A colt from the late sire Bernardini shattered several records on Tuesday when he brought $3.55 million at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale at Timonium, Maryland.
The colt, a product of Bernardini out of the Medaglia d’Oro mare G Note, went to Gary Young, the respected West Coast bloodstock agent. He was serving as the agent for Amr Zedan of Zedan Racing, owner of the late Medina Spirit and Santa Anita Derby winner Taiba. Offered as Hip 385, the dark bay or brown New York-bred came from breeders Chester and Mary Broman.
The $3.55 million price tag set a record for the highest price for a Thoroughbred sold at public auction in Maryland. It destroyed the previous mark of $1.8 million set when the gavel went down on Gamine in 2019. She went on to win nine races in 11 starts, yet didn’t win her full $1.8 million back, falling just short at $1,771,500.
Other Midlantic Sale records fell, as well. The colt became the most expensive Thoroughbred sold at a public auction in the world this year. He also became the highest-priced Bernardini progeny sold at public auction.
He covered a furlong in 9.4 seconds during a May 18 pre-sale workout.
G Note blew a high note as a mare herself. She’s already produced three winners in as many runners. The granddam is Grade 2 winner Seeking the Ante, who foaled stakes winner Mineralogist, the dam of stakes winner Can You Diggit. She also foaled stakes-place Risk a Chance, the dam of this year’s Grade 2 Rebel Stakes winner Un Ojo.
Midlantic Sale quite busy elsewhere
Speaking of Gamine, her former owner, Michael Lund Petersen, spent $725K on a daughter of first-crop sire Girvin. That was the highest-priced filly among the 391 horses sold.
Three more juveniles sold for $500K each. One, a colt by first-crop sire Bolt d’Oro, the second, a filly from Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, and the third, a filly by the late Malibu Moon.
Maryland may not have the same sales cachet as Kentucky and New York, but this marked the eighth consecutive year with a seven-figure Midlantic Sale headliner. The 391 horses brought a record $37,297,700 over the two-day sale. That marked a 10.7% increase from last year’s previous mark of $33,692,000.
“We had a lot of buyers from all over the world that came to the sale,” Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sales Director Paget Bennett said in a statement. “We had supporters regionally and nationally who came to buy racehorses here. We are tickled to death with these results.”