Fasig-Tipton Saratoga

7th-OP, $115k, Msw, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m, post time: 4:20 p.m. ET Having campaigned the likes of 'TDN Rising Star' Frank's Rockette, Arkansan Frank Fletcher will debut another daughter of the all-conquering Into Mischief Saturday afternoon at Oaklawn Park in the form of MISS ROCKETTE. The February foal, trained by Bob Baffert, is the first to race out of Song of Spring (Spring At Last), upset winner of the GIII Allaire du Pont Distaff in 2018, and was hammered down to Donato Lanni on behalf of Fletcher for $1.25 million...

He wasn't the most cooperative at the stalls and he left himself plenty to do over a Keeneland main track that was playing kind to speed over the course of the afternoon, but 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (c, 3, Gun Runner--Heavenly Love, by Malibu Moon) saved his best for last and cemented his status as one of the top couple of contenders for the GI Kentucky Derby with a fast-finishing victory in the 100th running of the GI Toyota Blue Grass S. Saturday afternoon. The victory, on the back...

Among the winners at the last Breeders' Cup, what was it that separated White Abarrio (Race Day), Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) and Nobals (Noble Mission {GB}) from the rest? Answer: they were the only ones that had changed hands at an American yearling auction, respectively for $7,500, $170,000 and $3,500. Even that lavish investor in the yearling market, Mike Repole, won the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile with a homebred. Except for a couple of European turf juveniles, the rest of the show was a parade of champions raised by "end users":...

A son of two fan-favorite Hall of Famers, the impeccably-bred colt by champion Curlin and out of champion Beholder was sure to bring the house down when he entered the ring this summer at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale and the striking chestnut did not disappoint as the hammer dropped at $4 million to Donato Lanni on behalf of Zedan Racing, making the Spendthrift-bred, Taylor Made-consigned colt the highest-priced horse to sell at Saratoga in over two decades. Since then, the youngster's pedigree has grown even more impressive as his elder...

Heavily favored to run his unbeaten streak to three, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing's Integration (Quality Road) made his off price of 4-5 look like an early Christmas gift, as he parlayed a perfect trip into a dominating victory in Saturday's $250,000 GII Hill Prince S. at Aqueduct. Away without incident from the three hole, the $700,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga graduate fell into the ideal spot from third, racing in clear air, as 65-1 Laurel Valley (Laoban) set a solid pace in advance of a headstrong Equitize (GB) (Kingman {GB}),...

Having been represented by a pair of new graded stakes scorers on Breeders' Cup Saturday, Claiborne Farm's War Front picked up yet another when the impeccably bred Smokin' T ran out a good-looking winner of the $300,000 GIII River City S. beneath the Saturday night lights at Churchill Downs. The sometimes difficult-to-handle 4-year-old colt was outsprinted and settled in centerfield through the early exchanges, as Dominican Pioneer (Pioneerof the Nile) ensured that the nine-furlong event would be run at a genuine tempo. Stitched (Mizzen Mast), winner of the relocated GII...

When you sell for a sale-topping $2.3m as a yearling at Fasig-Tipton's New York Saratoga Sale to connections like White Birch Farm and M. V. Magnier, the expectations are going to be sky high. And while Sierra Leone (c, 2, Gun Runner--Heavenly Love, by Malibu Moon) proved he still has a lot to learn but still showed enough ability in the end to graduate at first asking and become the latest 'TDN Rising Star' for Three Chimney's super-stallion Gun Runner. Facing a field of mostly more experienced runners, the 3-1...

7th-AQU, $85K, Msw, 2yo, 1m, post time: 3:20 p.m. While the focus of the Thoroughbred world Saturday afternoon will rightly be on Santa Anita, SIERRA LEONE (Gun Runner), the $2.3-million topper out of the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, provides ample reason to click over to the Aqueduct feed between the running of the Filly and Mare Turf and Filly and Mare Sprint. The Mar. 31 foal was bred by Debby Oxley and is a son of her homebred 2017 GI Darley Alcibiades S. romper Heavenly Love (Malibu Moon). There was...

A colt by Good Magic (hip 251) brought a sales record $230,000 to top a solid--if polarized--renewal of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Mixed Sale in upstate New York Tuesday. During the one-session auction, 156 horses grossed $4,522,200 for an average of $28,988 and a median of $18,000. Both average and median dipped from last year's vibrant market. The sale average--which had jumped 48.5% from 2021 to 2022--declined 13% from a year ago, while the median was down 5%. From a catalogue of 337 head, 243 went through the ring with...

by Jessica Martini & Alan Carasso Just under two weeks after her yearling by Curlin lit up the ring at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, champion Beholder (Henny Hughes) enjoyed another banner result when her 2-year-old daughter Tamara (Bolt d'Oro) was tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' following her professional debut victory at Del Mar Saturday. Sent off as the 3-1 second choice, Tamara bobbled slightly at the break from the inside gate, but rushed up along the rail beneath Mike Smith to sit just off pacesetting favorite Hope Road (Quality Road)...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale of Selected Yearlings, which looked to have a tough task to live up to its record-smashing 2022 renewal, proved more than equal to that task and, when a fast and frenetic session concluded Tuesday night, the auction had once again set high-water marks for gross and average and tied its record median. "We have experienced some magical nights in Saratoga in the past and you've heard me talk about the Saratoga magic, but we ain't seen...

The parade of seven-figure yearlings continued Tuesday night at the second session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale when a colt by Into Mischief out of GSP Virginia Key (Distorted Humor) fetched $1 million from the partnership of WinStar Farm, Siena Farm, and China Horse Club. Consigned by St George Sales, the colt is out of a half-sister to 2021 GI TVG Del Mar Debutante S. winner Grace Adler (Curlin), who brought $2 million at last year's Fasig-Tipton November sale, and from the same family as GI Whitney H. winner Bullsbay...