In the days leading up to the world-famous Keeneland September yearling sale, David Anderson of St. Thomas, ON was excited about two things: his homebred colt Halo Again was going into the Queen’s Plate as one of the contenders, and a yearling filly by Medaglia D’Oro he bred on his Anderson Farms.

“Watch this one at the sale,” he said to Canadian Thoroughbred. “We have probably the most special filly I have ever raised selling. She is the real deal.”

Halo Again fizzled in the Plate but on Sept. 14 the yearling, from the mare Orchard Beach, also bred by Anderson, was the subject of a brisk bidding war and was eventually hammered down for a whopping $1.6 million, bought by Shadwell Estate Company. The filly is the most expensive yearling sold by Anderson. The yearling’s older half-brother, Sergei Prokofiev, a Group 3 winner in England, was sold by Anderson for $1.1 million and that Scat Daddy colt will enter stud in 2021.

Advertisement