Sales tales: From distraught foal to sale-topper

Hip 237, by Honor Code, topped the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearling Sale with a winning bid of $190,000. Photo by Lydia Williams.

It was one of the sale’s more heart-wrenching stories.

Mrs. Vanderbilt, a 17-year-old Citidancer mare, died in 2018 and was discovered by her foal, by Honor Code.

“Unfortunately, she died while she was in Kentucky, and actually the Honor Code colt was over trying to wake her up,” consignor Bill Reightler said Tuesday. “So this is the end of the line for her.”

The story’s ending isn’t yet written. But it took a step Tuesday when that colt, now a yearling, went through the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sales ring and fetched a sale-topping $190,000.

“He was just a sensational colt,” Reightler said after the horse sold. “The mare’s produced a Grade 2 stakes winner, a beautiful family.”

Mrs. Vanderbilt, a three-time winner on the racetrack,is the dam of five winners, including Grade 2 Delaware Oaks winner Dancing Afleet and multiple stakes winner Tujoes.

Reightler praised the efforts of the colt’s breeder, the Delaware-based Barbara Brown. A Kentucky-bred, the colt is Delaware-certified.

“It’s a great story of a small operation, an astute horsewoman who really does a nice job,” Reightler said.

The market has, thus far, shown a lot of love to Honor Code, whose first foals are two-year-olds. His yearling sales average, $163,476, trails only that of American Pharoah among first-crop sires.

The colt was purchased by Seagull Capital, Tim Hill as agent, and they are expected to race him.

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