SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A $3.4 million son of rising star Not This Time led the way as the 103rd edition of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale kicked off Monday night with promising increases in its figures, despite facing economic uncertainty while chasing a record edition of the auction. “We won the first half,” Fasig-Tipton president and CEO Boyd Browning Jr. joked following the first of two sessions at the company’s Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion. Fasig-Tipton reported that 77 yearlings changed hands Monday for gross receipts of $38,910,000. In the opening session of the 2023 sale, which finished with a record gross, average, and median, 74 yearlings sold for $30,785,000. With six horses sold for seven figures, Monday’s average price finished at $505,325, a session-to-session spike of 21 percent from $416,014 in the 2023 opener. The median jumped 14 percent, to $400,000 from $350,000. Monday’s buyback rate was 21 percent, a “pretty remarkable” figure, Browning said, compared to a reported 27 percent rate last year in a highly selective marketplace. The opening session of the sale took place on a turbulent day for U.S. stock markets, as three major indicators – the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq composite – all dropped. The Dow and S&P 500 each recorded their biggest daily percentage loss since 2022. Browning said he did not have a high level of concern, particularly at this upper end of the marketplace. “Our job is to focus and worry about the things that we can control,” Browning said. “I got a few texts that said, ‘Oh, my God, what are you going to do?’ I said, ‘We’re going to have the best horse sale we possibly can.’ ” Donato Lanni, acting as agent for Zedan Stable, signed the ticket for the session-topping Not This Time colt. Amr Zedan’s new purchase will be trained by Bob Baffert. “Big, beautiful horse by a really hot sire, good family,” Baffert said. “We knew he was going to be expensive, but I didn’t think he was going to be that expensive. But, you know, we came here trying to buy a horse that you can get to the Derby with, so that’s why we bought him.” A little more than two weeks ago, Churchill Downs Inc. lifted a three-year ban of Baffert at its properties stemming from a positive test in Zedan-owned Medina Spirit after the horse’s win in the 2021 Kentucky Derby. Not This Time was a top 10 general sire in both 2022 and 2023, siring Eclipse Award champions Epicenter and Up to the Mark. This year, the stallion is represented by Cogburn, who set a North American record winning the Grade 1 Jaipur; by sensational marathon specialist Next; by Shareholder, a Group 2 winner at the Royal Ascot meeting; and by additional graded stakes winners Arzak, No More Time, and Time to Dazzle. Not This Time’s session-topper is out of the stakes-placed Tiznow mare Kayce Ace, dam of Grade 3 Schuylerville winner Comical, who also was multiple Grade 1-placed as a juvenile. Kayce Ace is a full sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Colonel John and to Mr. Hot Stuff, who was Grade 1-placed on the flat before going on to become a Grade 1-winning steeplechaser. The colt, bred in Kentucky by Susan Casner, was consigned by Nardelli Sales, as agent. :: Get the Inside Track with the FREE DRF Morning Line Email Newsletter. Subscribe now.  Monday’s second-highest price, and the highest price for a filly, was $1.9 million for a daughter of Curlin from the immediate family of session-topping sire Not This Time. Jacob West signed the ticket in the name of his West Bloodstock, as agent for Robert and Lawana Low, and the filly will be trained by Todd Pletcher. West said when he first saw the filly, who was consigned by Gainesway, as agent for breeder Don Alberto, on the sale grounds last Friday, she immediately reminded him of another Curlin filly he helped select as a yearling and who was trained by Pletcher – Eclipse champion Nest. “I actually texted Mr. Low and I said, ‘I think I found the next Nest,’ ” West said. “And he said, ‘All right, you love her that much?’ And I said, ‘She's a monster.’ I hate to put a comparison like that on such a young horse, but if I'm being honest, that’s what she reminded me of.” The filly is the first foal out of the Tapit mare Matera, who was a Grade 3-placed multiple stakes winner. Matera is one of four stakes winners out of graded stakes winner Miss Macy Sue, led by Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner and sire Liam’s Map and Grade 3 winner and sire Not This Time. John Stewart’s Resolute Racing landed the next two highest-priced horses, going to $1.7 million for a Gun Runner half-brother to Grade 1 winner Leofric and to $1.5 million for a first-crop Charlatan half-brother to Grade 1 winner and breakout freshman sire Complexity. The evening’s other seven-figure lots were a $1.5 million Tapit colt who is the second foal out of Grade 2 winner Mopotism, purchased under the stable name of Flying Dutchmen; and a $1 million Into Mischief half-brother to Grade 3 winner She Can’t Sing, purchased by the partnership of Coolmore and White Birch Farm. The Saratoga selected sale will conclude with a second and final session Tuesday evening. “We don’t ever declare victory yet,” Browning said. “We've got another 120 to go through the ring tomorrow . . . then, hopefully, we’ll have a real reason to celebrate.” For hip-by-hip results, click here. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.