TWENTY-FIVE million-dollar yearlings. Turnover exceeding $100 million. They’re the headlines from a record-breaking Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, appropriately dubbed ‘The crown jewel of the North American yearling sales calendar’.

While the prize money and sales prices in America seem a world away from us, the buyers of the top lot were familiar, with the $4.1 million Into Mischief colt knocked down to Coolmore’s M.V. Magnier and Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm.

Consigned by Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa on behalf of Don Alberto Corporation, he became the highest-priced horse ever sold at the Saratoga Sale, now in its 104th year.

Coolmore and White Birch paired up to buy four colts totalling $6,625,000, while White Birch acted alone when purchasing a filly by Life Is Good for $550,000. The combination’s second most expensive recruit was also by Into Mischief and, after signing the docket for the son of Grade 1 heroine It Tiz Well, Brant commented: “He’s a nice-looking horse, he really is.

“We’re delighted to have him. He’s very well-balanced, he looked like a baby that was going to grow nicely, with more to come.”

“It takes a village,” Reed Ringler, COO of Don Alberto Corp, later reflected on the sales-topper. “I’m just so happy for Carlos [Heller] and Miss Liliana [Solari]; they have a beautiful group of mares, and the love and the work that goes into these horses every day on the farm, this is really a credit to them, what they pour into it.

“The horse came out here and he’s just gotten better every day. He’s got a hell of a motor. For a big horse, he moves so easy and everything comes easy to him. He just puts his head down. A big, gorgeous son of Into Mischief; best sire in the world, year after year.

“For this to happen, it’s just past our wildest dreams, for sure.”

THE European bloodstock industry’s wildest dreams would be for newcomers to racing to spend millions on one of their first purchases, which is what Randy and Jenny Boyd did at Saratoga.

Acting through Love/Linton, the president of the University of Tennessee System and his wife gave $2.6 million for a Gun Runner filly out of dual Grade 1 winner Paradise Woods. Mr Greeley and Street Sense featured further down the page of Lane’s End’s offering on behalf of Tranquillity Lake Farms.

“We’re really excited about her,” Randy Boyd later commented. “We’ve got a really great trainer in Billy Love and his agent Brittany Linton, and we really love this horse.”

On what attracted them to racing, Jenny Boyd explained: “Something new we could do at our age. Something we knew nothing about. It’s very exciting.” Her husband added: “Life is about being slightly uncomfortable. We knew nothing about horse racing, but it’s like everything, you trust in the people you partner with and we’ve got some great partners.

“We’re probably the worst racehorse owners in the industry because when our first horse went to run her first race, we said ‘We just want you to have a good time and be safe’. We just love the horses and, if they do well, that’s great.”

Big spenders

Perhaps the Boyd’s have taken a leaf out of John Stewart’s book, the Resolute Bloodstock man making a major impact with seven-figure buys across various racing nations. The outspoken owner signed for five yearlings at Saratoga, his purchasing costing a total of $5,425,000 and peaking at $3 million for a colt by Into Mischief.

Offered by Gainesway on behalf of Stonestreet Bred for Brilliance, Hip 178 is out of Grade 1 runner-up Lady Kate (Bernardini), the same cross as Into Mischief’s brilliant three-year-old colt Sovereignty.

Four colts by Into Mischief reached the million mark at Saratoga and, despite a half-sister to Journalism failing to sell at $3.6 million, the Spendthrift Farm sire was responsible for nine lots totalling $14,050,000, for an average of $1,561,111. At $2.6 million, Spendthrift Farm themselves bought out partners Grayson Farm from an Into Mischief colt out of triple Grade 1 winner I’m A Chatterbox.

The results are reflective of Into Mischief’s remarkable rise through the ranks, from standing for $7,500 in his second season to accruing six world champion sire titles. Now 20 years of age, the Harlan’s Holiday half-brother to Beholder and Mendelssohn commands $250,000.

Gun Runner stands for the same fee at Three Chimneys Farm, justified by 10 Grade 1 winners from five crops of racing age, including Breeders’ Cup Classic victor Sierra Leone. The six-time Grade 1 winner had eight yearlings sell this week for a total of $12,650,000 and average of $1,581,250.

Gun Runner accounted for three of the top five lots and four of the top 10. Just missing out on a place in the top 10 was a Bolt d’Oro colt bought by Amo Racing for $1.4 million. That purchase and Kia Joorabchian’s total spend of $2,425,000 on three yearlings bodes well for the European yearling sales, almost 12 months on from their eye-watering spending spree.

At the close of trade, Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning reflected: “It was a remarkable two days. We’ve been selling at Saratoga for 104 years, so it’s not an overnight sensation. It’s the culmination of many years of hard work and sweat. We try to work hard and do the right thing and on nights like these it all comes together like magic.

“This is a glory night. This is unbelievable success, unbelievable results, but it’s because of our people. We’ve developed a culture and earned the trust and confidence of the marketplace as a result of those every day efforts from our team.”