Thursday, July 23, 2009

Back In the Summer of Things

I have let almost a year slip by undetected since my last post but I intend to renew my effort with a series of smaller segments. Long pithy articles were great fun to write on occasion, but it proved unwieldy over the long term to keep up a novella like effort. And ultimately in conflict with a good blogger's mentality.

So, without further adieu, today's Horsebite:

The Fasig Tipton Saratoga Yearling Select Sale got underway last night in it's newly renovated sales space in Saratoga Springs. The hot, hot, hot sire to catch ahold of? Bernardini. His babies were taking all the top spots, with two of his colts capping out at $1.2M and $1.3M. Considering that last month's July auction at Keeneland saw its first day median sales price landing at $50,000, the numbers at Saratoga were great, and an improvement over last year, with Monday night's median sales price hitting $250,000. Sheik Mohammed was in attendance and walked away with three out of four of the Monday's top priced horses, including a Medaglia d'Oro filly who took the sale's highest bid at $1.5M. This is very positive news for the Thoroughbred industry, which has seen precipitous declines in sale numbers since the fall of last year.