A racing success at Saratoga, Yaupon has 18 yearlings cataloged in two sales

Yaupon was unbeaten at Saratoga and earned the biggest victory of his career there. The young stallion, off a solid reception for his first yearlings through the auction ring, looks to continue his local success with a good group headed for the sales stage.

Grade 1 winner Yaupon, who stands at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., had seven yearlings chosen for the boutique Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale on Aug. 5-6, the second most of any first-crop sire. He will follow that up with 11 in the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale on Aug. 11-12.

Yaupon, who was trained by Steve Asmussen for Bill and Corrine Heiligbrodt, won 6 of 8 career races, including all three of his outings at Saratoga. He won his first four starts, including the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga and the Grade 3 Chick Lang Stakes at Pimlico. The following year, he won the Lite the Fuse Stakes at Pimlico and then returned to Saratoga for his biggest score, gamely and memorably winning the Grade 1 Forego Stakes despite Grade 1 winner Firenze Fire trying to savage him in deep stretch. Behind those two came four other Grade 1 winners in a deep field.

Yaupon covered 242 mares in his first season at Spendthrift, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. That group included Eclipse Award champion and prominent broodmare Folklore; Canadian classic winner and champion Holy Helena; and Grade 1 winners Belle Gallantey, Downthedustyroad, and Got Stormy.

Yaupon’s first crop of weanlings last year averaged $130,889 – against an introductory stud fee of $30,000 – from 36 sold at public auction. This year, his average is officially $140,091 for 22 yearlings sold entering the month of August. However, that figure must be taken in context, as only one true yearling sale has been held thus far – the Fasig-Tipton July sale in Kentucky. Yearling averages at this point include short yearlings – or long weanlings – sold at the mixed sales in January and February.

At the Fasig-Tipton July sale, Yaupon made a strong impression, with a $285,000 colt and a $275,000 filly occupying the first two places on the first-crop leaderboard. He finished the single-session sale with 11 yearlings sold for an average of $162,909.

Yaupon is by Uncle Mo, who started the theme of Saratoga success for this sire line, dazzling in his debut locally to kick off a 2-year-old championship campaign. Now a prominent classic sire, Uncle Mo also has emerged as a potentially strong sire of sires. His son Nyquist followed in his footsteps as a champion juvenile and then a leading freshman sire and is currently in the top 20 general sires nationally. Uncle Mo’s sons Laoban and Outwork have both sired Grade 1 winners, and Caracaro is a promising freshman this year.

At the Fasig-Tipton July sale, noted horsewoman April Mayberry made just one purchase in the name of Mayberry Farm, going to $400,000 for an Uncle Mo colt who finished as one of the day’s top three prices. Mayberry spoke highly of Uncle Mo’s progeny – calling them “very smart” and well minded on top of their ability – and said she sees much of the sire in Yaupon.

“We liked the Yaupons quite a bit,” Mayberry said. “In fact, we had a couple that we were interested in, but for various reasons, they didn’t work out. I think he was very typical of his sire. I like when you can see the sire in them.”

Uncle Mo has nine sons who were advertised as entering stud in 2022. Of those, two others are represented at the Saratoga yearling sales – graded stakes winner Modernist, who stands at Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky, and multiple stakes winner Galilean, who stands at Hidden Lake Farm in New York.

This first-crop sire class has a pair of Eclipse Award champions in 2021 Horse of the Year Knicks Go (Taylor Made Farm) and two-time divisional champion Essential Quality (Darley). Knicks Go, who is, interestingly, only represented by New York-breds at the August sales, won the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and 2021 Breeders’ Cup Classic. He also was a Grade 1 winner at Saratoga during his championship campaign, taking the Whitney.

Essential Quality, a 2020 Breeders’ Cup winner of the Juvenile, earned a second championship by winning the Belmont Stakes, followed by the Travers in Saratoga. He has five yearlings who were chosen for the boutique selected catalog.

Additional Grade 1 winners represented by first-crop yearlings at the two Fasig-Tipton sales in Saratoga are Basin (Spendthrift), Charlatan (Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm), the late Code of Honor (Lane’s End Farm), the late Combatant (Rockridge Stud), Known Agenda (Spendthrift), Maxfield (Darley), Raging Bull (Gainesway), Rock Your World (Spendthrift), and Silver State (Claiborne Farm).

Charlatan leads his class with the most yearlings in the selected catalog, with 10.

“A fabulous group,” Fasig-Tipton president and CEO Boyd Browning Jr. said.