Uncle Mo paddock shot

Uncle Mo Yearling Popular at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga

Consistently a top sire on the track, it was no surprise to see Uncle Mo yearlings popular at the Fasig-Tipton Sale this week led by a $650,000 filly.

Purchased by Marquee Bloodstock as agent, the filly is out of stakes winner and Grade I-placed Stopshoppingmaria and originally sold for $450,000 as a weanling at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Bred by Austramore, the February-born offering is a full sister to the stakes winning Mo Shopping and half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Always Shopping from the four winners out of their dam.

Stopshoppingmaria comes by her producing talent honestly as one of four stakes performers out of the stakes placed Skybox. A half-sister to multiple stakes horses and stakes producers, Skybox is the dam of multiple stakes winner Sand Ridge and Dootsie as well as Stopshoppingmaria. Dootsie not only produced her own stakes performers but is the matriarch of a branch of the family that includes Grade I winner Zipessa and Justify’s stakes winning Yuttitham among others.

The Uncle Mo x More Than Ready cross this filly is bred on has been a fruitful one with six stakes performers led by two stakes winners from 19 runners.

A $525,000 Uncle Mo colt was purchased by China Horse Club, Siena Farm, and Maverick Racing from Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa early in the first session.

Just like the Stopshoppingmaria filly, the colt comes from a big family as a half-brother to the stakes placed Unanimously and two other winners out of Dakota Wind. That Tiznow mare is a half-sister to Canadian champion Delightful Mary, Grade III winner Delightful Kiss and two other stakes performers.

One of the mare’s half-sisters also saw her son earn another stakes placing after the catalog was released when the multiple Grade I placed Wilson Tesoro was second in the Teio Sho. Another half-sister is the granddam of The Chosen Vron, who recently won his second Grade I Bing Crosby Stakes as well.

Averaging $470,000 at the sale, Uncle Mo’s other offerings brought $450,000, $425,000, and $300,000 only a few days after daughter Adare Manor won a second Grade I Clement L. Hirsch.