Forty minutes into the Sept. 11 fourth session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, a Flightline colt bred and consigned by Dixiana Farms grabbed the sale's spotlight, selling for $1.4 million. April Mayberry of Mayberry Farm signed the ticket for Hip 794 as agent on behalf of Lee and Susan Searing's C R K Stables.
Flightline holds a special place in Mayberry's heart, as she broke and trained the 2022 Horse of the Year at her farm near Ocala, Fla.
Hip 794 was bred in Kentucky, and is out of the Union Rags mare Layla, a full sister to 2022 Santa Anita Handicap (G1) winner Express Train, who Mayberry bought as a yearling for $500,000 at the 2018 September sale for the Searings. The multiple graded stakes-winning son of Union Rags recently finished a fast-closing third in the Pat O'Brien Stakes (G2) at Del Mar Aug. 23.
"Flightline, and then Express Train also, that family and then Mr. (Lee) Searing, that's one of his all-time favorite horses," said Mayberry about what drew her to the colt. "It's kind of a no-brainer, and he looks so much like Express Train."
When asked what similarities Express Train and Hip 794 shared, Mayberry said: "Everything. He's identical, and then throw in Flightline on top of that, like I said, for us, that was going to happen."
Flightline's first crop has been well received so far at the September sale, with 31 selling for an average of $797,581, and eight horses bringing seven figures through Thursday afternoon. His top offering so far is Hip 338, a filly out of the graded stakes winning mare Four Graces who sold to LSU Stables for $2.2 million. His highest-priced colt brought $1.7 million from Japanese buyer Naohiro Sakaguchi.
Mayberry bought another colt with a strong pedigree on behalf of C R K Stables yesterday—Hip 413, a son of Tapit , and a half brother to multiple grade 1 winner and first-crop sire Drain the Clock for $1.3 million.
"We expected after watching (Fasig-Tipton's) Saratoga (Sale), everything was going to be a little bit higher and we're not wrong," she said. "You're going to have to work for it. If you want them, you're going to pay for them. We've been real, real picky, and I think we're happy with everything we've gotten so far."
