Stonestreet, Coolmore partner up

The nascent partnership between Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Farm and the Magnier family’s international Coolmore operation continued to make waves at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale, striking for the boutique auction’s second- and third-highest-priced horses.

The two stables teamed up to purchase a Tapit colt who is a brother to Grade 2-placed Royal Obsession for $1.25 million and landed a Pioneerof the Nile colt, a half-brother to Grade 3 winner Ocean Knight, for $950,000.

Banke, who has cultivated a wide range of partnerships to purchase expensive colts, campaigns both Royal Obsession and Ocean Knight. She recorded her first seven-figure partnership with Coolmore earlier this year, purchasing a $1 million Uncle Mo colt at the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale of selected 2-year-olds in training.

Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said that partnerships, which lessen risk for buyers, helped contribute to the moderate declines in the market, as they result in less bidding competition for top colts.

“I think there is a little less competition at the top of the market, and you continue to see a trend toward merging and developing partnerships among the top buyers, which doesn’t result in as spirited a bidding competition as we want to experience in expensive colts,” Browning said.