When a horse by the continent's leading commercial sire retires to stud in the wake of a Horse of the Year campaign, it's safe to assume the expectations to succeed at his new vocation will be sky high.
Authentic stared down that daunting task when he retired to Spendthrift Farm for the 2021 breeding season as the most successful son of Spendthrift's perennial leading sire Into Mischief. The early milestones have yielded positive results for the 2020 Horse of the Year, and that momentum continued Tuesday at the Fasig-Tipton July Yearling Sale, when he had a filly top the proceedings at $475,000.
It was the latest high point in Authentic's fledgling stud career, which began its momentum with the book of mares that he visited in his debut season. He covered 229 mares in his inaugural book, which was second among North American sires to fellow Spendthrift resident Goldencents with 230.
The buying bench eagerly awaited the first Authentics when they arrived at last year's fall sales as weanlings, making him the leading first-crop weanling sire by both average ($242,692) and median sale prices ($230,000). Both figures put him in the top 10 among all North American weanling sires in those respective categories last season.
Spendthrift Farm bought into the partnership that campaigned Authentic in the spring of his 3-year-old campaign, following victories in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes and G2 San Felipe Stakes. He went on to take the G1 Haskell Stakes, Kentucky Derby, and Breeders' Cup Classic in a 2020 campaign shuffled by the COVID-19 pandemic, retiring with earnings of $7,201,200.
With that much time to track his physical development to the present day, Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey said Authentic has done a good job passing along not only the traits that made him a good son of Into Mischief, but also what made him stand out from his sire.
“If you're breeding to him, I think you're getting what you'd expect, which is maybe a little bit lighter, racier, and leggier version of Into Mischief, which is exactly how I'd describe Authentic,” Toffey said. “That's what he seems to be throwing. The filly we just sold had a good amount of leg. She had good substance, and maybe a shade more than Authentic had as a yearling. That, in general, is what we're hearing.”
Spendthrift Farm bred Tuesday's sale topper, a filly out of the Rock Hard Ten mare Scent of Summer from the family of Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, top sire Mr. Greeley, and Grade 1 winner and Spendthrift sire Vekoma. She sold to Alex and Jo Ann Lieblong.
After signing the ticket, Alex Lieblong said he was impressed with Authentic's physical when he inspected the stallion at Spendthrift, but the quality of competition the horse faced and defeated on the racetrack also put the foals on his radar.
“What's not to like?” Lieblong said. “That whole crew that year, they're just all athletic, just amazing, and now we'll see if he can carry it one more round.”
Taylor Made Sales Agency consigned the filly, as agent for Spendthrift Farm.
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The Fasig-Tipton July sale is a showcase event for first-crop sires, offering buyers their first opportunity to purchase debut foals during the formal yearling season. Though horses by rookie sires are often sold at a premium, Lieblong said buying from that first crop can still offer opportunities for value if the stallion gets successful in the years that follow and his stud fee and sale prices skyrocket.
“I like the first-crop sires,” he said. “I figure that's about the last shot that you've got. You see a Good Magic [go through the ring], and you're not going to get a shot at a Good Magic.”
With the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale coming up next month and the marathon Keeneland September Yearling Sale another jump down the road, the July sale is often useful for establishing commercial momentum for a new sire heading into the higher-dollar events.
Toffey said getting the ball rolling for Authentic was a big factor in placing Tuesday's sale-topper in the July sale. Now, he hopes one success leads to the next success. It's worked for the stallion and farm so far.
“We debated what sale to put her in, where she would make the most sense, and we thought, 'Let's take her out to July and try to make a little bit of a splash,'” he said. “The thought was she might be good enough for Saratoga, but let's bring her out here and see if we can be a big fish in a smaller pond. Since we made that decision, she's done nothing but improve.”
The post New Season, Same Buzz For First Yearlings By Spendthrift Farm’s Authentic appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
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