Fasig-Tipton: Saratoga select yearling sale rebounds but still closes down

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Twenty-four hours after its opening session suffered steep declines in average and median, Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga select yearling sale put on a strong session Tuesday night but still ended in negative territory.

A Medaglia d’Oro filly out of 2006 champion Wait a While brought $1,575,000 from Todd Pletcher Tuesday night to top the two-night auction, but the sale ended its run with a 6.3 percent loss in average price and a 10-percent decline in median price. The average was $299,065 and the median was $225,000, as compared to a $319,340 average and $250,000 median last year. The two sessions sold a total of 107 yearlings for $32 million this season, down 2.7 percent from the 2011 gross for 103 horses. Buybacks also remained high at 34 percent, up from 22 percent a year ago.

The Tuesday session outpaced 2011’s second session, though it was not enough to offset total losses. The single-session results showed 55 horses sold for $18,410,000, a 9.9-percent increase, and the session’s $334,727 average and $250,000 median were up 7.9 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively.

Pletcher declined to identify his client after signing for the sale-topper, whose current name is Wait No More. Three Chimneys Sales, agent, sold the gray/roan filly on behalf of Alan and Karen Cohen’s Arindel Farm in Ocala, Fla. The Cohens campaigned Wait a While to a 3-year-old filly championship. The Medaglia d’Oro filly is her second foal. Wait a While’s first foal is a 2-year-old Distorted Humor colt, Zaikov, who has yet to start.

The Medaglia d’Oro filly was the Tuesday session’s only million-dollar lot at a session dominated by fillies. The second highest-priced yearling was a daughter of deceased sire Dynaformer that Paul Fudge’s Waratah Thoroughbreds bought for $900,000. The Paramount Sales agency consigned that filly, who is out of the graded winner Super Freaky. And the night’s third most expensive horse was another Medaglia d’Oro filly, a $725,000 daughter of graded-placed West Coast Swing. Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Plantation bought her from Craig and Holly Bandoroff’s Denali Stud consignment. The night’s top colt was a $700,000 Bernardini colt out of Dawn Chorus that Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farm (Tom McGreevy, agent) bought from the Four Star Sales agency.

Two yearlings brought seven-figure prices on Monday. The opening session-topper was a $1.2 million Street Cry colt out of Canadian champion mare Serenading that Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum bought. Hill ’n’ Dale sales consigned the session-topper. The session’s other millionaire was a $1.1 million Empire Maker-Sluice colt, a full brother to Grade 1 winner Mushka, that Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Stables and George Bolton partnered to buy from Denali Stud’s agency.

The opening session endured major downturns as the $13,590,000 gross for 52 yearlings fell 15.8 percent, the $261,346 average was down by 20.7 percent, and median plummeted 29.8 percent to $200,000. As sellers struggled to adjust their expectations in the unexpectedly soft going, buybacks climbed to 33.3 percent from last year’s 24.6 percent.