FREE SUBSCR ER IPT IN IO A N R S T COMPLIMENTS OF T !2!4/'! O L T IA H C E E 4HE S SP ARATOGA Year 9 • No. 12 SARATOGA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER ON THOROUGHBRED RACING Tuesday, August 11, 2009 Big Girl Hip 88 tops first night selling for $1.5 million Inside F More Sales coverage F Full Sales results F Cool Coal Man wins Monday stake Tod Marks photo Finally, A Comprehensive Approach to Muscle Health New Muscle Fortifier™ Complete Muscular System Support Exclusive formula for horses with high performance demands. Muscle Fortifier™ supports: - Rapid Muscle Recovery - Normal Lactic Acid Levels - Proper Ionic Balance and Body Fluid Levels - Proper Muscle Contraction Vita Flex Nutrition 1302-B Lew Ross Road, Council Bluffs, Iowa 51501 For more information, product details and study results, call 1-800-848-2359 or visit our web site at vita-flex.com. ©2008 VitaFlex Nutrition 08-0112 2 Tuesday, August 11, 2009 Tuesday, August 11, 2009 3 Here & There at Saratoga 517 Broadway, Suite 207 Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 (Second Floor, around the back) Phone: (518) 490-1175 Sean Mobile: (302) 545-7713 Joe Mobile: (302) 545-4424 E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] Internet: www.saratogaspecial.com Published Wednesday through Sunday during the racing season. Every day of Sales Week Aug. 10-16. The Staff Editors/Publishers: Sean Clancy, Joe Clancy Staff Writers: Brian Nadeau, Karen Johnson, Ben Meyers, Katie Bo Williams, Colin Beaury Photographers: Tod Marks, Dave Harmon, Connie Bush, Sarah Condon Handicappers: Pete Fornatale, John Pana- got, Gaile Fitzgerald, John Shapazian Office Assistant: Jill Grant Distribution: Ryan Clancy, Jack Clancy, Nolan Clancy, Jane Motion Advertising Sales: Contact a Clancy or call Jon Bordeau (518) 812-4545 or Kathy Rubin at (203) 650-6815 ST Publishing Inc. Home Office 364 Fair Hill Drive, Suite F, Connie Bush Elkton, MD 21921 In Flight. Mine That Bird (and jockey Jamie Theriot) tested out the Saratoga track in earnest Monday with a half-mile work in a lively 48.22 (410) 392-5867 • Fax (410) 392-0170 seconds. Based in the stakes barn, Kentucky Derby winner is working toward the $1 million Travers here Aug. 29. www.st-publishing.com [email protected] Dave Scanlon, Robert Scanlon Training Center: “Unbridled’s Song. He The Saratoga Special Best Yearlings got off the van and you knew. Followed closely by Bernardini.” Steeplechase Times We’re still asking experts for the best yearling they ever saw: Frankie O’Connor, Kildare Stud: “Let me get back to you on that.” Thoroughbred Racing Calendar The Best of The Saratoga Special Dr. Steve Carr, Centennial Farm: “Colt, Fu Peg. A.P. Indy, Houston and Elliott Walden, WinStar Farm: Fusaichi Pegasus. Saratoga Days and other acclaimed Gone West right behind him. Filly, Winning Colors.” products and services Bill Farish, Lane’s End Farm: “The best yearling I’ve ever seen might have within the equine industry. Paul Saylor, owner: “I’ll give you a highly prejudiced one. Ashado. She’s been influenced by the price, but Seattle Dancer, the 13.1 million-dollar Call us about your editorial needs. the only one who knocked my socks off the first time.” yearling that we sold. Probably the best-looking individual I’ve ever seen.” Jack Wolf, Starlight Stable: “The best one I ever bought was Harlan’s “Editorial excellence is not a goal to be Holiday. I loved Menifee so I went there wanting something by Harlan. He Weather sought and one day acquired and then was the best one. Stupid luck.” Today: Scattered thunderstorms. High of 82. retired to the trophy case. It is instead Tonight: Isolated thunderstorms. Low of 62. an ambition which must be pursued Olly Tait, Darley: “I plead the fifth.” Sunday: Isolated thunderstorms. High of 81. each day, never ending, never totally Monday: Partly cloudy. High of 83. achieved. That striving, that ambition is Eddie Woods, Eddie Woods Training Center: “Fu Peg. Out on his own. He an essential part of our newspapers, a was something else from the moment he walked out. End of story.” cornerstone of what we have been, Name of the Day what we are, and what we will be.” Joe Seitz, Brookdale: “Songandaprayer. Right here in this barn. He stood out, Preachintothedevil, Hip 64: This Pulpit colt out of Acey Deucey sold Mon- – Lee Hills, Pulitzer Prize winner, he was a sculpture.” day night – and came with a great name. Knight Ridder chief executive, in 1974 HAMMERTOWN INSURANCE AGENCY Call to discuss “Fall of the Hammer” coverage for the upcoming sales. “PROTECTING EQUINE INVESTMENTS” s&5,,%15).%-/24!,)49 s34!,,)/.!6!),!"),)49!.$).&%24),)49 s"!22%..%33!.$02/30%#4)6%&/!, s./'5!2!.4%%#/.6%23)/.3 s%15).%,)!"),)49 s&!2-0!#+!'%3 Contact: Anya Sheckley PO Box 90, Pine Plains, NY 12567 Tel: 646-872-6843 Email: [email protected] Fax: 518-398-5143 Web: www.hammertowninsurance.com Tod Marks photo Tod 4 Tuesday, August 11, 2009 Here & There at Saratoga Worth Repeating “Oh God, now we’re looking at people looking at horses.” A tired buyer, trying to get her husband to leave the salesgrounds Monday afternoon “The first time I rode him, at Churchill Downs in 2007, he gave me goosebumps. Literally.” Jockey Ramon Dominguez, about Fabulous Strike “Sophie and I are going to walk tomorrow morning either way.” Bob Manfuso, referring to his dog Sophie and to an impending sale Monday night “The good news is it’s only flat on one side.” Rusty Myers while pointing to a flat tire on the Special’s golf cart “Who made that decision, Ray Charles?” Assistant Robert Cutler about replacing Jan Rushton with Andy Serling “Jack is a celebrity. If he takes a morning off, everybody notices it.” Doc Danner, about paperboy Jack Clancy “I thought about that later. You know, you’re right, that guy didn’t want to be out there.” Exercise rider Walter Blum, who had been given grief for yelling at another rider who was get- ting run off on the outside fence a day earlier “I can’t tell you that or I’ll have to kill you.” Groom when asked if his horse was going to win later in the day Quote of the Day “He’s very fast, he’s an intelligent horse, he focuses on the race, he’s figured out the game, I believe, he knows what he has to do, when Benny The Bull lunged at him at Belmont, he sensed it. When a horse passes him after the finish line, he’ll go out and try to bite them, he doesn’t want to be passed.” Owner Walter Downey, about Vanderbilt winner Fabulous Strike HORSE TRANSPOrtATION 1-800-523-8143 Connie Bush A group takes in the morning workouts at Saratoga Monday. Tuesday, August 11, 2009 5 Grand Slam Four yearlings hit $1 million mark on first night of 2009 Select Sale BY MICHELE MACDONALD FASIG-TIPTON SALES Long before Monday’s opening ses- sale to $25,470,000 for 76 horses sold, sion of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select while average climbed 11 percent from yearling sale was gaveled into action, a $302,667 to $335,132. crowd gathered around the back walk- The number of horses drawing fi- ing ring, shifting restlessly and rippling nal bids of at least $1 million doubled, with excited chatter. from two to four, compared to last year, Men garbed in sports jackets and with Sheikh Mohammed buying three women in sleek sleeveless dresses of those, including the session-topping seemed to be looking not so much for Medaglia d’Oro filly out of the Storm horses but for a glimpse of a hot celeb- Cat mare Cat Dancer for $1.5 million. rity at a cocktail party. Overall, with his bloodstock agent And then, about 10 minutes after John Ferguson signing the tickets for bidding first punctured the humid air, six yearlings, Sheikh Mohammed spent Tod Marks Hip 79, a Bernardini colt out of champion filly Bird Town, sold for $1.3 million. he strolled across the scene. $5.5-million, or 22 percent of the ses- Wearing light blue jeans, a long- sion total. the end of the day, that’s what counts, to have quality horses to draw qual- sleeved white T-shirt and athletic shoes. His associates and trainers who have and we had some superstars.” ity buyers. It doesn’t matter how nice Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Mak- worked for him and members of his While Fasig-Tipton was purchased the facilities are, how nice a show we toum, the ruler of Dubai who was de- family, as well as his brother Sheikh by Dubai-based Synergy Investments put on, how good the racing is – we’ve scribed by Mark Taylor of Taylor Made Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum, add- Ltd. last year, company President Boyd got to have quality horses. And we’ve Sales Agency as the rock star of Thor- ed much more to those totals. Browning Jr. repeated that Sheikh Mo- been very, very richly supported by our oughbred auctions, had arrived. Fasig-Tipton Chairman Walt Robert- hammed is not personally involved with consignors. People put some faith in us As it turned out over the next few son summed up Sheikh Mohammed’s the operation. Monday’s session marked this year. It starts with the horses; that’s hours, Sheikh Mohammed and his as- impact with one simple and understated Sheikh Mohammed’s first appearance at why the sale is up because the quality of sociates changed the general course word: “Significant.” a Saratoga sale in at least two decades.