Farfellow Farms struck a major home run during the Book 2 opening session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale Sept. 16 when its homebred filly (Hip 516) by Gun Runner commanded $1.55 million from Mayberry Farm, bidding on behalf of Lee and Susan Searing's C R K Stable.
The father-son duo Jak and Kip Knelman of Farfellow Farms were elated with the result for their family's operation. Farfellow Farms' incredible year at Keeneland came full circle Wednesday when its filly, bred in partnership with GRS, lit up the bid board in the sales ring, just five months after Expensive Queen captured the Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) in a dead heat over Keeneland's turf course.
READ: Success a Family Affair for Farfellow Farms
"It's incredible (to do it as a family)," Jak Knelman said. "And Keeneland, to do it here, this has been the biggest year we've ever had, won a grade 1 in the Jenny Wiley and to do that with my father and the kids there and my wife, and then to come here and have the biggest sales result we've ever had.
"A really big thanks to Keeneland for everything they do and very big thanks to Three Chimneys to have faith in us and to be partners and it paid off well for them and us."
Farfellow purchased Hip 516's dam Another Broad in 2019 at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale for $340,000. The Knelmans campaigned her as a 5- and 6-year-old, adding multiple graded stakes placings to her résumé. In 2023, they put her in the Keeneland November sale, where she RNA'd at $800,000 in foal to Flightline . The result of that foal is the now-named Another Flight, who finished third on debut Aug. 2 at Ellis Park for trainer Brendan Walsh.
"We've really done a nice job keeping a lot of our racemares as broodmares," Knelman said. "The Flightline filly (Another Flight), she could be anything, with Brendan Walsh, and hopefully this yearling does. The mare's just done a fantastic job for us."
The younger Knelman said Hip 516's class separated her from the others.
"This filly, when she came up, we put her in a chifney, but she would have been fine if you'd just had her on a lead rope," he said. "They just come, they look, they observe, and it's really just class. And that's what, when I was learning in the horse industry, had to learn to understand, when you see them walk out of a stall and just go 'wow.'
"It was so exciting, it was really fun, because of the compliments from all the buyers coming through. We're really excited for the buyers. Couldn't be a better place. We're so appreciative of all the buyers coming out and looking at her. A lot of the credit to our team (including) Ian Partridge, our farm manager, (and others) ... I just think it's really exciting to do it as a team, and obviously my dad is incredible, and my mom."
April Mayberry, who signed the ticket for the filly, said she will head to her Mayberry Farm near Ocala, Fla.—where she has started many horses including 2022 Horse of the Year Flightline—to start the breaking process. A trainer has yet to be determined.
"She's so smooth, so pretty, really classy-acting, and I know they raise a really nice horse there (at Farfellow Farms)," Mayberry said. "She had everything you're looking for."
