Curlin filly shines at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky sale

By Tom Law

Kristen Esler, Jeff Raine and Lolly LaRue spent most of Tuesday morning driving around Central Kentucky, scouting out some stallions to breed the Thirty Year Farm mares to in 2025 before returning their attention to the remainder of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sale.

“We’ve got one more to sell late tomorrow,” said Esler, who owns Thirty Year Farm in Saratoga Springs with her husband Matt. Raine serves as the farm’s advisor while LaRue serves as farm manager.

The one not only sold but sold well. So well that by the end of Wednesday’s third session, Hip 1195[2] staked a claim as the sale’s top-priced New York-bred and most expensive filly overall. Gary Barber purchased the Curlin filly and half-sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Casa Creed, going to $500,000 on the advice of Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse.

“We finished on a real high note,” Esler said Thursday morning. “It was a very satisfying sale, very satisfying. Again, I think I eluded to this when we spoke the other day about following your gut for the right timing. This filly, we knew what we had, she just needed a bit more time to grow into herself. She became what she was supposed to become and we stayed true to what we thought.”

Bred by and foaled at Thirty Year Farm in Saratoga Springs, the filly is the seventh foal out of the unraced Bellamy Road mare Achalaya.

Consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent, the filly made her second trip through a Fasig-Tipton sales ring after she RNA’d for a reported $475,000 at the Saratoga sale of selected yearlings in August. That price would have made her the most expensive New York-bred at Saratoga, a distinction earned by her 2-year-old half-sister Charlotte’s Heart in 2023.

The New York-bred Authentic filly Charlotte’s Heart, also bred by Thirty Year Farm, sold for $725,000 to Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Plantation on the advice of Casse at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. Charlotte’s Heart won her debut August 25 at Saratoga Race Course then finished a fast-closing second in the Glorious Song Stakes October 13 at Woodbine for Casse.

“Charlotte’s Heart, she’s shown some talent right out of the gate,” Esler said. “And now this Curlin filly, we cannot wait to see what she can do. We’re happy with where she’s going. For (Casse) to have this Curlin filly, it just feels right. She’s in the right hands.”

Thirty Year Farm purchased Achalaya, in foal to Charlotte’s Heart, for $725,000 at the 2021 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. She’s the dam of three other winners, including graded stakes winner and $238,908-earner Chess’s Dream.

Casa Creed, who will stand his first season in 2025, retired this summer with a record of 9-5-6 in 36 starts and earnings of $2,691,308. He won back-to-back editions of the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga Race Course in 2022 and 2023, along with back-to-back renewals of the Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes at Belmont Park in 2021 and 2022.

“Achalaya has been so good to us,” Esler said. “We went to see Casa Creed when we were down there. He’s a hometown hero for us. To read, I don’t know exactly what it was, but something like it was seven years and Bill Mott never had to X-ray him too much. Those were the old days of horses I couldn’t wait to see in Saratoga when I was growing up. And now to own his dam is just a blessing. To see the foals she is giving us, we’re absolutely thrilled.”

Achalaya, who was given the 2024 breeding season off, is the dam of a New York-bred weanling filly by Life as Good born May 6.

Hip 1076[5], a daughter of Vekoma from the family of graded stakes winners Freefourinternet and Chimes Band, brought the session’s top price for a New York-bred filly. Grassroots Training and Sales went to $120,000 for the filly out of the winning Yes It’s True mare True Pleasure.

Bred by Sylken Stable, foaled at Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater and consigned by Vinery Sales, agent, the filly is the fourth foal out of the half-sister to 15-time winner, stakes winner and $838,330-earner Bad Debt and multiple stakes winner Awesome Strong.

Fasig-Tipton reported sales on 26 of the 31 New York-breds offered Wednesday for $1,165,500, an average price of $44,827 and median of $14,500. Overall, 69 New York-breds have sold for $2,919,000, an average price of $42,304 and median of $17,000.

“Today was another excellent session of the Kentucky October yearling sale,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning Jr. “It’s been a really fun three days so far, seeing the level of energy, the level of activity. It’s been really encouraging. We’re looking forward to the final day (Thursday). We expect the same trends to continue. We’re three-quarters of the way through the sale and statistically, all the indicators are positive.”

The sale concludes with the final session at 10 a.m. Thursday in Lexington.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2024/10/24/curlin-filly-shines-at-fasig-tipton-kentucky-sale/

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