LEXINGTON, Ky. – The young broodmare prospect Home Cooking sold for a solid $500,000 as the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale kicked off Monday with opening-session gains, setting the table for a highly anticipated session Tuesday. Fasig-Tipton reported 196 horses sold for gross receipts of $7,925,000 on Monday, opening day of this two-session sale at its Newtown Paddocks headquarters. In last year’s opener, 182 horses sold for $5,524,300. Monday’s average price was $40,436, soaring 33 percent from $30,353 in the comparable session last year. The median spiked 52 percent, to $16,000 from $10,500. The buyback rate held steady at 17 percent. “It was a very encouraging start to the Kentucky winter mixed sale,” said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. “There was lots of activity throughout the day, from start to finish, on all levels of horses and at all price ranges. The place was crowded from start to finish.” Home Cooking sold to bloodstock agent Steven Young, as agent for Ramona Bass, to lead the session. She surpassed the top overall price for the entire Fasig-Tipton February sale last year, as that renewal was led by the $400,000 broodmare prospect Lemieux. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Bass is continuing to shop to support homebred Grade 1 winner Annapolis, retired to Claiborne Farm last month for the breeding season that officially opens later this week. Young signed for several mares on the breeder’s behalf at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale and now struck for Monday's session topper. Home Cooking, a 4-year-old daughter of Honor Code, won twice from eight career starts and was second in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante, beaten a head by And Tell Me Nolies. Young indicated the filly’s brilliance attracted him. “She’s a beautiful horse, fast horse,” he said. “I think she had 14 [bullet] works when she worked. Two of them were over 100 horses breezing that distance. She was good at everything she ever did.” Home Cooking, who was consigned, as agent, by Hill ‘n’ Dale, is out of the winning Hard Spun mare Olympic Avenue, making her a half-sister to stakes-placed Golden for Kitten. This is the immediate family of multiple graded stakes winner and sire Valid Expectations. A late-May colt by Constitution led the short yearling market, selling for $300,000 to the moniker Discovery Bay. The colt, consigned by Four Star Sales, as agent, is out of the unraced Broken Vow mare Special Thanks, dam of three winners from as many starters, including Grade 3-placed Eve of War. Special Thanks is out of multiple graded stakes winner Bedanken, and Grade 1 winner Giant Killing appears on the catalog page. The Fasig-Tipton February sale will close with a Tuesday session that has garnered a strong supplemental catalog, with dispersal stock from the late Robert Lothenbach including Grade 1 winner Bell’s the One. Meanwhile, Zetta Z, dam of exciting recent graded stakes winner Nysos, was added to the session on Sunday. “Obviously, we’re looking forward to having the opportunity to sell some very nice horses tomorrow,” Browning said. For hip-by-hip results, click here. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.