Stability at Saratoga select sale

The North American yearling auction calendar turns to some of the market’s highestlevel offerings on Monday and Tuesday at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale. The marquee auction will take place at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with each session beginning at 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

This season’s yearling schedule features plenty of moving parts, between new sales being founded and auctions changing dates or catalog formats. Among the upheaval, the Saratoga sale has remained relatively unbothered for many years.

Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said the Saratoga sale’s model of keeping a focused, elite catalog, paired with the ontrack success of the auction’s graduates, has been a winning formula for nearly a century.

“There have been a few adjustments to the format over the years,” Browning said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve tinkered with it. It’s been a very strong and consistent marketplace for many years and embraced by both buyers and sellers alike.”

This year’s catalog features 227 entries, down 9.9 percent from the 250 entered in last year’s sale. It is still the secondbiggest catalog the auction has produced since 2009.

“I’m expecting a good sale,” Browning said. “We’ve got really good, quality horses. We couldn’t be happier with the horses cataloged, both in terms of pedigrees and physical conformation. We’re just very pleased with the quality of foals we saw during the inspection process.”

The Saratoga sale is known for its high-profile graduates, as evidenced by the placards hanging over many of the stalls across the sale grounds indicating where horses of note spent time as auction prospects. Chief among them is 2015 Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year American Pharoah, who went through the ring in 2013.

Another star alum is Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit, who sold at the 2015 auction for $1.2 million. The same sale produced Battle of Midway, a Grade 3 winner who finished third in this year’s Kentucky Derby.

Other prominent runners to come from recent Saratoga sales include the champions Songbird and Stellar Wind.

Last year’s Saratoga sale finished with 156 yearlings sold for $45,570,000, down 3 percent from last year’s gross of $46,755,000. The average sale price was down 9 percent, to $292,115 from $322,448, while the median declined 5 percent, to $237,500 from $250,000. The buyback rate rose to 23 percent after finishing at a phenomenally low 15 percent in 2015.

Mandy Pope of Whisper Hill Farm bought last year’s sale-topper, a $1.45 million Medaglia d’Oro filly out of the stakes-winning Thunder Gulch mare Whisper to Me. She was consigned by Denali Stud as agent.

Later named Whisper to Mama, the filly is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Overheard. She is training toward her first start at GoldMark Farm in Ocala, Fla.

Last year’s sale produced a pair of seven-figure horses, including a Tapit colt who sold to Stonestreet Stables and M.V. Magnier of the Coolmore partnership for $1.25 million. The still-unnamed colt is out of the winning Tiznow mare Rote. He is a full brother to Grade 2-placed Royal Obsession and a half to stakes-placed Jumby Bay. The colt is training toward his debut at Santa Anita.