Record gross and median recorded and Australians active.
When the Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale concluded in Lexington on Wednesday, a record gross and median was recorded while the average was the highest in sale history in a non-dispersal year and the second highest overall.
The Grade One placed Brilliant Cut (Speightstown) topped the final session when bought for US$750,000 by Katsumi Yoshida. First-time consignor Highgate Sales, agent, offered the four-year-old as a racing or broodmare prospect. Twice a winner and multiple graded stakes placed, Brilliant Cut has earned US$164,360 to date and she was campaigned through 2021 by owners Boom Racing, ERJ Racing, Dave Kenney and William Strauss and trained by Doug O'Neill.
Excluding dispersals, Brilliant Cut is the second most expensive filly or mare in sale history, second only to Better Begin, who sold in foal to Northern Dancer for US$900,000 at the 1984 Kentucky Winter Mixed sale.
Australian-based buyers were active at this year's sale. Sheamus Mills Bloodstock bought winning and stakes placed four-year-old Road To Romance (Quality Road) for US$160,000. She was sold by Bluewater Sales as Lot 592 while Brett Howard's Randwick Bloodstock Agency bought one lot, Lakerball (Lakerville) for US$35,000. Sold as Lot 354 the six-year-old mare was a stakes winner at two.