“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…
In what could be an indicator of the strength of the market for New York-breds, a first-time buyer at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred yearling sale made his first dive a deep one by purchasing the session-topper for $250,000. French bloodstock agent Hubert A. Guy, who has offices in California and shops at both domestic and…
On the heels of a healthy selected yearlings sale earlier this week, optimism is high on the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga grounds as attention shifts to New York-breds for this weekend’s preferred yearling sale Aug. 9-10. New York-breds brought high prices from prominent buyers in the open sale, with Stonestreet Farms, George Bolton, and Darley bloodstock agent…
After a slow start that saw the first four horses and five of the first seven fail to meet their reserve prices, the second session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale Aug. 5 saw steady momentum gains that led to the third million-dollar horse of the sale. While the number horses failing to meet…
A Tapit filly purchased for $550,000 as a weanling was briefly the star on the first night of Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga select yearling sale Aug. 4 before she was upstaged several hips later by another Tapit filly, who topped trading at $1.15 million. Hip 81, a Tapit filly out of champion She Be Wild grabbed headlines late…
Brooklyn Backstretch 