Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Records fall at Saratoga sale
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The first crop by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah was the star attraction, but by the end of the sale, it was Medaglia d’Oro’s world and everyone else was just living in it.
Those two stallions accounted for five seven-figure lots – led by a $1.35-million Medaglia d’Oro colt – as an emotional edition of the FasigTipton Saratoga selected yearling sale concluded on Tuesday with record returns.
“It’s humbling, it’s invigorating, we’re proud as hell,” said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning, who was visibly fighting back tears as the auction company closed the first edition of the boutique auction since the death of longtime company executive William E. Graves in May at age 69.
Fasig recruited Graves in 1992 to review and manage its selected yearling sale process, a pursuit he was involved with until his final days, the company’s Terence Collier noted at the start of the auction.
“Nearly all of the yearlings in this sale bear his seal of approval,” Collier said. “He worked on this sale right up until [his illness worsened] . . . He is with us in spirit, right over my shoulder, giving his usual advice – ‘Do it right, and don’t mess up.’ ”
When the action concluded, Fasig had indeed done it right. The sale completed its two-day run with 170 yearlings sold for record gross receipts of $62,794,000, a gain of 18 percent from 156 sold for $52,995,000 last year. The cumulative average price finished at $369,376, the boutique auction’s secondhighest all-time, and a gain of 9 percent from $339,712 last year. The previous record gross, $62,412,000, and record average, $385,259, were both established in 2001.
The median price, $300,000, matched the record established last year, and the buyback rate finished at a relatively steady 21 percent, compared to 20 percent last year.
Browning attributed the record results to the quality of the horses brought to the sale grounds by the consignors, the Fasig-Tipton team – and, perhaps, to a little divine intervention.
“We were obviously missing, in person, a key member of our team,” said Browning, his voice breaking. “But I think he was with us.”
The $1.35 million sale-topper by Medaglia d’Oro, one of a trio of seven-figure lots by the Darley stallion on closing night, was sold to a partnership including West Point Thoroughbreds, Robert Masiello, Chris Larsen, and Siena Farm. WinStar Farm, the colt’s breeder, could also potentially buy back in to the youngster for a piece in the partnership, according to Terry Finley of West Point.
“He was so leggy and athleticlooking,” Masiello said of the colt . . . . “He’s got the speed influence on the bottom, stamina on the top.”
The Kentucky-bred colt, consigned as agent by Taylor Made Sales, is the first foal out of the stakes-winning Wildcat Heir mare Coco’s Wildcat, whose own dam is a full sister to a pair of graded stakes winners and kin to two other stakes winners. It is the female family that produced Medaglia d’Oro’s two-time Eclipse Award champion daughter Songbird.
Shortly afterward, the global racing and bloodstock investment group Phoenix Thoroughbreds acquired a Medaglia d’Oro half-sister to classic winner Exaggerator for $1.3 million, with trainer Steve Asmussen seated with Amer Abdulaziz, founder of Phoenix.
“She’s a work of art,” said Asmussen, who trained Medaglia d’Oro’s Hall of Fame daughter Rachel Alexandra. “She’s a beautiful filly, and I don’t think you’re very likely to find another like her. A beautiful pedigree, as well as the physical to go with it.”
Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stables went to $1 million for a Medaglia d’Oro filly from the immediate family of the stallion’s multiple Grade 1 winner Elate. Keyed by that trio, Medaglia d’Oro finished with seven of his 11 yearlings through the ring sold for an average price of $785,000.
On Monday’s first night of the sale, an American Pharoah filly with close ties to Graves set the tone. Larry Best’s OXO Equine went to $1.2 million to acquire the filly, out of multiple Grade 1 winner Life At Ten. The filly was a pricey pinhook prospect – William Graves’s son Brian Graves, the director of public sales for consignor Gainesway, went to $500,000 for her as a weanling for the pinhooking partnership Blue Sky Stables at last fall’s Keeneland November breeding stock sale.
After the filly exited the ring, Graves revealed his father’s lucky handkerchief, kept close in a pocket.
“I showed this filly to my dad at the weanling sale,” Brian Graves said. “He gave her the thumbs up, he liked her, and I liked her a lot. We talked about a much lower number to buy her, but I kind of went ahead.”
As a broodmare, Life At Ten is off to a perfect start, with three winners from as many starters, led by Grade 2-placed Singing Bullet. The latest of those came just five hours prior to sale time, as Bohemian Queen won her debut at Woodbine for a timely catalog update.
American Pharoah was also represented by a $1 million colt Monday evening, with Bob Baffert signing the ticket on behalf of Coolmore’s M.V. Magnier.
“I like the sire,” quipped Baffert, who trained American Pharoah through two Eclipse Award seasons, highlighted by his drought-busting Triple Crown sweep in 2015. Coolmore stands the young stallion.
The team’s purchase is a New York-bred half-brother to multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Upstart, as well as to stakes-placed New York Hero. A May 17 foal, he was consigned by Summerfield Sales, as agent for breeder Sunnyfield Farm.
“It was like love at first sight,” Baffert said of the American Pharoah colt.
“He’s a May foal, and he’s gonna change a lot, and it should be for the better. It’s exciting. It’s a lot of money, but he’s a beautiful horse.”
Baffert said he saw a lot of American Pharoah in the colt.
“He’s stamping his foals pretty well, with the head, the demeanor, and everything,” he said.
American Pharoah finished the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale – where he was a buyback for owner and breeder Ahmed Zayat five years ago – with 10 yearlings sold from 12 through the ring, for an average price of $554,500.