Coronation Street Tops Fasig Sale

Coronation Street (Street Cry {Ire}), an unraced 3-year-old mare in foal to Alpha, brought top price of $150,000 during Monday's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Sale. Overall the auction produced figures largely in line with 2015 results. With 164 head grossing $2,780,600, the average dipped 3.1% to $16,955, while the median fell 15% to $8,500.

Coronation Street (hip 85), a daughter of multiple graded stakes winner Sara Louise (Malibu Moon), was consigned by Sequel New York on behalf of Godolphin. New York breeder Chester Broman made the winning bid on, not only Coronation Street, but also an additional four mares bred by Godolphin.

“I thought she was a rock star,” Becky Thomas of Sequel New York said of Coronation Street. “There were five Godolphin mares that were sent up off the track to support their stallions Alpha and Emcee. Coronation Street was my pick for the sale. Mr. Broman, who is a client of mine, wanted to know the best horse and I told him about that mare. We looked at her and then I showed him the others and he decided that he had better odds with buying four of them then he did one, so he bought four of them.”

Broman also purchased Fingers Crossed (Elusive Quality) (hip 96) for $100,000 and Folk Song (Medaglia d'Oro) (hip 99) for $50,000. Both mares are also in foal to Alpha. Fingers Crossed is a full-sister to this year's juvenile stakes winner Ruthless Quality and out of a daughter of champion Ajina (Strawberry Road {Aus}). Folk Song is out of Grade I placed Folk (Quiet American) and a half to graded stakes placed Captivating Lass (A.P. Indy).

“Those are really fantastic pedigrees and they are nice young mares that are right off the racetrack to be able to breed,” Thomas said of the Godolphin offerings. “They are collector's items in New York because we don't have mares like that up here.”

Alpha, winner of the 2012 GI Travers S., is represented by his first crop of weanlings this year. He stands for Darley at Sequel New York.

“I am very optimistic about Alpha,” Thomas said. “He is throwing a racier-type A.P. Indy, which is kind of exciting for me. A lot of the A.P. Indy-line, you look at them and they are two-turn horses. And they should be two-turn horses, but Alpha himself is a 16h horse, he's not a overly large horse and he is a little typier-looking, even though he is out of a Nijinsky mare. So that part is really good for us when you get to see his babies and it looks like you ought to be able to have 2-year-olds, too.”

The buy-back rate at Monday's sale was 37.2%, down from 46% a year ago, but Thomas continues to see a very select marketplace.

“It was feast or famine,” she said. “It is a highly polarized market. With mares and babies alike, we got more than what I was thinking on what was perceived as top end, but if you had any veterinary hiccups or a baby that was perceived as not the greatest, you literally got no bids. Which I think we are going to continue to see. I think it will be highly punctuated when you get to the later books at Keeneland because we just don't have enough buyers in our marketplace to support the trade that we are trying to do.”

Trainer Linda Rice signed the ticket on the sale's second highest-priced lot, going to $125,000 for hip 200, a weanling filly by Into Mischief. The New York-bred gray was consigned by Catalyst Bloodstock on behalf of breeder Clyde Taylor. She is the first foal out of stakes placed Roses Plus (Value Plus).

“We had hoped when we decided to bring her up here that she would be a standout in the sale, particularly with the way the sire is going right now,” said Catalyst Bloodstock's Chris Knehr. “We wound up being the only Into Mischief in the sale. And that is kind of a strategy of mine to begin with, to be where no one else is so you can stand out a little bit more. Especially since I'm not a very large consignor, that's how I can make my mark. That was the strategy to begin with and then when we got in here, she just flourished and took everything really well. She came up from Kentucky and was just professional and took the whole thing in stride.”

In addition to Rice, trainer Christophe Clement also purchased a weanling from the Catalyst consignment, but Knehr said he found the auction was particularly popular with pinhookers.

“I had a pretty strong group of weanlings up here and they were mostly by Kentucky sires,” Knehr said. “And those are always popular at this sale, especially with pinhookers who are looking to go back in the August [New York-bred] sale up here next year. Obviously there are some end-users up here, but I would say there are more pinhookers. We were very busy and I'm more than thrilled with the results we had today.”