‘Fun Selling Horses Right Now’: Fasig-Tipton NY-Bred Sale Off to Flying Start

[Wandering Eyes]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – The buzz from last week's select sale clearly carried into the new week, with the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearlings Sale powering through its opening session Sunday night in Saratoga. During the session, 64 yearlings grossed $8,338,000 for an average of $130,281 and a median of $105,000. Those figures were well ahead of last year's opening session, when 66 head sold for $6,860,000 for an average of $103,939 and a median of $89,000. They were also ahead of last year's cumulative average of $104,178 and median of $85,000.

“It was an outstanding opening session of the New York-bred yearling sale,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. “The positive momentum from the Saratoga [select] sale last week clearly continued tonight. It's really a result of having an improved quality of horses on the sales grounds, both in terms of pedigrees and physical conformation. The quality of the New York-breds that we are exposed to in our inspection process continues to improve each and every year. And that is indicated by the results tonight. The sale started off very, very strong and it ended very, very strong. It was a very good night.”

A pair of fillies selling within minutes of each other provided the highlights of the evening, with a filly by Early Voting selling for $525,000 to the bid of Megan Jones, as agent for Sabby and Gargan Racing, just two hips after Jacob West, bidding on behalf of Repole Stable, went to $500,000 for a daughter of Practical Joke.

The yearling market got off to a strong start with the Fasig-Tipton July Sale last month and has only gotten hotter in Saratoga over the last week. West sited a confluence of factors–from a smaller foal crop, to tax incentives and the lucrative New York-bred program–for the strength of the market.

“Supply and demand,” West said of the demand for quality yearlings. “And I think the new tax bill, with the accelerated depreciation, is encouraging for a lot of people. And running for open company money with these New York-breds–it's a smaller pool that you are playing in, but you see what they are doing [at the racetrack] across the street, it's great.”

With just a third of its catalogue offered during Sunday's session, there is still plenty of action expected Monday at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion.

“We aren't even at half time,” Browning said. “In hockey terms, we are through the first period. We have two more periods to go. It was a very, very encouraging start. It gives continued confidence in the marketplace. It's not just the very elite level that we saw last week. There were very encouraging results today. Our July yearling sale had encouraging results. I think it should provide confidence in the marketplace as we continue throughout the yearling process, which should hopefully translate into the mixed sales in October and November. It's kind of fun selling horses right now.”

Monday's session of the New York-bred sale begins at noon.

 

Early Voting Filly Draws a Crowd

Bloodstock agent Megan Jones, bidding alongside Hal Mintz of Sabby Racing and trainer Danny Gargan, went to a session-topping $525,000 to secure a filly from the first crop of GI Preakness Stakes winner Early Voting (Gun Runner) (hip 331) Sunday night in Saratoga. Consigned by Jonathan Thorne's Thorndale Farm, the bay is out of Owl Moon (Ghostzapper) and is a half-sister to stakes-placed Blue Strike (Smart Strike).

“She's beautiful,” said Mintz. “We thought she was the best one in the whole sale. We didn't really want to get into a bidding contest with Mr. [Tom] McCrocklin, but that's what happens now. The market is really hot. And when people see a really nice filly, it can get a little out of control, even at the New York-bred sale. We are happy to have her. I think there will be a couple of partners that Danny will bring to the table. Hopefully, we will be excited come next summertime.”

Jones added, “We thought she was the best filly in the sale. Amazing body and walk, a great physical. She had a lot of Gun Runner in her. We just loved her.”

Thorne purchased the filly for $150,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton New York Mixed Sale.

“She was just a beautifully made filly,” Thorne said when asked what had attracted him to the filly last fall. “She just got bigger. She stayed all the same proportions. She never had a bad day. She was just a really classy, beautiful horse. The people who bought her got a great horse.”

Of the filly's final price, Thorne added, “I wasn't sure. I knew a lot of people on the sales grounds loved her, so it was basically who was going to step up and really want her. That was fantastic. I thought the sale was going to be strong for the good ones and she was one of the really good ones.”

 

Practical Joke to Repole

A New York-bred filly by Practical Joke (hip 329) will be joining Mike Repole's Repole Stable after bloodstock agent Jacob West signed the ticket at $500,000 Sunday night in Saratoga. The dark bay filly, consigned by Hunter Valley Farm, is out of Our Hope Diamond (Gemologist), who is a half-sister to graded winner Inside Straight (Super Saver).

“Quite frankly, she was just a horse that looked fast and precocious,” West, who was sitting alongside Repole's bloodstock advisor Eddie Rosen during the bidding, said of the yearling. “The added bonus is that she's a New York-bred with the added incentive that they are going to be running for open level purses. It was a lot of money to give for her, but she was worth it.”

The filly was purchased by Hunter Valley's pinhooking partnership for $62,500 at last year's Fasig-Tipton New York Mixed Sale.

“We were blown away,” Hunter Valley's Fergus Galvin said of Sunday's result. “She was a special filly who showed like a champion up here for three days. Never turned a hair. Her last show was as good as her first show. But not in our wildest dreams did we think she would get to those numbers. She had a ton of vet action. A ton of people were on her, but it's not like the last [select] sale. You have to keep your expectations in tow a little bit.”

Galvin agreed the strength of last week's select sale seemed to have carried into the New York-bred sale Sunday.

“I think there was definitely a knock on from it,” he said. “I am sure there were a lot of orders left unfilled from the last sale. It's been a vibrant [yearling] market. It started off at Fasig July and on to the select sale here and we are already seeing the first hour starting here is very strong. This has been a whirlwind of an hour really.”

 

'One of the Greatest Pinhooks of All Time': Tiz the Law Filly Rewards Benjamin, Hynes

Blaise Benjamin and Charles Hynes were up in Saratoga last fall for the Fasig-Tipton New York Mixed Sale as part of their official jobs with Ashford Stud when they found a weanling filly by the farm's young stallion Tiz the Law. They put together some partners on the filly and were shocked to get her for just $1,000. They were shocked again when the filly sold for $170,000 when led back through the ring Sunday night.

“It was one of those things that was right time, right place,” Benjamin said. “We were up here for the sale last year, just looking at all the Ashford stallions. We like to get an eye on all our new stallions. She was actually the first horse that we looked at, it was myself and Charles Hynes. She wasn't the biggest, but she wasn't small by any means. Put it this way, we were prepared to give a little bit more than $1,000 for her.”

Recalling last year's auction, Benjamin said, “When she was going to the ring, I had seen another shrewd pinhooker walking into the ring. And I wondered if he was on her, so I followed him in just to be sure we weren't bidding against each other. He went the other way and my phone started ringing and it was Charles outside and he said, 'Don't bid. That's me at $1,000.' And I said, 'Are we sure we are on the right horse? Or did we miss something on the vet report?'”

The filly is out of Queen of Diamonds (Uncle Mo), an unraced full-sister to Grade I winner Unbridled Mo and a half to graded winner Unbridled Essence (Essence of Dubai).

“She went to Killora Stud to Hannah and Aidan Jennings and they had her looking like $1 million,” Benjamin said. “Tiz the Law hit at the right time for us. We are big believers in Tiz the Law.

“I'm not going to say I was expecting $170,000. She was an excellent mover, the pedigree was there. The stars aligned. But did I expect that? No.”

The filly was consigned by Hunter Valley Farm.

“That's incredible,” Hunter Valley's Fergus Galvin said. “We are all up here, all of us so-called judges, and we all missed her. There was nothing wrong her [last year]. Tiz the Law has turned into an exceptional stallion. And she did very well physically. She was quite babyish last year. But that has to go down as one of the greatest pinhooks of all time.”

Benjamin said the partners aim to pinhook a small number of horses each year.

“We try to do five or six and we have a couple of mares as well,” he said. “It's a tough game. You just have to take the good with the bad because unfortunately there are a lot of lows, but when you have a high like this, it makes up for a lot of it. There is no buzz in the world like it.”

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