2022 Horse of the Year Flightline 's first crop of weanlings entered the Keeneland sales ring for the first time during the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale Nov. 5. They were met with great interest and intrigue among buyers.
"We just wanted a Flightline," said Classic Equine's Randy Hartley. "I've seen him since he was being broke and he was just such a beautiful animal."
Hartley went to $575,000 to acquire the most expensive of the four weanlings, a colt consigned as Hip 241 by Lane's End. The son of the two-time stakes-winning Into Mischief mare Lucrezia was part of the dispersal of Ed Seltzer's Solera Farm. Ed and Beverly Seltzer bred the colt in partnership with W.S. Farish.
"I see a lot of the stallion in them, but I also see a lot of the mares in the babies," Hartley said. "This one looked a lot like Into Mischief. ... We're super happy to have one."
The four weanlings sold, three colts and a filly, brought a total of $1.65 million.
Hartley said the market seemed competitive for the weanlings and said the colt cost about what he was expecting. He plans to bring him back as a yearling in either Fasig-Tipton's The Saratoga Sale or the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
"It seems like they've been very well received and they're bringing some money. I feel like they're going to be strong this year," he said. "(Hip 241) is a nice baby, but we know that there will be some that come through in September that will be monsters. We've got to have nice babies to sell, so we stretch when we see something."
Also part of the Solera Farm dispersal was Hip 190, a Flightline half brother to grade 3 winner Bluebirds Over (English Channel) out of the Giant's Causeway mare Giant Review. He was purchased for $140,000 by First Finds Farm.
The first Flightline colt through the ring Tuesday, Hip 147 consigned by Eaton Sales, drew $500,000 from J.S. Company and Japanese trainer Yoshito Yahagi.
"Flightline is very popular in Japan," Yahagi said in comments translated by J.S. Company's Keisuke Onishi. "I really wanted to purchase a Flightline weanling this time."
Yahagi and Onishi said that Flightline really impressed them when they went to visit him at Lane's End Farm, where he'll stand the 2025 breeding season for a $150,000 fee. Their new purchase, bred in Kentucky by Barronstown Stud, is out of the stakes-placed winning Uncle Mo mare Champagne Lady, a full sister to grade 1 winner Mo Town .
Yahagi will train the colt in Japan.
Hip 178, a filly out of the stakes-winning Into Mischief mare Feeling Mischief, was purchased for $435,000 by Tarpon Stables. She was bred in Kentucky by Orpendale and was consigned by Paramount Sales.
Flightline's breeder and co-owner, Jane Lyon of Summer Wind Equine, was busy at the sale finding mares to breed to her "dream come true" stallion, but she took time to admire the reception his foals were receiving.
"(I feel) more than pride. It's like watching your child graduate," Lyon said. "I want so much for him to reproduce just a fraction of his ability and his heart."
