The Standardbred Horse Sale's yearling auction wrapped up on Wednesday (Nov. 10) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with trotting filly Unity Blue Chip topping the third session with a six-figure price tag.
Selling as Hip 598, Unity Blue Chip was purchased for $145,000 by Paul Kelley of Lake Worth, Florida. Bred by Blue Chip Farms, the E L Titan filly is the first foal out of the unraced Credit Winner mare Credittomyfamily, who is a full sister to Moni For Lindy ($421,821 - 1:53.4S). Unity Blue Chip's third dam is the legendary trotting mare Moni Maker.
Duck Dynasty, by breakout New York sire Huntsville, was the jointly highest-grossing pacer of the Wednesday session, selling for $100,000 to Shane Tritton. The colt, bred by Blair and Erna Corbeil, is the first foal of Rockn Opium, who won five times in her racing career.
Sublime Hanover also attracted a $100,000 bid, sold to Wilma and James MacKenzie from the Hanover Shoe Farms consignment. The daughter of Ontario sire Sportswriter is a full sister to five-time winner Sam McKee Hanover and a half sister to Jugette and Ontario Super Final champion Scarlett Hanover ($1,020,675 - 1:50.4S).
A trio of yearlings sold for $80,000: Hurrikane Msrodine (Sunshine Beach-Western Heat), a full sister of Simcoe winner Twin B Sunkissed, to Sylvain Descheneaux; Goldin Greatness (Huntsville-Bet On Hill), to Chris Ryder; and Covid Terror (Shadow Play-Cyber Terror), to Dr. Ian Moore.
In all, the 356 yearlings who passed through the sales ring on Wednesday attracted a total of $9,038,500 in winning bids, resulting in an average sale price of $25,389. The three-day yearling portion of the Harrisburg sale saw a total of $42,465,500 change hands, with an average sale price of $54,653 for the 777 yearlings sold. Both overall figures represent significant increases over the 2020 figures: this year's overall gross sales were 43.8 per cent over last year, and the 2021 average sale price was 43.0 per cent higher than the 2020 average.
The 2021 figures for gross and average also established record numbers for the yearling portion of the sale. Previous records for gross and average were both set in 2019, when the gross was $40.7 million for 833 horses and the average was $48,903. Compared to 2019, this year’s yearling sale showed an increase of 4.2 percent in gross and 11.7 percent in average. This year’s gross surpassed $41 million in 722 horses.
The mixed sale portion of the five-day auction will be held on Thursday and Friday (Nov 11-12), starting at 10 a.m. on both days.
IMPORTANT LINKS
• Sale Catalogues
• Outs List
• Sale Results
• Online Bidding (via i-bidder)
• Sale Live Streaming Video (Active during the sale and will also appear below. Click 'watch live' and then 'play' to view the live stream.)