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Broodmare Aqaareb Leads the Way in Inglis Digital USA October Sale

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Aqaareb, an 8-year-old mare by Bernardini, brought top price of $260,000 at the conclusion of the Inglis Digital October (Late) Sale on Tuesday.

Consigned by Paramount Sales, she went to Imad Al Sagar’s Blue Diamond Stud, which has bases in England and the U.S.

Her first foal to race is a placed Amjaad (Nyquist), who will race in the Dubai barn of trainer Doug Watson during the upcoming U.A.E. racing season. She also has foals by Street Sense, Good Magic, and Cody’s Wish.

The mare was offered in-foal to currently leading Freshman sire, Yaupon.

Aqaareb is out of the stakes-winning Unbridled’s Song mare Muhaawara, making her a half-sister to Grade III winner Shagaf, and a half-sister to stakes-placed Munqad and stakes producers Gharbeya and Mahasen. Her second dam is the multiple Grade I winner Habibiti, putting her in the extended family of Breeders’ Cup Marathon winner Eldaafer.

“It’s a great, easy-to-use platform,” Blue Diamond Stud general manager Ted Voute said about buying with Inglis Digital USA. “Mr. Al Sagar in Kuwait had picked out this beautiful Bernardini mare himself and was following the action online. I was able to bid from the comfort of my home in the United Kingdom. We were approved a credit limit easily this morning. Inspection of the mare by Cian Gahan, our farm manager at our Stonereath division (in Paris, Ky.), was very easy and informative. It was a very slick transaction.”

Glen Hill Farm secured the second- and third-highest-priced offerings of the day, going to $70,000 for the broodmare Azm (Tapit), and landing the racing/broodmare prospect She’s Fire (Flameaway) for $60,000.

Azm was bred by Glen Hill in Florida before selling her as a weanling for $1.1 million. Her dam, Marketing Mix, was a multiple Grade I winner for Glen Hill.

After finishing third in her lone career start, the 10-year-old has produced two winners from her first two foals to race. She was offered in foal to Oscar Performance.

Azm is a half-sister to stakes-placed Global Brand, and her extended page features GISW Contredance and GSWs Skimble and Shotiche.

Paramount Sales consigned Azm, as agent. Along with sale-topper Aqaareb, the Paramount consignment sold eight horses for a combined $470,000.

“We were optimistic about our consignment going into this sale with such a quality group,” said Paddy Campion, account manager at Paramount Sales. “When the catalog went live, we were really encouraged at the level of interaction from buyers, and now we could not be more pleased with the outfits that stepped up to get these mares.”

She’s Fire, winner of the 2023 Fitz Dixon Jr. Memorial Juvenile Stakes at Presque Isle Downs in 2023, entered Tuesday’s sale off a front-running allowance optional claiming win at the same track on Oct. 23.

Campaigned by Divine Light Healing Ministries and trainer Kevin Rice, the 4-year-old was available for inspection with consignor Gail Rice at Grand Oaks Training Center in Reddick, Fla.

Bred in Kentucky by Bill Adair, Phyllis Adair, and Connie Brown, She’s Fire is out of the winning Flatter mare My Wish List.

“Glen Hill Farm is excited to buy a couple of horses from the Inglis Digital USA platform,” said owner Craig Bernick. “She’s Fire is likely to head to Australia, as she’s a 2-year-old stakes winner and will cross with most of the stallions down there.

“Azm is a mare that we bred and sold as a foal, and we are thrilled to have her back,” Bernick continued. “She’s in foal to Oscar Performance, who is perhaps the best turf sire in the U.S., and we may breed her right back to him next year if the foal is nice.”

In total, Tuesday’s Inglis Digital USA October (Late) sale saw 43 horses change hands for a combined $720,500.

The buying bench was just as diverse, with 34 unique winning bidders from the 43 lots that sold during Tuesday’s sale.

“We had great participation from top to bottom,” said Inglis Digital USA CEO Kyle Wilson. “When you bring some unique things to market, everyone will show up. We’re pleased with the results.”

Offerings that finished under their reserves on Tuesday are still available to purchase on the Inglis Digital USA website. Visit the site’s “Catalog” page and click on “Make An Offer” next to the available horses.

Entries are now open for the Inglis Digital USA December Sale, and they will be taken through Monday, Nov. 24. The catalog will be released on Friday, Nov. 28, and bidding will close on Wednesday, Dec. 4.

To enter a horse in the December sale, register as a bidder, or make a bid on an RNA horse from the October (Late) sale, visit www.inglisdigitalusa.com.

The post Broodmare Aqaareb Leads the Way in Inglis Digital USA October Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Distorted d’Oro, Half-Sister to Tappan Street, On Offer at Fasig-Tipton November

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Pete Williams made the decision to keep Distorted d’Oro (Medaglia d’Oro) in training another year when she finished a close-up fourth in the Tom Benson Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds Mar. 22, only to completely change his mind just a week later when the 4-year-old filly’s half-brother Tappan Street (Into Mischief) won the GI Florida Derby. Instead, Williams chose to send Distorted d’Oro to visit Tappan Street’s sire Into Mischief and he has now made the difficult decision to offer the mare at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale Monday in Lexington. She will go through the ring as hip 207 with the Nicky Drion Thoroughbreds consignment.

“This is really bittersweet,” said Williams, a real estate developer who began building his MKW Breeding commercial broodmare band just four years ago. “This all has to do with the business and we are in a business. This isn’t a hobby and you have to make some crappy decisions sometimes. It’s a business and you are trying to make money and you want to at least try to pay for your operation.”

The MKW Breeding band currently numbers 17 head and includes Midnight Snack (Distorted Humor), a half-sister to Grade I winner Speed Boat Beach (Bayern), and Mo Town Mayhem (Uncle Mo), a full-sister to multiple graded winner Souper Hoity Toity, while a pair of young runners waiting in the wings include recent maiden winner Malibu Muse (Malibu Moon).

“We bought probably seven or eight of those as broodmares or broodmare prospects and the others have been developed through our racing program,” Williams said of the band. “If we think we can buy fillies right that we like–I call it buying broolings. I have a list of broodmare sires and I am looking for those pedigrees. I wanted a Blame broodmare. And instead of finding a Blame broodmare, we bought a yearling filly by Blame last year. I loved her pedigree, she’s a full-sister to a graded stakes winner. And hopefully, we can make that pedigree even better, but if we can’t, it’s already good enough to send to the breeding barn. That’s kind of been the overarching business plan.”

Williams purchased Distorted d’Oro for $325,000 at the 2023 OBS April sale. The mare is out of graded winner Virginia Key (Distorted Humor), a half-sister to graded winners Grace Adler (Curlin) and Pyrenees (Into Mischief). She hit the board in four of eight starts–including a third-place effort in the Searching Stakes at Laurel last year–with three wins.

“She was a hard-knocking filly, she didn’t have that incredible turn of foot, but man if you watch the races she won, she would go inside on the rail, she had what it took to race,” Williams said. “She ran in a stakes at Fair Grounds and Jose Ortiz rode her. She just missed getting third by a nose and ran a hard-knocking race against some pretty good horses. I am not in this racing thing, it’s either black type or it’s not, so I asked Jose, ‘If I race her in her 4-year-old year, is she going to put more black-type on her pedigree?’ and Jose said, ‘Absolutely, let her race this year.’ I left there with that decision made.”

Bloodstock agent Alistair Roden and Pete Williams | Fasig-Tipton

And then Tappan Street–still the only horse to defeat Sovereignty this year–put himself in contention for the GI Kentucky Derby with his Florida Derby victory.

“By the end of the week, I had kind of changed my mind,” Williams said. “Obviously, the family is already crazy good, but then he wins that and I said, ‘OK, let’s retire her.’”

Williams continued, “You know how anytime you get a call from a trainer, or someone at the farm, you just look at the phone and think, ‘oh, crap.’ So I called Stidham and I said, ‘Hey Mike, you know how you always call me with bad news? Well, I am calling you to tell you to ship Distorted d’Oro to Kentucky.’ And he said, ‘I get it. It’s a business and you have to make the best business decision.’ So I made what I thought was the best business decision that I could make.”

Williams admitted his yearling sales result were disappointing this fall and that helped him make the decision to put Distorted d’Oro in the Fasig-Tipton catalogue.

“We had a nice Curlin filly and what I thought was a very nice Nyquist filly that I really planned on selling very well,” he explained. “One of them didn’t get the interest we were looking for and we kind of knew where we were heading, so we just scratched her and sent her to Margaux to train and race or possibly, I guess, a 2-year-old sale. And then this Nyquist filly did not sell close to where we wanted her to sell.”

Asked what it would be like to watch Distorted d’Oro go through the sales ring at Fasig-Tipton Monday, Williams admitted, “I won’t be happy. I really feel like she is the kind of mare you can make $10 or $12 million out of over her life. I looked through the [Fasig-Tipton catalogue] Saturday night and obviously there are some really good pedigrees in there and there are some really talented racehorses, but when I look at her family, as a buyer myself, this is what I would be looking to buy.”

Still in the early stages of his breeding operation–and despite any setbacks–Williams said, “I am excited about what I do. Real estate development has been my business, so I am used to not getting good news all the time. No one ever calls and tells you we are going to finish this project early and it will cost less money. It’s always the opposite. Everything always costs more than we thought. So I’ve got the mentality to take the bad news in this business.”

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