by Paul Post

A bay weanling filly by Fusaichi Pegasus was purchased for $95,000 on Sunday to top the New York Breeders’ Sales Co. fall breeding stock sale at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Out of the winning Honor Grades mare Honor Lass, the sale topper was purchased by Destined Farm from the consignment of Five Oak Farm, agent.

Average price rose 5.1% from $10,463 last year to $10,996 and the median climbed 25% from $4,000 to $5,000 at the 2008 sale.

The buy-back rate rose to 51.5% as 157 of 324 offerings, which included stallion seasons, were reported as sold for $1,726,350, a 2.9% decline compared with $1,778,700 in total sales at the 2007 New York Breeders’ Sales Co. fall breeding stock sale.

“The sale is experiencing the same problems that the rest of the economy is experiencing,” said Greg Garofalo, of Topsmeade, last year’s leading consignor. “It is not a reflection of the quality of horses. We have excellent horses here. It’s just that we’re in the same boat as the stock market. I don’t have it to tell you what kind of week it was for the Dow [Jones].”

The sale’s main attraction was a group of about 130 selected weanlings, most of them New York-breds.

CCS Bloodstock secured a Tapit colt out of Cherished Trick, by Phone Trick, for $65,000, the second-highest price for a weanling at the sale. Consigned by Saratoga Glen Farm, agent, the bay colt is from the female family of Grade 1 winner Passing Shot.

The day started with the sale of 15 stallion seasons. After selected yearlings, bidding dropped off sharply for the remainder of the sale, which was comprised of other weanlings, yearlings, and broodmares. Of these, only two went for $10,000 or more.

Paul Post is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent