SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The first time trainer Wesley Ward's life intersected with Roger King's, about 15 years ago in Miami, it resulted in perhaps the fastest pinhooking success on record.
Ward had just bought a colt at Fasig-Tipton's Calder juvenile sale, a colt that King had made a bid on. When they ran into Ward after the auction, King's trainer, Sonny Hine, kidded the famously competitive owner about losing the colt.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The success of Monday's Del Mar yearling sale hinges on consignments such as the 10 horses offered by Tommy Town Thoroughbreds.
Owned by Tom and Debra Stull, Tommy Town Thoroughbreds of Santa Ynez, Calif., will have four fillies and six colts in Monday evening's sale. If the market is strong for buyers, few, if any, of the Tommy Town horses will be returning to their central California farm. If the market is weak, some could race next year in the Stulls' black and gray colors.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - After a decline in last year's sale of New York-breds at Saratoga, Fasig-Tipton scaled back slightly in the number of yearlings and was more selective in the process of picking horses for its two-day sale that begins Sunday.
"We probably grew a little bit too quickly in the size of the catalog from 2002 to 2003," said Boyd T. Browning Jr., Fasig-Tipton's executive vice president and chief operating officer. "We probably increased almost 25 percent in the number of horses."
The Florida yearling market opens on Monday, Aug. 23, for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's selected session, with 242 cataloged. The open sessions, August 24-26, have 972 cataloged. There's an 11 a.m. starting time for all four days of sales.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Bertram Linder, 88, can almost always be found in an aisle seat near the back of Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga sale pavilion, to the right of the auctioneer as he looks out from his stand. And there is good reason to find Linder, whose five decades at the Saratoga auction have given him a deep stock of stories to tell about horses and horse people. The 2004 sale marked Linder's 50th year, and he has seen plenty of changes in the yearling market since he first arrived and showed a horse to trainer Max Hirsch.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Roses in May won the Whitney Stakes at Saratoga, he became the first Grade 1 winner for his sire, Devil His Due. Before this weekend, the reflected glory of Grade 1 success had eluded Devil His Due since his retirement. A winner of 11 races and more than $3.9 million, Devil His Due was a Grade 1 specialist as a racer, winning five and running in the money in 11 other Grade 1 stakes.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga selected yearling sale ended on an upbeat note Thursday night with three horses reaching or breaking the $1 million mark. But the three-day auction market was surprisingly conservative overall, and the sale closed with decreases across the board.
The men of the night were Roger King of King World Productions and his trainer Wesley Ward, who walked out with the session's most expensive lot, a $1.4 million Storm Cat filly out of champion Jewel Princess.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Wednesday night found Roger King in a familiar position: standing in the doorway to Fasig-Tipton's bidding ring, cigarette in his mouth, trying to decide whether to bid again.
A Fasig-Tipton attendant was holding the door open for King, and so was auctioneer Walt Robertson. The price board showed $1.85 million, and inside the pavilion, the man who had made that last $50,000 bid sat bolt upright, hoping, frankly, that King would call it a night and head for the bar, or anywhere except back in the bidding ring.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A $1.85 million colt by young sire Giant's Causeway provided a dramatic climax for day two of Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga yearling sale Wednesday night in Saratoga Springs.
Team Valor's Barry Irwin outdueled Sunland Park owner Stan Fulton and Roger King, the flamboyant owner of King World Productions, for the colt, who is a three-quarters brother to Grade 2 winner Keats and a half-brother to Grade 3-placed Grand Score.
Medaglia d'Oro will have a $35,000 fee when he stands his first season in 2005 at Hill 'n' Dale Farm in Lexington, Ky.
A 5-year-old son of El Prado, Medaglia d'Oro retired earlier this year with three Grade 1 victories to his credit, in the 2002 Travers, 2003 Whitney, and 2004 Donn. He also finished second in five other Grade 1 events, most notably the 2002 Belmont and the 2002 and 2003 Breeders' Cup Classics. He retired with a lifetime record of 17-8-7-0 and $4,554,720 in winnings.