New York-bred yearling sale Saturday, Sunday

The lights have barely dimmed in Fasig-Tipton’s Humphrey S. Finney Sales Pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., but the sale company is rolling right along. Just four days after playing host to a very strong edition of the Saratoga select yearling sale, Fasig-Tipton will conduct its annual New York-bred yearling sale Saturday and Sunday, with sessions beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern.

The New York-bred program has been on the rise in recent years, led by runners such as champion turf female Dayatthespa and the 3-year-olds Upstart, International Star, and Tencendur, who were major players on this year’s Kentucky Derby trail. With statebreds a hot commodity, supply and demand are in play at the Fasig-Tipton sale, where 284 yearlings are cataloged before outs – a 10 percent reduction from a 2014 renewal that saw improved average and median prices, led by a sale-topping $270,000 Lookin At Lucky filly sold to Whisper Hill Farm.

“I think we’ve seen a great pattern emerge in the New York-bred sale in recent years,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said. “The quality continues to improve in terms of the physicals of the horses that are in the sale. The pedigrees continue to improve. You continue to see New York-breds win and compete at the highest levels, not confined to New York stakes. They’re winning at all levels, including a Breeders’ Cup winner last year, a New York-bred sale graduate in Dayatthespa. You continue to see increased confidence and increased desire of owners and trainers to have New York-breds in their barn, and that bodes well for an outstanding yearling sale this year.”

Fittingly, the first horse cataloged to go through the ring in this year’s renewal is a Majestic Warrior filly who is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Upstart.

First-crop sires represented at this sale include promising young Kentucky stallions such as Bodemeister and classic winners Union Rags and Shackleford – but also a handful of young sires who have gotten their starts in New York, such as Boys At Tosconova, Mission Impazible, Smart Bid, and Soaring Empire.

– additional reporting by Joe Nevills