Tapit Filly Sets Weanling Record at Keeneland

John Sikura had hinted he would be leading a special weanling into the Keeneland sales ring Wednesday afternoon and the Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm owner delivered in a big way when hip 402, a daughter of Tapit, caused a bidding frenzy which ended with Bridlewood Farm’s George Isaacs’ $3-million bid. The final price tag set a new North American record for a weanling. Mandy Pope was underbidder. 

“That was a little unexpected,” Isaacs smiled after signing the ticket on the bay filly, who is a half-sister to graded stakes winners Honor Code (A.P. Indy) and Noble Tune (Unbridled’s Song). The weanling is a daughter of stakes winner Serena’s Cat (Storm Cat) and her third dam is champion Serena’s Song. 

Isaacs has been at Bridlewood since 1989, when he became stallion manager for the farm’s owner at the time, Arthur Appleton. Now serving as general manager to new owners John and Leslie Malone, Isaacs admitted the farm’s long association with the weanling’s family contributed to his affinity for the filly. 

“Mr. Appleton and Bridlewood at one time owned Serena’s Song,” Isaacs explained. “We owned the dam Imagining for years. We bred all these daughters out of this family and it is near and dear to my heart. Again, we’re trying to build a stellar breeding program and, to me, this is a genetic masterpiece and we’re trying to buy back into a family that has been so good to us.” 

Appleton purchased Serena’s Song for $42,000 as a Keeneland November weanling in 1992. He sold her to Bob and Beverly Lewis for $150,000 at the following year’s Keeneland July sale. Also in 1993, Appleton purchased Serena’s Song’s dam, Imagining (Northfields), carrying a full-sibling to the champion, for $180,000 at Keeneland November. 

Isaacs said the weanling represented all the new owners of Bridlewood are looking for in their broodmare band. 

“She is everything we’re looking for,” he said. “We’ll own her until the day she draws her last breath. Physically, she is the best filly on the grounds. You couldn’t draw a picture any prettier.” 

Isaacs did his bidding from the back row of the sales pavilion while on the phone with John Malone, who is chairman of Liberty Media Corp. 

“I think we were at our max, but Mr. Malone is a strong guy,” Isaacs said of the final price. “He gave me the green light to $2 million. I said, ‘Look, I’m good to call it quits at $2.5 million,’ and he said, ‘No, keep going.’ At $2.8 million, when they bid $2.9, he said, ‘Well, go ahead and bid $3 million.’ You can’t scare him away.” 

Isaacs has been busying all week at the November sales and the Tapit weanling was Bridlewood’s second seven-figure purchase of Wednesday’s session. Earlier in the day, Isaacs signed the ticket at $1.9 million for Peace Preserver (War Front). Also consigned by Hill ‘n’ Dale, the 5-year-old mare sold in foal to Galileo (Ire). A graded stakes winner on the track, Peace Preserver is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Jack Milton (War Front).

Record Sale Bittersweet for Sikura…

The record-setting Tapit filly was co-bred by the Justice family’s Dell Ridge Farm and Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine Holdings. The two partners also teamed up to sell a Medaglia d’Oro weanling for $850,000 Wednesday. Dell Ridge purchased the record-setter’s dam Serena’s Cat for $1.4 million as a Keeneland November weanling in 2003. 

“I would have loved to have this filly,” admitted Hill ‘n’ Dale’s John Sikura. “I tried really hard to own her; I was live-bidding up to $2.5 million, and it just got beyond where I could go. I have a partner in this filly and we both had a number [a reserve], and after that, we each did our own thing. We thought she was an irreplaceable filly.” 

Sikura said selling horses like Wednesday’s record-setter was simply part of his business plan. 

“We’ve spent a lot of time and money accumulating super-elite bloodstock,” he said. “We try to have mares and families that other people don’t have. It’s a strategic plan to monetize some of them at different times. You try to build families and establish value. Our goal was to be the highest-priced filly to sell this year, and she achieved that. I thought we’d have what other people didn’t, and we’ve been rewarded.” 

Sikura continued, “There is some reluctance to sell this kind, but I try to strategically monetize enough of our female families that are active and trading in the marketplace and also keep very strong stock at home. It’s hard to balance both, but I’m in the horse business. You can only validate being in the business if you buy and sell horses. If not, it’s a hobby. For me, it’s not a hobby. I have a huge investment in the business that I continue to broaden and deepen and I have to sell some horses, even some I love and don’t want to sell. We keep some, sell some and try to make the right decisions.” 

The Tapit filly was the first weanling to sell at public auction out of Serena’s Cat (Storm Cat). Her first foal, Noble Tune, RNA’d for $300,000 at the 2011 Keeneland September sale. The 4-year-old graded stakes winner was campaigned by Martin S. Schwartz and Dell Ridge. The mare’s second foal, “TDN Rising Star” Honor Code (A.P. Indy), winner of last year’s GII Remsen S., is campaigned by Dell Ridge and Lane’s End Racing. The mare has a juvenile filly by Bernardini, who has raced once for Dell Ridge, as well as a yearling colt by Tapit.

Full Circle for Sikura… 

Hill ‘n’ Dale’s John Sikura has had a long, circuitous history with the family of the $3 million Tapit–Serena’s Cat filly. It isn’t easy to follow, but here goes: Back in 1999, Sikura’s friend Jim Sapara of Winsong Farm purchased the first foal from multiple champion Serena’s Song (Rahy), the Mr. Prospector filly Serena’s Tune, for $1 million at the Keeneland July Sale. 

As a 3-year-old in 2001, Serena’s Tune had just won Santa Anita’s La Habra S. when Sikura traveled out to California to inquire about purchasing a half-interest in her. Sapara agreed, and Sikura was into a family that, over the decade, would consistently turn out stars in both the sales ring and on the track. 

Sapara and Sikura–who would later acquire a full-interest–sent Serena’s Tune to trainer Josie Carroll, and the filly won four of her next eight starts, including the Victoria Lass S. at Fair Grounds in the spring of 2002. 

“Jim Sapara had a terrible fire at his factory and gave me the weekend to buy the other half as he was determined to get his plant back in production,” Sikura explained. “He was matter of fact and said that he had to rebuild his plant and was a seller. I have lots of respect for Sapara and told him that I did not want to be an opportunist. He said buy my half and stuck to his word like the gentlemen he is.”

Sikura sent Serena’s Tune to the breeding shed shortly after that win, and a year later sold her first foal, Serena’s Cat (Storm Cat), as a weanling for $1.4 million at the 2003 Keeneland November Sale. The late Frank Justice’s Dell Ridge Farm purchased her. 

Serena’s Cat was the co-highest filly to sell that year, and remains the co-ninth highest-priced weanling filly ever to sell at November. 

As a producer, Serena’s Tune was turning into a commercial superstar. Her second foal, Mutawahej (Storm Cat), made $3.1 million as a Keeneland September yearling, and her third, Noble Sound (Vindication), made $2.8 million at September. Serena’s Tune’s fourth foal made “only” $560,000, but Vocalised (Vindicaton) proved her best runner to date, winning a pair of group races in Europe. 

“She was off to an amazing start,” said Sikura. “I sold the first filly to get some money back from an expensive purchase, and she had three more foals, including Vocalised, who was a graded winner.” 

Sadly, that would be the end of Serena’s Tune’s production. “She foundered and died, and it was just the worst thing ever,” said Sikura. “After, I was always so sick I sold that filly [Serena’s Cat].” 

Some six years later, in 2012, Sikura would have a chance to get back into the family. Dell Ridge Farm, who remember had purchased Serena’s Cat as a weanling, was racing her first foal, the juvenile colt Noble Tune (Unbridled’s Song), with great success with Martin Schwartz. Sikura approached the Dell Ridge principals about buying into Serena’s Cat, and came away not only with an interest in her, but also with in an interest in another mare from a brilliant family, Violent Beauty (Gone West). Like Serena’s Cat, Violent Beauty also had a standout juvenile in 2012. Tracing to Sky Beauty, Violent Beauty was the dam of the GI CashCall Futurity winner Violence (Medaglia d’Oro), who when he was injured in 2013 would stand at Hill ‘n’ Dale. 

Bringing things full circle yesterday, prior to Hill ‘n’ Dale selling the North American record Tapit–Serena’s Cat filly $3 million, it sold the session’s second-highest priced weanling: a Medaglia d’Oro full-sister to Violence, who went to Richard O’Gorman for $850,000. -L Marquardt