Million-dollar Arrogate Filly Tops Midlantic May Two-Year-Olds in Training

A million-dollar Arrogate filly topped the final session of the 2023 Midlantic May Two-Year-Olds in Training held Tuesday evening in Timonium, Maryland, marking the eighth consecutive year that a seven-figure horse has been sold at this sale.

Kerri Radcliffe, agent, purchased the session- and sale-topping Arrogate filly (Hip 552) for $1,000,000 from the consignment of Hartley/de Renzo Thoroughbreds, agent (video). The chestnut filly worked an eighth in 10.0 during the Thursday session of last week’s under tack show. Out of the winning Mutakddim mare Twixy, Hip 552 is a half-sister to four winners, including multiple stakes winner Twixy Roll (Roll Hennessy Roll). Her dam is herself a half-sister to the dam of multiple Grade 1 winning millionaire and Breeders’ Cup champion Caleb’s Posse.

A filly from the first returning U.S. crop of Take Charge Indy (Hip 361) commanded the day’s second-highest price when sold for $510,000 to Jeff Mackor, agent for Gus King, from the consignment of De Meric Sales, agent. The dark bay or brown filly worked an eighth in 10.0 during the Wednesday session of the under tack show. Hip 361 is a full or half-sister to eight winners out of the stakes placed Songandaprayer mare Perfect Paula, who produced Take Charge Indy’s graded stakes winning filly Take Charge Paula.

Rounding out the session’s top five prices were:

• A filly by Gun Runner (Hip 406), sold for $450,000 to Flurry Racing Stables from the consignment of De Meric Sales, agent. The dark bay or brown filly is the first foal out of the multiple stakes winning Rock Slide mare Rocky Policy. Now a three-time Fasig-Tipton sales graduate, Hip 406 was bred in New York by Barry R. Ostrager.
• A colt by Justify (Hip 322), sold for $400,000 to Tom Durant from the consignment of Hartley/de Renzo Thoroughbreds, agent. The bay colt is a half-brother to three winners and a placed three-year-old out of the winning Elusive Quality mare My Fast One, from the immediate family of multiple Grade 1 winner Wekiva Springs.
• A filly from the first crop of champion Vino Rosso (Hip 379), sold for $385,000 to Team Hanley & 30 Year Farm from the consignment of Tom McCrocklin, agent. The bay filly is out of the Malibu Moon mare Qualkris, from the immediate family of Grade 1 winner Faiza and Grade 2 winners Thousand Words and Pomeroys Pistol.

See also: Mendelssohn Filly Tops Strong Opening Session of Midlantic May Two-Year-Olds in Training

Over the course of two days of selling, 373 juveniles changed hands for $34,751,500. The gross was the second highest in this sale’s history behind last year’s record-setting gross of $37,297,700 for 291 sold. The average was $93,168, third highest in sale history behind last year’s record of $95,391 and 2021’s then-record watermark of $94,391. The median was $50,000, tied for a sale record with the median in 2021, and up 6.4% over the median of $47,000 in 2022. The RNA rate was just 14.6%, second lowest in sale history behind the record RNA rate of 12.5% set in 2010.

This marked the eighth consecutive year that a seven-figure juvenile has sold at the Midlantic May Two-Year-Olds in Training sale. The first such sale in 2015 – a $1,250,000 Smart Strike filly – was a record for both the sale and for a Thoroughbred sold at public auction in the state of Maryland at the time. The Maryland-state record is now $3,550,000, the price of last year’s sale-topping Bernardini colt. The most prominent of the run of expensive juveniles is 2019 sale topper Gamine ($1,800,000), who would go on to be named Eclipse Champion Female Sprinter in 2020 after capturing that year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1), one of her five Grade 1 scores and seven graded stakes victories.

Full results are available online.