A spate of six-figure yearlings gave Fasig-Tipton a boost to the bottom line on Saturday and Sunday at the company's New York-bred preferred yearling sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
A $230,000 colt by first-crop sire Hook and Ladder led a parade of 12 yearlings selling for $100,000 or more. They pushed the average price up 11 percent to a sale-record $52,421, the first time the auction average has risen above $50,000.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The top-selling lot at the Saratoga select yearling auction that concluded on Wednesday was a bay filly marked as Hip No. 146. The filly's sale for $1.6 million was a major success for her sire, Empire Maker, whose first foals are yearlings, and for breeder Diane Snowden, who bred the Saratoga sales leader from her stakes-winning broodmare Sluice, who had been a seven-figure sales yearling herself.
The results at Saratoga were wholly encouraging for the Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker, a top-class son of Unbridled.
The figures for gross receipts and average for New York-breds at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale declined substantially when compared with results for the same sale in 2005.
The 86th annual edition of the sale was conducted Aug. 8-9 at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Eleven registered New York-breds grossed $2,270,000, for an average of $206,364, for respective declines of 31 percent and 37.5 percent. At the 2005 sale, 10 statebreds grossed $3.3 million, for an average of $330,000.
Minshall Farms, the top-class racing and breeding operation founded by the late Aubrey Minshall in Ontario more than 30 years ago, will have a much different look in years to come.
While the popular brown and tan silks will still be seen at Woodbine, the players have changed, as Minshall's sons Shawn and Patrick have dissolved their partnership.
"Minshall Farms as we know it is no longer," said Barbara Minshall, Aubrey's widow, who has trained the horses for the family since 1995. Shawn and Patrick Minshall are from a previous marriage of Aubrey Minshall's.
Two Sophisticated proved she fit right in with the Saratoga crowd when she appeared in the sales ring on opening night of Fasig-Tipton's sale of selected yearlings. A flashy chestnut Two Punch filly, she was sold to Jess Jackson's Stonestreet Stable LLC for $360,000, the top price among the eight Maryland-breds offered at this year's sale, held on Aug. 8-9 at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion.
Satish and Anne Sanan's Padua Stables is scarcely 9 years old, but its mark on Florida breeding is already indelible. This past week the Padua sire Exchange Rate, a Grade 2 stakes-winning son of Danzig, was well represented on both coasts. At Saratoga, Swap Fliparoo won the Grade 1 Test Stakes to become the first graded stakes winner for Exchange Rate, and hours later Exchange Rate's 2-year-old filly Outofthepast finished second in the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar.
Organizers are predicting higher average prices at Tuesday's third annual northern California yearling sale in Pleasanton.
The 2005 sale showed modest growth compared to the inaugural sale in 2004, with 164 yearlings selling for an average of $7,582, a gain of 10 percent. The sale had a record gross of $1,243,500 last year. The sale topper was a Bertrando colt who sold for $50,000, and six yearlings sold for $30,000 or more.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The battle of Saratoga - the Saratoga sale, that is - pitted a newcomer against a longtime player. And this time, relatively new buyer Ahmed Zayat outbid market stalwart Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum and took home the top-priced lot, a $1.6 million Empire Maker-Sluice filly.
