Buyers flock to upstate New York for the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale

A sense of optimistic anticipation has pervaded the grounds in the days leading up to the two-session Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, with buyers, consignors and organisers sharing the view that action could be robust at America's most productive auction by percentage of Graded stakes winners sold.

"We're very pleased as we head into the sale," said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning jnr. "It's a really good group of horses on the grounds and we've got a lot of positive feedback from prospective buyers who've been looking.

"Expectations are high - we think we'll have a really good sale. And our graduates continue to run very well, so we're very positive."

The catalogue for Monday and Tuesday's sale is slightly smaller than it was in 2018, when the Saratoga venue smashed records for turnover as 170 horses were sold for $62,794,000.

This year 223 horses were originally entered, compared to 255 in 2018; up to Saturday, 25 yearlings had been withdrawn, leaving 198 set to step through the auction ring.

Fasig-Tipton officials assert that quality has more than made up for the minor shift in quantity, and there are plenty of yearlings by America's top sires, including 14 by the red-hot Into Mischief still available to be sold, as well as 11 by Curlin, nine by Quality Road and Uncle Mo, eight by American Pharoah, seven by Medaglia D'Oro and six by Tapit.

Boyd Browning jnr: 'Expectations are high - we think we'll have a really good horse sale'Credit: Fasig-Tipton Photos

Not far from Browning's office in the heart of the sale complex, Taylor Made Sales Agency's Mark Taylor noted the buzzing activity all around him, as buyers and yearlings swirled outside the agency's Barns 7A-B in one of the most upbeat indicators for the auction.

"I feel good about this sale," Taylor said, noting that the upscale nature of the Saratoga environment, with its high-quality race meeting and resort ambiance catering to the affluent - as well as the select standards of the catalogue - set this auction apart from other American yearling sales.

"Saratoga is a little different because you get really good-looking horses that also have enough pedigree to be here and you attract a different group of buyers that are more insulated from the ups and downs of which way the wind is blowing in the horse business," said Taylor. "They are in it for the long haul, to win big races, and this is a sale they can't miss."

With 37 yearlings in the catalogue, Taylor Made is the top consignor by offerings this year, as is typical, although there is an unusual commodity within that group.

Hip 210 is a bay colt by Galileo that Taylor Made acquired with clients as a pinhooking prospect from the Goffs November Foal Sale for €170,000. Bred by Coolmore from the Dixie Union mare Dixieland Kiss, the colt is a half-brother to multiple Group winner and Group 1-placed Besharah.

"We've never taken a Galileo up here to Saratoga - basically, we bought him for our pinhooking partnership and then another couple of investors went in from Ireland," Taylor said of the colt, who was listed as sold at Goffs to Glenvale Stud.

"He's a nice horse. The only thing is, and maybe it's why we got him at that price, is that he's big. He's got a beautiful walk; he's a big strong horse and he might run on dirt."

Taylor, noting that European buyers in general do not seem to share Americans' enthusiasm for larger individuals, continued: "The Galileo colt is an experiment, and when you do an experiment you don't know what the outcome is going to be.

"But the one thing we've learned about Saratoga is that if you bring a horse that moves well and is what you consider to be in the top 20 per cent of 'physicals' of what that sire is going to produce, it usually works.

"This horse just moves as well as any horse I've seen all year. He's a big, strong colt and I think he'll appeal to American buyers as well as global buyers."

Among shoppers making inspections over the weekend before the sale was Anthony Stroud, a key member of the team advising on Godolphin purchases.

"The horses I've seen so far have all looked pretty good," said Stroud, while predicting that bidding could be competitive with the high number of individuals that seem to have excellent physical attributes. As to Godolphin's possible buying activity, Stroud said that remains to be determined.

"We'll just see what the horses are like and talk to the boss and go from there," he said. "Obviously, when you go through the catalogue, there are not that many horses who are attractive for Europe; there is a more American bent to this sale, that's how I would read it."

With its boutique-style catalogue, the Saratoga sale has typically been a more American-oriented marketplace, although there are plenty of examples of graduates that have performed well internationally. For instance, Stroud bought Blue Bunting, a daughter of Dynaformer who would go on to win the 1,000 Guineas, Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks, for $200,000 at the 2009 Saratoga Select Sale.

Over the years, the Saratoga Sale has become an auction that has drawn a notable share of high-profile pinhooks.

In addition to Taylor Made's Galileo colt, this year's catalogue features a Medaglia D'Oro colt out of a Mineshaft half-sister to Medaglia D'Oro's champion daughter Songbird. The colt was acquired for $470,000 at last year's Keeneland November Sale for a Gainesway Farm-affiliated pinhooking group.

Bred by Team Valor International in Kentucky, the colt is consigned by Gainesway as Hip 157 and he follows the 2018 pinhooking score of Gainseway with an American Pharoah filly out of multiple Grade 1 winner Life At Ten. Purchased as a weanling for $500,000, the filly was resold at Saratoga for $1.2 million to Larry Best's Oxo Equine; she has been named Orsay.

Gainesway's Brian Graves selects most of the farm's pinhooking prospects and said, in general, "you follow your gut" with purchases.

"I think he's one of the nicest horses that we'll sell this year," Graves said of the Medaglia D'Oro colt. "I was attracted to him just because he was a 'wow' physically. His walk is just kind of an elite walk – he just shows how athletic he is through his stride. And he has a stallion's pedigree.

"The average Medaglia D'Oro (yearling) colt last year brought $650,000, and, the way I see it, he's way above average. So I could make sense of it [the economic gamble].

"At the end of the day I try to buy horses that I would want to own myself. I've been fortunate with some of my pinhooks and that has given me confidence over the years. We've had ten to 20 Graded stakes winners and four Grade 1 winners."

More on the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Sale:

China Horse Club gearing up to sell three yearlings at Saratoga

Warrendale hoping history repeats itself at Saratoga

Read the Racing Post's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale supplement