Brant Focuses on Dirt Pedigrees on Day 1 at Saratoga

For Peter Brant, it was like old times at a place with some fond memories attached to it.

Brant was among the active buyers Aug. 5 during the opening night of The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's sale of selected yearlings, spending $1.9 million on two colts and two fillies from the sales company he used to own in the late 1980s.

"I used to help run this place, and they've done a great job with it since then," Brant said. "(Abdulla al Habbai of Synergy Investments) and his team have done great things with it."

Brant enjoyed a busy and fruitful evening at the sale, coming away with a quartet of young horses with prominent pedigrees from relatively young mares.

"I have nothing against dirt horses," he said with a laugh, although his stable also contains several top turf contenders, including Sistercharlie, the champion turf female of 2018 who highlighted Brant's return to prominence last season after he spent about 20 years away from the sport.

Yet Monday's spending spree was topped by Hip 100, a bay colt by Curlin  out of the Harlington mare Room for Me consigned by Woodford Thoroughbreds for breeder WinStar Farm. Through White Birch Farm, Brant teamed with fellow Connecticut resident Bob LaPenta to purchase the colt for $600,000.

The yearling is the second foal from Room for Me, who was grade 1-placed while winning nine races and earning $433,650.

"The four we bought were pretty much the ones we targeted," Brant said. "I liked all four of them. When they are babies like this, you think of them as prospects. We liked what we saw in them and had a great feeling about them."

Brant also spent $525,000 on Hip 46, a Quality Road  filly consigned by Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services for breeder Newtown Anner Stud out of the unraced Bernardini  mare Lemon Bay, whose two foals to race are winners.

He also put in a winning $400,000 bid for a Quality Road filly out of the Exchange Rate mare Lemon Liqueur, whose first foal is 2 and has yet to race. Sold as Hip 47, she was consigned by Warrendale Sales for breeder Branch Equine.

Brant believed the stock market plunge earlier in the day, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping 767 points, may have played a role in the prices he paid for the two fillies.

"At the beginning, the prices may have been low because of the stock market. I thought I would have to pay more for my fillies because of the value of Quality Road fillies. It seemed to impact the first 50 or 60 lots of the sale, and then it changed," he said.

Brant started the sale by paying $375,000 for Hip 28, a son of Union Rags  out of the First Defence mare Irish Jasper consigned by Lane's End for breeder W. S. Farish and Susan C. Mackie. Irish Jasper won the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G2) along with seven other races and had earnings of $560,300. The bay colt is her first foal.

LaPenta and Brant also bid on Hip 99, a New York-bred Quality Road colt out of the A.P. Indy mare Risk a Chance consigned by Sequel New York but were outbid by China Horse Club and Maverick Racing, which went to $550,000 for the product of Chester Broman and Mary R. Broman's breeding program.

"WinStar beat us on that one," LaPenta said.

Though that one got away, with four yearlings already in tow, the Saratoga sale seems to be once again progressing rather nicely for Brant.