Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale: $1.6 million Uncle Mo colt leads way during solid opening session

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A $1.6 million Uncle Mo colt led the way as high-end Thoroughbred trade returned to Saratoga on Monday evening. The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale, which is celebrating its 100th edition this week, found steady going in its opening session, setting the stage for what could be a solid finish at its second and final session Tuesday night.

Fasig-Tipton reported 70 yearlings sold Monday for gross receipts of $25,280,000. When this sale was most recently held in 2019 – the 2020 edition was canceled by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic – the opening session grossed $22,775,000 from 61 horses sold en route to a record edition.

Monday night's average and median finished at $361,143 and $300,000, respectively. Although there is a gap of a year, and a vastly changed world, those figures represent declines of 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively, from the 2019 opening-session figures of $373,361 and $315,000. Monday's buyback rate finished at 27 percent, improving a tick from the comparable session that checked in at 28 percent in 2019.

"Very solid opening session," said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. "Very consistent bidding, start to finish. A very diverse buying group, which was probably the most encouraging sign of all tonight – the wide spread of buyers and bidders throughout the evening.

"Very solid, I think would be the best descriptor," Browning continued. "It wasn't spectacular. I don't think anybody expected any dramatic across-the-board changes."

This is the first sale at which Fasig-Tipton will accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment by buyers; all proceeds will still be paid out to the seller by the sale company in U.S. dollars, and all sales will still be recorded in U.S. dollars. Since buyers have a time frame in which to settle up after the fall of the hammer, Browning did not yet have statistics on if cryptocurrency was indeed in use at Monday's session.

"There was not any dramatic new buyer that signed up and bought a bunch of horses that I would anticipate doing it, but there's been a lot of interest, there's been a lot of discussions with our staff about that," he said.

Bloodstock agent Jacob West signed the $1.6 million ticket on the session-topping son of young classic sire Uncle Mo, on behalf of Robert and Lawana Low.

"I had seen this horse about six months ago out at Stone Farm, and I told Mr. and Mrs. Low about him," West said. "So the second he came up for auction and we knew he was in the catalog, we turned down the page on him, and we're just excited to get him. He's just grown up. He's a May foal, he's got a lot more growing to do, and we just hope he fills more into his frame. . . . We're hopeful that we just bought a good one."

The colt is out of five-time stakes winner Dame Dorothy, who took the Grade 1 Humana Distaff Stakes over Eclipse Award winner Judy the Beauty. The mare is a daughter of the late Bernardini, who has emerged as a stellar broodmare sire, and she has continued to boost his reputation in that regard. Her first foal is the Curlin filly Spice Is Nice, winner of the Grade 3 Allaire duPont Distaff Stakes in May at Pimlico.

Spice Is Nice was a $1.05 million Keeneland September yearling purchase by the Lows and is trained by Todd Pletcher. The Lows's new purchase also will go to Pletcher, who also trained Uncle Mo and Dame Dorothy to their successes.

Dame Dorothy was campaigned by Bobby Flay, who purchased her as a yearling. The breeder boards his broodmares at Arthur Hancock's Stone Farm in Paris, Ky., and that outfit consigned this colt, as agent.

"I know he's gonna be in great hands," Flay said, adding that the Saratoga sale "is my Super Bowl. I want to sell a horse here every year."

Dame Dorothy is a half-sister to Mrs. Lindsay, a Grade/Group 1 winner in France and Canada who went on to produce Group 1-placed stakes winner Mr. Owen and stakes-placed Sunday Mirage. This is the extended family of English champion Mrs. Penny, winner of the French Oaks winner; English 1000 Guineas winner Hatoof, who went on to be an Eclipse Award champion; and Irish Derby winner Trading Leather.

The second-highest price of the evening was fetched by a daughter of perennial leading sire Tapit, who flirted with the seven-figure ceiling for a long moment before ultimately being hammered down for $990,000 to West Point Thoroughbreds, in partnership with Scarlet Oak Racing and NBS Stable.

"We're really excited to get her," West Point's Terry Finley said. "These are the kind of horses that you really need to get out of these sales, if you have the resources and the partners. Overall, the industry's really done a good job. We've had a lot of progress over the last six months, and we're finding that people are really interested to get into the business."

The filly is out of the stakes-placed Dixie Union mare Checkupfromzneckup, who is from the extended family of Broodmare of the Year Weekend Surprise. She was consigned by Denali Stud, as agent for breeders WinStar Farm and Winchell Thoroughbreds.

Rounding out the top five prices on the evening were a $940,000 filly by two-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief, purchased by agent Christina Jelm for David Wilson; an $850,000 colt by current-leading freshman sire Gun Runner, purchased by the WinStar-affiliated Maverick Racing; and an $825,000 colt from the first crop of Triple Crown winner Justify and out of Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Bar of Gold, purchased by Travis Durr on behalf of David Hudson. Like West Point's Tapit filly, all were in the ring for prolonged periods as bidding was competitive while missing the seven-figure threshold in a market that seemed to have a ceiling.

"Quality sells," West said of the marketplace. "This is a quality sale. The Fasig-Tipton team did an incredible job getting these horses here. It seems like everybody's been fighting for the good ones. We knew we were gonna have to go to war for” the session topper.

With market momentum established, the sale now looks to its second and final session on Tuesday evening, with a number of blue-blooded yearlings set to be offered. Among the standouts are a Quality Road filly who is a half-sister to Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming, as well as to Grade 1 winner and stakes producer Hot Dixie Chick; and a Bolt d'Oro colt who is a half-brother to Hall of Fame racemare Rachel Alexandra.

Even with those stellar offerings, this sale will be hard-pressed to finish on even or better terms than its most recent pre-pandemic edition in 2019, which finished with a record average and median, as well as its third-highest gross of all time.

"It's halftime," Browning said. "We're certainly off to a good start. Lots of good horses to sell tomorrow. So I'm pleased, but we've still got another night's work to go."

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