Bobby Flay is no stranger to succeeding at The Saratoga Sale.
The celebrity chef and horse racing aficionado sent the top-priced offering through the ring in 2019 at Fasig-Tipton's select yearling sale, where his Curlin colt out of the graded stakes-winning A.P. Indy mare America sold for $1.5 million.
That colt turned out to be Pimlico Special (G3) winner First Captain, the Shug McGaughey trainee who ran second last out in the July 9 Suburban Stakes (G2) and is targeting the Sept. 3 Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) at Saratoga Race Course for West Point Thoroughbreds, Siena Farm, Woodford Racing, and Flay.
So it was no surprise when some of those familiar faces were seen on Day Two of this year's sale Aug. 9 in the Humphrey S. Finney Sale Pavilion, where West Point and Woodford joined with 3C Stable to take home a $2 million full sister to First Captain consigned as Hip 126 by Stone Farm, agent for Flay. After partnering Monday to take home a $1.5 million session-topping son of Uncle Mo (Hip 68), the striking chestnut filly was the partners' only purchase of the day.
"She reminds us a little bit of First Captain; she's very athletic and strong," said Woodford's Bill Farish. "A lot of Curlin in her, for sure. We had luck with (First Captain) and we're hoping to have luck with her."
With the 2020 edition of The Saratoga Sale canceled due to COVID-19, this marks the third straight year Flay has swung for the fences and hit a home run at this sale. His Uncle Mo—Dame Dorothy colt sold for $1.6 million last year to West Bloodstock, agent for Robert and Lawana Low, bringing the second-highest price of the 2021 edition.
"It's a strategy that's taken a long time to create," Flay remarked Tuesday evening. "Basically, we're trying to buy some of the best families in the stud book, both in Europe and in the United States. This is not an overnight project. This has taken over 10 years to build up.
"I've had really great advisors. Barry Weisbord, who's like the Warren Buffet of pedigrees, and James Delahooke is a legendary horse picker. I rely on those two people to really help me out. I do all the matings myself. It's something that I really enjoy doing. I try to breed at the highest level."
America is a horse Flay bred out of the winning Fasliyev mare Lacadena, who also produced his homebred Paris Bikini, dam of 2020 Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) winner Paris Lights.
"It's the last crop of A.P. Indy, it's the Better Than Honour family, which is a sort of a legendary family at this point," Flay said.
Flay is also a tremendous fan of Curlin, the leading Smart Strike stallion who stands at Hill 'n' Dale for majority owner Barbara Banke of Stonestreet—so much so that he sent America back to the stallion again for 2023 after she dropped a March 19 colt by Uncle Mo.
Curlin was the leading sire by gross over the two-day span at The Saratoga Sale, with eight of eight through the ring sold for gross receipts of $8,575,000, with a $1,071,875 average.
"Curlin has just been a spectacular sire. It's so nice, Barbara Banke came up and said, 'Thank you for breeding such a beautiful Curlin,'" Flay said. "He's one of the best sires in modern times. When you breed to a horse like that with a family like that, you can only hope to get a great product—and obviously she showed herself incredibly well. That said, her full brother First Captain topped the sale in '19... obviously having him perform well helped his full sister in the ring tonight.
The 4-year-old First Captain was America's first foal and is her only starter to date; she has a 3-year-old Curlin filly named American Caviar and an Uncle Mo 2-year-old named Kid America.
"It is very tough to let a filly like that go," Flay added of Hip 126. "As everybody knows, this is not an inexpensive business, so you have to take some money off the table when you can sometimes. One of the great things about breeding a horse like this is that you can sell it to a great buyer and then they go to a good trainer, which I know they will... I still have the mom and the siblings. It takes a lot of patience but once you get to the point where you have a lot of things going on, it's so fun, and it's so great to root for them."
