A Bernardini filly turned in the fastest furlong work during the under-tack preview show for the inaugural Fasig-Tipton Santa Anita 2-year-olds in training sale on Monday at the racetrack.
The rapidly changing auction market in California begins anew on Wednesday when Kentucky-based Fasig Tipton conducts a 2-year-old in-training sale at Santa Anita.
Carlo Vaccarezza said earlier this year that he would disband his training stable but would still be involved in the Thoroughbred industry. “I've just got too many other things going,” Vaccarezza told Daily Racing Form in March. “It's taking a toll on me. I'll still be around racing, just in different ways. I love horses too much to get out completely.”
New York native Mike Repole has made no secret that his greatest ambition in racing is to win Long Island's biggest race, the Belmont Stakes. Repole Stable has sent out four horses as a solo owner in the oldest and longest leg of the Triple Crown, with Stay Thirsty finishing second in 2011. Last year, he ran two horses in partnership, with Repole Stable and St. Elias's Vino Rosso finishing fourth behind the unbeaten Justify.
Spendthrift Farm stands leading juvenile sire Into Mischief, who recorded two of the top three prices at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic juvenile sale in Maryland this week, and stands Cross Traffic and Goldencents, one-two on last year's freshman sire list. The farm has seven members of this year's strong freshman sire class, and it was time for one of those, Palace, to step up at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic. The stallion was represented by a filly sold for $570,000 to Speedway Stable to rank as the top price recorded by a freshman sire at the sale.
A sale-record $1.8 million Into Mischief filly helped the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale finish with record gross and average figures as it continues to surge in importance in the juvenile market.
A Street Sense colt sold for $500,000 to pace a solid opening session of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale, which finished with gains in average and median and set the table for what is expected to be a strong closing session.
Annually in May, the market comes to Maryland as a sense of urgency begins to be felt from the juvenile sales set. Only a pair of major-market 2-year-old sales remain after the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic auction - those being Fasig-Tipton's new Santa Anita sale in early June and the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s final auction of the season later that month. As the calendar winds down, owners and consignors begin feeling the pressure to move horses, and buyers have limited remaining opportunities to stock their stables.
The pre-sale under-tack show for the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training concluded Thursday with a crowded leaderboard.
A few days after winning the Kentucky Oaks with Keeneland September graduate Serengeti Empress, owner Joel Politi reported he was “going to stay floating for a while.” That lightness of being in the Oaks winner’s circle at Churchill Downs was possible only after pounding the pavement throughout the Keeneland September yearling sale.
