As the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale drew to a close Feb. 9, Shingo Hashimoto secured the day's top seller after making the final bid of $1.5 million for grade 1 winner Iscreamuscream (Hip 385), who he bought on behalf of Katsumi Yoshida's Northern Farm.
The 5-year-old daughter of Twirling Candy won back-to-back graded stakes at 3 in the 2024 San Clemente Hanicap (G2T) and then the Del Mar Oaks (G1T). She was consigned as a broodmare prospect by Taylor Made Sales Agency.
"I really liked the way she walked, it made me think she is a grade 1 winner, and I'm very excited we bought her," Hashimoto said.
Iscreamuscream sold with a nomination to Taylor Made Stallions' marquee sire Not This Time , who was the leading turf sire and leading sire of 2-year-olds in 2025 and also runner-up on the general leading sires list to seven-time leading sire Into Mischief .
Hashimoto said the long-term plan is to send the mare to Japan, but they may keep her in the United States to be covered by a U.S.-based stallion.
"We haven't decided yet (on a stallion), I'm going to talk to my boss and ask what he wants to do," Hashimoto said. "Not This Time is really attractive, so of course, he would be one of the options."
Yoshida also acquired graded stakes winner Maysam (Hip 294) for $400,000 from Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa's consignment. The 4-year-old Game Winner filly won the 2025 Santa Ysabel Stakes (G3) for owner Michael Lund Petersen and trainer Bob Baffert. Bloodstock agent Donato Lanni purchased Maysam for $500,000 on Petersen's behalf at the 2024 Ocala Breeders' Sales March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale out of the Wavertree Stables consignment. The filly is also likely to stay in the U.S.
"Same as Iscreamuscream, I think we'll keep her in the U.S., and then cover her with a stallion in the U.S. and send her back home (to Japan) in the fall."
Yoshida secured the top buyer spot with his two purchases totaling $1.9 million.
Following a day of steady trade, the sale saw 267 horses change hands for gross receipts of $16,696,500, including private sales, a 44% increase from last year's gross of $11,626,500, from 263 head. The average and median also rose. The average was up 41% to $62,534, and the median up 47% to $25,000. Fifty-seven horses failed to meet their reserve, resulting in a buy-back rate of 17.6%, slightly lower than last year.
"I'd like to begin by thanking our facilities crew and our consignors for dealing with some very adverse conditions over the last week," said Fasig-Tipton's president and CEO Boyd Browning Jr. "An amazing job in terms of cooperating and doing the very best they could with snow and ice removal. It's a lot of hard work; there's no glamor in it. It's like a lot of things in our industry. It's the behind the scenes; it's the things people don't see.
"It's easy for me to get up here and say, we've had a great sale, everything's up 40%, which it was, but that doesn't happen without countless hours in the cold and wind and snow, chiseling ice and so forth. It's a tribute to the dedication and hard work that we see happen throughout our industry."
Browning was very pleased with the strong buyer base that showed up for the single-session auction.
"Tremendous sale. There was a lot of activity," Browning said. "The sale felt good. There were bidders from $1.5 million to $150,000 to $15,000. Throughout every level of the marketplace, there was activity.
"One of the most encouraging signs is to see the horses selling for significantly more than the reserves that the consignors put on them."
Demand for short yearlings continued to show its strength, with 20 horses selling for $100,000 or more, topped by the sale of Hip 127, an Into Mischief filly who brought $625,000, by the way of Marc Gunderson. He also purchased the filly's dam, the multiple graded stakes-placed mare Ava's Grace (Hip 126), for $950,000 in foal to Curlin .
READ: Package Buy: Ava's Grace and Yearling Go to Gunderson
The top-priced yearling colt of the sale was a $230,000 colt (Hip 272) by first-crop sire Gunite that agent Elizabeth Morey bought for Gulliver Racing out of Mulholland Springs' consignment. The colt is out of the Tapit mare Light the Sky, who is a half sister to 2005 champion 2-year-old male Stevie Wonderboy. Hip 272 was bred in New York by Saratoga Glen Farm and Kenneth Ackerman. Saratoga Glen Farm, agent, bought the mare at the 2025 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale for $27,000 in foal to Gunite.
The two top-priced broodmares of the sale were Ava's Grace and Elle Sueno (Hip 193), who both sold in foal to two-time Horse of the Year Curlin from the Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa consignment. Elle Sueno, a 14-year-old daughter of Street Cry and dam of grade 2 winner Dream Lith, sold for $800,000 to Tropical Racing.
Hill 'n' Dale's strong sales propelled them to the top of the consignors leader board, selling 37 from its draft for a total of $5,094,000.
Browning said Fasig-Tipton's first live auction of 2026 got the year off to a great start, the result of a quality catalog.
"I think people continue to have more and more confidence in the February Sale," he said. "Buyers have more confidence coming to this marketplace, and knowing they can buy a really nice short-yearling, a really nice mare in foal, and a really nice broodmare prospect."
Next on the calendar for Fasig-Tipton is the February Digital Sale, which runs Feb. 19-24.
"The great thing about our marketplace today, and something I think is one of our strengths, is that we've got the ability to serve a variety of customers, in a variety of platforms, in a variety of ways," Browning said. "We've been rewarded with some really quality horses."
