For more than 50 years, the sleepy resort town of Saratoga Springs, New York, was the best place in America to sell a Thoroughbred yearling. From 1917, when the Fasig-Tipton Co. built its new sales arena on East Avenue close to Saratoga Race Course, to well into the 1950s and '60s, Saratoga was the place where breeders knew they could get top dollar for their yearlings. The best racing in America, the nightly social whirl, and liquid ambition acquired at the quaint Spuyten Divil bar on the sales grounds worked in concert to liberate buyers from the onerous burden of too much money.

Saratoga's supremacy was not challenged until petroleum rationing during World War II forced Fasig-Tipton to hold an alternative sale at Keeneland in 1943. That led to the formation of the Breeders' Sales Co., the predecessor to the Keeneland sales division of the Keeneland Association, and by the mid-1960s Keeneland had usurped Saratoga's position at the pinnacle of prestige. The average for Keeneland's bellwether July sale surpassed Saratoga's right off the bat in 1944, and, by the time the Buckpasser colt Pass sold at the Spa for $235,000 in 1971, it was unusual for Saratoga's top horse to bring a higher price than Keeneland's sale topper.

In fact, it never happened again for 29 consecutive years, although Saratoga achieved parity last year when a $3-million Mr. Prospector colt equaled Keeneland July's $3-million Storm Cat colt.

The continual rising tide of the Thoroughbred market over the last seven years, along with Fasig-Tipton Co.'s successful management shift in the early 1990s, has lifted Saratoga back toward the pinnacle it once occupied, and the aristocratic old lady of East Avenue finally outdid her blue-blooded Kentucky rival once again on August 10, the third and final night of the selected yearling sale.

Saratoga highlights

• Record average of $305,847, up 17% from last year's record
• Record-equaling median of $190,000
• Total receipts of $41,901,000, up 7.6%
• Hennessy filly for $1.8-million, fourth-highest in Saratoga history
• Buy-backs decline to 20.8% from 25.9% last year

Second-highest price

California-based buyer David Shimmon made sure of it by outlasting Ahmed bin Salman to acquire a Seattle Slew colt for $4.2-million. It was the second-highest price in the long history of Saratoga, exceeded only by the $4.6-million paid by British Bloodstock Agency (Ireland) on behalf of Robert Sangster and partners for the Northern Dancer colt Parlando in 1984.

Already carrying the appropriate name Distinction, the big, lengthy Seattle Slew colt is the first foal of 1997 Arlington Matron Handicap (G3) winner Omi, by Wild Again, and was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency as agent for breeder Donald Dizney's Double Diamond Farm.

The sale of Distinction was only the most visible of several confirmations of Saratoga's reacquaintance with her unique place in American auction history, including:

• Record average of $305,847, up 17% from last year's record;
• Record median of $190,000, equaling last year;
• Total receipts of $41,901,000, up 7.6% and the fifth highest on record;
• Hennessy filly for $1.8-million, fourth highest in Saratoga history; and
• Buy-backs declined to 20.8% compared with 25.9% last year.

The sale of Distinction created the wildest scene in recent Saratoga history as The Thoroughbred Corp.'s Salman opened the bidding at $1-million through a phone connection to Fasig-Tipton's Peter Penny, who was seated in the upper balcony of the pavilion opposite the auctioneer's stand. Shimmon-seated on the lower level with trainer Bob Hess Jr.-accompanied by his father, trainer Bob Hess Sr., and young son Garrison Hess-quickly joined the fray, and from $2-millon on, it was a duel between Shimmon and Salman that Shimmon finally won. When the price reached $4-million and it was clear that the combatants were nearing the limits of their budgets, announcer Terence R. P. Collier had to admonish spectators to refrain from applauding until the colt left the ring. As usual, a few onlookers ignored that plea, and several more horses had passed through the ring before auctioneer Walt Robertson's rat-a-tat chant could be heard clearly over the excited buzz of the crowd.

More and less

When asked if Salman had pushed him beyond his expected limit, Shimmon said, "Yes, I'd say so. Some go for more, some for less, and you hope it averages out. There was never any doubt we wanted to own the colt. We were very determined." Bob Hess Jr. will train the colt for the partnership of Shimmon and Bill Bianco. "We thought he'd bring $2-million plus," said Taylor Made's Duncan Taylor. "We knew he was a hell of a horse, but it wasn't quite as clear cut as the Mr. Prospector last year (Taylor Made also sold the $3-million sale topper in 1999). I think Slew being where he is in his career made a difference. We knew we had all the right people on him."

The $4.2-million colt was only one of many highlights of a sale that, like the 2000 Keeneland July yearling sale, reached its peak in a frenzied final session. The Thursday night extravaganza also included the Saratoga sale's top filly and second-highest-priced colt.

If Taylor Made's Seattle Slew colt was not an immediately obvious sale topper, Dinwiddie Farm's Hennessy filly out of Mary McGlinchy, by Pleasant Colony, was a clear choice from the moment she was first led out of her stall in Barn 2N. A perfectly balanced, athletic, medium-sized filly with the hindquarters of a football linebacker and the stride of a ballerina, the filly exuded class and charisma that even a casual observer could not miss. Agent Dan Kenny outbid trainer D. Wayne Lukas at $1.8-million, acting on behalf of Canadian pharmaceuticals magnate Eugene Melnyk.

"She's a very special filly," Melnyk said by cellular phone from his home in Barbados. "We're very bullish on the Hennessy filly (a half sister to Jim Dandy Stakes [G2] winner Graeme Hall named Harmony Lodge) that we're running there this weekend, so that helped."

"She just had so much Buckpasser (sire of her third dam, Special Account) in her," Kenny said. "She's just got star quality." Like most of Melnyk's horses, the filly is most likely to be trained by Todd Pletcher.

"That was considerably more than we expected," said Bud Paul, manager of Dinwiddie Farm. "She is a very good individual, but that was too much to wish for. Lukas showed so much interest I figured we had him. Todd Pletcher and his dad (J. J. Pletcher) came by a couple of times. Bob Hess liked her, and when he brought Mr. Shimmon by, I figured we had a good chance."

Shimmon, CEO of Saratoga, California-based Kinetics Group, has been an active buyer over the past year but failed to get in a bid on the Hennessy filly. He did secure the second-highest-priced colt of the sale for $1.4-million, a racy gray by Hennessy's racetrack rival Unbridled's Song. Out of the Groovy mare Michele Royale, the colt was also consigned by Taylor Made as agent.

The right buyers

The crucial importance of attracting the biggest spenders was most clearly illustrated by the fate of the lone offspring of Mr. Prospector in the sale. Purchased for $775,000 in the name of High Mills Farm at the 1999 Keeneland November sale and consigned by Lakland LLC, agent, the handsome but rather immature colt was resold for only $400,000.

"With these high-priced horses, if you don't have certain people on them, if those top two or three buyers come off the horse, what have you got left?" asked Lakland partner Becky Thomas. "Most buyers see Mr. Prospector and $775,000 in the Buyer's Guide and never even look at him, so you don't even have a chance; $400,000 was sort of my floor for bailing out on the horse." Since two-year-old pinhooker Tod Wojciechowski signed the ticket in the name of Select Equ