ORB’s multiple stakes winning and Grade 3-placed mare Whoa Nellie was a star of the show at Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale this week when bringing $450,000 from St Elias Stables.
The third most expensive offering of the sale and most expensive offered as solely a Broodmare Prospect, Whoa Nellie was consigned by Taylor Made Farm as agent for Fox Hill Farms. The winner of six of her 12 starts with five other placings, Whoa Nellie is also a half-brother to stakes-placed Cowtown. Whoa Nellie is also a granddaughter of Grade 1 winner Awesome Humor, whose seven winners include stakes winner Thetrashmanis coming and stakes-placed Keep Me Informed.
“Whoa Nellie is one of those typical Fox Hill mares,” Mark Taylor of Taylor Made Sales told Blood-Horse. “I always tell Rick Porter that Fox Hill is like a franchise. It’s an entity that carries a lot of clout not only on the racetrack but also in the sales ring because they pick out gorgeous horses. This filly was no exception. She was a picture. She has great balance, great hind leg, great body, she was smart, and she had high-level talent on the racetrack. “
Winning the Joseph E. Spanky Broussard Memorial to end her career, Whoa Nellie had placed in both the Bayakoa Stakes (G3) and the Chilukki Stakes (G3) in her two starts between that win and her Listed Pippin Stakes victory.
Whoa Nellie’s extended family also includes Surf Club, the dam of Grade 1 winner Emcee and granddam of Grade 1 winner and top sire Constitution.
BLAME had the third most expensive yearling filly and fifth most expensive yearling overall during the sale when his daughter out of Galileo’s Melody sold for $120,000. The February-born filly was sold to Shepherd Equine Advisors as agent for Larry Hirsch.
Offered by Greenfield Farm for the estate of Daniel Kessler of K. C. Garret Farm, she is the first foal for her winning Galileo dam. Galileo’s Melody is out of the stakes winning Grande Melody, whose foals also include the stakes-placed Broadway Boogie.
This family also includes Group 1 winner and classic placed Crystal Music along with Group winners and Group 1 placers State Crystal and Solar Crystal, who are both siblings to Irish Derby (G1) third Tchaikovsky.
Galileo’s Melody visited BLAME’s stablemate FLATTER in 2020.