$150,000 Filly for Echo Town at Fasig-Tipton

BCE Stables went to $150,000 to secure an Echo Town filly during the first day of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale to lead the way for her sire at the final major yearling sale of the season.

Consigned by Eaton Sales, it was no surprise the Mike Rutherford-bred was a popular offering with a strong page supporting her from her very first dam.

That mare, the Lion Heart 15-year-old Country Cafe, was unraced herself but has been a strong producer for her owner. Among her five winners is the Grade III-placed Glacial with two-time winning daughter Laquesta producing Mendelssohn’s stakes winning Opus Forty Two.

The stakes form gets even stronger under the filly’s Grade II-placed granddam Pretty ‘n Smart. In addition to producing Country Cafe's Grade III winning full sister Heart Ashley, she is also the dam of Grade I winner Cupid, Grade III winner Ashley’s Kitty, and stakes winner Indianapolis.

Heart Ashley has been talented in the breeding shed as well as on the track. She is the dam of multiple graded stakes winner Fiano Romano and Group III-placed Ameristralia, who produced Grade II winner Ain’t Easy. Pretty ‘n Smart passed on the producing genes with another one of Country Cafe’s half-sisters the granddam of multiple graded stakes winner Kathleen O and this year’s Grade III winner V V’s Dream.

Echo Town is one of many talented runners in his family with his stakes performing siblings including champion and multiple Grade I winner Echo Zulu and his juvenile American Pharoah half-sister topping a Keeneland September session last year when bringing $1.4 million.