Any checklist of milestones for an up-and-coming commercial stallion involves a big showing with his first yearlings at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale.
Gaining the approval of one of the market's most discriminating buying benches can set a stallion up for years to come on the commercial market, and Spendthrift Farm's rookie stallion Bolt d'Oro was the standout of his class during the 2021 renewal of the boutique auction.
The Grade 1-winning son of Medaglia d'Oro was responsible for the sale's most expensive yearling by a first-crop sire, when a half-brother to 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra sold to Larry Best's OXO Equine for $1.4 million early in Tuesday's session.
Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey watched the bidding with great interest from the back ring of the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion, and he was thrilled with the result.
“He was just a beautiful animal,” Toffey said about the well-related colt. “We're obviously big fans of the stallion, and it's a wonderful pedigree, and a great physical. What else can you ask for?”
The seven-figure colt was bred in Kentucky by Dede McGehee's Heaven Trees Farm, out of the the Grade 2-placed stakes-winning Roar mare Lotta Kim. Rachel Alexandra was the mare's first foal, by Medaglia d'Oro, the same sire that gave the world Bolt d'Oro.
When McGehee contacted Spendthrift Farm about tapping into to a proven sire line at a lower price point than the original, it wasn't a hard decision on the farm's part.
“I think it was one word: 'Yes.'” Toffey said. “It makes all the sense in the world, given the pedigree. We're not in the business of turning that kind down.”
Even below the top price, the Bolt d'Oro yearlings were received incredibly well in Saratoga. Ten of the 12 that went through the ring sold for an average of $407,000, and he had three yearlings sell for $500,000 or more.
A single millionaire certainly helps spike interest in a young stallion, but that consistency among the rest of the Bolt d'Oros was what truly encouraged Toffey.
“It's huge, and more than just this one price, it's the fact that there's just a really strong collection of yearlings here by him,” he said. “I think it's actually the collective quality of the group as much as anything, but frankly, that's a nice cherry on top.
After being one of the highest-volume first-crop sires in the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga catalog, Bolt d'Oro has four horses entered in the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearling Sale in the coming days. Next month, he'll have 75 in the catalog for the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Bolt d'Oro is himself out of the A.P. Indy mare Globe Trot, whose foals also include Grade 1 winner Global Campaign and Grade 2-placed stakes winner Sonic Mule.
Both sides of Bolt d'Oro's family are known for putting an athletic foal on the ground, and Toffey said the sire has shown himself able to pass that on to the next generation.
“I think very much like himself, big, scopey, very athletic, dramatically made horses — horses that stand over a lot of ground,” Toffey said. “They've got some length at the torso, but a good amount of neck to balance them out. They've been a very impressive, correct group.”
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