Catching up with the top sellers from 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga

Last year’s feature on the youngsters who’d topped Fasig-Tipton Saratoga the previous summer provided a very early report on Tapwrit, now famous as the Belmont (G1) winner.

In observance of the boutique sale that opens tonight and concludes Tuesday evening, let’s catch up with 2016’s priciest Saratoga yearlings. Might there be a classic winner among them too?

$1.45 million Medaglia d’Oro-Whisper to Me filly named WHISPER TO MAMA 

The sale topper purchased by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm, Whisper to Mama was only just named July 15 according to The Jockey Club. She has recorded a trio of works over the Safetrack at GoldMark Farm near Ocala, Florida, but none past one furlong or since June 17. 

As reported by Thoroughbred Daily News, Pope prevailed over a high-profile underbidder in Spendthrift Farm’s B. Wayne Hughes. Plans called for the yearling to be broken at Whisper Hill before going into her early training at GoldMark with Todd Quast, who’d scouted her out at the sale.

 

Bred by Josephine Abercrombie’s Pin Oak Stud in Kentucky, the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro was consigned by Denali Stud, agent. She descends from the superb family of Hall of Famer Chris Evert (second dam of champion Chief’s Crown) and 1988 Kentucky Derby (G1) heroine Winning Colors, also enshrined in the Hall.

The filly is herself a half-sister to $548,656-earner Overheard (by Macho Uno), the winner of the 2014 Dance Smartly (G2) and 2013 Valley View (G3) sponsored by her breeder. They were produced by the stakes-winning Thunder Gulch mare Whisper to Me, from the further family of the well-named Confessional (by Holy Bull out of Whisper Who Dares), the 1998 Frizette (G1) heroine.

$1.25 million Tapit-Rote colt

Snapped up by the partnership of Stonestreet Stables and Coolmore, the yet-unnamed May 14 foal was residing at Stonestreet at last report. That tidbit comes from the website of his breeder Marbat, the nom de course of Sheikh Abdullah Almaddah, who holds a minority interest in the colt.

At the sale, Stonestreet adviser John Moynihan told TDN that this was one of the best Tapits he’d ever seen. He was fittingly offered by Gainesway, home of leading sire Tapit. Here’s a video of him strutting his stuff (courtesy of Kris Stuebs’ Kris S. Bloodstock):