Yearlings

The catalog resembles the Good Book, thick and rich in pedigree and promise. And this weekend, thousands are clutching their bibles as they roam the state fairgrounds, preparing for Maryland's largest sale of thoroughbred yearlings.If the three-day auction that begins tomorrow at Timonium follows the trend of this year's sales throughout the country, records will fall in every significant category. Already the sale has set a standard: So many yearlings were entered (the catalog lists 750)

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The hammer fell ... $3 million ... $2.8 million ... $2.5 million. Twenty times the auctioneer's hammer fell at $1 million or more in the annual high-stakes, high-risk drama known as the Keeneland July Selected Yearling Sale.During nine intoxicating hours Monday and Tuesday in a swank pavilion here in the heart of horse country, a sheik, a prince and the wealthiest of sportsmen engaged in a spectacle of ego fulfillment, business investment and romantic adventure.In the process they established a world record for what might be sport's ultimate gamble: trying to pick a future Kentucky Derby winner from horses barely a year old, horses that have never run on a track or even experienced a human on their back.

Fasig-Tipton Midlantic will conduct its annual winter mixed sale tomorrow at the Timonium pavilion, beginning at 11 a.m.Nearly 200 horses will be auctioned in a number of categories, including just-turned yearlings, mares and broodmare prospects.Included in the sale will be a 2-year-old filly by Two Punch with exquisite breeding, a 2-year-old colt by Not For Love with stakes victories in his lineage, and yearlings sired by Two Punch and Polish Numbers.Pub Date: 2/06/99

A total of 560 horses will be available when Fasig-Tipton Midlantic conducts its December mixed sale tomorrow and Monday at the Timonium sales pavilion. Broodmares and a few stallion prospects will be on the auction block tomorrow beginning at 10 a.m., followed by weanlings, yearlings and horses of racing age Monday at 10 a.m.Included in the sale will be breeding stock from Stud Aire Farm of Pine Grove, Pa. One of the more interesting offerings will be the dark bay-brown mare Sentimental Tango, whose daughter, Merengue, recently became a graded stakes winner at Laurel Park.

Out-of-state buyers dominated the top end of the market at the two-day Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Yearlings sale that concluded yesterday at Timonium.The highest 11 sellers were all purchased by non-Maryland interests, including yesterday's leading horse, a dark bay/brown colt by Maryland-based sire Not For Love. He went for $220,000 to Cam Allard of Edmonton, Alberta.The sale topper remained an unnamed filly by Dehere, who was purchased for a state-record $400,000 Monday by Padua Stables of Ocala, Fla. The price beat the state record of $325,000 for a Jolie's Halo filly at the Midlantic sale in May.Overall, the average price increased 12 percent from 1997 (to $18,848)

An unnamed bay filly by Dehere brought a Maryland-record $400,000 yesterday at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's Eastern Fall Yearling Sale at Timonium.Purchased by Satish Sanan of Padua Stables in Ocala, Fla., a client of trainer D. Wayne Lukas, the filly's price shattered the previous state high by $165,000.Out of Gold Issue, the filly was sold as a weanling at the Keeneland, Ky., sale last November for $235,000 to Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Rogers Jr.The filly is out of the second crop of foals by Dehere, who won more than $723,000 at the track, including three Grade I events: the Champagne Stakes, Hopeful Stakes and 2nd Futurity Stakes.

The threesome that makes up Par Four Racing Stable can laugh now. But when wind tore siding off the barn and spooked the yearling filly, terror gripped the horse farm.The filly bolted -- straight toward a wooden fence. She tried to stop, but then lunged skyward. The top board caught a rear foot. She crashed to the ground and struggled to her feet, streaked off again in a large circle through a bean field. She finished back at the fence, where her frantic race had begun.For Weather Vane, that was the maiden voyage -- rough sailing, to be sure, but she made it back to port.

A broodmare named Check Out the Flag attracted the top price of $72,000 yesterday during Fasig-Tipton's Midlantic winter mixed sale at the Timonium pavilion.Purchased by G. J. and Caroline Strautberg (Jerry's Chevrolet owners), the unraced 8-year-old is by Stalwart out of Glimpse of Heaven. Her impressive bloodlines include Hoist the Flag, Tom Rolfe, Iron Ruler and Majestic Prince.She was last mated March 21, 1997 and is believed to be pregnant to multi-stakes winner Dehere.Overall, yesterday's numbers were down from the corresponding sale last winter but Boyd Browning, Fasig-Tipton executive vice president, said that could be attributed to "two dispersals last year that had a lot of quality.

Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic, Inc. will conduct its December mixed horse sale today and tomorrow at Timonium Race Track, with both sessions beginning at 10 a.m.Mares and stallions constituting 316 head will be sold today, including mares in foal to popular local stallions Two Punch, Waquoit, Allen's Prospect and Polish Numbers, and such premier out-of-state stallions as Devil's Bag, Mountain Cat and Phone Trick.The remainder of the 600-head consignment will be auctioned tomorrow, including 40 yearlings and more than 150 weanlings.

Records tumbled like autumn leaves at the two-day fall sale of yearlings that concluded last night at the Maryland state fairgrounds in Timonium.More yearlings than ever changed hands. One yearling drew a record bid. Buyers spent more. And the average price per yearling was higher than ever."It was certainly the strongest yearling sale there's ever been in Maryland," said Mason Grasty, executive vice president of Fasig-Tipton Midlantic, which conducted the auction.During the two-day sale, 456 horses were sold for $7,702,800 -- an average of $16,892.