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‘A Consistent Marketplace’: $725K Nyquist Filly Tops Third Session of October Sale

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LEXINGTON, KY – The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale concluded its third of four sessions Wednesday and, while the auction is off the lofty pace of its record-setting 2025 renewal, it continued to produce a day of steady trade.

“It was another very solid session,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. “The numbers were pretty consistent with the first two days. It probably lacked a little bit of the star power, the upper-end fireworks, today that we had, particularly yesterday. That’s just the way the catalogue falls alphabetically with 1,600 horses.”

Through three sessions of the October sale, 811 yearlings have sold for $48,640,000. The average of $59,975 is down 7.4% from the same point of the 2025 sale and the median remained constant at $30,000. With 224 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 21.6%, up from 19.7% a year ago.

“I think what we are seeing is a fairly consistent marketplace,” Browning said. “We talked about it on Monday and Tuesday. It’s not unexpected. The buyers of the upper-end horses are complaining that the competition is too significant, they are getting beat and they wish they could have bought some more horses. And I think some of the consignors will say, on the lower half of the market, it’s a little weaker than they would have hoped, which I think is reflective of the state of our racing world, and honestly, our sales world right now.”

A total of 47 yearlings have sold for $200,000 or more through the auction’s first three sessions, down from the 62 who reached that threshold at this point of the 2025 auction.

Andrew Beck made the highest bid of Wednesday’s session, going to $725,000 to acquire a filly by Nyquist from the Gainesway consignment under his Young Squirrel Stables moniker.

The Fasig-Tipton October sale concludes with a final session Thursday beginning at 10 a.m.

‘Blown Away by Her’: $725k Nyquist Filly to Beck’s Young Squirrels

Andrew Beck grew up on his family’s Gainesway farm, but said he has only recently become involved in the business of racehorses, shopping the sales alongside the farm’s Ben Gowans and signing as Young Squirrel Stables. Beck and Gowans made their highest Young Squirrel purchase when acquiring a filly by Nyquist (hip 996) for $725,000 at the Fasig-Tipton October sale Wednesday.

Andrew Beck and Ben Gowans | Fasig-Tipton

“The moment we saw her, we were really blown away by her,” said Beck. “My dad [Antony] was thrilled by her. He pulled me to the side and said, ‘Look at this.’ He was teaching me things using the filly as the example. She is the epitome of what we are looking for. She was classy and an absolutely lovely filly that we can’t wait to have in the stable. It took the whole team and everyone loved her.”

Gainesway consigned the filly on behalf of her breeder, Keith and Ginger Myers’s Coteau Grove Farms. She is out of Free Cover (Congrats) and her full-brother Gaudreau was recently second in the GI Champagne Stakes.

“That’s our highest price ever for Coteau Grove,” the farm’s Andrew Cary said of the filly’s $725,000 price tag. “We were hoping she would sell really well, but I didn’t have a number in mind where she could end up. We are thrilled and she went to a great home.”

Coteau Grove Farms, with Cary as agent, purchased Free Cover, in foal to Nyquist, for $260,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November sale. Hip 996 is the mare’s third foal by Uncle Mo’s son Nyquist.

“The first foal, Undercover Girl, was super talented,” Cary said. “We raced her and she won first time out impressively. It didn’t all come together for her, but we kept her as a broodmare. I loved her, so we went back to Nyquist and got Gaudreau, who was a super star, and we went back to Nyquist again and got this filly. Unfortunately, Nyquist has gone to a different league now in terms of stud fee.”

With a weanling colt by Wit, Free Cover is now in foal to another son of Uncle Mo in Grade I winner Arabian Knight.

The filly was the fourth purchase of the October sale for Young Squirrel Stables, which also acquired a filly by McKinzie (hip 730) for $220,000. Gowans and Beck were also active at last month’s Keeneland September sale, where the Young Squirrels purchased eight yearlings for $1,175,000. With one exception, all of those purchases have been fillies and Beck said he was buying with an eye towards having future broodmares.

“We continue to try to grow our broodmare band and try to be as strong as we can be on that front and really try to breed racehorses,” he said. “That’s what [hip 996] looks like to us. The way she walks, the way she acts, everything about her just screams racehorse and hopefully down the line, that’s what we will get.”

Of his decision to get involved in the family’s Thoroughbred business now in his late 20s, Beck explained, “I grew up on Gainesway. I was surrounded by it my whole life, but I just recently got hooked into it. My dad kept telling me to come out to the sale and I think it took a second for me to really jump into it. Now I dream about horses. It’s all I think about. I dream of horses walking past me. My dad and I love doing it together. We love going around the farm and looking at the horses. I am new to it. Loving it so far.”

‘I found the one’: $500k Forte Filly to CRK Stable

Three days before Ghostline (Flightline) makes her first trip to the post for Lee and Susan Searing’s CRK Stable and trainer Cherie DeVaux, the stable added the 2-year-old’s half-sister by Forte (hip 1030) to its roster when April Mayberry signed the ticket at $500,000 at the Fasig-Tipton October sale Wednesday. Out of Ghostslayer (Ghostzapper), the yearling was bred and consigned by Peter and Jenny O’Callaghan’s Woods Edge Farm.

Hip 1030, a Forte filly | Fasig-Tipton

“This filly is beautiful,” Mayberry said. “She is strong–she looks like a colt. I had her sister that I broke this year, who I loved. The first day I saw her, I called my client and said, ‘I found the one.’”

The O’Callaghans purchased Ghostslayer, a winner of her lone career start in 2016, for $110,000 while in foal to Street Sense at the 2018 Keeneland November sale. The mare’s City of Light colt sold for $1.05 million at the 2021 Keeneland September sale and her Arrogate colt sold for $700,000 at that same auction in 2022.

Hip 1030 had originally been targeted at the September sale, but “had a last-minute hiccup,” according to Peter O’Callaghan.

“She’s a beautiful filly,” O’Callaghan said. “She showed like a queen all week. We had a ton of play on her, a lot of vetting, a lot of bidders, and we are delighted. That was beyond our expectations.”

‘Always Loved Him’: $200k Midshipman Colt Rewards FitzGerald

When Jim FitzGerald of Knockgriffin Farm purchased a colt by Midshipman (hip 1045) for $30,000 at the Keeneland January sale earlier this year, he circled the October sale as the yearling’s next destination. The plan worked to perfection when the colt returned to the sales ring at Fasig-Tipton Wednesday to sell for $200,000 to trainer Jose D’Angelo.

“I always loved him,” FitzGerald said of the colt. “He was a little backward in January, but he has done nothing but blossom since then.”

Fasig-Tipton October Sale | Fasig-Tipton

FitzGerald added, “I earmarked him for this sale. I knew he would need the time to develop. And he went beyond my expectations the way he developed. He has a wonderful mind and he was a pleasure to be around and to look at everyday. He made me look good.”

Looking ahead to the start of the bloodstock sales in just a couple of weeks, FitzGerald said he anticipated a competitive weanling market.

“As a pinhooker going into the [foal] sales, you have to be very selective,” he said. “Everyone is saying how good the sales are, but us fellows that are farmers and horsemen, it’s difficult enough. Expenses have gone up and it costs a lot to produce these horses. You can’t make too many mistakes. It’s going to be difficult. There are so many good people out there. I am surviving on the crumbs that fall off the table of people like Peter and Jenny O’Callaghan and Aidan and Hannah Jennings, and Brian Graves. I’m just trotting after those people because they are very good at what they do. There are more and more people doing it, as well as end-users. And it’s very competitive.”

The post ‘A Consistent Marketplace’: $725K Nyquist Filly Tops Third Session of October Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Baffert Tabs Prat To Ride His Juvenile Stars

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Flavien Prat has picked up the mounts on ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’ Hughes (Into Mischief) in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and fellow ‘TDN Rising Star’ Miss Monica (Early Voting) in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, trainer Bob Baffert has confirmed. Prat replaces J.J. Hernandez on both horses.

“If the Breeders’ Cup were being held in California, I would have stuck with J.J.,” Baffert said. “But now that I am also based in the Midwest I have been using Flavien a lot there and the races are at Keeneland.”

Hughes looks like the solid favorite in the Juvenile. A winner of all four career starts, he was ridden by Joel Rosario in his debut, but Hernandez took over for the next three races, wins in the GIII Best Pal Stakes, the GI Del Mar Futurity and the GI American Pharoah Stakes.

Miss Monica will vie for favoritism in the Juvenile Fillies. Hernandez has ridden her in her two career starts, both wins, including a victory in the GI Del Mar Debutante.

Hernandez is 0-for-27 in the Breeders’ Cup.

The Baffert-Prat combination has proven to be a major success this year. The French-born jockey is 14-for-36 (39%) on the year when riding for Baffert. Twelve of the wins have come in stakes races. The Prat-Baffert combination will also include Breeders’ Cup stars Splendora (Audible), who will start in the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and another ‘TDN Rising Star’ in Explora (Blame), who will be among the favorites in the GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.

The post Baffert Tabs Prat To Ride His Juvenile Stars appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

‘A Consistent Marketplace’: $725K Nyquist Filly Tops Third Session of October Sale

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LEXINGTON, KY – The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale concluded its third of four sessions Wednesday and, while the auction is off the lofty pace of its record-setting 2025 renewal, it continued to produce a day of steady trade.

“It was another very solid session,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. “The numbers were pretty consistent with the first two days. It probably lacked a little bit of the star power, the upper-end fireworks, today that we had, particularly yesterday. That’s just the way the catalogue falls alphabetically with 1,600 horses.”

Through three sessions of the October sale, 811 yearlings have sold for $48,640,000. The average of $59,975 is down 7.4% from the same point of the 2025 sale and the median remained constant at $30,000. With 224 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 21.6%, up from 19.7% a year ago.

“I think what we are seeing is a fairly consistent marketplace,” Browning said. “We talked about it on Monday and Tuesday. It’s not unexpected. The buyers of the upper-end horses are complaining that the competition is too significant, they are getting beat and they wish they could have bought some more horses. And I think some of the consignors will say, on the lower half of the market, it’s a little weaker than they would have hoped, which I think is reflective of the state of our racing world, and honestly, our sales world right now.”

A total of 47 yearlings have sold for $200,000 or more through the auction’s first three sessions, down from the 62 who reached that threshold at this point of the 2025 auction.

Andrew Beck made the highest bid of Wednesday’s session, going to $725,000 to acquire a filly by Nyquist from the Gainesway consignment under his Young Squirrel Stables moniker.

The Fasig-Tipton October sale concludes with a final session Thursday beginning at 10 a.m.

‘Blown Away by Her’: $725k Nyquist Filly to Beck’s Young Squirrels

Andrew Beck grew up on his family’s Gainesway farm, but said he has only recently become involved in the business of racehorses, shopping the sales alongside the farm’s Ben Gowans and signing as Young Squirrel Stables. Beck and Gowans made their highest Young Squirrel purchase when acquiring a filly by Nyquist (hip 996) for $725,000 at the Fasig-Tipton October sale Wednesday.

Andrew Beck and Ben Gowans | Fasig-Tipton

“The moment we saw her, we were really blown away by her,” said Beck. “My dad [Antony] was thrilled by her. He pulled me to the side and said, ‘Look at this.’ He was teaching me things using the filly as the example. She is the epitome of what we are looking for. She was classy and an absolutely lovely filly that we can’t wait to have in the stable. It took the whole team and everyone loved her.”

Gainesway consigned the filly on behalf of her breeder, Keith and Ginger Myers’s Coteau Grove Farms. She is out of Free Cover (Congrats) and her full-brother Gaudreau was recently second in the GI Champagne Stakes.

“That’s our highest price ever for Coteau Grove,” the farm’s Andrew Cary said of the filly’s $725,000 price tag. “We were hoping she would sell really well, but I didn’t have a number in mind where she could end up. We are thrilled and she went to a great home.”

Coteau Grove Farms, with Cary as agent, purchased Free Cover, in foal to Nyquist, for $260,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November sale. Hip 996 is the mare’s third foal by Uncle Mo’s son Nyquist.

“The first foal, Undercover Girl, was super talented,” Cary said. “We raced her and she won first time out impressively. It didn’t all come together for her, but we kept her as a broodmare. I loved her, so we went back to Nyquist and got Gaudreau, who was a super star, and we went back to Nyquist again and got this filly. Unfortunately, Nyquist has gone to a different league now in terms of stud fee.”

With a weanling colt by Wit, Free Cover is now in foal to another son of Uncle Mo in Grade I winner Arabian Knight.

The filly was the fourth purchase of the October sale for Young Squirrel Stables, which also acquired a filly by McKinzie (hip 730) for $220,000. Gowans and Beck were also active at last month’s Keeneland September sale, where the Young Squirrels purchased eight yearlings for $1,175,000. With one exception, all of those purchases have been fillies and Beck said he was buying with an eye towards having future broodmares.

“We continue to try to grow our broodmare band and try to be as strong as we can be on that front and really try to breed racehorses,” he said. “That’s what [hip 996] looks like to us. The way she walks, the way she acts, everything about her just screams racehorse and hopefully down the line, that’s what we will get.”

Of his decision to get involved in the family’s Thoroughbred business now in his late 20s, Beck explained, “I grew up on Gainesway. I was surrounded by it my whole life, but I just recently got hooked into it. My dad kept telling me to come out to the sale and I think it took a second for me to really jump into it. Now I dream about horses. It’s all I think about. I dream of horses walking past me. My dad and I love doing it together. We love going around the farm and looking at the horses. I am new to it. Loving it so far.”

‘I found the one’: $500k Forte Filly to CRK Stable

Three days before Ghostline (Flightline) makes her first trip to the post for Lee and Susan Searing’s CRK Stable and trainer Cherie DeVaux, the stable added the 2-year-old’s half-sister by Forte (hip 1030) to its roster when April Mayberry signed the ticket at $500,000 at the Fasig-Tipton October sale Wednesday. Out of Ghostslayer (Ghostzapper), the yearling was bred and consigned by Peter and Jenny O’Callaghan’s Woods Edge Farm.

Hip 1030, a Forte filly | Fasig-Tipton

“This filly is beautiful,” Mayberry said. “She is strong–she looks like a colt. I had her sister that I broke this year, who I loved. The first day I saw her, I called my client and said, ‘I found the one.’”

The O’Callaghans purchased Ghostslayer, a winner of her lone career start in 2016, for $110,000 while in foal to Street Sense at the 2018 Keeneland November sale. The mare’s City of Light colt sold for $1.05 million at the 2021 Keeneland September sale and her Arrogate colt sold for $700,000 at that same auction in 2022.

Hip 1030 had originally been targeted at the September sale, but “had a last-minute hiccup,” according to Peter O’Callaghan.

“She’s a beautiful filly,” O’Callaghan said. “She showed like a queen all week. We had a ton of play on her, a lot of vetting, a lot of bidders, and we are delighted. That was beyond our expectations.”

‘Always Loved Him’: $200k Midshipman Colt Rewards FitzGerald

When Jim FitzGerald of Knockgriffin Farm purchased a colt by Midshipman (hip 1045) for $30,000 at the Keeneland January sale earlier this year, he circled the October sale as the yearling’s next destination. The plan worked to perfection when the colt returned to the sales ring at Fasig-Tipton Wednesday to sell for $200,000 to trainer Jose D’Angelo.

“I always loved him,” FitzGerald said of the colt. “He was a little backward in January, but he has done nothing but blossom since then.”

Fasig-Tipton October Sale | Fasig-Tipton

FitzGerald added, “I earmarked him for this sale. I knew he would need the time to develop. And he went beyond my expectations the way he developed. He has a wonderful mind and he was a pleasure to be around and to look at everyday. He made me look good.”

Looking ahead to the start of the bloodstock sales in just a couple of weeks, FitzGerald said he anticipated a competitive weanling market.

“As a pinhooker going into the [foal] sales, you have to be very selective,” he said. “Everyone is saying how good the sales are, but us fellows that are farmers and horsemen, it’s difficult enough. Expenses have gone up and it costs a lot to produce these horses. You can’t make too many mistakes. It’s going to be difficult. There are so many good people out there. I am surviving on the crumbs that fall off the table of people like Peter and Jenny O’Callaghan and Aidan and Hannah Jennings, and Brian Graves. I’m just trotting after those people because they are very good at what they do. There are more and more people doing it, as well as end-users. And it’s very competitive.”

The post ‘A Consistent Marketplace’: $725K Nyquist Filly Tops Third Session of October Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Baffert Tabs Prat To Ride His Juvenile Stars

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Flavien Prat has picked up the mounts on ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’ Hughes (Into Mischief) in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and fellow ‘TDN Rising Star’ Miss Monica (Early Voting) in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, trainer Bob Baffert has confirmed. Prat replaces J.J. Hernandez on both horses.

“If the Breeders’ Cup were being held in California, I would have stuck with J.J.,” Baffert said. “But now that I am also based in the Midwest I have been using Flavien a lot there and the races are at Keeneland.”

Hughes looks like the solid favorite in the Juvenile. A winner of all four career starts, he was ridden by Joel Rosario in his debut, but Hernandez took over for the next three races, wins in the GIII Best Pal Stakes, the GI Del Mar Futurity and the GI American Pharoah Stakes.

Miss Monica will vie for favoritism in the Juvenile Fillies. Hernandez has ridden her in her two career starts, both wins, including a victory in the GI Del Mar Debutante.

Hernandez is 0-for-27 in the Breeders’ Cup.

The Baffert-Prat combination has proven to be a major success this year. The French-born jockey is 14-for-36 (39%) on the year when riding for Baffert. Twelve of the wins have come in stakes races. The Prat-Baffert combination will also include Breeders’ Cup stars Splendora (Audible), who will start in the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and another ‘TDN Rising Star’ in Explora (Blame), who will be among the favorites in the GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.

The post Baffert Tabs Prat To Ride His Juvenile Stars appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.