SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--The opening night of the Saratoga Selected Yearling Sale, Monday, Aug. 7, featured spirited bidding from numerous different buyers and ended with numbers on par with last year’s record-breaking renewal.
Quality Road colt sells for 1.1 million (Photo by Fasig Tipton)This was the 102nd renewal of the Saratoga Sale at the Humprey S. Finney Pavilion.and two yearlings sold for over $1 million.
Elliott/McElroy, agent for Amo Racing, paid $1,100,000 to buy the session topper, a colt by Quality Road (Hip 77) from the consignment of Gainesway, agent for Stonestreet, which bred and raised the colt.
By the sire of this year’s Preakness S. (G1) winning Saratoga Sale graduate National Treasure, Hip 77 is out of the graded stakes winning Henny Hughes mare I’m a Looker.
The bay colt is from the immediate family of Eclipse Champion Lakeville Miss and G1 winners Dortmund and Mogambo.
“It was a tremendous start to the 2023 Saratoga yearling sale,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. “The numbers are essentially on par with last year’s opening session, which was a remarkable, even historic evening.”
“There was a great diversity of buyers,a very, very good mix of buyers tonight and a very good mix of bidders,” Browning said. "They
bid $30 million tonight and that money was really spread across the board among a whole lot of horses. That’s really good for this marketplace, for breeding stock sales and so forth."
“WE'RE EXCITED," said Browning. "Any time you start off at Saratoga you always have a little trepidation. There’s a little bit of anxiety to say, ‘are we going to be able to sustain the market? Are we going to be able to improve on an unbelievable year in 2022, which had massive increases over 2021. So a sense of relief tonight.”
The session’s top filly was a daughter of Curlin (Hip 87) sold for $1,050,000 to David Lanigan, agent for Cindy Heider (Heider Family Stables), from the consignment of Denali Stud, agent.
The chestnut filly is the first foal out of the graded stakes winning Justin Phillip mare Lady T N T and was bred in Kentucky by Scott and Evan Dilworth.
Locally, the Jackson's Lael Stable of West Grove, Pa., bought a filly by McKinzie out of Harlan's Honor for $450,000, and Northview Stallion Station of Chesapeake City, Md., sold a colt by Tiz the Law out of Life Starts for $100,000 to R T Racing Stable.
The top five sellers at the Monday evening session were:
Hip 118, a Constitution filly sold for $900,000 to Mick Wallace for Rocket Ship Racing/Ghandarvi from the consignment of Hunter Valley Farm, agent.
The dark bay or brown filly is a half-sister to three winners out of the Borrego mare Nina Fever, including Frizette S. (G1) winner Nickname (Scat Daddy) and was bred in Kentucky by Newstead Corp.
Hip 56, a colt from the first crop of Authentic sold for $875,000 to Donato Lanni, agent for SF/Starlight/Madaket, from the consignment of Four Star Sales, agent for Spendthrift Farm.
The chestnut colt is out of the graded stakes placed Quality Road mare Golden Domer, from the immediate family of Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mine That Bird and G1 winners Bolo and Dullahan and was bred in Kentucky by Spendthrift Farm.
Hip 33, a Gun Runner filly sold for $850,000 to Lauren Carlisle, agent, from the consignment of Gainesway, agent.
The bay filly is a full sister to a winner in Scarlet Stripe, out of the G2 placed Divine Park mare Divine Dawn, herself a full sister to G2 winner Divine Miss Grey. and was bred in Kentucky by International Equities Holding, Inc.
Hip 103, a colt by Justify sold for $850,000 to West Bloodstock, agent for Robert and Lawana Low, from the consignment of Bluewater Sales, agent.
The chestnut colt is a half-brother to three winners out of the winning Stormy Atlantic mare Marketplace, including stakes winner Dreamer’s Disease (Laoban) and was bred in Kentucky by Cypress Creek Equine LLC.
Hip 106, an Into Mischief colt sold for $850,000 to BC Stables LLC from the consignment of Mulholland Springs, agent.
The bay colt is the first foal out of the G2 placed Malibu Moon mare Meal Ticket, from the immediate family of G1 winner Try Something New and was bred in Kentucky by Mulholland Springs LLC and Tom Grether Farms, Inc.
“I’m ecstatic with the first night,” added Browning. “I can’t wait to start selling again tomorrow. I feel confident it’ll be a strong second half tomorrow. We’ve got another really good group of horses.
To show the diversity of buyers, the top 11 yearlings went to 11 different buyers.
During the session, 74 yearlings sold for $30,785,000, a 6.4 percent increase over last year’s first-session gross when 69 sold for $28,930,000.
The average was $416,014, just below the comparable session average of $419,275 in 2022.
The median held steady at $350,000.
"It was very positive and very upbeat after the first night,” said Browning.
The Saratoga Sale resumes Tuesday, Aug. 8 at 6:30pm ET.
