Top-notch race fillies and mares headline Fasig-Tipton November Sale bonanza

The Fasig-Tipton November Sale has a first-class roll of honour and this year's event could prove another vintage edition, with a stellar cast lining up for an auction billed as 'night of the stars'. 

Off the back of two spectacular days of the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita, there could be fireworks of a different kind in Lexington, Kentucky on Tuesday, with hugely talented fillies and broodmares on offer. The stallions with mares in foal are also a tip-top bunch, including world champion Flightline, Good Magic, Gun Runner, Into Mischief, Justify, Not This Time, Tapit, Uncle Mo and War Front. 

Among the auction's recent graduates to have sparkled on the track are this year's Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes and 2022 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Caravel, 2023 Grade 1 Beholder Mile Stakes winner A Mo Reay, and Spinaway Stakes winner Brightwork. 

Also among the alumni are another Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner in Belvoir Bay, the prolific Grade 1 winner Got Stormy and Kentucky Oaks queen Shedaresthedevil.

Secret Oath: 2022 Kentucky Oaks winner sells as Fasig-Tipton's November SaleCredit: Matt Wooley

The potential headline acts this year include Saturday's clear-cut Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint winner Goodnight Olive (hip 237), a daughter of Ghostzapper who successfully defended her crown at Santa Anita having also won last year's Filly & Mare Sprint at Keeneland. In between her Breeders' Cup triumphs she also landed the Grade 1 Madison Stakes back at Keeneland.

The four-time top-level winner is out of Smart Strike's Grade 3 winner Salty Strike and will be sold by Elite. The five-year-old was sold as a yearling at Fasig-Tipton for $170,000 in 2019.

Elite also offers another top-class filly in Shantisara (181), the five-length winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup in 2021. The five-year-old has proved an inspired 10,000gns purchase by Federico Barberini at the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale in 2020, and is her sire Coulsty's only top-flight winner.

Arrogate's Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath (180) will be offered by Bluewater Sales, while her old rival Nest (163), second to Secret Oath in the Kentucky Oaks last year before reversing the form in the Grade 1 American Oaks and Alabama Stakes, looks another standout. The daughter of Curlin, consigned by Highgate Sales, was also a top-level winner in the Ashland Stakes, which she won by a thumping eight and a quarter lengths.

This year's Prix du Moulin winner and Poule d'Essai des Pouliches third Sauterne (178) rates another exciting prospect. The daughter of Kingman sells just two lots before Secret Oath and is consigned by Nicky Drion Thoroughbreds.

Mares in foal to Flightline are among the sale highlights Credit: Michele MacDonald/Full Stride Communications

Another eyecatcher who will be familiar to European racefans is Pizza Bianca (168), who is consigned through Elite in foal to Into Mischief. The daughter of Fastnet Rock is a Breeders' Cup winner having landed the Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2021, while celebrity chef Bobby Flay's homebred made an appearance at Royal Ascot the following summer, finishing eighth of 12 behind Inspiral in the Coronation Stakes.

Inspiral also provides a link to another lot in Moira (156), as the four-year-old daughter of Ghostzapper was a close third behind the Cheveley Park star in the Filly & Mare Turf at Santa Anita on Saturday. Moira's most notable win came in the Grade 2 Canadian Stakes at Woodbine in September. The filly is offered through Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa.

Mares in foal to the formidable Flightline include Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services' Queen Caroline (171), the dam of 2022 champion juvenile Forte; Joyful Cadence (143), a winning and Grade 2-placed half-sister to Dubai World Cup hero Country Grammer; and Lady Shipman (196), the dam of American champion sprinter and young Ashford Stud sire Golden Pal.

The sale takes place on Tuesday from 2pm local time (7pm GMT) and the catalogue can be viewed here. 

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