Two colts by grade 1-winning Kentucky sires led the first session of the Fasig-Tipton sale of preferred New York-bred yearlings, purchased by buyers with deep ties to New York racing. Hip 315 is a Constitution (Tapit) colt out of the Forestry mare See the Forest and sold for $300,000 to West Bloodstock, agent for Repole Stable. Consigned by ELiTe,…
John Stewart’s Resolute Bloodstock got its third seven-figure yearling at Fasig-Tipton’s The Saratoga Sale, going to $1.2 million for a Ghostzapper filly (Hip 147) consigned by Gainesway during the Aug. 6 second session. Payson Stud bred the filly out of the Arch winner Seeking the Blue, who has already produced graded stakes-placed winner Janis Joplin (California Chrome) and stakes-placed…
Kristen and Matthew Esler may be relative newcomers to New York’s breeding industry, but the experience that they bring to their farm is rooted in decades of some of the state’s most successful breeders. Their Saratoga Springs property is the site of the old Stepwise Farm, owned for decades by Bill Wilmot and Joan Taylor,…
With his Churchill Downs suspension having been lifted, trainer Bob Baffert wasted no time in setting his sights on the first Saturday in May. For Zedan Racing, agent Donato Lanni signed a ticket for $3.4 million for Hip 72 after a protracted bidding battle on the first night of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale for a Not This Time colt…
“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…
On Saturday morning, Andrew Motion didn’t look like a man who hadn’t had much sleep over the last couple days. Two days earlier, he’d loaded a yearling filly onto a van and driven overnight to Saratoga from his Upperville, VA farm; three days before he’ll send his first horse through the auction ring here, he…
Late on Thursday afternoon, Dark Hollow Farm’s David Hayden got a call from an unknown number, a call he nearly didn’t pick up. “It was the gas and electric company,” he said with amused incredulity. “They were telling me to be prepared for a huge storm.” The storm that initiated the unprecedented preemptive warning is…
Buyers of Thoroughbred racehorses in 2014 got an early Christmas present when H.R. 5771, the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014, became law earlier this month. Retroactive through this past year, a provision of the law renews the three-year tax depreciation for racehorses, which allows taxpayers to depreciate racehorses 24 months of age and younger…
At the Keeneland September sale of yearlings in September, Bridlewood Farm’s John Malone set a personal record when he bought a $1.1 million filly, more than he’d ever paid for a Thoroughbred. Bidding again at Keeneland yesterday, he went one better, setting a North American record for a weanling when he went to $3 million…
Way back in June, I had the good fortune to cover the NHL draft in Philadelphia (an unforeseen result of my having purchased an orange car last summer was frequently being mistaken for a Flyers fan–shudder) for the Canadian Press, thanks to hockey/racing writer Stephen Whyno, who in 2012, on the day that I’ll Have…
Brooklyn Backstretch 