{"id":1649,"date":"2009-08-13T11:30:01","date_gmt":"2009-08-13T16:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=1649"},"modified":"2009-08-13T11:30:01","modified_gmt":"2009-08-13T16:30:01","slug":"sheik-up-at-saratoga-gross-increases-46","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=1649","title":{"rendered":"Sheik up at Saratoga: Gross increases 46%"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks in part to Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed, the two-day <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fasigtipton.com\/results\/2009\/index.asp\">Saratoga Select Yearling Sale<\/a>, which ended on Tuesday, August 11, saw a gross increase of 45.6% over 2008 and an 11.1% increase in average price<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had some good horses,&#8221; said Fasig-Tipton chairman and auctioneer Walt Roberston. &#8220;At the end of the day, that&#8217;s what it&#8217;s about. We had a blockbuster.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The gross of $52,549,500 on 160 horses sold, as well as the average of $328,434, was the second highest in the sale&#8217;s history. The record was set in 2001 with a gross of $62,412,000 and an average of $385,259. The RNA rate fell from 26% in 2008 to 22% in 2009.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"floatright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/features\/pix\/2009\/sheikh.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>The sale topper, a Storm Cat son out of the Mr. Prospector daughter Onaga, sold for $2.8 million to Sheikh Mohammed (Skip Dickstein\/Times Union photo), who purchased four of the sale&#8217;s five top-selling lots. The high-seller, On A Storm, was consigned by Lane&#8217;s End for Summer Wind Farm, owned by Frank Lyon, Jr.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to On A Storm, the $1 million-plus sellers included a Medaglia filly at $1.5 million; a Smart Strike colt at $1.3 million; a Macho Uno filly at $1.2 million; and a Bernardini colt for $1 million.<\/p>\n<p>Synergy Investments Ltd., a Dubai-based company headed by an associate of Sheikh Mohammed, purchased Fasig-Tipton Sale Co. in 2008. Although a long time patron through agent John Ferguson, this was the first time that the Dubai ruler has attended the sale in recent years. His purchase of 12 yearlings for $11,850,000 accounted for 22.6 percent of the auction&#8217;s gross.<\/p>\n<p>Founded in 1898, Fasig-Tipton is North America&#8217;s oldest Thoroughbred auction company. Recent graduates include 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown, and 2008 Belmont stakes winner Da&#8217;Tara.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/id\/32358580\">http:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/id\/32358580<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks in part to Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed, the two-day Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, which&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1649"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1652,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions\/1652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}