Texas businessman Craig Singer, a veteran with over four decades in the breeding business, will look to capitalize on recent additions to his broodmare band when he sends three yearlings through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale next Monday. Through the Taylor Made Sale Agency consignment, a filly by Gun Runner out of Baby Go Far (Brz) (Elusive Quality) will kick off the two-day auction when selling as hip 1. Singer purchased Baby Go Far, with the filly in utero, for $150,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton February sale. Just a month later, the filly's full-brother (video) topped the Goffs Dubai Breeze-Up Sale when selling for €543,210.
“This is really a nice Gun Runner filly,” Singer said. “The drawback, if there is a drawback, is that she is number one in the sale. But I think people will find her. She is a really good-looking filly.”
Asked if he knew about the 2-year-old colt when he purchased the mare, Singer said, “I did, yes. I was told about him. Hopefully, he goes on and does well.”
Also at last year's Fasig-Tipton February sale, Singer purchased multiple graded placed Laseen (Ire) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}), in foal to Uncle Mo, for $150,000. The mare's Uncle Mo filly will go through the ring next week as hip 88.
“I was shopping for young mares in foal to good sires,” Singer said of his buying spree last February. “And I was lucky enough to get these two.”
Singer has already enjoyed quick return on a mare investment this year. He sold a daughter of Volatile for $285,000 at the Fasig-Tipton July sale. The yearling is out of Whisper to Me (Thunder Gulch), a mare Singer purchased carrying the filly for $65,000 out of the Pin Oak dispersal at Fasig-Tipton in 2021.
“She was at the Josephine Abercrombie dispersal,” Singer said of the 19-year-old mare. “I was looking for something in the sale and I thought the mare would go for a lot more than that. She's a difficult mare to get and to keep in foal, but obviously one foal paid for the mare. And she's back in foal [to Idol], too. I thought it was a really good purchase.”
Singer's trio of Saratoga yearlings is rounded out by a colt by Munnings out of stakes winner Haddie Be Good (Silver Deputy) (hip 62). The chestnut is a half to stakes winner Story to Tell (Bluegrass Cat). Singer sold the mare's 2-year-old by Justify for $400,000 at the 2022 OBS March sale and the colt was a debut winner in his lone start to date in Japan earlier this year.
“I am always in the market to sell horses, that's a business for me,” Singer said. “And if I get the right amount of money, I will sell them all. All three of these are nice horses. I think they will sell very well.”
Singer, who founded the family entertainment center operator Nickels and Dimes, Inc. in 1972, has been in racing since 1979. The Texan made his first big splash in the industry with the 1981 purchase of a pair of Classic winners, Cairn Rouge (Ire) and Condessa (Ire), who won the G1 Yorkshire Oaks and was second in the G1 Irish Oaks in his colors that year.
In the U.S., Singer campaigned his homebred Salty Strike (Smart Strike) to victories in the 2011 GIII Dogwood S. and 2012 GIII Gardenia S. He sold the filly to Stonestreet for $800,000 at the 2013 Keeneland January sale and she went on to produce champion female sprinter Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper). The mare died in 2019.
While Salty Strike didn't join his broodmare band, Singer does retain much of the family, while supplementing the band with new purchases.
“I've been cultivating what has turned out to be a great family now with Goodnight Olive,” Singer said. “I sold Salty Strike and Stonestreet did a great job. But I have that whole family. I am going to keep almost all of that family and I needed some new blood, that's why I went back in and bought some new mares.”
Singer has about 15 mares in his broodmare band and the group travels back and forth between his Texas ranch and Kentucky.
“I ship them up to Kentucky to be bred and then I bring them down here to Texas for most of the year,” he said. “Then ship them back up to be bred again and foaled out there. But I raise the babies down here. I have a ranch down here which is also my office. I enjoy having them down here and I enjoy seeing them all of the time.”
Singer said the plan is to sell most of his foals as yearlings.
“I sold a Justify 2-year-old last year that won in Japan, but I normally sell them as yearlings,” he said. “If I don't get what I want and I don't want to keep them to race, then I put them in the 2-year-old sales. I usually keep the fillies and sell the colts.”
And while he currently has just one horse in training with Tom Amoss, as well as a late 2-year-old in Ocala with Niall Brennan, Singer said he isn't opposed to increasing his racing stable if his Saratoga yearlings fail to attract enough attention.
“I don't mind racing them,” Singer said. “I won't have tremendous reserves on any of these, but if they don't bring it, I will keep them and race them.”
A veteran in the industry, Singer still maintains his love of the game.
“I started in 1979,” he said. “I have been doing it for a long time. I love the business. I love having the horses. It's just a passion of mine–but it is a business, you have to run it as a business. But it's always been something I've loved and I've been lucky enough to be able to afford to do it. It's worked out pretty well.”
The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale will be held next Monday and Tuesday at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion. Bidding begins each evening at 6:30 p.m.
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