Buying the Family: Notable Bloodlines That Changed Hands in November

Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale and Fasig-Tipton November Sale results as of November 9, 2026.

When I saw an American Pharoah weanling filly, Hip 119, trade for $1 million in Book 1 of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale on November 3, it caught my eye. That price seemed out of whack with my read on his current market, even allowing for scarcity with him standing in Japan through the 2027 breeding season. Then I opened the page and saw her grandmother: Leslie’s Lady, the dam of Into Mischief, Beholder and Mendelssohn.

American Pharoah stood for $45,000 when she was conceived. Glen Hill paid more than 22 times that fee for his weanling daughter, which explains my initial reaction. Seeing Leslie’s Lady as her second dam made the premium understandable to me. Glen Hill acquired a granddaughter of the mare who produced four-time champion Beholder and leading sire Into Mischief, with her entire racing and breeding career ahead of her. That is a persuasive reason to stretch, even though the pedigree alone cannot establish whether $1 million was the right price.

Glen Hill Farm bought the filly from Clarkland Farm, which bred her out of Lady Irene, Leslie’s Lady’s daughter and final foal. Her dam’s offspring have yet to reach racing age. Elsewhere in the family, Beholder has already produced Grade 1 winner Tamara and graded winner Teena Ella.

American Pharoah and Leslie’s Lady had appeared together on another memorable Clarkland offering. In 2019, Mandy Pope paid $8.2 million at Keeneland September for their daughter America’s Joy, the most expensive yearling filly in the sale’s history. She died after a training accident at Saratoga in 2021, before making her first start. This November’s filly carries the same sire over another generation of the family.

The purchase sent me looking through the completed transactions at Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton’s November Sale. What jumped out at me was how much breeding history buyers acquired farther down the price list: a sister to a new Breeders’ Cup winner brought $225,000, and a full sister to Violence, already the dam of a graded-placed runner, sold for $110,000.

Figure 1 · Where the nearest Grade 1 winner sits

Two full sisters to Grade 1 winners sold for $110,000 and $225,000; three horses whose nearest Grade 1 winner came through the second or third dam brought $900,000 or more

Show the data

Horse	Foaled	Price	Nearest Grade or Group 1 winner	Relationship	Her own record
Dynamic Pricing (IRE)	2021	$2,000,000	Just a Game S. [G1]	Herself	Grade 1 winner
Wesawtaylorinparis	2023	$225,000	Emphatic	Full sister	Stakes-placed winner
Wild Mint	2014	$110,000	Violence	Full brother	Unraced; dam of Grade 2-placed Free Look
Dame Vivienne	2023	$170,000	Rags to Riches	Dam	Unraced
Luckiest	2023	$1,000,000	As Time Goes By	Dam	Unplaced in 3 starts
Kaffeinate (GB)	2023	$60,000	Promising Lead	Second dam	Unplaced in 1 start
American Pharoah–Lady Irene filly	2026	$1,000,000	Beholder, Into Mischief, Mendelssohn	Second dam’s foals	Weanling
Admit	2022	$3,100,000	Preach	Second dam	Grade 2 winner
Practical Joke–Just Soaring filly	2026	$70,000	Giant’s Causeway	Third dam’s foal	Weanling
Oujda (FR)	2020	$900,000	Winning Colors	Third dam	Group 3 winner

The nearest Grade or Group 1 winner is the closest one on the horse’s official catalog page and its updates, looking first at the horse herself, then her full siblings, her dam, her second dam and the second dam’s foals, and her third dam and the third dam’s foals. Race and produce records are from the same pages. Hip 100’s $70,000 is the private sale reported by Fasig-Tipton after she failed to sell in the ring; the other nine sold in the ring.

Dame Vivienne Has Oaks Winners as Her Dam and Third Dam

Dame Vivienne (Hip 50) offered one of the closest connections in either catalog. Don Alberto Corporation paid $170,000 at Keeneland for the unraced Munnings daughter of Rags to Riches, in foal to Fierceness.

Rags to Riches won the Kentucky Oaks and the 2007 Belmont Stakes, following her half-brother Jazil’s Belmont victory a year earlier. Their dam, Better Than Honour, produced consecutive winners of the race. One generation farther back is Blush With Pride, herself a Kentucky Oaks winner in 1982. Dame Vivienne has Oaks winners as both her dam and third dam.

Rags to Riches’ catalog record listed three winners from six runners, including Rhett Butler, a champion older horse and stayer in Hungary. Better Than Honour’s daughter Teeming has been more productive at the top level, producing Grade 1 winner Streaming and becoming the granddam of Belmont and Travers winner Arcangelo.

At $170,000, Dame Vivienne struck me as an accessible way into an extraordinary family. Her own dam’s production gives a breeder something to weigh against the appeal of the names behind her.

Tapit’s Family Sold at Both Ends of the Price Range

Admit (Hip 204) brought $3.1 million from M.V. Magnier and White Birch Farm at Keeneland. The Grade 2-winning daughter of Blame sold in foal to Life Is Good. Her dam, Profess, is a War Front daughter of Preach, the Frizette winner who produced Pulpit.

Pulpit went on to sire Tapit, a three-time leader of the North American sire list.

Admit’s $3.1 million looks like a price for the complete package: her own Grade 2 win, her place as a granddaughter of Preach and the Life Is Good foal she is carrying. I see a clear case for paying up here because she had already demonstrated ability herself. The buyer was acquiring substantial evidence alongside the family history.

In Keeneland’s report, Walker Hancock said Claiborne had held the family since approximately 1951 and still owned two other Blame mares from it. The farm was selling Admit while buying mares to introduce new blood.

At Fasig-Tipton, Wesawtaylorinparis (Hip 212) is out of Convinced, whose dam, Tap of the Day, is Tapit’s full sister. Their mother, Tap Your Heels, is a daughter of Ruby Slippers, who also produced champion sprinter Rubiano. The most immediate attraction was even closer: Wesawtaylorinparis is a full sister to Emphatic, whose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies victory appeared in the updated catalog.

Three Chimneys Farm/Ottinho paid $225,000 for the three-year-old stakes-placed Nyquist filly. The recent success was as close as a buyer could ask for, and the purchase price left considerably less capital committed than the seven-figure alternatives.

Classic Families Sold From $110,000 to $1 Million

Winning Colors appears as the third dam of Oujda (Hip 129), purchased by Big Red Farm for $900,000 at Fasig-Tipton in foal to Not This Time. Between the Kentucky Derby winner and Oujda are Stormin Winnie, an unraced daughter of Storm Cat, and La Conseillante, a stakes winner in France.

Oujda, by Sioux Nation, had already contributed her own racing record. She won a Group 3 in France and stakes in Ireland and Canada. La Conseillante also produced group-placed War Envoy. Winning Colors adds historical interest, while Oujda’s own Group 3 victory gives the purchase its more immediate breeding credentials.

Wild Mint (Hip 1985) brought $110,000 from Al Ruwais Stables at Keeneland in foal to Mindframe. Her third dam is Sky Beauty, who swept the Acorn, Mother Goose and Coaching Club American Oaks and added the Alabama during her 1993 season.

Sky Beauty’s daughter Storming Beauty produced Violent Beauty, the dam of both Violence and Wild Mint. Although unraced herself, Wild Mint has produced Free Look, runner-up in the Grade 2 Miss Grillo.

The $110,000 price stood out to me because some of the breeding promise had already been tested. Wild Mint had fewer potential breeding seasons ahead than the young prospects, but Free Look, her full brother Violence and her third dam Sky Beauty gave the buyer evidence close to home.

Luckiest (Hip 111) put Take Charge Lady one generation closer. Hill ’n’ Dale at Xalapa paid $1 million at Fasig-Tipton for the Into Mischief mare, offered in foal to Flightline. She is out of As Time Goes By, the Beholder Mile winner.

Take Charge Lady also produced Grade 1 winners Will Take Charge and Take Charge Indy. Her daughter Charming became the dam of champion Take Charge Brandi and three-time Grade 1 winner Omaha Beach. Luckiest comes through As Time Goes By, whose broodmare career is still young.

Luckiest’s $1 million required more faith in inherited ability. She was unplaced in three starts, but her dam and second dam were Grade 1 winners, and she was in foal to Flightline. Of the seven-figure purchases here, hers most clearly illustrates what buyers will commit to a young mare whose strongest credentials come from her parents and her cover.

Three Families With European Branches Sold From $60,000 to $2 Million

Dynamic Pricing (Hip 184) arrived at Fasig-Tipton with a Grade 1 victory in the Just a Game and sold to Haruya Yoshida for $2 million. Her third dam is Shemaka, whose 1993 victory supplied the Aga Khan with his first Prix de Diane.

Dynamic Pricing descends through Shemaka’s daughter Shamooda and granddaughter Shemda. Shamooda also produced multiple Group 3 winner Shamida. Other daughters of Shemaka lead to horses including Champion Stakes winner Bay Bridge.

At $2 million, Dynamic Pricing had the strongest individual racing credential of the four seven-figure purchases: a Grade 1 win. I would put that accomplishment at the center of the price discussion. Shemaka’s family adds depth to a mare who had already succeeded at the level breeders hope to reproduce.

The Practical Joke weanling out of Just Soaring, Hip 100 at Fasig-Tipton, changed hands after failing to sell in the ring. Decadence Bloodstock acquired her privately for $70,000. Her third dam is Mariah’s Storm, the dam of Giant’s Causeway.

Giant’s Causeway won five consecutive Group 1 races in 2000 and later led the North American general sire list three times. His sister You’resothrilling produced Classic winners Gleneagles, Marvellous and Joan of Arc.

This filly descends through another daughter of Mariah’s Storm, Butterflies, by Galileo. Butterflies was group-placed and produced group-placed Yet and Carracci; Yet became the dam of Group 3 winner Albert Einstein. Just Soaring is unraced, and Hip 100 is her first foal.

Kaffeinate (Hip 1334), purchased by Burak Gokturk for $60,000 at Keeneland in foal to Carl Spackler, carried a Juddmonte pedigree through Arrive. Her third dam was a full sister to Hasili, the producer of five Group or Grade 1 winners and influential sire Dansili.

Arrive earned her own standing as the dam of Pretty Polly winner Promising Lead and graded winner Visit. Kaffeinate descends through Promising Lead and then Surcingle, a winning daughter of Empire Maker. Surcingle produced Sash, third in the Grade 3 Berkeley Handicap, and Tall Trees, who earned a listed placing at two in 2026.

At $60,000, Kaffeinate was the least expensive horse in this selection. Her Group 1-winning grandmother and her dam’s two stakes performers matter more on this page than the famous name of Hasili. Kaffeinate herself was unplaced in one start and had yet to produce a runner. Her buyer acquired a young mare with a productive immediate family, with her own breeding record still to establish.

The Lower Prices Offered the Access I Found Most Compelling

The Leslie’s Lady granddaughter made sense to me once I saw her pedigree. Looking through the rest of these transactions changed where I would focus my attention as a breeder. Wesawtaylorinparis and Wild Mint offered the combinations I found most compelling: close relationships to successful horses, supported by a new Grade 1-winning sibling in one case and a graded-placed daughter in the other.

Their ages and production histories make them different propositions. Wild Mint was 12 and had already shown she could produce a useful runner. Wesawtaylorinparis was three, with her breeding career ahead of her. Kaffeinate, also three, offered a $60,000 entry into the Arrive family.

My preference on pedigree and price would be Wesawtaylorinparis. The seven-figure horses each had reasons for attracting that money, but her full sister’s Breeders’ Cup victory supplied immediate evidence of what this mating could produce. At $225,000, I would have wanted to investigate her first.

The Ten Transactions

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Corrections. Every figure in this piece was checked against its source, and an error is still possible. If you find one, let me know through our contact form or @TB_Intel on X, and I’ll correct it quickly.