- Fasig-Tipton Photo
Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Stables and George Bolton purchased the top-selling New York-bred of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale, going to $700,000 in Tuesday’s second session for a bay colt by Awesome Again out of the stakes producing Lord At War (Arg) mare Zambezi Belle (Hip 130). The colt was the third top-seller of the session and co-fifth highest-priced yearling overall.
Bred by Camelia J. Casby and foaled on February 18, 2013 at Hidden Lake Farm in Otisville, the colt has five winning siblings led by Zambezi Belle’s second foal Law Enforcement. Bred and campaigned by Casby and trained by Mark Hennig, Law Enforcement (Posse) won four New York-bred stakes and earned $458,638. Zambezi Belle’s filly Tough Market by Suave is a multiple winner and earner of over $100,000.
Bolton, Moynihan and Banke (Fasig-Tipton Photos)
Zambezi Belle’s offspring have found success in the sales ring before. At the 2011 Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale her Exchange Rate yearling colt Shimba was purchased by Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Plantation for $320,000 as the second top-selling lot of the sale.
John Moynihan, advisor to Stonestreet, explained the appeal of Hip 130. “He’s a really pretty horse. He’s a great, big strong horse, an Awesome Again. He looks like he’ll run far, and looks like he’ll be a Classic type horse.” (ThoroStride Visual Inspection).
Two other New York-breds surpassed the $300,000 mark at the select sale, both in the second session. A colt from the first crop of champion Uncle Mo (Hip 90) bred by Thomas Mina and foaled at Jeffrey Tucker’s Stone Bridge Farm in Gansevoort, was purchased by Ice Wine Stable and A. Duignan for $375,000. Consigned by Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck’s Summerfield Farm, the colt is out of stakes-placed Southern Charmer (Dixie Union), who is the daughter of a graded stakes winner and a half-sister to a stakes winner. Mina purchased half-sister to the dam of multiple graded stakes winner Frac Daddy (Scat Daddy) at the 2010 Keeneland November Sale for $130,000.
Sheikh Mohammed’s bloodstock adviser John Ferguson, the sale’s leading buyer, signed the ticket for Hip 126, a daughter of Kitten’s Joy who brought $350,000 as the top New York-bred filly in the sale. The dark bay/brown filly is out of Wild Chant (War Chant), who is a half-sister Untapable (Tapit), winner of the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks and Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes, and to Grade 1 winner Paddy O’Prado (El Prado {Ire}). The filly was bred by Gallagher’s stud where she was foaled last March 23 and consigned by Craig and Holly Bandoroff’s Denali Stud. Gallagher’s Stud purchased Wild Chant at the 2011 Keeneland November sale for $300,000.
The top-selling New York-bred of Monday’s opening session, a colt by the late Harlan’s Holiday, sold early in the evening as Hip 4 for $250,000 from the Dromoland Farm consignment. Bred by Fred W. Hertrich III and John D. Fielding and foaled at Majestic View Farms International in Gardiner, the bay February colt is the second foal out of the winning Smart Strike mare First Grade. First Grade is a half-sister to stakes winner Glint (Sharp Humor) and the colt’s third dam is multiple graded stakes winner Recognizable (Seattle Slew). The Harlan’s Holiday colt was the top-selling New York-bred weanling of 2013, purchased by Abbey Partnership at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale for $200,000
In all, ten of the 12 New York-breds offered in the select sale changed hands (including one private sale) for an average price of $223,750 and median of $157,500. In the sale at large the major indicators dipped slightly compared to last year. The average of $291,965 was down 1.1% and the median fell 5% $237,500.
