Fasig-Tipton sale opens with slight gains across board

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Less than a week after its Saratoga select yearling sale posted losses across the board, Fasig-Tipton’s New York-bred preferred sale saw a slight gain of 2 percent in all categories at its first session.

The two-night sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., opened Saturday by selling the same number of horses in 2010 as it did at last year’s opener, 52, but received 2 percent more for them. Gross rose from 2009’s figure of $1,792,500 to $1,822,000. Average price went up 2 percent, as well, from $34,471 to $35,038. And median also inched upward by 2 percent, from $27,000 last year to $27,500. The buyback rate fell from last year's 50 percent to 30 percent.

West Point Thoroughbreds, represented by its regular agent, Buzz Chace, spent $100,000 for the session-topper. That was a colt by first-crop sire Half Ours out of the Dixie Union mare Dixie Lyrics. Half Ours is by Unbridled’s Song. Dixie Union placed in her time at the track and has produced two foals so far, a 2-year-old this year who has yet to start and the auction colt.

The session-topper is from the family of such graded winners as Influent and Whadjathink. Thorndale Farm, agent, consigned the colt.

Fasig-Tipton changed the sale’s format this year by shifting the sessions from day to night.

The second and final session was to take place Sunday night at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion in Saratoga starting at 7 p.m.