Hip 589 (Fasig-Tipton photo)
By Sarah Mace
The 2017 Fasig-Tipton sale of New York-bred yearlings, conducted on Saturday and Sunday evenings at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion in Saratoga, hit a grand slam. The sale posted a record average, record median, record total sales and saw a new all-time sale top seller: a Cairo Prince yearling who went to Waves Bloodstock for cool half-million dollars.
By the numbers, the two days of trading brought $16,214,000 in total sales. Of 244 yearlings offered, 182 found new homes (including nine private sales) for a final buyback rate of 25.4, down from last year’s 32.7%. The average price of $89,088 exceeded last year’s $77,246 average by 15.3%. The $69,500 median was up 15.8% over last year’s $60,000 median.
In all, 60 individuals, or about a quarter of the yearlings sold, brought six figures. Sixteen yearlings brought $200,000 and up, while three took the bidding over $300,000.
“The New York sale was record-breaking in all aspects,” said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning. “There was great demand literally from start to finish. The growth of the New York program continues to be demonstrated by the results on the racetrack and in the sales ring. The participants in the program have continued to step up their efforts in quality and they were rewarded the last two nights.”
To put the exponential growth in scale and outcomes at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale in perspective, just five years ago in 2012, the sale handled about half of the 2017 total: $8,632,000. In all 138 individuals for an average price of $62,551 and median of $50,000. A decade ago in 2007 the sale brought $5,831,500 with an average price of $51,606 and median of $38,000 for 113 horses.
The $500,000 colt from the first crop of Cairo Prince, who set a new high-water mark for the auction, sold as Hip 589 near the end of the evening’s trading. The grey/roan individual was bred by Hidden Lake Farm, LLC / 3C and offered by the RFHF consignment of Chris Bernhard of Hidden Lake Farm and Elaine Peck of Rhapsody Farm.
The Cairo Prince colt is out of Garden City, an unplaced daughter of Carson City bred in Kentucky by Overbrook Farm. Rhapsody Farm purchased the mare in foal for $37,000 in January 2016 at Keeneland. Garden City has produced six winners from six youngsters to start, three of them six-figure earners and one a stakes performer. Abundant black type appears under the third dam, including English filly highweight and group winner Stratospheric, champion and millionaire Inside Information, also the dam of champion filly Smuggler, Grade 1 Frizette winner Educated Risk and more. [Fasig-Tipton video]
“I’ve never seen one like him,” Ciaran Dunne told the TDN as he signed the ticket after making the winning bid. “He’s as good as they come. We saw him three days ago, we’ve looked at him 20 times, and he gets better every time. We didn’t care that he was a New York-bred, he’s just a good horse. He could have been here last week [at the select sale] and if he was here last week, he would have fit last week. He would have fit anywhere.”
Chris Bernhard (Fasig-Tipton photo)
The partnership on the colt includes Kirk Wycoff’s Three Diamonds Farm. “We’re big fans of Cairo Prince,” said Wycoff. “We’ve bred to him. We have two foals by him. We sold two fillies by him tonight with Bluewater. This colt walks better than any horse Ciaran has ever seen and we’ve been partners with Ciaran for five years and we trust his judgement.”
Breeder/consignor Chris Bernhard said, “He is such a nice horse; the best horse I’ve come up here with. I knew he was a good horse, but this is still obviously beyond expectations. He was a classy horse from the beginning.”
Continued Bernhard, “My partner [Elaine Peck] and I bought the mare in foal to Cairo Prince for $35,000 and she’s back in foal to Carpe Diem. So to come back here and get that kind of return on your investment is just incredible. To come over here and to be with the big boys and to outperform some of them is pretty cool. Especially being up here as a New York breeder and consignor. We don’t leave the state of New York. You go to the sales, you buy these mares and you bring them back to the program—it’s very gratifying.”
Hip 459 (Fasig Tipton photo)
The second session of the New York-bred sale also saw the sale’s filly topper, Hip 459 a dark bay/brown daughter of More than Ready bred by Aynsford Holdings, LLC. Bradley Thoroughbreds LLC signed a ticket for $315,000 on behalf of Sheep Pond Partners.
Bred by Aynsford Holdings, LLC and consigned by Bluewater Sales LLC, the More than Ready filly is the most recent reported foal out of St Francis Wood, a black type placed daughter of Irish River (FR) purchased by Aynsford Holdings at the 2011 Keeneland January sale for $47,000. Among her four winners is Saratoga Dreamer ($242,157), a debut winner at two at Saratoga on turf and stakes winner on dirt for Peter Deutsch and Christophe Clement. St Francis Wood is a full sister to turf stakes winner Abbey Bridge.
Boyd Browning did add a note of sobriety to the proceedings after the giddy success of the sale. “The one caveat we all have to be mindful of is we dealt with pretty carefully selected product this week, both in the main sale and the New York-bred sale. We still have a marketplace that is still polarized and we’re going to have some days ahead in the yearling sale season that aren’t going to be as enjoyable as the four days we had this week, but all in all, there’s certainly a healthy, competitive marketplace.”
