Adena Springs sale ends with nearly half not sold

The ninth annual Adena Springs sale of 2-year-olds in training at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company went off Sunday evening, with three of 46 Hips withdrawn and 19 of the remaining 43 juveniles going unsold.

Sales topper at $115,000 was Hip 26, an Awesome Again filly who is the second foal of racing age out of the Alphabet Soup mare Pop Princess. The filly's dam won four times from ages 2-4. Second dam Relaxing Rhythm (Easy Goer) won eight of nine lifetime starts including the Molly Pitcher Breeders' Cup H.-G2 and three other stakes for $338,924, and produced G2 winner SPRING WALTZ.

The buyer was Silverton Hill LLC.

Nearly topping the sale was a $110,000 Giant's Causeway colt (Hip 44) who was third-last through the ring. The chestnut colt, already named Ivey Man, is the third foal of racing age out of the G1-wining Victory Speech mare Victory Encounter. Neither of her other foals have made the races.

Trainer Patrick L. Biancone signed the ticket as agent for Martin Schwartz.

Eight of the 23 juveniles to sell went for $10,000 or less, with a low of $3,000 paid by Ollie L. Figgins III for Hip 34, a North Light filly that is the first foal out of the Roy mare Rocket Royale. Her dam won five races through age 5 and is half-sister to a stakes-placed Dynaformer filly, Smokey Diplomacy. The sales filly is from the distant female family of Irish 3-year-old champion ORATORIO.

Gross receipts for the sale were $723,500 on 23 head sold, for an average of $31,457. Both were significantly lower than the 2009 results from the same sale, when 48 Adena Springs juveniles sold for $2.149 million, for an average of $44,771.

Of the four fillies I singled out from this sale, three were among the 19 to go unsold.

Hip 2, named Abrianna, a filly by Lemon Drop Kid-Ain't She Awesome, by Awesome Again, was a $25,000 RNA after being a $22,000 RNA as a September yearling.

Hip 11, a dark bay or brown filly by Holy Bull-Forever Land, by Badger Land, was likewise a $25,000 RNA. She had gone unsold as a yearling for $30,000 more. I still have a hunch buyers are missing an opportunity with this one, whose dam was a Grade 3 stakes winner at 2 and has produced seven winners including Canadian Oaks champion TOUCH DIAL.

Hip 29, Love Money, a dark bay or brown filly by Alphabet Soup-Pupil, by Unbridled, sold to Donald J. McNeil for what I believe is a potential bargain at $50,000. The filly looked very nice in her breeze video, her dam was a stakes winner and twice graded-placed who is a half-sister to NAUGHTY NEW YORKER, and this girl already has two multiple-winning siblings, though neither has set the world afire.

Hip 30, named Celidonia, is by North Light-Quatrain, by Quiet American. She failed to sell on a bid of $40,000, which I'm half-surprised Adena Springs didn't take. I did like this filly's video and she's reasonably strong on pedigree, but North Light is unproven (with weak 2-year-old performance of 2009) and this is the first foal out of a non-blacktype dam (who did earn $128K), so $40,000 seems a pretty fair bid at a sale where that is almost one-third above the average horse to sell.

The highest prices refused at the sale were $130,000 for Hip 31, named Holy Crusader, a colt by Holy Bull colt out of the aforementioned G2-winning Relaxing Rhythm, and $115,000 for Hip 27, a colt named Real Dingo, by Thunder Gulch out of the G3-placed mare Powerful Nation, by Turkoman.