgate Sales graduates throughout the year.
Sold for $150,000 at the Keeneland November HORA sale, HARLAN ESTATE earned his second career graded stakes placing when third in the Arlington Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs. He then added a first career stakes victory to his resume when becoming the second stakes winner for the consignment with a win in the $500,000 Listed Tapit Stakes in August.
Earning $254,900 in his 10 2023 starts, the gelding finished second in the River City Stakes (G3) in November less than a year after his time with Highgate.
It’s another stakes winning graduate after HARLAN ESTATE’s victory in the Tapit S at @KYDownsRacing! Sold at the @Keenelandsales November HORA Sale to Graham Grace Stable & D. Whitworth Beckman on behalf of ERJ Racing, Exline-Border Racing Madaket Stables, and Clay Scherer. pic.twitter.com/V4PC6iDSQ4
— Highgate Sales (@Highgate_Sales) August 31, 2023
That Keeneland November HORA Sale consignment proved to be a fruitful one for buyers with three stakes performers hailing from our inaugural group at the sale.
Keeneland November Horses of Racing Age graduate MIDNIGHT RISING was Highgate’s first post-sale stakes performer in the Marine Stakes (G3), that placing coming just days before Little Hot Stuff’s victory.
Highgate graduates ended the year with another stakes performance on December 30 when this year’s Keeneland April Horses of Racing Age graduate POINT PROVEN earned his first blacktype.
A winner since selling, he made his first post-sale stakes run a good one with a close third in the Listed Woodchopper Stakes for his first career blacktype placing. The Gun Runner colt had been a $45,000 purchase by Norman Miller IV earlier in the year.
Our Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale offerings were led by this year’s Kentucky Oaks (G1) runner up GAMBLING GIRL, who was the second most expensive Highgate offering of the year. Spendthrift Farm went to $875,000 for that elite offering, who also hit the board in the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) this year as well.
McCalmont Bloodstock was the purchaser of the second most expensive horse of the sale offered by Highgate when the agent went to $450,0000 for Uncle Mo mare ABSOLUTELY, whose third dam is the great Urban Sea.
The 2022 Keeneland November Horses of Racing Age sale had produced multiple stakes performers, and the 2023 edition had another promising group with three offerings.
Case Clay Thoroughbreds purchased EDGARTOWN for $350,000 just a few weeks after the colt’s impressive Maiden Special Weight victory at Churchill Downs to top the trio. That price was the highest paid for any horse at the sale. The $165,000 average for Highgate’s three sold was the highest among consignors with three or more sold and second highest average overall.
With the early success of Highgate’s 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale graduates on the track, Highgate’s 38 sold at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale were another popular group in mid-September. Averaging $117,342 with a gross of $4.459 million, Highgate had the seventh highest gross of any consignor with under 50 offered.
Highgate’s yearlings sold this year were led by the Book 1 offering of MG1W MOONSHINE MEMORIES’ yearling filly by INTO MISCHIEF. North Hills Co was the purchaser of that outstanding filly for $475,000 with the STOPSHOPPINGMARIA yearling by AMERICAN PHAROAH also offered in Book 1 bringing the same price from J.S. Company.
Centennial Farm purchased a yearling STREET SENSE colt out of PURE POISON for $375,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga Sale as our third most expensive yearling of the year.
Highgate has quickly become a major consignor at the Horses of Racing Age sales and that was on display in April at Keeneland when the group of 13 gave Highgate the third highest gross of all consignments at the sale.
JACKIE’S WARRIOR’s half-brother OCEAN CITY led the charge with his $240,000 price tag the eighth most expensive of the sale. The American Pharoah son quickly paid back buyer Sycamore Hall Thoroughbreds with an Allowance victory just a month post-sale at Delaware Park.
The April sale also included the stakes winning HOT LITTLE THING and stakes placed POINT PROVEN with four of the eight horses to run post-sale winning at least one race and three others hitting the board since their appearance in the sales ring.
In the later books of the Keeneland Breeding Stock Sale, Highgate horses were on top of the leaderboard. The most expensive weanling filly of the fourth session of that sale was a $165,000 MAXFIELD weanling filly out of ALL IN WITH ACES purchased by Machmer Hall for $165,000. We were also the consignor of the most expensive racing/broodmare prospect in the sixth session when BT Stables won the bidding war on COREY AND QUINN, while Richard Barton Enterprises-purchased LISMULLIN was the third most expensive in-foal mare during that session.
Highgate’s first consignment debuted at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale and it returned in 2023 with nine offered.
Hinkle Farms purchased the highest priced horse from that consignment when going to $175,000 for SERENE PAULINE, offered on behalf of Boyd Browning Jr. and his partners. The daughter of Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed TEEN PAULINE in foal to LIAM’S MAP for her first foal was the fifth most expensive in-foal mare that sale.
It was the second major result for Highgate at the February Sale after kicking off 2022 with the sale topping BRILLIANT CUT the year before.
Just like 2024, Highgate kicked off 2023 at the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale. Offering 12 head, that group included the third most expensive yearling colt of the first session.
Hard Five, Inc went to $190,000 to purchase that AUTHENTIC colt out of CYRIELLE, a daughter of multiple stakes winning SOMETHINABOUTBETTY. He was joined by ROENICK in the top five when ROENICK brought the third highest price of any Racing/Stallion Prospect at the sale from Two Hearts Farm.
Highgate returns to the sales ring in 2024 with an exciting group of short yearlings, broodmares, and racehorses at the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale in just over a week. You can see our full group on the Highgate Sales page here.
