Fasig-Tipton’s Timonium sales pavilion will be busy Monday and Tuesday for the Midlantic Fall Yearling Sale. Fasig-Tipton Photo.
By Tom Law
New York-breds – at center stage for significant parts of the year with major players in the spring classics and then leading off country’s first major yearling auction of 2020 – play a key role again at the latest stop on the late summer-early fall yearling sales Monday in Timonium, Md., for the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall sale.
The two-day Midlantic sale leads off with 120 New York-breds (after scratches through Sunday) in the opening session, which starts at 1 p.m. ET and less than 48 hours after the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes is run at nearby Pimlico Race Course.
Five other New York-bred yearlings are cataloged to sell at the second session, which starts at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
New York-breds were placed in the “Showcase” portion of the opening session purposely, to again fill a void of Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga New York-bred sale, canceled this year because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Fasig-Tipton’s Select Yearling Showcase – a combination of the Kentucky-based company’s July, August select and New York-bred sales – also led off with a 164-hip portion dedicated to New York-breds.
Several consignors that included McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, Vinery Sales, Harry Landry Bloodstock, Royal Bloodstock, Hibiscus Sales and Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services either didn’t go to the Kentucky sale or brought smaller consignments. They, along with other frequent sellers at the Saratoga New York-bred sale, have yearlings cataloged in Monday’s session.
“We pointed horses for Timonium,” said Hanzly Albina, partner with Ron Blake in Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services. “We took fewer yearlings we would have taken to New York typically to the (Kentucky) Showcase. The reality is a lot of New Yorker’s couldn’t come down to that sale, it was too much for them to do. We thought that going in, so we held some back.
“When they announced the Showcase for Maryland we were pretty excited. We thought that would make sense, a lot of people in New York hadn’t had a chance to get to an auction, this was one they could get to. You’re going to get less people coming in, so maybe it’s a little safer and they’ll feel more comfortable in Maryland. Plus you get the people in Maryland and Virginia, who are going to come up because this is their sale, right?”
Blake-Albina sold the third most expensive yearling at last year’s Saratoga New York-bred sale, Hip 342, a colt by Constitution out of the Arch mare Akris Queen, for $340,000.
Signed for by trainer John Terranova and named Breadman, the colt won his debut in a 1-mile state-bred maiden special weight Sept. 26 at Belmont Park in 1:35.88.
“He was our highest priced horse,” Albina said. “He sold very well, like an open-company horse and he proved that he is. Which is really what we’re talking about with a New York-bred. We’re not talking about a reduced level of racing, not at the high level. You look at Tiz the Law, he’s been unbelievable, probably the best horse in the country. Now Breadman looks like an open-company horse and there’s a lot of them out there.”
Albina and Blake hope for similar success with their Midlantic sale consignment, which includes Hip 123, a filly by Goldencents from the family of Grade 1 winner and sire To Honor and Serve.
Laoban, New York’s leading freshman sire and one of the hottest young stallions in America, has six yearlings still slated to sell in the opening New York-bred showcase portion. Based at Sequel Stallions New York in Hudson, where he commanded an advertised $5,000 stud fee in 2020, Laoban sired unbeaten Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades winner Simply Ravishing, allowance winner Dreamer’s Disease and Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity runner-up Keepmeinmind over the weekend at Keeneland.
Laoban, fourth on North America’s freshman sire list with progeny earnings already of more than $587,000 and five winners, is the sire of Hip 34, a colt out of the Bernardini mare Marshtini from the family of Valid Expectations; and Hip 118, a colt out of the Wild Desert mare Adriatic Dream and a half brother to multiple stakes-placed Niko’s Dream. Both colts are consigned by McMahon of Saratoga.
Other New York-breds to watch in the Showcase portion include Hip 2, a colt by Distorted Humor out of the Smart Strike mare Good Omen, a half sister to the dame of Horse of the Year and leading sire Curlin, from Paramount Sales’ consignment; Hip 8, a colt by Bodemeister out of the Mutakddim mare Humunt, a half sister to Teuflesberg, from the Indian Creek consignment; and Hip 39, a colt by Empire Maker out of the stakes-winning and stakes-producing Cape Town mare Mischief Maker, from the Vinery Sales consignment.
