Mendelssohn Head Shot

Mendelssohn Gets Another Session Topper at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic

It was another top performance by Mendelssohn’s yearlings on Monday at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale when he recorded two of the top three prices of the day with his only two offerings.

Those prices included the $230,000 session topper purchased by Oracle Bloodstock from Dreamtime Stables.

Bred by Classic Thoroughbred, the colt is a half-brother to stakes-placed Juror Number Four from Tasha’s Moon’s only foal to race. Tasha’s Moon is a half-sister to stakes winner Esmeraldina with their winning dam Tasha’s Star herself the dam of three stakes performers. Tasha’s Star is one of five stakes producers out of Ms. Cuvee Napa. Those out of her daughters include Grade I winner Off The Tracks and 11-time winner and stakes winner Praetereo.

“He just looks a lot like Mendelssohn,” Conor Foley of Oracle Bloodstock told Thoroughbred Daily News. “He just looked like an athlete that should run next year; what surface he can run on, I don't know. I think horses like him were few and far between here and he really stood out.”

Foley said that the colt will be trained by Ray Handal.

Mendelssohn also had the highest priced filly of the day, a $160,000 purchase by Donato Lanni as agent for Caroline and Greg Bentley. The third highest price of the sale, the Northview Stallion Station-consigned offering is out of the winning Curlin mare Split It. The mare’s two foals three or older are both winners with each giving updates to the catalog after it was released.

Split It is a half-sister to Scat Daddy’s Grade III-winner Shared Property and stakes winner Whiskey Romeo. The filly’s third dam is a half-sister to champion Epitome and has made her own impact on the breed. In addition to producing Split It’s multiple stakes winning dam, she also produced the dam of Grade II winners War Story and Land Over Sea.

The pair join a strong group of yearlings sold by Mendelssohn this year. Led by a $900,000 filly, yearlings from the first crop of the regally-bred Grade I winning Mendelssohn are averaging $163,095.