The yearling sale season is underway and this week’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale had plenty of fireworks as bidding was brisk for young racehorses.
A Curlin colt (Hip 165) out of Horse of the Year Beholder sold for $4,000,000 to Donato Lanni, agent for Zedan Racing, to top the session and the sale. Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent, consigned on behalf of breeder Spendthrift Farm. The colt is the first of Hall of Fame inductee Beholder’s foals to be offered at public auction. Beholder’s most accomplished runner to date is this year’s Senorita S. (G3) winner Teena Ella (War Front). By Curlin, sire of three Eclipse Award champions in 2022, and out of the incomparable race mare Beholder, the blue-blooded colt hails from the immediate family of four-time leading sire Into Mischief, Broodmare of the Year Leslie’s Lady, and Grade 1 winner and sire Mendelssohn.
Overall, 153 yearlings sold for a sale record $74,780,000, up 11.7% from the previous record of $66,955,000 set last year. The average of $488,758 eclipsed by 4.4% the record set last year of $468,217. The median tied last year’s record of $375,000. Ten yearlings sold for $1,000,000 or more over the course of the two nights.
A share in leading young sire Not This Time was offered prior to the first yearling of the second session, selling for $2,000,000. The hammer price is not reflected in the yearling sale results.
There was a handful of Canadian breeders with horses in the prestigious sale including IVAN DALOS, Sovereign Award winning breeder who sold a Kentucky-bred filly for $600,000 through Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa, Agent. The buyer was Arnmore Thoroughbreds.
The chestnut miss is by Good Magic from Forest Gamble by Forest Wildcat and is a half-sister to Woodbine stakes winners Blueblood and Gamble’s Candy. Forest Gamble is a daughter of one of Dalos’ foundation mares, Gambling Girl, a multiple stakes winner and dam of stakes winner Gamble’s Ghost.
Dalos’ Tall Oaks Farm mostly breeds Canadian-breds, but has bred some in Kentucky.
Canadian breeders with Ontario-breds in the sale did well. Jay and Christine Hayden’s Saintsbury Farm sold a Maclean’s Music colt from Golden Amber by Gemologist through Bernard McCormack’s Cara Bloodstock for $400,000. Stonestreet Thoroughbreds purchased the filly who is a half-brother to the impressive debut winner Gold Magic.
The Haydens also sold an Ontario-bred Medaglia d’Oro from Ausus, by Invasor (Arg) for $180,000 to Al and Bill Ulwelling, who race their horses at Woodbine. The couple also sold a Maclean’s Music filly from their stakes winner Unspurned for $100,000.
David Anderson’s Anderson Farms sold a Speightstown filly out of the Curlin mare Blue Curl for $375,000 to My Racehorse, Reeves Thoroughbreds and partner. The filly is the first foal of Blue Curl, a daughter of Grade 2 winner Fioretti.
Arika Everatt-Meeuse of Shannondoe Farm sold a Not This Time filly out of Count to Three by Red Ransom for $250,000 to TMC. The filly is a half-sister to two Grade 1 winners, Count Again and Ransom the Moon. Everatt Meeuse sold the filly through St George Sales, agent III.
Susan Foreman, as agent, sold a Kentucky-bred colt by Justify – Vulcan Rose by Fusaichi Pegasus for Deborah Holmes’ Phoenix Rising Stable for $275,000 and an Ontario-bred grey filly by Caravaggio – Unostrike by Macho Uno for $210,000.
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