Tapits see high buyback rate

Tapit broke the single-season North American progeny earnings record for the first of three consecutive years in 2014, led by his champion, Untapable, and Belmont Stakes winner, Tonalist. His stud fee subsequently doubled to $300,000 at Gainesway Farm, making him the most expensive stallion on the continent, a price point he has remained at since.

The economic challenges of selling a yearling produced on such a lofty stud fee became apparent as Tapit’s first yearlings conceived at that price point came to auction at this week’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale. Four of his eight yearlings sent through the ring did not meet their reserves – figures that are calculated not only with the goal of profiting on the stud fee, but factoring in what the owner has spent on broodmare care and raising and sale-prepping the resulting offspring over a two-year period.

All factors create a high bar to clear even for a commercial juggernaut such as Tapit, whose sale yearlings over the years have included $1.2 million Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit, sold at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga two years ago.

“It is a factor,” Gainesway director of sales Michael Hernon said of the stud fee. “There’s more production cost, for sure, but the results are there. He’s been the leading sire for three consecutive years.”

Tapit’s high-ticket buybacks were led by a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Diamondrella and several other stakes horses who left the ring with a high bid of $750,000, which would have ranked among the night’s top prices. His other buybacks checked in at $735,000, $685,000, and $575,000.

Tapit’s most expensive horse sold was a filly out of Grade 2-placed stakes winner Colonial Flag, sold to Kerri Radcliffe Bloodstock for $675,000. Gainesway consigned the filly, whose dam is a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Shared Account.

“She could run on both surfaces. Tapit gets you any kind of runner, as we know,” Hernon said. “I thought that she was well bought. I could have seen her bringing a bit more money, but we bring the horses here to sell them. They’re fairly reserved, and people know that, and they buy from Gainesway with confidence. A filly with her looks and that pedigree will hold very good residual value.”

Tapit’s other three horses sold were fillies that went for $650,000, $575,000, and $500,000.

Tapit has 23 yearlings cataloged in the elite Book 1 portion of the Keeneland September yearling sale.

Undeterred by flaw

One of the pedigree highlights of the select yearling sale was a half-brother to Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit who sold to bloodstock agent Mike Ryan for $250,000.

The Speightstown colt, consigned by Denali Stud, will race for a partnership that was still forming after the drop of the hammer. Ryan said the colt did not fall into the typical frame of conformation, but it was something he was happy to overlook. “I knew he had a titch of a roach back, but I loved him,” Ryan said describing a condition where a horse’s topline is unusually high. “The last good horse I saw with a roach back was Tonalist, and that didn’t stop him a little bit.

“I’ve seen horses run with roach backs, sway backs,” he added. “When you put a saddle on them, you can’t see it.”

The colt is out of the Grade 1-winning Successful Appeal mare Appealing Zophie, who had her first auction breakthrough in 2015 when Tapwrit sold to Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Bridlewood Farm, and Robert LaPenta for $1.2 million at the Saratoga sale.

Earlier this year, Ride a Comet, a Candy Ride colt out of Appealing Zophie, sold to John Oxley for $375,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. spring sale of 2-year-olds in training.

Tapwrit, Ride a Comet, and the Speightstown colt were all bred in Kentucky by the Riggio family’s My Meadowview.

“We’ll take him down to Stonestreet and break him and see how he does,” Ryan said about his new purchase. “He’s bred to be a dirt horse, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was quick enough and had the action to run on the turf. We’ll just see, but hopefully he’ll be a summer 2-year-old next year.

“He’s a real Speightstown,” Ryan added. “Seven furlongs to a mile is probably going to be his optimum, but I loved him.”

Phoenix rising

Bloodstock agent Kerri Radcliffe’s name has been showing up at the top of buyer lists with greater frequency in 2017, and she made one her biggest splashes yet in the U.S. market on Tuesday, when she secured an Orb colt for $1 million. The seven-figure price tag made him the co-sale-topper at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale.

Radcliffe bought the colt on behalf of Phoenix Thoroughbreds. Amer Abdulaziz serves as chief executive of the company, which is headed up by several major investors from points around the globe.

“We’re going to be expanding from racing into stallions and breeding,” Radcliffe said. “This is a long-term project, and hopefully these racehorses do it on the track.”

Radcliffe made six purchases at the Saratoga sale totaling $3.95 million. The second-mostexpensive purchase was an $800,000 Scat Daddy filly.

Radcliffe was an active buyer during this spring’s juvenile sales, highlighted by a $1.7 million Congrats filly who topped the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. March sale of 2-yearolds in training.

The Orb colt eventually will go to Bob Baffert’s Southern California shed row.