Cream rises to top at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected sale

It takes a special horse to succeed in Fasig-Tipton’s Humphrey S. Finney Sale Pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with the yearlings fetching the highest prices at one of the nation’s elite sales possessing a blend of sparkling pedigree, physical athleticism, and other intangibles.

Those who clear all the hurdles have often proved to be special horses. Graduates of the selected sale in recent years have included unbeaten 2022 Horse of the Year Flightline, considered a generational talent; and this year’s Preakness Stakes winner National Treasure, who outgunned fellow Saratoga graduate Blazing Sevens in the stretch. Multi-time Eclipse Award champion Songbird will later this month become the latest Fasig-Tipton graduate inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

The opportunity to scout out future stars is one of the reasons the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale, set for the evenings of Monday, Aug. 7, and Tuesday, Aug 8, is so eagerly anticipated. Sale week is a unique blend of bloodstock, racing, and social activity during Saratoga’s vibrant meet. A total of 235 yearlings were carefully selected for this year’s catalog.

“You’ve got to have a bit of everything,” Buckland Sales principal Zach Madden said. “It’s physical, pedigree, and vetting, too. It’s a very stringent market.”

The Saratoga sale is the second major-market yearling sale of the year in North America, following the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale. That auction, geared toward early-developing horses with strong physicals, posted double-digit declines in average and median, which Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. attributed to a “reality adjustment” in the marketplace following a buoyant 2022 marketplace across the board.

The relatively early timing of the Saratoga sale means that the supply and demand equation is in buyers’ favor, making it even more important to bring a flawless individual to the auction.

“Buyers aren’t going to be as willing [to compromise on various factors] this early in the year,” Madden said. “There’s going to be 4,000 yearlings presented to them in September, another 1,500 in October. . . . You’ve got to kind of bring the heat, so to speak.”

In addition to other attributes, young horses must be able to mentally handle the sale environment. In addition to the frenetic activity on the sale grounds – which are open to the public and evolve a party atmosphere during the sale sessions – the smaller catalog means that prospective buyers aren’t as pressed to whittle down their shortlists and may come to look at a horse multiple times. Hall of Fame trainers are on the grounds in force to help their clients make buying decisions.

“You’re trying to give a good first impression over and over again,” Madden said.

“Being in that environment, being shown a ton, it’s hot, you’ve got to ship [from Kentucky] – you’ve got to ask a lot of a horse,” he continued. “Some horses, maybe they’ve just had enough come show time, but others press through it. You hope when they’re asked for a lot that they give it to you – just like a racehorse.”

The sale typically attracts the high end of domestic buyers – with a few international buyers making an appearance. These buyers often have discretionary income that is immune to the economic effects that can create restraint at other sales.

“I think there’s a perception, and we’ll find out if that’s the reality, that the market might have more insulation at the upper end,” Browning said. “We have an upper-end catalog, I think. It’s a tremendous catalog. We’re very proud of it. If we can be somewhat on par with last year, which was a phenomenal sale, I think we’ll be very happy.”

The 2022 Saratoga selected sale left a high bar to clear. With a $2.3 million Gun Runner colt leading 14 seven-figure yearlings, the Saratoga sale’s gross ($55,155,000), average ($468,217), and median ($375,000) were all sale records.

“The upper end was so fantastic last year,” said Allaire Ryan, director of sales for Lane’s End Farm, which stood out among consignors when it sent four seven-figure yearlings through the ring, the first consignment in the history of the elite sale to do so.

“It feels like it’s going to be hard to replicate that again, but wouldn’t that be special? It’d be pretty fantastic to see that carry through again.”

Yearlings slated to go through the ring include a Curlin colt out of Hall of Fame racemare Beholder, the dam of a graded stakes winner this year in Teena Ella. The catalog also includes half- or full siblings to Eclipse Award champions Caledonia Road, Improbable, and Shamrock Rose, and Grade 1 winners Casa Creed, Count Again, Hunter O’Riley, Leofric, Nickname, Pizza Bianca, Princess of Sylmar, Ransom the Moon, Rock Fall, Silver State, Sippican Harbor, and Verrazano.

Also cataloged are yearlings out of Grade 1 winners Icon Project, Paola Queen, Rachel’s Valentina, Separationofpowers, and Yellow Agate.

Still, pedigree on its own is no guarantee of success.

“It’s probably quite polarized, the marketplace,” said Archie St. George of St. George Sales. “If you’ve got the quality, you get rewarded. And if you don’t, you don’t.”