Lady's Island Commands $310,000 from Gainesway Farm

Seven-year-old Lady's Island started off her second career as a broodmare on a high note for her connections Feb. 9 when she was purchased by Gainesway Farm for $310,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale. The moment was a sweet one for Richard Averill of Averill Racing, who co-owned and campaigned the Greatness mare through the latter half of her career with partner Matties Racing Stable. Averill had claimed the mare in June 2018 for $16,000. "This is what we're in this game for—times like this," said Averill of Lady's Island, who sold as Hip 524 from consignor South Point Sales Agency. "To claim a horse for $16,000 and to sell her for $310,000 is awesome. It's a great feeling. It's not part of my program to breed high-end mares like this; I let the big guys do this. But I'm very happy to be able to do this, and it's good to see everybody make out well." "She's a beautiful prototype and a fast mare and we think she'll go well with Tapit," said Brian Graves, general manager of Gainesway, who was on hand to sign the winning ticket Tuesday. Bred in Florida by Bailey Bolen out of Broadway Martha (Broad Brush), Lady's Island recorded an 18-5-4 record from 35 starts while racing from 3 to 7. She won seven stakes contests for Averill and Matties, including back-to-back renewals of the Sugar Swirl Stakes (G3) in 2019 and 2020. Lady's Island made her last start Feb. 6 at Gulfstream Park where she won an off-the-turf edition of the Ladies' Turf Sprint Stakes by three-quarters of a length for trainer Georgina Baxter. While Averill said he was unaware of the mare's sheer talent at the time he claimed her, he soon discovered she had the class and tenacity to propel her to success at higher levels. "I told someone earlier, you claim them for $16,000—and she's a Florida-bred so I think the goal was really to win a Florida allowance—but once we got her in the barn and settled in, they really, really liked her a lot, and she kept getting better and better with age. Her last two races she won, so everything worked out perfect. You couldn't ask for anything better. We didn't sell her in November so we could run her a couple more times and she won those couple more times. To get top dollar for her... I'm very happy for me and for my partners, the Matties. We're very happy."