American Pharoah yearlings top opening night at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Family was the prevailing theme of the opening night at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale. Two yearlings who are well-related, to say the least, being from the first crop of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, fetched seven figures to help boost the average price on a night when memories of the late Fasig-Tipton executive William E. Graves were everywhere.

The night’s top sellers were a $1.2 million American Pharoah filly and a $1 million colt by the same sire.

Fasig-Tipton's Terence Collier began Monday night’s proceedings by evoking Graves, who died at 69 on May 30 in Lexington, Ky., following a short illness, from the auctioneer's stand. The auction company recruited Graves in 1992 to review and manage its selected yearling sale process, a pursuit he was involved with until his final days.

"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]. Bill was not a sentimental man and would not want Fasig-Tipton to set anything but a very positive tone for the 2018 Saratoga sales. 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-Tipton had indeed done it right. A total of 83 yearlings sold Monday for revenues of $28,965,000, soaring 19 percent from the 75 sold for $24,425,000 in 2017's opening session. The night’s average price finished at $348,976, spiking 7 percent from $325,667 for the comparable session last year. The median price finished at $300,000, matching last year's record high. The cumulative average and median prices last year finished at $339,712 and $300,000, respectively.

"A very, very encouraging start to the sale tonight," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said. "We thought we had good horses, and I think the buyers responded very favorably across the board. Very, very, very intense competition, lots of action on most of the horses, but buyers do have limits. . . . I don't think that's any surprise to any of us."

The buyback rate finished at 22 percent, which Browning called an "acceptable level." Last year's opening session closed at 18 percent, with the sale overall finishing at 20 percent. The buyback rate also improved throughout the night after some high-ticket horses returned to their consignors earlier in the evening.

“I think every sale generally takes a few minutes to find its legs and to find its level of comfort,” Browning said.

Leading the way was a horse with close ties to Graves, as Larry Best, still a relative newcomer to the high-end auction scene, went to $1.2 million to acquire an American Pharoah filly out of multiple Grade 1 winner Life At Ten. The filly was a pricey pinhook prospect, as William Graves's son, Brian Graves, the director of public sales for consignor Gainesway, went to $500,000 to acquire 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 tonight.

"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 with” my partners.

Millionaire Life At Ten, a daughter of Malibu Moon, won the Ogden Phipps Handicap and Beldame Stakes, both Grade 1 events at Belmont Park, in 2010. Life At Ten won four other stakes and placed in three more, including a third in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes in 2010 as Persistently ran down champion Rachel Alexandra.

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.

Brian Graves said that Life At Ten’s yearling, bred in Ontario by Adena Springs, combined the three qualities he looks for in a weanling pinhook prospect – "Balance, athleticism, sire power."

Later in the night, that sire power helped seal another deal, as trainer Bob Baffert signed a ticket on behalf of Coolmore's M.V. Magnier for a $1 million American Pharoah colt.

"I like the sire," quipped Baffert, who trained American Pharoah through two Eclipse Award championship seasons, highlighted by his drought-busting Triple Crown sweep in 2015. Coolmore stands the young stallion, who is based at its Ashford Stud in Kentucky and also shuttles to Australia.

The New York-bred colt is out of the unraced Touch Gold mare Party Silks, making him a 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.

"Of the [American Pharoah offspring] I've seen, I really liked him," Baffert said. "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. [Summerfield] had him looking great, too. It was like love at first sight.

"I see a lot [of American Pharoah] in him,” Baffert continued. “He's stamping his foals pretty well, with the head, the demeanor, and everything. He has a great, athletic body – that's what you look for."

Monday night's two high-ticket yearlings gave American Pharoah a total of five seven-figure lots in his nascent commercial career, two of those purchased by Coolmore. The stallion was previously represented by a $1 million weanling filly at last year's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale; a $1 million colt at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale; and a colt sold for about $1.6 million in U.S. dollars at July’s Japan Racing Horse Association sale.

"Now the pressure's on," Baffert joked.

Best also struck for the night's third-highest price, a $950,000 filly by Into Mischief. Consigned by Denali Stud, as agent, the filly is out of a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Can the Man, by Into Mischief, and stakes winner Martha's Moon. It is the family of Kentucky Oaks winner Blush With Pride and her daughter Better Than Honour, both outstanding broodmares.

The session's top five prices were rounded out by an $850,000 Curlin filly from the immediate family of Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Liam's Map, purchased by White Birch Farm; and an $825,000 War Front filly landed by bloodstock agent Steven Young. Along with American Pharoah, Into Mischief and War Front each put two yearlings in the top 10.

For complete results from Monday’s session, click here. The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale has its second and final session Tuesday night.