$1.8 million Into Mischief filly shatters F-T Midlantic sale record

Into Mischief’s $1.8 million filly at F-T Midlantic marks the highest-priced horse ever sold publicly in Maryland | Tibor & Judit photo

History was made during Tuesday’s closing session of the May 20-21 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in Training sale when a filly by leading sire Into Mischief brought a winning bid of $1.8 million, the highest price ever paid for a horse at the Maryland auction.

The previous Midlantic record was set in 2017 when Breeze Easy and John Oxley teamed up to buy a colt by Curlin for $1.5 million.

Bobby Dodd was the consignor of the record-setter, hip No. 390, while Donato Lanni, on behalf of Michael Lund Petersen, was the winning bidder.

“I’m still a little excited about spending that much money in five minutes,” said Petersen. “I don’t think about the history, I just thought it would be fun to have the horse. Mr. Baffert (Petersen’s trainer is Bob Baffert) is really excited about him, so if he is excited I am excited. But I know there is a long way to go.”

Brad Grady’s Grand Oaks purchased the filly for $220,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale.

“Bobby doesn’t give the accolade of ‘freak’ very often,” Grady explained. “The second time he breezed this filly, he called me and told me she was a freak. The team at the farm, Grand Oaks, does a great job.”

The record-setting filly topped an impressive sale for Into Mischief, who had nine juveniles sell for a total of $4,215,000 and an average of $468,333. The Spendthrift stallion was represented by three of the sale’s top eight prices, including a $710,000 colt that also sold Tuesday.