Described by one consignor as the sire of the moment, Tapit was responsible for the highest-priced filly at Tuesday’s Barretts March Sale, a $540,000 chestnut purchased by Demi O’Byrne. Jess Jackson was the underbidder.

Purchased for the partnership of Michael Tabor, John Magnier and Derrick Smith, hip 97 will be trained by Todd Pletcher. “I liked her,” said O’Byrne. “She breezed well [and] she’s good-looking. I’ve been lucky with [consignor] Jerry Bailey before. He told me she was very good, so I tend to believe Jerry.”

After RNA’ing for $65,000 at FTKJUL, the filly was purchased privately by agent Kim Vallerio for an undisclosed client. “He is based out here and has raced out here,” Bailey explained. “He kind of wanted to sell, because he’s had some horses go AWOL.” Bailey added, “She sold pretty well. I think that’s pretty much the top end for a filly in today’s two-year-old market. That’s what I saw at Fasig-Tipton, and that’s about as much as a filly’s going to bring.”

As for O’Byrne’s previous success with his program’s graduates, Bailey offered, “He bought Thunder Gulch [privately] from me and, actually, Thunder Gulch was the very first horse he bought for Michael Tabor; he bought Honour and Glory out of this barn right here; and he was the underbidder on Dubai Escapade. We’ve had a good relationship with him over the years. I really believe in this filly. He was as excited about this filly as I’ve seen him about a horse in a while. He’s a pretty good judge of a runner, so I really expect this is a graded-stakes filly.”

Hip 97 is out of Cross Your Heart (Miswaki), a half to MGSW Broken Vow (Unbridled) and SW Threshold (Homebuilder). With this filly in utero, the mare was purchased by Gaines-Gentry for $175,000 at FTKNOV.