Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Wygod legacy still growing with $2.4 million yearling
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Every one of the yearlings chosen for the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale boasted a top pedigree from a top program. But for agent Marette Farrell and client Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner’s Speedway Stables, there was one particular son of five-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief who merited a closer look because of the people behind him.
“Very good breeders, very good consignors, was raised at an amazing farm in Lane’s End, very good land,” Farrell said. “We love all the connections. We love to honor Marty Wygod and to have bought a really good horse [from his program] because he was such a big supporter of our Thoroughbred business.”
Farrell went to $2.4 million in a dogged bidding war to secure the Into Mischief colt from the family of champion Perfect Sting, bred by the late Wygod and his wife, Pamela. The colt was the top price of the second and final session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale on Aug. 6, and the record-setting sale’s secondhighest price overall.
Farrell bid on the colt in the back ring of the sale pavilion. With industry personality Zoe Cadman standing alongside her, on the phone with the stable principals, and signaling her to keep bidding, Farrell slugged it out in increments of $50,000 at a time over the last several moments the colt was in the ring.
“I’m still shaking, because I love this horse,” Farrell said. “We’re thrilled we got him, hate that we had to pay that kind of money, but he’s a stallion in the making and I really think he’s a fabulous horse.
“We absolutely loved this colt,” Farrell continued. “I felt he commanded the room. He was the king. He’s by Into
Mischief, who we all know is an amazing stallion.”
The colt is out of the stakesplaced Awesome Again mare Sweet Sting, who in turn is out of Eclipse Award champion turf mare and stakes producer Perfect Sting. The Wygods purchased Sweet Sting for $310,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, adding her to their stellar broodmare band, which is boarded at Lane’s End in Kentucky.
Marty Wygod, who died in April at age 84, and Pamela Wygod bred more than 100 stakes winners, alone or in partnership – with their operation in the spotlight earlier this year as Resilience won the Grade 2 Wood Memorial, just days before Marty Wygod’s death. The colt, who is campaigned by the couple’s daughter Emily Bushnell in partnership with longtime family bloodstock adviser Ric Waldman, was sixth in the Kentucky Derby as the first Derby starter for the Wygod program.
Their other top runners have included 2004 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and divisional Eclipse Award champion Sweet Catomine; and Life Is Sweet, whose multiple Grade 1 wins included the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Both were homebreds produced by the Wygods’ graded stakesplaced homebred Sweet Life, who was honored as Broodmare of the Year for her success.
Another top runner for the Wygods was Grade 1 winner Tranquility Lake, purchased as a yearling. She went on to produce Grade 1 winners After Market and Courageous Cat.
Sweet Sting’s seven-figure colt was consigned by Lane’s End, as agent for Pamela Wygod and the Wygod Family Revocable Trust. Bushnell represented the family at the sale.
“We’re totally overwhelmed,” Bushnell said. “He came up, he was super professional, he did the right thing every step of the way. Just happy that so many people really liked him as well. Hopefully, he’ll show us all how tough he is on the racetrack, also.”
Lane’s End will consign six yearlings for the Wygod family at the upcoming Keeneland September yearling sale, including a Gun Runner filly, a Curlin filly, and a Daredevil filly who are all from the extended family of signature broodmare Sweet Life. The consignment also includes a Munnings colt out of graded stakes winner Into Chocolate, and an Into Mischief half-brother to that mare; and another Into Mischief colt, out of stakes winner Spring Lily.