Without a New York sale, statebreds head to Kentucky

Fasig-Tipton’s annual New York-bred yearling auction, held during the summer meeting at Saratoga Race Course, has steadily grown beyond a solid sale for a regional program into a national showcase. After back-to-back record renewals in 2017 and 2018, the sale did post slight declines in average and median from those high-water marks in 2019. However, there was still plenty of electricity in the sale pavilion, as Larry Best went to $775,000 for a Malibu Moon filly, establishing a record price for the auction for the fourth straight year.

But Fasig-Tipton’s Humphrey S. Finney Sale Pavilion in Saratoga was quiet this August – not for a lack of interest in the New York-bred program, but because the coronavirus pandemic forced Fasig-Tipton to reimagine its sales calendar. With three summer sales in New York and Kentucky scrapped for one year, Fasig-Tipton has created the selected yearlings showcase on Sept. 9-10. New York-breds who might otherwise have been featured at the selected statebred sale will thus compete against “open company” in the Kentucky sales rings at Fasig-Tipton and at Keeneland September.

However, New York-breds have continued to take on all comers on the racetrack at the time the program might need it most. Fasig-Tipton graduate Tiz the Law, already the winner of the Belmont Stakes in June and Runhappy Travers in August, is the favorite for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby as he attempts to become the second New York-bred winner of the classic. Fellow statebred Ny Traffic also is expected for the race.

The 177 New York-breds cataloged for Fasig-Tipton’s September sale include a half-brother to Tiz the Law, by New York stallion Mission Impazible. There are then 138 New York-breds cataloged at Keeneland September.

“I think everyone would tell you that we would love to be in Saratoga selling New York-breds, but obviously, that’s not possible this year,” said Conrad Bandoroff, vice president of Denali Stud, which sold a yearling colt for $500,000 at the New York-bred sale last year and has statebreds consigned at both September yearling sales this year. “But we know Fasig-Tipton is going to go to great lengths to make sure the New York trainers are well accommodated and can get to Kentucky to inspect what is going to be the top echelon of the New York-breds, and I would expect that those horses should be well received. The fact that they’re selling in Kentucky, I don’t think that’s going to hurt them. People were going to be coming to Kentucky for the sales anyway. While we wish we were selling them at the Fasig-Tipton paddocks in New York, we just have to adjust.”

Tiz the Law was bred in New York by Randy Gullatt and Steve Davison’s Twin Creeks Farm and is from the first crop of Kentucky stallion Constitution, whom Twin Creeks campaigned in partnership with WinStar Farm. Twin Creeks sold Tiz the Law via Sequel New York, as agent, for $110,000 to Sackatoga Stable at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred yearling sale. For that partnership, he won last year’s Champagne Stakes, and this year’s Holy Bull, Florida Derby, Belmont, and Travers Stakes.

Meanwhile, Twin Creeks has continued to make significant investments in New York breeding. The operation’s multiple stud interests include two stallions it stands at Sequel in New York – multiple Grade 2-winning millionaire Mission Impazible, who has become one of the state’s leading young sires, and classic-placed Destin, whose first foals are arriving now.

“New York has an outstanding program for breeder awards and stallion awards,” Gullatt said. “We raced Mission Impazible, and we were looking for a regional market to fit him. We wanted to breed our mares to him and support him, and the New York program made a ton of sense. We planned on racing quite a few of those progeny, and we’ve been doing that now for several years.”

Mission Impazible has rewarded Twin Creeks and his other supporters by finishing as New York’s leading freshman sire of 2016, leading 2-year-old sire and second-crop sire of 2017, and leading third-crop sire of 2018. He was a solid fifth on last year’s general sire list in the state and is currently fifth on the list by 2020 earnings through Aug. 20. The son of Unbridled’s Song will now get the chance to be showcased nationally, as he is the sire of Tiz the Law’s half-brother, to be consigned by Sequel at Fasig-Tipton in Kentucky. Both colts are out of the Grade 2-winning Tiznow mare Tizfiz.

Mission Impazible is among the New York stallions who will be featured before a national or international marketplace in Kentucky, along with Sequel’s Freud, New York’s perennial leading sire of the last decade. Other New York stallions represented between the two September sales include Alpha, Big Brown, Central Banker, Laoban, Majestic City, Union Jackson, and War Dancer.

While Tiz the Law’s sibling by a New York sire will star at Fasig-Tipton, the Keeneland September yearling sale features standout yearlings from another of the state’s perennial leading breeding programs. Chester and Mary Broman, who have pared down some of their Thoroughbred interests in recent years, will offer a Tapit colt out of their Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Bar of Gold; a full brother to Bar of Gold, by Medaglia d’Oro; and a filly from the first crop of Arrogate out of their Grade 1 winner Artemis Agrotera. All are consigned by Sequel, as agent.