Pope Goes to $1.05M for Good Magic Filly at Keeneland

Early during the opening day of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, Nov. 3, Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm struck for a filly by Good Magic from the immediate family of grade 1 winners Dornoch, Mage, and Baeza. Pope signed the ticket for Hip 19 at $1.05 million. "She's from an unbelievable family," said Todd Quast, general manager and racing manager for Whisper Hill Farm. "When you get out of that mare and going back to Good Magic, and the good ones that are out of (Puca), you have to look at it long range." The filly was bred and consigned by Nursery Place. She is out of the Silver Ghost mare Boat's Ghost, making the filly a half sister to grade 1 winner and millionaire Finnegans Wake and 2025 Broodmare of the Year Puca, who produced Baeza, Dornoch, and Mage; classic winners Dornoch and Mage are both by Good Magic. Nursery Place purchased Boat's Ghost for $17,000 at the 2023 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale. Quast said Whisper Hill hopes to campaign the filly for a successful career on the track, but given her strong pedigree, the filly holds a lot of residual value as a broodmare down the road. "I think that's why everybody was there (bidding) and we were paying a lot more money than we normally would for that physical," Quast said. To outpace a highly competitive market, he explained that they are buying more weanlings to capitalize on the substantial value increase by the time they become yearlings. "You have to start with weanlings thinking they're going to be in the broodmare band, because it's just getting more and more competitive; and if they have a good family, they've got to step up and pay for it," he said. "It's definitely a long-range goal to raise, breed, and it takes all that nowadays it seems like to get into these families." Quast said he expects the filly, who is a bit on the small side, to blossom as she gets older. "The only thing is she might be a little bit small, but it was all there and all in the right spots," he said. "And that family tends to be a little bit that way, so we're hoping she'll continue on. "But, she did everything right. Moved well, looked good, vetted good."