Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
N.Y.-bred sale sets records
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A Pioneerof the Nile colt sold Sunday for a sale-record $600,000 as the strong upper end of a polarized market propelled the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred yearling sale to another record renewal.
The sale, which showcases the surging New York-bred program, improved on the then-record gross, average, and median figures established just last year. A total of 172 yearlings sold over the two-day sale for gross receipts of $18,492,000, a gain of 14 percent from last year’s mark of $16,214,000 from 182 sold. The average price was $107,512, soaring 21 percent from $89,088 in 2017. The median was up 9 percent to $76,000, from $69,500.
The sale was held Saturday and Sunday here at the Humphrey S. Finney sales pavilion.
“Tremendous night,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said following the close of business Sunday. “The last half of the session tonight was just electric. Obviously, that’s really reflective of just how the horses happen to fall [in the catalog], but we had a run of horses that were just one beauty after another beauty after another that sold tremendously well. . . . I think you saw tremendous diversity amongst the buyers tonight. There were some new names on the results that haven’t been active previously in the New York-bred marketplace, and that’s, I think, a direct result of the quality and the success New York-breds are achieving all over the world.”
The one blight on the rose was the buyback rate, which finished at a cumulative 35 percent. The two-session sale finished at a relatively low 25 percent last year.
“It’s still a selective marketplace, and we’re going to see that selectivity continue kind of all year long,” Browning had explained following Saturday night’s opening session. “This sale has traditionally – although it was better last year than normal – had a higher-than-you-would-hope buyback rate because the owners and breeders of those horses have significant alternatives. It’s very important for some of them if they don’t get what they think is a fair price to kind of control the destiny of that horse with regard to its racing career, so that tends to result in a little bit higher RNA rate. But the buyers are so selective.”
Consignors also said they felt that polarization while attempting to move horses, especially in the middle market.
“The upper end is really good,” said Pat Costello of Paramount Sales, which sold nine horses and had seven others fail to meet their reserves. “The middle is tough enough. I thought it’d be a hair better in the middle.”
Atop that polarized leaderboard, the Pioneerof the Nile colt sold to Shortleaf Stable. His record price surpassed the $500,000 paid just last year for a colt from the first crop of Cairo Prince, a son of Pioneerof the Nile.
A WinStar Farm stallion, Pioneerof the Nile is represented among this year’s firstcrop yearling sires by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, whose progeny are averaging more than $500,000 in the auction ring. American Pharoah had yearlings sell for $1.2 million and $1 million during last week’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale and was represented by a $450,000 filly during the first night of the New York-bred sale, continuing to bolster the commercial power of the sireline.
“Pioneerof the Nile is a sire of sires,” said Ed Anthony, who signed the sales ticket for his father’s Shortleaf Stable. “He looks like he’s going to go a lot further than he already has. If you’re looking for stallion prospects and want to be relevant in the classic picture and Triple Crown trail, you’ve got to pony up sometimes and play the game.”
Pioneerof the Nile’s current yearlings were conceived on an advertised stud fee of $125,000 during the 2016 season, following American Pharoah’s Triple Crown sweep the prior year. This colt, consigned by breeder Jonathan Thorne’s Thorndale Farm, is out of the A.P. Indy mare Score, whose three winners from four starters include Grade 2-placed Timely Tally and stakes-placed Dattt Melody.
The second dam is Grade 1 winner Educated Risk, dam of stakes winners Consequence and Strategy, who is a full sister to Score. The productive Phipps Stable family also includes champion Inside Information, dam of champion Smuggler.
Anthony said Shortleaf’s new purchase would go to Ocala, Fla., for his early training and that a conditioner for his racing career would be decided upon later.
Eight horses sold for $300,000 or more during the sale, compared to three last year.
The sale’s second-highest price was the $450,000 American Pharoah filly, sold to pinhookers Randy Hartley and Dean DeRenzo. The filly was bred by Joanne Nielsen’s Sunnyfield Farm and was consigned at the sale by Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck’s Summerfield Sales. She is from the family of Grade 1 winners Denman’s Call, Evening Jewel, General Challenge, and Notable Career.
“You always want to get a bargain, but for me, I think at the end of the day that’s going to be a bargain for one of” the American Pharoah progeny, Hartley said. “We feel like there’s going to be a ton of market for those in the 2-yearold sales. He was one of the greatest racehorses that we’ve seen in a long time.”
Rounding out the sale’s top five prices were a $400,000 Ghostzapper colt out of stakes winner Clear Pasaj, purchased by Tracy Farmer; a $350,000 Into Mischief filly out of stakes winner Risky Rachel, sold to Kindred Stables from the Paramount consignment; and a $320,000 Into Mischief colt out of a half-sister to millionaire Upstart, purchased by Michael Neatherlin.