There’s never a good time for a crisis, but it’s hard to imagine a less convenient time for Covid-19 to have hit the New York racing and breeding industries than mid-March. Mares were foaling and being bred; high-stakes races were on the calendar at Aqueduct; and the popular sales for two-year-olds in training were hitting…
“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…
On the morning after a game runner-up finish in the TwinSpires Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (gr. I) Oct. 31 at Keeneland, owner Sheila Rosenblum withdrew La Verdad from the Fasig-Tipton November sale to keep her as a broodmare. Purchased privately by Rosenblum in December 2013, La Verdad is a New York-bred by Yes It’s…
You don’t have to drive very far outside of the city of Baltimore to arrive in Maryland hunt country. Within 10 miles of the city proper, development gives way to farms; go a little further, and you’re in the heart of Maryland horse country, where races have been held for over a century. Thousands of…
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…
For a man whose work depends on pedigree, consignor Marshall Silverman is living proof that bloodlines aren’t everything. Standing on the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sales grounds last Sunday, outside the empty stalls that housed his Saratoga consignment of New York-breds, Silverman wore jeans, a blue, red, and white checked shirt, and a Maryland Horse Breeders Association…
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…
High-level Thoroughbred sales are also social events: the auctions in Lexington and Saratoga, held in the evenings, might easily be confused for cocktail parties, as buyers, sellers, and onlookers network at crowded bars. The events are open to the public and are as much a spectator sport as a business opportunity, with those there to…
Brooklyn Backstretch 