Amr Zedan’s team went to the mat again late during the second session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale Aug. 8, prevailing in a protracted bidding battle for Hip 228, a colt by leading sire Into Mischief out of the American Pharoah mare All American Dream.
Bred by Jeff Drown and Don Rachel and consigned by Indian Creek as agent, the bay colt quickly reached seven figures. Then blow by blow he had his price climb to $2.5 million, where the bidding stalled and the hammer was seconds from falling. Buyers were not ready to let the colt go, and a flurry of bids pushed the final price to $3.2 million.
Zedan took from the Saratoga Sale the two highest-priced yearlings, having landed $4 million sale topper Hip 165 earlier in the evening.
The ink was barely dry on the receipt for Amr Zedan’s $4 million purchase during the second session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of select yearlings when his agent Donato Lanni signed the ticket for a second seven-figure purchase, going to $3.2 million for an Into Mischief colt out of the American Pharoah mare All American Dream, whose second dam Dream Supreme , a multiple graded stakes winning millionaire whose record includes two grade 1 wins at Saratoga Race Course, in the 2000 Test Stakes and Ballerina Stakes.
“This was a pretty exceptional horse,” said Lanni. “He had the best of both, the Into Mischief look and the American Pharaoh look, and he was such a cool individual. It’s really rare to find a horse that has that cool, so we couldn’t go home without him.”
Like Hip 165, Zedan’s earlier purchase, the colt will be trained by Bob Baffert. Consigned by Indian Creek, he was bred in Kentucky by Jeff Drown and Don Rachel. He was the third Into Mischief colt to bring seven figures at the sale.The bay colt quickly reached seven figures, then blow by blow had his price climb to $2.5 million, where the bidding stalled and the hammer was seconds from falling. Buyers were not ready to let the colt go, and a flurry of bids pushed the final price to $3.2 million.
On his first trip to Saratoga, Zedan certainly made his presence known.
“If you’re going to play the game and you want to buy the top end,” said Lanni, “you’re going to have to stretch, and we stretched. The first time we saw him, Bob was like ‘Oh my God.’ So that was it. He loved this horse, and he was adamant that we not go home without him.”
One of the last eight horses to go through the ring, the price was an exclamation point on a second session that saw eight horses sell for $1 million or more. While the first session at times lacked the kinds of prices that bring gasps from the crowd, the second session was punctuated with regular bursts of activity that resulted in prices that pushed buyers’ limits and thrilled consignors and breeders.
“It’s a typical Saratoga,” said Lanni. “Everybody’s here and everybody’s ready to buy good horses.”
