$800K Curlin Filly Tops Keeneland Fifth Session

Gleefully clutching his yellow sales receipt as if he had just won the golden ticket, agent Donato Lanni chuckled while badgering underbidder Jacob West Sept. 18 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. "I finally got you!" Lanni told West after signing the ticket on Hip 1455, an $800,000 Curlin filly who topped the first Book 3 session at the Lexington auction. Purchased by Lanni for Karl and Cathi Glassman, the filly bred in Kentucky by Breeze Easy is out of the grade 3-placed Uncle Mo mare Divine Elegance, a daughter of the grade 2-winning Carson City mare Classic Elegance from the family of 2012 Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Believe You Can. "I wanted her, I really wanted her," said Lanni, who did his bidding while on the phone with Karl Glassman. "She's a well-bred filly with sire power, pedigree—just amazing, loved her. "I'm so happy that they let me buy her," the agent added. "We had been stopping all week, but they stuck in there. …It's been really hard to buy what you want, so hard, so competitive, so strong. The good ones bring that and more." Eisaman Equine in Ocala, Fla., will teach the filly her early lessons before she heads to the racetrack. "We knew she was a really nice filly and we thought she could possibly top the sale today, but you never know until they go through the ring," said Reiley McDonald of Eaton Sales. "We knew she would be at the top of the book today." As to the filly's placement in Book 3, McDonald said: "We wanted to make a splash and I think she stood out here really well. People are running out of grade 1, big-time horses (to buy)." Columbiana Hits Home Run The filly was one of eight yearlings signed for by Lanni on behalf of various clients Saturday at Keeneland. He also won out on a $760,000 City of Light colt consigned by Columbiana Farm for breeder Keith Abrahams as Hip 1393. The colt was one of six yearlings Lanni acquired Saturday for SF Racing/Starlight/Madaket on Saturday alone. So far at this sale the trio has purchased 20 yearlings for gross receipts of $9,835,000 and a $491,750 average. "City of Light, everyone is mad over him," Lanni said. "He was a hell of a racehorse. This colt was nice; they all look like racehorses." Hip 1393 was bred in Kentucky out of the Open Forum mare Azure Spring, a full sister to the stakes-winning, grade 3-placed Open Concert, and dam of grade 2 winner Selcourt. The 1984 Del Mar Oaks (G2T) winner Fashionably Late appears further down the page. "We bought the mare for Keith Abraham, have raised all the foals," said Homer Rader, manager of Columbiana. "(Hip 1393) jumped through all the hoops. He's a very special colt and once we got him here we knew he was special, because everyone liked him." Kathy Berkey, who handles matings for Columbiana clients, said her faith in the colt was bolstered by City of Light's strong results at this sale. Upon the conclusion of Saturday's session, the Lane's End son of Quality Road was represented by 34 sold for a $420,588 average. "With the City of Lights selling so well all week, it gave us confidence," Berkey said. "We were thinking anywhere from $300 to a million. We've done horse sales for so long, you just never know. You just hope two people hook up and they keep going. "We have had good success in the past with Book 3," she added. "If you let everybody fight over the ones in Book 1 and 2, they get to the first day of Book 3 and there aren't many left that are nice, so then they really have to fight over them to get one."