Off strong sale, Flatter has strong trio

Flatter was a hit at the first major-market yearling sale of the season in North America, as he topped the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale with a $520,000 colt. The season now moves on to Saratoga – where Flatter’s son West Coast rose toward the 3-year-old championship with a Travers Stakes victory last year – and the stallion is ready.

The Fasig July sale-topper, purchased by Al Rashid Stable, is from the family of Grade 1 winners To Honor and Serve and Angela Renee. Bobby Spalding, the manager of breeder Summer Wind Farm, said the early-maturing colt was targeted for the July sale based in part on advice from the late Bill Graves, who inspected yearlings for Fasig-Tipton for years and who died at the end of May.

“I want to give Bill Graves credit,” Spalding said at the sale. “The first time he saw this horse, he said we had to sell this horse in July. That’s why he is here. This is the first time we’ve sold at this sale, and he was the only one in it. This is a good sale for a mature horse, and he was a very clean-vetting horse, which is important.”

The Fasig-Tipton team wound up with three yearlings by Claiborne Farm’s Flatter for the Saratoga selected sale, led by a colt out of stakes winner and Canadian Broodmare of the Year Victorious Ami, dam of Canadian champion Ami’s Mesa and fellow graded stakes winner Ami’s Holiday.

Flatter’s other representatives are a half-brother to Illinois Derby winner Recapturetheglory, as well as to the dam of Canadian champion Are You Kidding Me; and a filly from the family of Saratoga legend Fourstardave, as well as European classic winner Fourstars Allstar.