Fasig-Tipton yearling sale: Arcangelo, Up to the Mark first crops hit auction block for Lane's End
:quality(75))
It was three years ago that Arcangelo locked up his Eclipse Award at Saratoga Race Course. After winning the 2023 Belmont Stakes over the previous year’s champion juvenile, Forte, he again defeated Forte as well as that year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Mage, and Preakness Stakes winner National Treasure in a key showdown in the Travers Stakes.
Arcangelo’s story weaves back through Saratoga in his second career, as yearlings from his first crop will be on offer at the boutique Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale, a key place for a young stallion to make a statement, in addition to the company’s New York-bred yearling sale the following week.
“I think you’ll find that the physicals that he’s throwing are kind of elevating what the mares can [typically] produce,” said Allaire Ryan, sales director for Lane’s End, where Arcangelo stands in Kentucky. “He gets good-sized yearlings with leg and scope, very smooth-bodied. They look like they’ll be classic-distance [runners] like him.”
Arcangelo was conditioned by Jena Antonucci, the first woman to train a Triple Crown race winner, for Blue Rose Farm. He won 4 of 6 career starts, including the Grade 3 Peter Pan. An ill-timed foot issue forced him to scratch from the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic, leaving the Travers as the exclamation point on his career.
Arcangelo is from one of just three crops sired by Arrogate, the Hall of Fame racehorse who won the 2016 Travers Stakes in his breakout performance and the first of four straight Grade 1 wins. Arrogate, who died in 2020, had 2022 Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath in his first crop, 2023 Belmont winner and champion Arcangelo in his second crop, and 2024 Preakness winner Seize the Grey in his third crop, a stellar strike rate that made his loss profound.
Arcangelo and Seize the Grey, whose first foals arrived this year, are Arrogate’s only Grade 1-winning sons at stud. Cave Rock developed fatal laminitis following abdominal surgery.
“It’s a unique opportunity,” Ryan said. “You hate to see a stallion gone too soon, but you’re equally encouraged to see what a son of his can produce.”
Arcangelo, who debuted for an advertised fee of $35,000 at Lane’s End in 2024, had 23 weanlings sell at public auction last year for an average price of $78,174. He had two yearlings go through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton July yearling sale in Kentucky, the kickoff to the formal season. One of those met the reserve, selling for $75,000.
Lane’s End has another big gun in this class from an in-demand sireline in Up to the Mark, and he has already shown some solid numbers commercially. The 2023 Eclipse Award champion turf male, Up to the Mark is by Not This Time, who has sired champions on both dirt and turf.
Up to the Mark never finished off the board on turf, with championship season wins in the Turf Classic at 1 1/8 miles at Churchill Downs, the Manhattan at 1 1/4 miles at Belmont Park, and the Turf Mile at Keeneland. His multiple Grade 1 placings that season include a runner-up effort at 1 1/2 miles in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, where he was beaten less than a length by Auguste Rodin.
Up to the Mark was represented by nine weanlings who sold for an average of $182,444 last year – more than seven times his introductory fee of $25,000. Of his three yearlings through the ring at the July sale, two sold – for $200,000 and $120,000.
“We’re equally as thrilled with the physicals that we’ve gotten from Up to the Mark,” Ryan said. “We had weanlings sell for $400,000 and $425,000 last year. He bred more mares this year than he did his first two years. That’s the market’s response to what they’ve seen at the sales. And, of course, the influence of Not This Time is impressive.”
Arcangelo and Up to the Mark are among several Eclipse Award champions who will be represented at the Saratoga yearling sales, along with 2023 Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish (Darley), 2022 and 2023 champion sprinter Elite Power (Juddmonte), and 2022 champion juvenile Forte (Spendthrift Farm).
Forte was among the first-crop sires who broke into the top dozen prices at the Fasig-Tipton July sale, with yearlings selling for $250,000 or more. Leading the group was Grade 1 winner and Spendthrift Farm stablemate Taiba, with a $300,000 colt purchased by Phil Hager in the name of Taproot Bloodstock.
“I love [Taiba’s] sire. We’ve had a lot of luck with Gun Runner, so I guess we’ll go back to the well there,” Hager said. “I liked Taiba. He was a good yearling, a good 2-year-old, a good racehorse, everything.”
A Forte filly sold for $280,000 to Offshoot Farm, while another Grade 1-winning young gun at Spendthrift, Arabian Lion, had a $270,000 filly purchased by Chris Baccari and Kenny McPeek. A colt by Kentucky Derby winner Mage was purchased for $270,000 by Tom McCrocklin from the consignment of Airdrie Stud, which stands the classic winner.
The hard-knocking sprinter Gunite, like Taiba, is by Gun Runner. Gunite had a pair of yearlings sell for $250,000 at the July sale to tie for the 10th-highest price – a colt to Scanlon Training and Sales and a filly to St. Elias.
Gunite’s story also runs through Saratoga. The eight-time stakes winner, who was on the board in 19 of 21 career starts, got both of his Grade 1 wins, the 2021 Hopeful and 2023 Forego, at the Spa.
“Steve Asmussen always said that Gunite was a horse that was a throwback,” said Adrian Mansergh Wallace, part of the nominations and sales division at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, which stands Gunite. “He was a horse that not only was able to win the Hopeful Stakes at 2, but he [trained on], facing elite company with horses like Elite Power. He truly is a horse that was the very best of the Thoroughbred.”