by Kim French, USTA Internet News Editor

Columbus, OH — When Casie Coleman explained to him she might be a little nervous to pull the trigger when bidding on Roughcut at Saturday’s (Oct. 7) final session of the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale if the price became what she considered to be too high, Ed James decided he needed to get himself to the Bluegrass State immediately. He simply couldn’t take the chance that Coleman might allow Hip No. 608 to slip through his grasp and it was quite fortuitous James arrived prior to the colt’s entry into the ring, as his presence ultimately procured the yearling for an unprecedented $300,000 on the last evening of the event.

“I have a pedigree man out East that goes over these sales for me,” James said. “He rated this horse 10 points better than any horse in any sale so far and he told me I needed to buy him. That is when I talked to my trainer in Florida, Jim McDonald, Steve Elliott and of course Casie. They all agreed he was a very nice horse so that’s when I decided I was going to buy him. When Casie said she would be anxious spending too much money on him, because we knew other people wanted him, that’s when I told her I was coming for him. Right after I arrived I put a bid in with the auctioneer on him for $50,000, so that’s where we started and it did not scare anyone away.”

Consigned by Hunterton Sales Agency and reared at Hunterton Farm, Roughcut is a black son of McArdle and the Red River Hanover mare Miss Scarlett. The mare banked $518,539 during her racing career and was a New Jersey Sire Stakes champion as a freshman. Out of Odds On J P (Artsplace), Miss Scarlett is a half-sibling to Ticket To Rock (Rocknroll Hanover, $1.11 million) and Limestone Cowgirl (Western Hanover, $32,817), who has already produced three winners.

Roughcut’s third dam, Giggle Box, is a three-quarter sister to world champion Die Laughing ($2.16 million) and from 12 foals she is the dam of 10 winners including Mc Smiley (Life Sign, $339,026), Toofunnyforwords (Cam Fella, $315,585) and Giddy Up N Giggle (Grinfromeartoear, $160,860).

Despite realizing this Ohio-sired colt would command a sizable amount to possess, James was undeterred. There were also similarities to when he signed the $210,000 check at the 2013 Standardbred Mixed Sale for Dan Patch and O’Brien Award winner McWicked, who was second by a half-length earlier in the day in the Allerage Farms Pace at Red Mile.

“When I have my mind made about something I do it,” James said. “My ex-wife called me (as she did with McWicked) right after I bought the colt to pick on me a little bit. We are still great friends and she knows I do what I want to do. It is a lot of money to spend on a horse, but I’m 86-years-old and what am I going to do with the money? I’m past the age where I need a nest egg, so why not buy a horse?”

Roughcut, who will be conditioned by Coleman, is not only the most expensive yearling James has selected, but is the only horse to ever fetch $300,000 in the last session of the sale.

As a result of his price and the $115,000 delivered by Al Libfield for the Uncle Peter-Bavarde colt Fred The Bread (Hip No. 570), this installment of the sale was up 26.1 percent from last year’s.

In fact, this edition of the event was the most prolific of any sale conducted since it was re-tooled in 2005. Over the course of five days, 622 yearlings exchanged hands for $36,410,000 with an average of $58,537 and a median of $42,000. Also, 103 yearlings sold for $100,000 or more which shattered the previous record of 77 from 2016.

To gain perspective on how successful this year’s sale was, last year’s record-breaking event sold 573 horses for $32,262,000, with an average of $56,304 and a median of $40,000. While more yearlings did go through the ring in 2017, there was no horse that sold for more $480,000, unlike last year when Tactical Landing brought $800,000 and Come See The Show $550,000.

Randy Manges and David Reid, co-sales managers, both felt the 2016 numbers would be unattainable this year, but they acknowledged the strength of the middle market and of the catalogue shortly after the sale commenced.

“That was a dream sale,” Manges said on the first evening. “We cannot expect this year to be the same, but we have yearlings in each session that are very nice horses and should sell well.”

Although established stallions Muscle Hill (49 yearlings sold for $5.67 million) and Somebeachsomewhere (29 yearlings, $3 million) understandably were at the top of the list, the reception of the freshman sires certainly was a powerful force in this sale’s success.

Captaintreacherous was responsible for 52 head which sold for $3.66 million; Father Patrick had 21 yearlings sell for $1.72 million and Sweet Lou had 27 horses sell for $2.07 million.

Since 2012 only Muscle Hill (28 yearlings, $2.87 million), Rock N Roll Heaven (28 yearlings, $1.93 million), Chapter Seven (26 yearlings, $1.59 million) and Lucky Chucky (28 yearlings, $1.59 million) have fared as well or better with their first crops in Kentucky.

Only Muscle Hill ($102,429) had a higher average from his initial group of yearlings than Father Patrick ($82,048), Sweet Lou ($76,778) and Captaintreacherous ($70,481).

New stallions Sunshine Beach and E L Titan also did very well from a limited amount of offspring (three yearlings and an average of $84,667 and six yearlings and an average of $79,833, respectively).

“Muscle Hill and Somebeachsomewhere are proven stallions,” Manges said. “But we also are quite pleased with how well the new stallions have done this year.”

To view full results of the sale, please click here.