A pair of Texas-bred yearlings by leading Texas stallion Too Much Bling topped Monday’s Texas Summer Yearling and Mixed Sale at Lone Star Park with bids of $100,000 apiece. The auction was run by the Texas Thoroughbred Association for the second year after taking over operations from Fasig-Tipton.
The yearling portion of the auction posted solid gains compared to last year, as 59 of 90 head sold for $681,800 with an average of $11,556 and a median of $4,500. That total is up 11.4 percent from last year’s $611,800, while the average jumped 19 percent from $9,711 and the median increased 80 percent from $2,500. The buy-back rate this year was 34.4 percent compared to 31.5 percent last year.
“I was very pleased with the yearling session, and this sale again proved that a Texas-bred by a Texas stallion can still bring big money,” said Tim Boyce, sales director. “It was good to see the average and the median improve, and I expect to see a good number of these horses back here for our 2-year-olds in training sale this spring.”
Hip 14, a colt named Lullaby Bling from the consignment of Benchmark Training Center, agent, sold to Jackson Durham shortly before the solar eclipse passed through the Dallas-Fort Worth area with about 75-percent coverage. The January 22 foal is a full brother to Bling on the Music, who topped the 2016 Texas 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale at $95,000 and has since earned $153,082 with two stakes wins and a Grade 2 placing. Lullaby Bling is out of the winning Action This Day mare Soft Music.
The second $100,000 Too Much Bling yearling, a filly consigned by Asmussen Horse Center, agent, and prepped by Brant Schafer of Elgin, Texas, sold to Susan Moulton as hip 62 not long after the eclipse. The March 19 foal is out of the unraced General Meeting mare General Reunion, who produced a full brother named Nublado Bling, a stakes winner of more than $140,000.
The mixed session totaled $33,000 with 14 of 36 sold for an average of $2,357 and median of $1,400. Last year’s mixed session, which featured a strong consignment from the closing of Lane’s End Texas, brought in a total of $167,700 with 28 of 30 sold for an average of $5,989 and median of $2,700.
“The Lane’s End Texas consignment gave us a big boost for the mixed session last year, and we just didn’t have that same firepower this year, but overall I think it was still a good sale,” said Boyce.
The high seller from the mixed session was hip 212, a Supreme Cat mare in foal to Stonesider who sold for $11,000 to Jerry Durant from Eureka Thoroughbred Farm, agent.
For hip-by-hip results, click here to view the interactive catalog.
Or to view PDF results, click here for the yearling session and click here for the mixed session results.