by Paul Post

More than 400 horses were shipped to Saratoga Race Course this week for Sunday's New York Breeders Sales Co. fall breeding stock sale.

The spotlight is expected to focus upon about 130 selected weanlings, primarily New York-breds, an area which has given the company a niche in the marketplace.

Organizers are hopeful that the promise of future expanded gaming-driven New York purse increases will offset the current economic turbulence for the one-day auction.

Aqueduct is expected to get a new video-lottery-terminal facility that could open in mid-2010, possibly doubling purses at Aqueduct, Belmont Park, and Saratoga. The full impact of such revenues could start to be realized in 2011, when the current crop of weanlings turns three.

“It's a double-edged sword. It's a little greater risk to buy these horses, but it also may be a greater reward,” said Greg Garofalo, the top consignor at last year’s event with $432,700 in sales. “There will be a lot of good buying opportunities. Like the stock market, if you want to make money you have to buy in the dips."

Three-year-old Tin Cup Chalice, a once-beaten Crusader Sword gelding that did not meet his reserve price on a $2,000 bid during the 2005 sale, has racked up $868,680 during two seasons on the track. This year, he became the first horse to win the $250,000 Big Apple Triple bonus after his seventh consecutive victory in the Albany Stakes on August 20 at Saratoga completed a sweep of the New York-bred series.

“A lot of people aren't comfortable with purchasing horses that far from a race and at that young of an age," New York-based trainer Linda Rice said. "I have had some decent success."
 
Mother Russia, who Rice purchased for $21,000 at the 2006 sale, has two wins in three starts, including the $156,612 Lady Finger Stakes at Finger Lakes on September 1. The Mayakovsky filly finished third in the New York Breeders’ Futurity on October 4 at Finger Lakes.

 Last year, the company reported that 170 of 318 horses offered as sold for $1,778,700 in total sales, with an average price of $10,462 and a median of $4,000.

Todd Venetz, general manager of the New York Breeders Sales Co., said that 416 horses have been cataloged compared with 374 a year ago. He said that more than 1,000 buyers, sellers, and handlers are expected to converge on Saratoga for the sale.

Buyers fall into two primary groups: trainers such as Rice, Gary Contessa, Bruce Levine, and Kiaran McLaughlin—who keep horses for racing—and prominent pinhookers such as Niall Brennan, who acquire weanlings for resale.

“Some major players are going to be here,” Venetz said. “I really anticipate a good sale despite economic conditions. There’s no lull in the market for top-quality horses.”

The sale will start with selected weanlings followed by about 70-80 open weanlings, yearlings, and broodmares.

The sale is scheduled to begin Sunday at 10 a.m. EDT.

Paul Post is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent