David Cassidy on the Web
High rollers and horses
August 3, 2010
By Thomas Dimopoulos
www.poststar.com
SARATOGA SPRINGS - Led by the rapid-fire babble of an auctioneer's call and the banging of a gavel, millions of dollars were invested in horses Monday night.
The annual Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearling Sale kicked off at about 7:30 p.m. in the newly renovated Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion in Saratoga Springs.
Founded in 1898 by horsemen William Fasig and Edward Tipton, Fasig-Tipton is the oldest thoroughbred auction company in North America.
The sales, originally conducted in the old Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, have been held in Saratoga since 1917.
The sales have resulted in some popular success stories though the ages. Man O'War, the so-called "horse of the century," sold at a Fasig-Tipton auction in 1918 for $5,000. More recently, Funny Cide was sold for $22,000 in 2001.
It is a risky business, however.
Green Monkey, a thoroughbred with great promise who in 2006 sold for a record $16 million, retired without a win to his name.
Recently, there have been changes in ownership of the storied auction.
In 2008, the Fasig-Tipton Company sold the auction company to the Dubai firm, Synergy Investments Ltd., for $5.7 million.
The sale included eight parcels along an East Avenue property located opposite the Oklahoma Training Track of the Saratoga Race Course.
The buying group is headed by Abdulla Al Habbai, a close associate of Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
The affluent sheikh, who is the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Dubai, owns 3,800 thoroughbreds on four continents.
In 2007, the sheikh's Darley Stud Management group purchased a 106-acre horse farm on Nelson Avenue in Saratoga Springs for about $17.5 million. Sheikh Mohammed entered the sales pavilion shortly before 8 p.m., according to city police, who had several officers stationed both inside and outside the pavilion on Monday night.
Last year, the sheikh spent $10.3 million to buy nine yearlings and was the leading buyer at the sale.
In all, 160 horses sold for $52.5 million at the two-day Saratoga sale in 2009 - an average sale price of $328,400 - and up from the 122 horses that sold for $36 million the previous year.
The first 10 yearlings who returned a sale during Monday's auction fetched a total of $2.9 million, an average of $290,000 per animal.
Race horse owner and 1970s teen heartthrob David Cassidy was also at Monday's opening night sale. Cassidy sat in the front row of the sales pavilion and exchanged handshakes and posed for pictures with fans prior to the start of the auction.
Cassidy was still playing Keith Partridge on the television show "The Partridge Family" when he bought his first yearling in 1974 at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs.
This year, 202 horses were catalogued for the two-day auction, although 14 of those scheduled for sale were scratched Monday night.
The yearlings were born between January and April, 2009.
Synergy Investments conducted extensive renovations both inside the pavilion and on the exterior grounds where the horses are housed in barns and showcased in a walking ring for potential bidders.
The overhaul of the sales pavilion marked the first face lift inside the building since it was constructed in 1968.
Owners would not say how much was spent, though the price tag is believed to be in the millions of dollars.
"The new ownership, over the last couple of years, turned what was a tired facility into a premiere sale auction in the country," said Neil Howard, of Gainesway, who had a number of horses up for auction on Monday.
"They made it safer, and it's beautiful," said Renee Logan, a selling agent for Darby Dan. "It's the first night in the
select sale," she said as she emerged in a black evening dress and high heels from inside one of the hay-filled barns, showcasing, unintentionally, the dichotomy of the evening.
"It's a boutique sale," she explained.
