Horses bred in Mid-Atlantic make mark at top of the market

There’s a story behind every horse, as the saying goes. And that rings true for the top-selling Mid-Atlantic-breds of 2006.

The standouts came in various ages and descriptions:

• Three Mid-Atlantic-bred yearlings brought $1 million or more, and a $2.3 million Virginia-bred daughter of Storm Cat ranked as the sixth highest-priced yearling filly sold in North America.
• A $2 million Maryland-bred, Mercantile (by Golden Missile), tied for the fourth highest price among 2-year-old colts.
• The Maryland-bred broodmare Hookedonthefeelin, a daughter of Maryland sire Citidancer, brought $2.9 million, in foal to Distorted Humor—good for seventh on the North American list.

All of these sales horses represented breeding operations that have done business in the Mid-Atlantic region for decades.

The $2.3 million filly, who has since been named Almoutezah, is one of two million-dollar sales yearlings of 2006 bred by Edward P. Evans at his Spring Hill Farm in Casanova, Va. Both of them went to the same high-end purchaser, Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum’s Shadwell Estate Co. (whose 2006 successes included Horse of the Year Invasor-Arg).

Shadwell paid $1 million for the Spring Hill-bred colt now named Tahhaf (Distorted Humor—Demi Souer, by Storm Bird) at the Saratoga sale, and the following month took home the Storm Cat filly (out of Probable Colony, by Pleasant Colony) from the Keeneland September sale.

The leading breeding operation in the Mid-Atlantic region, with a band of 80 super-select broodmares, Spring Hill is best known as the breeder of 2005 Horse of the Year Saint Liam.

Elizabeth Moran’s Brushwood Stable in Malvern, Pa., gets credit for the other million-dollar yearling, a colt by Storm Cat out of her Cryptoclearance mare Strategic Maneuver who sold at the Keeneland September sale to John Ferguson.

Ferguson, agent for Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum, also signed the ticket for the aptly named Mercantile, the colt bred in Maryland by David and JoAnn Hayden’s Dark Hollow Farm and Kildare Investments and sold for $2 million at the Fasig-Tipton Calder Selected 2-year-olds in Training sale.

His price equaled the record for the most expensive Maryland-bred 2-year-old sold at public auction, set by La Salle Street (from the first crop of Maryland sire Not For Love) at the 1999 Keeneland April sale.

Although the Haydens and their partners sold Mercantile for $175,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling sale, the $2 million price furthered the reputation of their Dark Hollow Farm, the Upperco, Md., operation that will be forever known as the birthplace of Eclipse Award-winning sprinter Safely Kept.

Hookedonthefeelin, bred by a partnership led by the Pons family’s Country Life Farm in Bel Air, Md., has sold at auction four times in her life: for $38,000 as a weanling at the 1996 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December Mixed sale; $110,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling sale; $1,525,000 (in foal to Deputy Minister) at the 2002 Keeneland November sale; and finally, last fall, for $2.9 million at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky’s November Selected Mixed sale. Her latest purchaser was Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings.

Behind Hookedonthefeelin’s escalating value are enough stories to fill a book. A Grade 1 winner of $488,554, she produced as her first foal the multiple Grade 1-winning Pussycat Doll ($657,831), a daughter of Pennsylvania stallion Real Quiet.