Saratoga Sale

By Bill Oppenheim
When all was said and done, this year's Saratoga Select Yearling Sale on the Fasig-Tipton grounds just across from the race track, didn't look so very different from the previous two years. Monday started out with a nearly unprecedented 90% sold from the 71 yearlings sent through the ring, but that figure returned to reality when a more normal 71% of those sent through the ring sold on Tuesday night. It added up to 114 yearlings sold, which was a healthy 81% of the 141 offered, and was 69% of the 165 originally catalogued. In 2013, when just 152 yearlings were catalogued, 108 sold, which was actually 71% of those catalogued. This week's gross of $33,284,000 was up 4% from 2013, though the average dipped slightly, 2.5%, from $295,093 last year to $291,695 this year. Overall, the market was largely stable.
Of those sires with two or more sold, Tapit sold two millionaires from two through the ring, for an average of $1,075,000. War Front had the third millionaire, including the sale-topping $1.25-million filly, and averaged $925,000 (the other filly brought $600,000) for two sold. Other prominent sires with three or more sold included (just their Saratoga Select yearlings): Distorted Humor (two avg $500,000); Medaglia D'Oro (five sold from five offered, avg $458,000);Awesome Again (four avg $418,750); Unbridled's Song (three avg $400,000); Kitten's Joy (six avg $373,333); and Malibu Moon (seven avg $340,714). In all a total of 26 yearlings (23% of those sold) brought $400,000 or more. John Ferguson was leading buyer
Among younger sires invariably it is those with their first yearlings selling which have the highest representation. Four sires with their first yearlings had three or more sell at Saratoga. The surprise leader on average was Spendthrift'sTizway, a son of Tiznow who won the GI Met Mile and GI Whitney in 2011. Two of his three yearlings brought final bids of $425,000, which made Tizway the leading first-crop sire at Saratoga with three averaging exactly $333,333. Claiborne's Trappe Shot (Tapit) is making a huge impression for a $10,000 stallion; four sold here, for an average of $247,500. Ashford's Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie) had by far the most catalogued (10) among first-year sires, and nine averaged $240,222. Castleton Lyons' highly-touted (including by me) Gio Ponti had four sell from five offered for $222,500. This could potentially be quite a good group of sires.
Action resumes on the sales grounds this weekend, with the up-and-coming New York-bred sale Saturday and Sunday nights after racing. There are 316 catalogued this year, up 20% from last year, when 196 sold (75%) from 263 catalogued for a gross of $14,206,000, and an average of $72,480. Last year's gross leapt by 65% from 2012 as 42% more horses sold for a 16% gain in average. Five New York stallions have double-figure representation this weekend. Sequel Stallions'Girolamo (A.P. Indy), winner of the 2010 GI Vosburgh H. and 2009 GII Jerome S., has
26 representatives catalogued from his first crop. Darley rotated him back to Kentucky for the 2014 season. Keane Stud stands 2009 GI Hopeful S. winner Dublin (Afleet Alex), who has 18 yearlings catalogued. Represented by his first New York yearlings is Rockridge Farm's Bluegrass Cat (Storm Cat), who currently ranks number eight on the national 2-year-old sire list, with three black-type juveniles in July, including Story to Tell, winner of the W.L. Proctor Memorial in California. Bluegrass Cat has 16 yearlings catalogued. Rockridge also stands Posse (Silver Deputy), whose first New York-sired crop are 3-year-olds. He has 15 catalogued. Perennial leading New York sire Freud, who also stands at Sequel Stallions, has 17 in the book. These five stallions account for about 25% of the catalogue, but there are a ton of other well-known Kentucky sires with New York-breds catalogued in the sale, including Smart Strike, Medaglia D'Oro, Malibu Moon, current top freshman sires Warrior's Reward and Super Saver, plus a whole lot more. With $73,000 maiden races for New York-breds it's not hard to imagine the New York-bred sale, albeit with twice as many horses, grossing half as much as the select sale and bringing the Fasig gross for the week up near the $50-million mark.
SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE: A surprising number of people (more than five, all Americans) have asked me this week at Saratoga about the Scottish Independence Referendum on Sept. 18. As it happens, there was a televised (although only in Scotland, which didn't go down well with disenfranchised Scots in England) debate Tuesday night between Scottish National Party (SNP) leader and current Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond (he's a yes voter, meaning secede) and former UK Labour Chancellor (Finance Minister) Alastair Daring, who is a Scot. Salmond, who is recognized as an accomplished debater, was widely expected to triumph over Darling, who is regarded as a nice, bookish type of fellow. But the consensus was that Darling won handily; a snap poll by the Guardian newspaper had it 56-44 Darling, and that is probably a good barometer of how the vote will go. A No vote, meaning Scotland would remain in the U.K., was 5-to-1 ON before the debate on Betfair, and was unchanged yesterday morning. The separatists win the emotional argument but are losing the economic argument and have never polled above 40% in spite of being the sitting government. Maybe you didn't expect an update on the Scottish Independence question with your morning TDN but as you well know by now, I do go off piste now and again.