By Katie Petrunyak
There is no shortage of active pedigrees at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, but this year Warrendale Sales has a draft of eight yearlings that includes several particularly eye-catching updates.
Hunter Simms, Warrendale's Director of Bloodstock Service, can attest that landing a buzz horse in a yearling's pedigree is exactly what you're hoping for in the weeks leading up to a sale–especially at Saratoga where blacktype already abounds.
“People want to buy into young, active families,” he said. “If it's fillies, there is hope that down the road you have some broodmare potential. You might get a half to something or the horse that you purchase at the sale is your graded stakes winner that you could eventually retire. With the colts up here, there are a lot of stallion pedigrees. A lot of end users shop this sale for those types of horses to run on Saturdays, get Grade I wins and eventually end up in their stallion barns.”
Warrendale's Hip 57 could fit that bill. The Stonestreet-bred colt is from the first crop of Charlatan and is a half-brother to the talking horse among freshman sires, Complexity.
Standing at Airdrie Stud, Complexity currently sits atop the list of first-crop sires, most recently bringing in his first European stakes winner when Black Forest scored in the G2 Markel Richmond Stakes at Goodwood on Aug. 1. At the Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton will be offering a share in Complexity as the first offering in the auction's second session on Tuesday, Aug. 6. The young sire will be represented by just one yearling at the sale in Hip 73, a half-sister to stakes winner Buckeye Magic (Trappe Shot) consigned by Mill Ridge Sales.
Meanwhile Warrendale's Charlatan colt is also a half-brother to Grade III winner and 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies runner-up Valadorna (Curlin).
“Complexity is not the only horse in the pedigree,” said Kitty Day, owner of Warrendale Sales. “It's Complexity but you've got some others there too and it's important for people to see that. Stonestreet gave us this Charlatan colt and they also gave us a Street Sense colt [Hip 157]. They're very similar horses with big hips and great walks.”
Another Warrendale-consigned yearling with plenty of recent activity is Hip 62, a Nyquist half-sister to rising talent Vahva (Gun Runner). Trained by Cherie DeVaux, the 4-year-old filly Vahva has won four of her last five graded starts, most recently scoring in the GI Derby City Distaff and GIII Chicago Stakes.
Out of Grade I-placed Holiday Soiree (Harlan's Holiday), the Nyquist filly who was bred by Rock Ridge Thoroughbreds is also a half-sister to a 2-year-old City of Light filly that Warrendale sold to Belladonna Racing for $400,000 at last year's Keeneland September Sale.
“The Charlatan colt and the Nyquist filly are both great physicals,” said Day. “They're big, stretchy horses with beautiful necks and great walks. This filly is a little more compact. I would say she does kind of look like Vahva. We had the City of Light last year and she was a very similar type of horse as this filly. Very strong-hipped. It's all about the physicals.”
Simms added that at the Saratoga Sale, there is a unique emphasis on in-person presentation because buyers have so much time to examine horses between the time when inspections starts on Friday and the sale begins on Monday.
“You want to bring the right horse here because they have three or four days to pick horses apart-whether it's X-rays, conformation or demeanor,” he explained. “All that stuff, they have the time. So you want to bring the right horse that fits. It's always nerve wracking to bring a horse up here because it's a long way home if you RNA and don't get them sold, so we try to bring the right horse with the right physical and sire power. I think this year's draft represents that across the board.”
Also in Warrendale's consignment, Hip 93 is a Maclean's Music colt bred by Ashview Farm from the family of recent GI Bing Crosby Stakes winner The Chosen Vron (Vronsky). Along with the Charlatan colt, their draft includes two others yearlings by first-crop sires in Hip 137, a colt by Raging Bull (FR) who is a half-brother to Grade II victor Andthewinneris (Oscar Performance), and Hip 231, an Essential Quality colt bred by Sandra Sexton & Silver Fern Farm.
The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale will be held on Monday and Tuesday at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion. Bidding starts at 6:30 p.m.
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