Mixed reaction to Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga mixed sale

Closing Move, a 3-year-old Bernardini filly from Darley’s racing stable, brought $100,000 on Tuesday at Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga mixed and racing-age sale, where she was the most expensive horse at a new auction many consignors welcomed, despite a 41 percent buyback rate.

The one-day sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., sold 119 horses for $1,933,600, resulting in an average price of $16,249 and a $12,000 median.

Fasig-Tipton vice president of sales Bayne Welker said that, as of now, the auction house plans to hold the sale again next year.

“We planted the seed,” Welker said, “and we’re going to continue to grow it and grow with the New York program as the New York program continues to expand.”

Tom Voss bought sale-topper Closing Move, a Darley homebred. The bay filly is out of the Storm Cat mare Show Me the Roses, a three-quarter-sister to former juvenile champion and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Johannesburg. Closing Move’s best performances so far were a pair of seconds in maiden special weights in November 2011 and February 2012. Her 4-year-old full brother, Opening Move, has earned more than $80,000 to date.

“We went in there with tempered expectations, knowing it was the first sale and not exactly knowing what to expect,” Welker said. “After getting up there and assessing the stock, we were pleased with the weanlings that came in, especially in a mixed sale that early in the year. The weanlings were prepared and developed further than we expected them to be, and I think they were received as such.”

A pair of weanlings from Munnings’s first crop were the auction’s top weanlings. Bernard Stables paid $67,000 for the Munnings daughter of That’s Ok, a full sister to Spinaway runner-up Forever Partners. A Munnings colt out of Nice Kitty Kitty, by Forest Wildcat, fetched a $57,000 bid from buyer Mill Creek Farm, agent. He is a half-brother to Canadian winner Pure Blue.

“I thought it was decent for weanlings, for a start,” said Dan Hayden, general manager of Vinery’s New York division, which consigned both weanlings. “If you brought the right kind of weanling up there, there was competitive bidding for them. You needed a forward type. There wasn’t a huge mare market, but, overall, I thought it was encouraging.”

Only two of the top 15 prices were for mares. The top-priced broodmare was $55,000 Song of Broadway, a 5-year-old Tiznow mare carrying a May foal by Freud. The three-time winner is out of stakes winner Morning Sun, by Dehere, and sold to Anthony Muiccio. Darby Dan Farm, agent, was the consignor.

“There seemed to be no market for broodmares,” said Jerry Bilinski of Waldorf Farm, a consignor. “I was disappointed. With the New York program in full swing now, I thought there would be more of a bump in the sales arena for New York-breds.”