Strong Trade Continues at Fasig-Tipton October

LEXINGTON, KY – The Fasig-Tipton October Fall Yearlings Sale continued with another businesslike day of selling in Lexington Tuesday. With a pair of colts by American Pharoah leading the way, a total of 256 yearlings grossed $9,068,000 for an average of $35,422 and a median of $15,000. Through two sessions of the four-day auction, 479 head have sold for $16,585,000. The average of $34,624 is up 8.6% from the first two sessions of 2017 and the median of $15,000 surged 36.4% from a year ago.

“It was another solid day of sales in day two,” Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. said at the close of business Tuesday. “Today certainly had a very good feel to it. There was solid activity from start to finish, with some expensive horses early and some expensive horses late. So it was a very solid session and it was very consistent throughout the day.”

With 139 yearlings not sold, the two-day buy-back rate is 22.5%. It was 26.6% at this point a year ago.

“We're obviously pleased when we see a continuation of a lot of horses getting sold,” Browning said. “The RNA rate was significantly improved today, both compared to the second day last year and to yesterday.”

Justin Zayat of Zayat Stables made the day's highest bid when going to $310,000 to acquire a colt by American Pharoah (hip 580), who carried the Zayat colors to victory in the 2015 Triple Crown, from the Woods Edge Farm consignment. Bloodstock agent Alistair Roden, bidding on behalf of an undisclosed client, paid $300,000 to acquire another colt (hip 383) by the champion from the Denali Stud consignment.

The Fasig-Tipton October sale continues through Thursday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

More Pharoah for Zayats

Zayat Stables added another son of its Triple Crown winner American Pharoah to the racing operation after Justin Zayat bid $310,000 to secure hip 580 from the consignment of Peter O'Callaghan's Woods Edge Farm. The yearling is out of Gloat (Mr. Greeley), half-sister to graded stakes winner Parading (Pulpit). His third dam is multiple Grade I winner My Flag (Easy Goer), who produced champion Storm Flag Flying.

“He actually looked more like Mr. Greeley to me than American Pharoah,” Zayat said after signing the ticket on the youngster. “He has the pedigree and my dad [Ahmed] loved him as soon as he saw him. Peter O'Callaghan is very sharp buying weanlings and he paid good money for him.”

O'Callaghan purchased the yearling for $230,000 as a weanling at last year's Keeneland November sale.

“He fits our program,” Zayat continued. “We are looking to get good-looking, well-bred colts and he was one of them.”

Zayat said he and his father were determined to bring the colt home, regardless of the price.

“If this horse was $200,000 or $350,000, I was buying him today,” Zayat said. “He was on our list as one of them to take home. He's a horse I could see standing down the line. And that's very important. I'm buying a horse and I want to see if, hopefully, he is a horse I can have for 10-15 years down the line.”

Zayat Stables, which purchased an American Pharoah colt (hip 1558) for $800,000 at last month's Keeneland September sale, has been very active through two sessions of the October sale. Hip 580 was the operation's sixth purchase of the auction. Also Tuesday, the Zayats purchased a colt by Midshipman (hip 561) for $115,000.

“We felt like this year, the catalogue was stronger than in previous years,” Zayat said. “I wasn't here last year and my father wasn't here, but when [Fasig-Tipton President] Boyd [Browning] told us we had to come to the sale this year, we took it very seriously. The market is very reasonable. I think there have been fair prices. Keeneland was a very high market all around. Maybe some of the big buyers aren't here, but it's working for us over here. We're able to capitalize.”

Roden Gets His American Pharoah

Alistair Roden admitted he had been shut out on American Pharoah yearlings at the Keeneland September Sale, but the bloodstock agent was able to acquire a colt by the Triple Crown winner Tuesday at Fasig-Tipton when going to $300,000 for hip 383.

“He's by a serious sire and a wonderful racehorse,” said Roden, who was bidding on behalf of an undisclosed client. “Everybody knows about American Pharoah. We tried to buy a few at Keeneland and they got extremely expensive, so we just passed on them. [The price Tuesday] was a little more than I thought I would have to pay–I thought in this sale it might be just a little less.”

The bay colt is out of the unraced Danceinthesunlight (A.P. Indy), who was a $1.75-million purchase at the 2013 Fasig-Tipton November sale, and he is a half-brother to Grade I winner Moreno (Ghostzapper).

“This pedigree is wonderful, it's a serious pedigree and this is a good physical colt,” Roden said. “He is a big, free-moving colt, not really precocious, more of a late-developing colt, but he's got a great pedigree. And hopefully American Pharoahs can run.”

Hip 383 was consigned by Denali Stud on behalf of breeder Pursuit of Success.

Of the decision to target the October sale with the yearling, Denali's Conrad Bandoroff explained, “He is a May foal and when we were doing our sale placement, we knew that September wasn't going to be his best day. We decided early to give him the time and push him to October. He really rewarded our patience. In the last month of prep, he really came on and he came into the sale in great shape. It's great when a plan works out the way it did.”

The October sale also allowed the yearling to stand out a bit more, according to Bandoroff.

“We knew that there were going to be a lot of American Pharoahs in September,” he said. “And that it was not going to be the best spot for him. So we identified October as a place to bring him where hopefully he would stand out. And it worked.”

Violence Colt a Career Score for Higgs

Consignor Ricky Higgs enjoyed a career day in the sales ring Tuesday when he sold a colt by Violence for $270,000 to Rick Porter's Fox Hill Farm. The veteran Indiana horseman was selling the yearling on behalf of Dana Waier, who bred the colt in Illinois.

“That's the highest price I ever sold one for,” Higgs said after watching hip 725 go through the sales ring. “I was expecting around $200,000 to $235,000. It was a lot higher than I was expecting when I came up here, but when I saw the response to him once we got here, my expectations got a little higher.”

The dark bay is out of Jabber Dabber Doo (Pleasant Tap). Waier claimed the colt's second dam Jabber (Minneapple) for $25,000 at Oaklawn Park back in 1997.

Higgs was quick to give credit for the sales success to Barney and Anne Gallagher, who raised the youngster on their Illinois farm.

“The people who deserve all the credit are Barney and Anne Gallagher,” Higgs said. “They raised the colt for the breeder. All I did was prep him and bring him to the sale. They did a fantastic job. They board all [Waier]'s mares. They just don't sell horses for clients. They just sell their own. We're real good friends, so they asked if I would sell her colt and I said I would. It was a pleasure for me–all I did was put a little polish on him–they did all the work.”

A former trainer, Higgs decided some two decades ago to take a regular day job, but always kept a hand in the horses.

“I quit training to take a job and build some retirement savings,” he said. “I liked the horses, so I started selling some of my own that I raised and just started pinhooking a little bit and selling what I had. I made more money selling than I did racing.”

Higgs sells about four or five yearlings a year at the Fasig-Tipton October sale, but he may be looking to expand his operation in the near future.

“I've been consigning here since the mid-90s,” Higgs explained. “Just four or five a year. Sometimes I own them, sometimes I raise them, sometimes I sell them for other people. I am retired now, so I might try to do a bit more; different sales and a few more horses.”

Liam's Map Filly to Lows

Robert and Lawana Low added a filly from the first crop of Liam's Map to their racing stable when bloodstock agent Jacob West made a final bid of $225,000 to acquire hip 691 from the Lane's End consignment.

“She was my favorite filly in the sale,” West said. “She was unbelievable to me. She was my type of filly with lots of size and scope and an incredible mover.”

The yearling, bred by Baumann Stables, Dr. Aaron Sones and Dr. Eric Crawford, is the first foal out of I'll Show Me (Bernardini) who is a half-sister to champion Proud Spell (Proud Citizen).

“She is out of a young mare and Bernardini is really making his presence known as a broodmare sire, with the likes of Catholic Boy (More Than Ready) and Serengeti Empress (Alternation),” West said. “He has really busted onto the scene with that. And she's by Liam's Map, who was as brilliant of a racehorse as we've seen here in America in quite some time. To me, she was just special. Luckily, Mr. and Mrs. Low got behind me and supported me and said go on. She'll go down to Todd Pletcher and go into their program.”

Of the October market, West added, “The good horses are selling well. There is no home for a bad horse. This business can be cut and dry–if the public perceives your horse to be a good horse, they are going to pay you for it and if they perceive it to be a bad horse, they'll walk away from it. It's kind of hard for breeders to get that, but if they bring a good one in here, they'll get rewarded.”

Tapiture Colt a Score for Pinckney

A colt from the first crop of Tapiture rewarded breeder Mary Lou Pinckney when selling for $190,000 Tuesday at Fasig-Tipton. Pinckney and husband Roger Saillant purchased the unraced mare Diamondsonthewater (Scat Daddy), with the Tapiture colt in utero, for $12,000 at the 2017 Keeneland January sale.

“[Oracle Bloodstock's] Conor Foley bought this mare for them a few years ago and he did a great job picking her out,” said Joe Seitz, whose Brookdale Sales consigned the Ohio-bred yearling (hip 413). “Mike Lightner raised the horse for us and did an amazing job with him. He looked terrific. So a lot of credit to Conor helping them find this mare and to Mike for getting him ready.”

Reached by phone Tuesday, Pinckney agreed it was a team effort getting the Tapiture colt to market.

“We were thrilled to get the mare,” Pinckney said. “She was a beautiful horse. And, on this yearling in particular, we feel it was really a team effort. Conor Foley is our bloodstock guy and we had the colt at Kim and Lori Williams's farm [Fair Winds Farm] in Ohio. We sent him down to Ocala for about eight months to get out of the weather. So we feel it was a real team effort. We weren't wizards, but we had some really good people helping us.”

Of the yearling, who was purchased Tuesday by Martin Anthony, Seitz added, “He's from the first crop of Tapiture and he's out of a Scat Daddy mare. There was a lot of Scat Daddy in this horse, which I think was very appealing, especially to a lot of 2-year-old people because he has that appearance that he might be quick and early.”

Pinckney, a real estate agent based in Saratoga Springs, traces her involvement in racing back to 2011.

“I've just always had an interest in horses,” she said. “We had some opportunities and we just started to get involved. We really got involved with some friends with Drosselmeyer just before he won the Breeders' Cup and we have just been very interested in pursuing it.”

After producing her Tapiture colt, Diamondsonthewater was bred back to Pinckney's stallion Kettle Corn, who stands at Fair Winds Farm. The mare passed away last year, leaving Pinckney with just one broodmare. But she has plans to expand that number.

“We have one stallion in Ohio, Kettle Corn and we have a mare there right now,” she explained. “Right now we just have the one, but we are looking to get another mare.”

Early in Tuesday's second session of the four-day auction, Seitz called the October market, “workmanlike.”

“It was a little sticky yesterday,” he said. “Obviously today feels great for us, we will see how the rest of the day goes.”