Fasig-Tipton July Sale Selections

Highlighting the offspring of a few exciting first-crop stallions

Fasig-Tipton’s July Sale takes place tomorrow, July 8th, at 10am in Lexington. The July Sale is traditionally the first opportunity to see select yearlings from first-crop sires, and as such I’ll be dedicating this post to highlighting some of those yearlings and their sires. According to statistics from the BloodHorse's Market Watch, the July Sale is ranked first by percentage of stakes winners, stakes horses, and two-year-old winners out of auctions that sold more than 250 yearlings in 2019-2021, and ranks behind only the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale in percentage of G1 winners and graded stakes winners sold. Graduates of the July Sale by freshman sires include last year’s multiple G1 winner Chancer McPatrick, by McKinzie, G1 Starlet Stakes winner Faiza, from the first crop of Girvin, G3 British Columbia Derby winner Accidental Hero, from the first crop of Mo Town, G3 UAE Oaks winner Mimi Kakushi, a member of the first crop of City of Light, and G3 Bewitch Stakes winner Chop Chop by that same stallion.

Stallions with first-crop yearlings being showcased at this sale include Dubai World Cup winner Mystic Guide, whose sire Ghostzapper is in need of an eligible heir in Kentucky, although he is the sire of the useful stallion Shaman Ghost in Canada; G1 Arkansas Derby and Haskell Stakes winner Cyberknife, one of many young sons of Gun Runner jostling for position among the Kentucky sire ranks; Early Voting, the Preakness-winning son of that same sire from the immediate family of Speightstown; Kentucky Derby and Haskell Stakes winner Mandaloun, a son of Into Mischief, who has soundly proven himself as a capable sire of sires; Belmont Stakes winner Mo Donegal, whose sire Uncle Mo has also proven himself capable of getting stallion sons; the regally bred Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Happy Saver; and G1 winning sprinter Drain the Clock, among others.

For this blog post, I will be highlighting four yearlings by four different freshman sires, focusing on horses who illustrate patterns I’m looking forward to seeing from these young stallions. This year, hips 1-94 represent the Freshman Sire Showcase, so my selections will come from that portion of the sale. A stallion not appearing on this list doesn’t mean I don’t think highly of him, only that I didn’t find a yearling in this sale that stood out to me on the dam’s side as much as these.

Hip #4 - f. Happy Saver x Planeta (Giant’s Causeway)

Happy Saver is an exciting stallion prospect to me, as a G1 winner inbred 4x3 to the great mare Weekend Surprise via his sire’s damsire A.P. Indy and his own tail-female line. He’s a son of Super Saver, a member of the legendary family 1x of La Troienne, and demonstrates further inbreeding to that family via two copies of Buckpasser in his fifth generation. Happy Saver is out of a daughter of Distorted Humor, the damsire of top-level stallions such as Constitution, Arrogate, and Practical Joke. This horse carries himself with a confidence befitting his elite pedigree, and while I am not sure how precocious his foals will be, as he didn’t debut until June of his three-year-old season, it’s worth noting that he was a winner at seven furlongs by 5 1/2 lengths on debut and won the Jockey Club Gold Cup as a three-year-old in just his fourth career start. He has yet to have any yearlings sell in 2025, and last year had six weanlings sell for an average of $33,617 and median of $24,000.

This filly from his first crop is the result of many high-class female families being brought together, and I’m particularly intrigued by this daughter of Planeta who sell as Hip 4 and who caught my eye from the moment her birth was announced as her sire’s first. An unraced daughter of Giant’s Causeway, Planeta is the dam of five foals to race, four of those being winners, including the six-time winning Broken Vow gelding Kbcya Later.

Planeta was out of the stakes-winning Twining mare Meteor Miracle, the dam of G2 winner Meteore and stakes placed Milk Man. She was out of the excellent broodmare Northern Meteor, the tail-female ancestor of 36 stakes winners, including six at the G1 level. In turn, Northern Meteor was out of the blue hen Patelin, the tail-female ancestor of 72 total stakes winners, with 13 G1 winners including Beholder, I’ll Have Another, and Con Te Partiro. Since 2011, 5.2% of the 814 starters tracing to Patelin in their tail-female line are stakes winners.

The cross of Super Saver over Giant’s Causeway has produced two stakes winners in 34 starters, including G1 winner