Fasig-Tipton Saratoga

A share in Airdrie Stud's hugely successful first-crop sire Complexity (Maclean's Music) was the first lot on offer during Tuesday's second session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearling Sale, and was hammered down to David Lanigan, bidding on behalf of Scott Heider, for $510,000. Representing a 2.5% interest, the share is not subject to syndicate clearance, according to a pre-sale announcement from Fasig-Tipton's Grant Williamson before the bidding began. "We bought a Nyquist filly off Airdrie last year, so there is a connection to the family and the farm," Lanigan...

The second horse through the ring Tuesday night at Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga sale, a Gun Runner filly out of $4.5-million broodmare Pure Clan (Pure Prize), brought a cool $1.5 million from Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm LLC. Consigned as Hip 123 by Gainesway, agent XI, the chestnut filly was bred in Kentucky by Three Chimneys Farm and is a half-sister to Princesa Carolina (Tapit), course record setter in the Dueling Grounds Oaks whose graded placings include the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes. Dam Pure Clan won the GI American...

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...

1st-SAR, $100k, 3yo/up, f/m, 6 1/2f, 1:10 p.m. ET LADY PINK (Into Mischief), a $720,000 acquisition by Peter Brant at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, is out of the unplaced Astray (Bernardini), whose SW & MGSP dam Away (Belong to Me) was responsible for MGSW and GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Eight Belles (Unbridled's Song) and an additional pair of stakes horses. The bay is a half-sister to Bob Marco (Arrogate), stakes-placed on the grass as a 3-year-old. Rigney Racing's Two Sharp (Twirling Candy), a $925,000 KEESEP yearling, blew the break...

4th-CD, $120k, Msw, 2yo, f, 4 1/2, post time: 2:13 p.m. EDT Charlotte Weber's Live Oak Plantation paid $750,000 for AND ONE MORE TIME (Omaha Beach) at last year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, the priciest filly from her sire's second crop and second-dearest overall from 95 yearlings reported as sold last season. The pedigree has taken off all around it, as, subsequent to the purchase, the filly's half-sister Simply in Front (Summer Front) finished second in Woodbine's GI Natalma S., while Honor D Lady (Honor Code) scooped the GIII Remington Park...

2nd-Churchill Downs, $116,625, Msw, 5-16, 2yo, 5f, :57.98, ft, 1 length. ENDURING SPIRIT (c, 2, Tiz the Law--Life Starts, by Into Mischief) was let go at odds of 16-1 with an educational debut run under his belt and became the first winner for his freshman sire (by Constitution) with a front-running success in Thursday's second race from Churchill Downs. Seventh after showing some early dash in his Apr. 10 unveiling over a sloppy Keeneland main track, the $100,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga graduate got drier underfoot conditions this time around and was...

7th-OP, $115k, Msw, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m, post time: 4:20 p.m. ET Having campaigned the likes of 'TDN Rising Star' Frank's Rockette, Arkansan Frank Fletcher will debut another daughter of the all-conquering Into Mischief Saturday afternoon at Oaklawn Park in the form of MISS ROCKETTE. The February foal, trained by Bob Baffert, is the first to race out of Song of Spring (Spring At Last), upset winner of the GIII Allaire du Pont Distaff in 2018, and was hammered down to Donato Lanni on behalf of Fletcher for $1.25 million...

He wasn't the most cooperative at the stalls and he left himself plenty to do over a Keeneland main track that was playing kind to speed over the course of the afternoon, but 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (c, 3, Gun Runner--Heavenly Love, by Malibu Moon) saved his best for last and cemented his status as one of the top couple of contenders for the GI Kentucky Derby with a fast-finishing victory in the 100th running of the GI Toyota Blue Grass S. Saturday afternoon. The victory, on the back...

Among the winners at the last Breeders' Cup, what was it that separated White Abarrio (Race Day), Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) and Nobals (Noble Mission {GB}) from the rest? Answer: they were the only ones that had changed hands at an American yearling auction, respectively for $7,500, $170,000 and $3,500. Even that lavish investor in the yearling market, Mike Repole, won the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile with a homebred. Except for a couple of European turf juveniles, the rest of the show was a parade of champions raised by "end users":...

A son of two fan-favorite Hall of Famers, the impeccably-bred colt by champion Curlin and out of champion Beholder was sure to bring the house down when he entered the ring this summer at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale and the striking chestnut did not disappoint as the hammer dropped at $4 million to Donato Lanni on behalf of Zedan Racing, making the Spendthrift-bred, Taylor Made-consigned colt the highest-priced horse to sell at Saratoga in over two decades. Since then, the youngster's pedigree has grown even more impressive as his elder...

Heavily favored to run his unbeaten streak to three, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing's Integration (Quality Road) made his off price of 4-5 look like an early Christmas gift, as he parlayed a perfect trip into a dominating victory in Saturday's $250,000 GII Hill Prince S. at Aqueduct. Away without incident from the three hole, the $700,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga graduate fell into the ideal spot from third, racing in clear air, as 65-1 Laurel Valley (Laoban) set a solid pace in advance of a headstrong Equitize (GB) (Kingman {GB}),...

Having been represented by a pair of new graded stakes scorers on Breeders' Cup Saturday, Claiborne Farm's War Front picked up yet another when the impeccably bred Smokin' T ran out a good-looking winner of the $300,000 GIII River City S. beneath the Saturday night lights at Churchill Downs. The sometimes difficult-to-handle 4-year-old colt was outsprinted and settled in centerfield through the early exchanges, as Dominican Pioneer (Pioneerof the Nile) ensured that the nine-furlong event would be run at a genuine tempo. Stitched (Mizzen Mast), winner of the relocated GII...