Fasig-Tipton photo.

“One of the chief subjects of discussion in the paddock was the sale of yearlings at the Fasig-Tipton company mart last night…”  The Daily Saratogian, Aug. 11, 1917

That time-honored Saratoga tradition began 100 years ago this month, when Fasig-Tipton held its first Thoroughbred sale in Saratoga. Established in 1898 to sell riding and driving horses as well as racehorses, the company was based in New York City and held sales at Madison Square Garden and the metropolitan area racetracks; nearly 20 years after its founding, Enoch James Tranter, who had taken over the company after the deaths of William B. Fasig and Edward A. Tipton, worked with Kentucky breeders to hold a sale here and arranged to purchase land in Saratoga and build a sales facility on it.

The sales were held throughout the month that first season and included several dispersals along with the yearling sales, and the auctions were at times held in the morning, “to give bidders and buyers ample time to get to the track before post time.” If you buy a horse in the morning, are you less likely to gamble in the afternoon?

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