Courtesy of BloodHorse.com
Led by a $150,000 Street Cry mare, Fasig-Tipton kicked off the mixed auction season Oct. 17 with figures on nearly even terms with the 2015 edition of the Saratoga fall sale at the Humphrey S. Finney Sales Pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
With 164 head selling for total receipts of $2,780,600, the average price of $16,955 represented a 3% decline from the $17,493 average a year ago when 162 head grossed $2,833,800. The median price fell 15% from $10,000 to $8,500. With 97 horses not selling, the buyback rate was 37.2%. much improved from the 2015 RNA rate of 46%.
There were four six-figure transactions Monday, the same number as a year ago when the auction was topped by a weanling Curlin colt that sold for $120,000.
Coronation Street, this year’s sale-topping Street Cry mare consigned by Sequel New York, agent, as Hip 85, was purchased by Chester Broman, who with his wife Mary Broman were named the Empire State’s outstanding breeders of the year in 2004, 2011, and 2014.
The 3-year-old unraced filly is out of the grade II-winning Malibu Moon mare Sara Louise and is a full sister to Mrs. Hudson, who has earned more than $134,000 for Godolphin. The mare was believed to be in foal to the Sequel stallion Alpha , the millionaire Travers Stakes (gr. I) winner whose first foals are weanlings this year.
The sale offers the first opportunity to acquire foals of 2016 and the day’s second-highest price of $125,000 was paid by trainer Linda Rice for an Into Mischief weanling filly from the offerings of Catalyst Bloodstock, as agent. The Feb. 20 gray filly bred in New York by Clyde Taylor was produced from the stakes-place Value Plus mare Roses Plus.
Fasig-Tipton president and CEO Boyd Browning Jr. said the results showed a solid marketplace similar to last year’s mixed sale, with trade for weanlings mirroring the selectivity in yearling sales earlier this year.
“Most of the buyers will tell you there was fierce competition for the foals that are perceived to be above average, and less demand for those not seen as being of the same quality,” he said.
Broman, who was an aggressive buyer at the sale with six head purchased for a total $348,500, went to $100,000 to acquire Fingers Crossed, a 5-year-old Quality Road mare consigned by Sequel as Hip 96. Produced from the winning A.P. Indy mare Ruth E, Fingers Crossed is a full sister to Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies Stakes winner Ruthless Quality and is also believed to be in foal to Alpha.
Another six-figure weanling transaction was the winning $100,000 bid from Texx Co Co for a daughter of The Factor from the family of Argentine champion and leading North American sire Candy Ride . Produced from the unraced Johannesburg mare Candy d’Oro, the filly was consigned as Hip 270 by RFHF Bloodstock as agent for Hidden Lake Farm and Kingsport Farm, who bred the March 20 foal in partnership with David Campbell.
Fasig-Tipton’s next sale will be the October Sale in Lexington Oct. 24-26, the final yearling auction of 2016.
