'We waited around all day for him' - Quality Road colt tops buoyant Fasig-Tipton sale at $370,000

Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga sale of New York-bred yearlings came to a close on Monday with increases in both average and median over 2023, with a record-setting median of $86,500. The average of $104,920 was a ten per cent increase on last year. 

"The sale reflects the overall quality of the New York breeding programme for both breeders and racers," said Boyd Browning Jr, the sales company's president and chief executive officer. "Our gross is down because we had too many horses in the sale last year; we had more horses than stalls. We catalogued 66 fewer horses this year, which is appropriate."

Over the two sessions, 182 yearlings sold for a total of $19,095,500. Sixty-nine horses were not sold for a reserve not attained of 28 per cent

Trainer Chad Brown and owner Seth Klarman had to wait until nearly every horse had gone through the ring, but when the hammer fell on Hip 595, the son of Quality Road was theirs, for a sale-topping $370,000.

Consigned by Winter Quarter Farm, and bred by Waterville Lake Stable, the bay colt is out of the Hard Spun stakes winner Portmagee and the only colt among the three yearlings purchased by Klarman's Klaravich Stables at the sale. Klaravich also purchased Hips 503 and 583, both fillies by first-crop yearling sire Yaupon.

"[Bloodstock agents] Mike and Mary [Ryan] did all the work for us here," said Brown. "Without them, we'd not have been able to get these horses. Mike thought that the [Quality Road] colt was the best in the sale, and we waited around all day for him.

"Seth likes to support the New York-bred programme, and the horses we bought were by proven stallions or exciting first-crop sires that could take us to open-company races but still have New York-bred options."

Chad Brown: 'Seth Klarman likes to support the New York-bred programme'Credit: Fasig-Tipton Photos

After co-topping Sunday's first session of the sale with a $300,000 Constitution colt, West Bloodstock was back in action on Monday, going again to $300,000 for Hip 486, a Connect filly from the consignment of Eaton Sales for Longford Farm. Like the two horses West purchased on Sunday night, the filly will be owned by Repole Stable.

The dark bay/brown filly is out of the 2011 Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes winner Georgie's Angel and is a half-sister to the late Cave Rock, a multiple Grade 1 winner who earned $748,000 in a four-race career. She was bred by Kathleen Burke Schweizer and Daniel J Burke.

"This filly was a no-brainer for us," said Ed Rosen, who is part of Mike Repole's bloodstock team. "She has a strong pedigree and residual value as a broodmare, and she's a nice individual. The whole team loved her."   

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