By Sarah Mace
New York-breds at this year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale hit a high water mark in Monday’s opening session when a Curlin filly went to Juddmonte Farm for $750,000 as the top filly of the day and fourth top seller of the session. In the concluding session of the sale on Tuesday evening, though, there was still more than enough buyer interest in Empire State-breds left to go around.
The top female and male New York-breds on Tuesday were both sired by the late City Zip, who was euthanized at Lane’s End on July 25 due to chronic foot issues. The prominent stallion has been a perennial favorite with New York breeders, after enjoying a stellar racing career in New York with trainer Linda Rice and embarking on stallion duties in the state at Gus Schoenborn’s Contemporary Stallions before he moved on to Lane’s End at the end of 2004.
Tuesday’s City Zip filly (Hip 187), a chestnut foaled on April 16, 2016, went to Solis/Litt for $325,000. Like Monday’s filly topper, the yearling was bred by Newtown Anner Stud in Millbrook and consigned by Blake-Albana Thoroughbred Services LLC.
The City Zip filly is the fourth foal out of Force of Humor, a winning Virginia-bred mare by Distorted Humor who is a half sister to Summer Colony, a $1.4 million-earner bred by Edward P. Evans whose graded stakes victories are led by Saratoga’s Grade 1 Personal Ensign in 2002 for trainer Mark Hennig. Summer Colony and another half sister are stakes producers, and the sale filly’s third dam Withallprobability is a multiple graded stakes winner. Force of Humor was a $300,000 yearling purchase by Mike Ryan for Newtown Anner Stud at Keeneland in 2009.
The City Zip colt, also the top New York-bred colt to change hands in the two days of trading, sold as Hip 133 and is currently named Big Zipper. Bred by a partnership group consisting of Danzel Brendenmuel, Clocker Z Racing Stable, Gary Marsh and Sandra Powers, Big Zipper is a graduate of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall mixed sale last year, when he was purchased by Jim R Wells for $150,000. Offered in Saratoga by Taylor Made, Big Zipper’s new owner is Grand Oaks, who went to $300,000 to secure the January colt.
Big Zipper is out of Auspicious, a Kentucky-bred Indian Charlie mare who is a multiple stakes performer and producer of one winner to date. The headline on Big Zipper’s catalogue page is his third dam Powder Doll, a multiple stakes winner in her own right and the dam of graded winner Scott’s Scoundrel and stakes winner Gobedie. Clocker Z Stable bought the mare in foal at the 2015 Keeneland November sale for $65,000.
Two more New York-breds from Tuesday brought outstanding final bids. China Horse Club/Maverick Racing went to $250,000 for Hip 185 for a bay Speightstown colt out of Final Escrow bred by Waterville Lake Stables Ltd. He is the second foal for Final Escrow, a multiple winner and half sister to ten winners, topped by Grade 1 Florida Derby winner Vicar. The colt was consigned by Winter Quarter Farm.
Spendthrift Farm had to go to $235,000 to acquire Hip 116, a Super Saver colt bred by Oak Bluff Stables. The chestnut, foaled on May 5,2016, is out of Oak Bluff’s multiple stakes winner and graded stakes-placed homebred Akilina (Langfuhr). Her first foal is stakes winner Governor Malibu (Malibu Moon) who is currently on the grounds at Saratoga and slated to make a start at the meet for trainer Christophe Clement. Akilina’s second foal Rieno Tesoro, a filly by Speightstown, is a stakes winner and Group 1 placed in Japan. The mare currently has an Uncle Mo weanling and was bred back to Malibu Moon in 2017.
In all, eight of ten New York-breds offered sold at Fasig-Tipton’s boutique Saratoga sale bringing a total of $2,430,000 million. The average price for this group was $303,750 and the median came in at $242,500. The average and median for the entire population of the sale were $339,712 and $300,000, respectively.
The main event for most New York breeders, the Fasig-Tipton preferred New York-bred yearling sale, will be conducted next Saturday and Sunday, August 12 and 13, at the Humphrey S Finney Sales Pavilion.
